Blogs from Labuanbajo, Flores, Indonesia, Asia - page 5

For the fourth morning running I headed up Potawangka Road in search of the Wallace’s hanging parrot. Its interesting going through villages early in the dawn because it gets quite cool overnight, so you pass the villagers all squatting in blankets along the roadside, like snakes basking in the stored heat of the tar-seal. This time I had some information from a person in town that the place to go was all the way up to the village of Tebedo, twice as far as I’d been up before, and there I could see the parrots in the trees about 300 metres past the village. But again no luck. It didn’t help that unbeknownst to me at the time, my motorbike driver took me right through Tebedo and onto the next village so I was in completely ... read more

Labuanbajo (Flores) Aaaah... Even een paar dagen geen busreizen en waardeloze hotels. We hebben genoten van drie dagen duiken in Komodo National Park. Al bij voor het inschrijven voor het duiken hoorden we verhalen van grote hoeveelheden manta's in de wateren rond Komodo. Niets was minder waar; we hebben een aantal geweldige duiken gemaakt met grote scholen vissen, haaien en manta's (zie blog: duikfoto's Indonesie). Op een duikstek, genaamd 'airstrip', lagen de manta's in rijtjes in de stroming om het planktonrijke water langs hun kieuwen te laten stromen. Voor ons een flinke inspanning; op sommige plekken was de stroming zo sterk dat onze wangen gingen flapperen! Rinca Op Rinca leeft de grootste populatie Komodovaranen in de wereld (we horen jullie denken: 'was dat niet op Komodo?') en besloten een duiktochtje te combineren met een bezoekje aan ... read more

The boat to Serayu left at 1.30.pm and took about an hour. As we got about 150 metres from shore we pulled up alongside a tiny little boat that looked like more like a hollowed out log, it had 6 inches of water in the bottom, this was our transport to the shore. The boatman bailed out the water and put down a few planks then loaded 4 backpacks on plus Stan and myself, leaving the other four passengers behind. He then began to paddle with his hands then he spotted my flip flops and said “Marm?” took them off my feet and began to use them to paddle us into shore! The accommodation was just as basic the bathroom had no roof, a toilet with no flush or seat, no shower just a cold water ... read more

After ascending Mt Kelimutu for sunrise to see the summit lakes in the clarity of the early morning, I returned to Moni village to get ready for the bus west. By the time I left, thick cloud was already enveloping the summit. Thick clouds also enveloped me a little later in the day - clouds of foul acrid smoke as my fellow bus passengers puffed away at cigarettes made from pickled cow dung mixed with cloves. On its own, that would have been enough to make a 12 hour bus journey really quite unpleasant. It was, however, not on its own. Oh no. Not even slightly. Wedged between several hundred kilograms of rice and a trio of chainsmokers, in a seat that was so close to the one in front that I would have had to ... read more

so leuts nach einer gewissen internetabstinenz meld ich mich wieder zurueck.... wir sitzen zur zeit in Labuhan Baju fest. kein schiff verlaesst im moment den hafen den die see ist mal richtig unruhig in letzter zeit... und die kleinen klapperkaene werden dadurch uboottauglich.... eigentlich wollten wir nach sumba nochmal andre treffen den franzosen den ich im letzten blog erwaehnt habe aber das werden wir wohl vom wetter abhaengig machen muessen. denn fluege giebt es nicht.... ein gruss an allle ende der durchsage ps: ihr koennt mir auch ne sms schicken oder anrufen unter 0062 81396515027...... read more