Maumere

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December 3rd 2009

Published: December 30th 2009

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Amy and Dan

Moni to Maumere

Yet another bus

03 December 2009 - 04 December 2009

TRANSPORT:
Moni to Ende by bus--Rp50,000 (3 hours)

HOTEL:
Hotel Gardena
Double, fan, cold water, western toilet--Rp90,000 inc breakfast.
Yet again the only option in town, but it's a nice place with friendly and helpful staff. The rooms are nice and it's a nice escape from the dump that is Maumere.

Yes, Maumere is a dump. To their credit they did get slapped with a huge 20m tsunami in 1992 and the town hasn't seemed to be able to recover. The capital of Flores just doesn't seem like it should be a capital. The streets are littered with garbage, most places appear to be shut down and there isn't a single restaurant that we could find!

Anyway, from the beginning shall we? We woke up bright and early after a broken sleep. Moni seemed to come alive at 6am with a graduation ceremony for some university back in Ende. 6AM!!! There was music, announcement, back feed from the dodgy mike and what appeared to be karaoke...at 6AM!! We pretty much had to get up anyway, but the point of the issue is 6AM??! After our not so bad breakfast (it

Moni to Maumere

Sorting out the goats to throw up onto the roof!

could have been better) we hung around waiting for a passing Ende - Maumere bus. We managed to grab the last seats in the back luckily and set off on a typical scenic Flores journey. This time we passed numerous land slides and rough roads which seemed to be getting a rare make over. To be fair, Flores's roads (or road) is in pretty good condition! During the journey we were startled by loud banging coming from the roof. We thought at first it was some people who were sat up there, until we heard the bleeting. It was a few goats, obviously strapped to the roof!! To add to it they were toileting all down the windows! When the rain came, the conductor climbed up and fetched down all the bags and we thought maybe also the goats. Of course not, and that p****d the goats off even more. They were banging, bleetings, kicking, toileting all over the place and at one point one managed to get loose and try and kick down Dan's window! We had heard of other travelers sharing the ride with chickens, pigs, goats etc...but this was truly something.

After 3 hours, the bus

Moni to Maumere

dropped us off in front of our hotel (which was great!) and we set about exploring Maumere. Not for long obviously, as there's not alot here to see except garbage and decay. The locals are still pretty friendly which is definitely one of the main highlights of Flores.

That evening we set about finding somewhere to eat. Our hotel receptionist said there were a few places along the shore, but as the heavens opened up, turning the streets of Maumere to a sludgy, muddy, smelly mess, we had to make do with a seafood restaurant, which was unsurprisingly empty. The squid was OK though, and the view over the sea and port were, well, dark and smelly, but it was dry.

So for one night only, that was Maumere and to stay more than one night would have driven us over the edge with bordem. There's not much here, and so we bedded early to look forward to the next day!

Additional photos below

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