Advertisement
Published: August 10th 2007
Edit Blog Post
´Can you tell what it is
This cleverly wrapped parcel wont keep anyone guessing at Christmas. We saw this package coming out of the cargo hold at Labuanbajo Well you’ll all be pleased to know that after we disgraced ourselves with the worlds longest-blog-on-one-single-subject-that-interests-only-the-writers that this blog will be short and sweet. We really haven’t got a whole lot to report from the last 2 weeks.
We moved onto Flores full of hope as Lise has been there before and couldn’t wait to show it to Al. We arrived in Labuan Bajo which admittedly has the charm of dog poop on your shoe but it has the redeeming feature that it’s the land base for diving in Komodo National Park (oh, and it was the only destination we could get any tickets to!)
When we arrived the same touts who Lise knew from last time found us again and recognised us. They were very excited that they knew Lise until they remembered they owed her a large amount of money and after the colour drained from their faces they decided to make themselves scarce. We couldn’t get accommodation in Labuan Bajo, all booked out.. except one room that we both agreed won the award for the worst dump we’ve ever stayed in, but it was better than the alternative (sleep on the street?)
The second night we
Labuanbajo
The town looks at its best from the water did manage to move into a house owned by Dive Komodo, the dive shop Lise knew, which was better although had no running water since they have to buy it in tanks and the water delivery men are good with promises and not much else, apparently. We did some diving but we think we must be a bit dived out as even though it was good diving (we saw plenty of stuff like white tip reef sharks and napoleon wrasse and turtles) we weren’t wowed and we decided to only do 2 days diving.
We then were to get a driver and travel across overland to Maumere - so we had the dive shop find us a driver. They did, but the driver wanted a huge amount of money and so we put in a counter offer. After arranging it all by text, we were told later in the day the driver had disappeared. The travel Gods in Indonesia seem to hate us. By this time our desperation to leave the town was increasing, we had a kitchen in the house but nowhere could we find enough ingredients to make a meal, the restaurants were fairly average and samey, everywhere
The dive boat
We were lucky enough to have this whole dive boat to ourselves, with four crew. we went people seemed to remember Lise and would come and try and sell us stuff and there was really nothing else to do in this charming town. So we decided to stuff it and just head back to Bali. We were prepared to do this overland, which involves a 8 hr ferry to Sumba, 1 ½ hrs in a mini van, another 9 hrs or so in a bus, another 2-3 hr ferry to Lombok, 4 hrs on a bus and another 6 hrs on a ferry to Bali. This was to leave the next morning. So we got up and packed but Oops.. the guy who sold us the tickets made a mistake and it left the next night. Another wasted day.
By then we were almost delirious with longing to be OUT of the town and we decided to try again to get plane tickets for the following day-it’d still get us back quicker than the ferry/bus. Nope, the airline offices were all sold out. Maybe they had tickets for the next day though, but that was a long shot. So we decided we’d cancel the ferry idea and go back to the overland plan, hoping
Surface interval
It is very important to relax during the time between dives! for a driver. But here the travel gods smiled on us and the guy who sold us the ferry tickets actually refunded our money AND knew someone who might help with tickets. AND….we managed to get tickets for the next day! This agent had 2 cancelled tickets, on separate flights and one of them was issued in someone elses name but Lise could be Mrs Heni for the day if it meant just getting outta there.
To cut the rest short, we got back to Bali ok and then intended to travel to Tulamben to dive the famous USS Liberty wreck. We’d both done that before but we wanted to go back. So we headed to Padang Bai which is a nice town and nearby. When we got there though we were told that the surf had been up lately and the wreck wasn’t able to be dived, and even if it improved a bit and we could get in the visibility would be awful. See? The travel gods really do hate us. So we decided to save our diving money and travel around the north/east of Bali where we hadn’t been before. So we found a driver and
Kuta beach
Kuta is getting busier and busier, fully recovered since the bombings, and the surf is still huge arranged a tour and price with him. But the next morning when we went to find him he told us he had someone else but if we wanted to pay more he could take us.
This was the final straw for us, we figured the travel gods were really angry and that we should retire now and make some offerings- so we headed back to Kuta and spent 4 days in spas getting massages, shopping and eating. A tough life but someone’s gotta do it right? Our offering to the travel god was a trip to the dentist- Lise even managed to get Al in there for a check up - we figured a little pain may appease things.
After leaving Indonesia without further incident, except for another massage each, we hubbed back through Singapore for a short stopover to collect our thoughts and some of our things and to catch up with a few friends.We also made use of the post office to lighten our loads a little.
We were lucky enough to enjoy a night at the Fullerton hotel, one of the best in Singapore, (a birthday present from Als parents), even more luckily we
Kuta sunset
The obligatory sunset-surf picture were upgraded to one of their top suites, so we indulged in all the luxury and spoiled ourselves. For the rest of our time in Singapore, we were fortunate again, (so it seems things are on the up with the travel gods!) Duncan and Louisa had offered to let us stay at their lovely apartment, sadly they were out of town, but nevertheless we could enjoy full use of luxuries such as a washing machine and cable tv! (not to mention that their domestic helper kept tidying up after us!) Suddenly this backpacking lark didnt seem so bad.....
After a long weekend in Singapore, during which Canon saw sense and gave Al a new underwater housing for his camera, we said goodbye to Asia for a while and boarded our 747 for an epic journey to Central America....
Advertisement
Tot: 0.089s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 10; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0469s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb