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| Flores |
If you are traveling for a long time like to flores, such as a year, it is almost impossible to plan in detail all the places you want to visit. When my girlfriend and I traveled, we had a pretty good idea of all the countries where we thought we would travel, but we did not know exactly where we would go when we arrived. Sometimes the decision to visit a certain place is slowly and gradually combined.
Flowers in Indonesia are a good example. First, we wanted to travel to Indonesia for two weeks. I'd never heard of Flores before I took a trip, let alone go there. Then at some point I started to learn about this place called Flores. Then I hear about a particular vision or activity that attracts people. Then an idea takes shape: what would happen if she were in Flores? What is there to do? How would that happen How much time do I need there?
And when the answers to these questions come together, an easy decision is made: let's go to Flores!
The plan
We planned to travel from Bali to Maumere, east of Flores Island. From Maumere we would go to the city of Moni and visit the volcano Kelimutu (this is the original hook we were interested in: a volcano with 3 crater lakes in different colors on top). From Moni we head west to the port city of Labuan Bajo at the western end of the island. From there we would travel by sea back to Bali and visit the Komodo Dragon Islands.
Gaps in the plan
What we did not know was how we could travel from one place to another during our stay on the island. Where would we sleep and what is the cost and quality of accommodation? How did the food blossom? and people speak English. Apart from Kelimutu, we had no idea what to see and do.
Let go
Sometimes you just follow the river and see what happens. And we did that in Flores. The online survey told us that there is a bus between Maumere and Moni, but our plane had to arrive after the bus departure time. When we arrived at the airport, we negotiated with a taxi driver to find out what price we could get for Moni. We managed to lower the price by half of its original offer, and I found it too good to be rejected. We also thought it would save us to spend a night in Maumere so we could go by bus the next day. The taxi driver later stated that he lived in Moni. So it was a ride on an empty car or something to do with us. He offered us accommodation in Moni, but we told him we wanted something cheaper (although what he offered was not really expensive) and he literally left us with his friends the only street in Moni across the street , from his own place.
Moni volcano and Kelimutu
The next morning we woke up at 4:30 and drove to Kelimutu, when it was still dark, behind two bicycles driven by locals. We followed the road to the end and had to park the rest of the way except the locals. The sunset started to rise as we walked through the volcano. Upstairs, we watched the three lakes and rested until the sun rose on the horizon for the first time.
After we had enough and were happy to have taken pretty good pictures, we went down. We decided to return to Moni to sample and enjoy the atmosphere and the local atmosphere. It was a long walk, but we loved it. After talking to the taxi driver the night before, we knew that in the morning we had to take a bus to get us to the next town. No one in Moni could say for sure when the bus would pass. So we boarded a taxi together and paid a price that was the price of the bus. We drove to the next town and asked again for the next bus to Barjawa. After we stopped the bus a few times and said, we decided on another shared taxi. We knew approximately how much the bus ticket would cost, and we could negotiate the same price for the taxi.
Barjawa
It is a few hours for Barjawa. We asked the taxi driver to take us to a guest house. The one who left us had no hot water, so we looked for an alternative. We found the one we liked, but it did not have any hot water either. We have found that hot water in Flores is not the norm. The next morning, during breakfast, we had no idea what we would do during our stay in Barjawa or what we should see. We asked the man at the hotel reception if he had any ideas and asked us to sit down and call his friend. A few minutes later, a boy came to ask us if we wanted to go around Barjawa and its surroundings. He explained the itinerary and gave a price we considered appropriate. As soon as he called a companion to come with another bike, we jumped behind the bikes and set off for a day of exploration.
During the day we visited a family that made palm wine. There we were able to climb a palm tree and harvest the palm juice before getting an explanation of the manufacturing method.
Then we visited a small traditional village where the locals live their own traditional laws and rituals. The government has granted them special exceptions so that they can continue to live in this way. We try to chew betel nut. We had seen people chewing in many parts of Asia, the mouths of the chests were blushing, but we never knew what it was. We did not like it
Then we went to another traditional village, even older. This place was really great and looked like a tribal settlement like the one I had always dreamed of. What I really liked about these places is that they still do not sell their culture to please the tourists and their money. There were no sticky positions or expectations of tips or distributions. People just quieted their work because the visitors were politely curious.
After we had visited the city, we drove a few kilometers to the natural hot springs. We have been to "natural" hot springs before, which belonged to a resort or recreation center and therefore were not very natural for us. The natural hot springs to which our guide led, however, could not have been more natural. Hiding in the forest, we could see immediately that they had not been altered or manipulated by human hands. We had lunch and had a great afternoon in the hot springs.
Labuan Bajo (Western flowers)
After the fun of Barjawa we took a common taxi (we gave up the idea by bus) to get to the main port city Labuan Bajo. Labuan Bajo is relatively close to the kite islands of Komodo (in fact, some dragons still live in a small part of Flores), and many captains offer their boats to drive visitors to the islands. Tourism is growing as more and more people discover this reality. In Labuan Bajo, the development of a tourist infrastructure that is not present in the rest of Flores becomes apparent. There are good places to stay, restaurants serving western food and good coffee, and many travel agencies are looking for money from foreign visitors.
We booked our trip to visit the Komodo Dragons with the company Perama. This boat would take us from Flores to Lombok through several islands.
Read more
The beauty of the Komodo Island National Park
Bat and 17 Riung Island Marine Park
7 Facts about Kelimutu Lake
