Category: Indonesia

Day 71: Bali – Batukaru / Jatiluwih / Pura Bratan / Tanah Lot

So we were woken up by a frantic phone call from Igor’s mom at 3AM – apparently our credit card had been compromised and there were a half a dozen charges attempted at Walmart, Best Buy and other US retailers within the last few hours. We suspect that one of the two stores we visited in the Discovery Shopping Mall in Kuta the night before copied and sold our credit card number. We read warnings to never, NEVER use your credit card in Indonesia, but we let our guard down in Bali. Luckily, the Citi Fraud Department is quite good – none of the fraudulent charges went through, and the card was cancelled. Unfortunately, sending us a replacement card overseas is not a simple task – we asked them to send it to the Marriott in Medan – our final hotel before flying to Malaysia. Keeping our fingers crossed!

After our poor night’s sleep, we were very tempted to just stay in our hotel room all day and skip sight-seeing in Bali. All the crowds, and traffic and over development is not why we came to Indonesia. But then, we had to admit we did not come all the way to Indonesia to hide out in a resort either, so we reluctantly dragged ourselves out of the hotel room in search of a taxi.

One of the downsides to staying in a resort, is that you are a captive consumer. We didn’t have the option to go out into the city and haggle with multiple taxis like we did in Kuta – we were at the mercy of the resort transportation desk, who tried to tell us that a half-day taxi hire would be 900K IDR, but quickly dropped the price to 600K IDR (USD$45) when we started to walk away. We still overpaid, but we reasoned our time was more valuable the USD$10-20 we would have saved by walking ourselves out of the resort and trying to find another taxi driver. In addition to convenience, we also got an English-speaking driver with a very clean, air-conditioned car. We agreed to hit 3 attractions, plus a stop for lunch, in 6 hours – giving us plenty of time to relax and enjoy the resort in the evening.

Our first stop was the Batukaru Temple, at the foot of Batukaru Mountain. While it is Bali’s second highest mountain, it’s off the beaten path for tourists and you get a more authentic spiritual experience here. Unlike the other temples we visited, there is a dress-code enforced for anyone entering the temple grounds (sarong + sash for both men & women – loaners available at the entrance), and the majority of temple visitors are actual worshippers – not tourists.

 

Visiting the Batukaru Temple – a *real* place of worship, so there are quite a few rules to follow

 

Sarongs are required to enter the temple complex – Igor needed a loaner

 

Real worshippers & offerings

 

The stunning water-garden & 7-tiered roof shrine of Batukaru

 

Batukaru – the only truly serene temple we visited in Bali

After the temple, we continued on to the Jatiluwih Rice Terraces for a quick photo-op then on to the Ulun Danu Bratan temple AKA “The Lakeside Temple” – one of the most iconic temples in Bali. Of all the locations we’ve been to in Bali, this one just screams, “TOURIST TRAP.” Complete 180 from the Batukaru Temple – the place was teeming with tourists taking selfies and there was a friggin’ motor-boat zooming past the lakeside temple! We were in and out of there as quickly as possible.

Jatiluwih Rice Terraces – a UNESCO World Heritage Site

 

We only had a little time to wander about the fields as we had a 6-hour time limit with our driver – if only we could rent a car/ojek – we could have lingered

 

Joining the herds of tourists to snap some pics of the Bratan Temple

 

No doubt – the temple is picturesque – but trying to get a clear shot without a dozen fellow tourists required a lot of patience. Not the place to go for a “magical” experience – at least not at noon. Who knows – maybe the place is empty at sunrise…

 

Posing for as many photos as possible, before the rain clouds break open

There are several buffet lunch options near the Ulun Danu Bratan temple – looks like it is the thing to do when visiting the area, so our taxi driver took us to his pick. No complaints on the food – we ate as much as possible (given the high prices at the resort restaurants, we had skipped breakfast and would likely have a small dinner) before heading back.

 

Indonesian buffet lunch near the Bratan Temple

 

Retreating to the serenity of the Pan Pacific Nirwana Resort

We spent the rest of our afternoon at leisure in our hotel room, enjoying the lightening-fast Wifi and the luxuriously cool AC. Since we are literally right next to the Tanah Lot Temple, the resort offers a complimentary walk through the golf course to view the temple at sunset, so we headed out around 5:30PM to check it out. Not only did we get a better view than you would get as a visitor to the temple, we discovered there is a BACK-DOOR ENTRANCE to the temple complex without paying admission! (Oh, and there are several restaurants, where you can get breakfast/lunch for a few dollars, rather than the USD$25+pp the resort charges.)

 

Super excited about our resort-view of the Tanah Lot Temple

 

OMG! We have our own secret entrance to the Tanah Lot Temple! This is awesome!

 

Just like Ulun Danu Bratan, this temple is a Disneyland-esque zoo of tourists – complete with many gift shops where you can buy Buddha merchandise. Note: Bali is 90% Hindu – there are very few Buddhists. The Buddhist statues are *purely* for the tourists – as one of our Hindu taxi drivers informed us

 

While I already explained my moral dilemma with Kopi Luwak (we didn’t buy any more), we couldn’t help but linger at the Bali Luwak Coffee shop that had 3 pet civets! Unlike the coffee plantation we visited before, at least these civets weren’t in cages – they were just laying out front like house-cats!

 

The coffee shop even had a flying fox! He wasn’t tied down – I assume he was free to fly away if he wanted to, as you can’t really clip a bat’s wings. Guess he was just a pet…AND SO CUTE

 

Final view of Tanah Lot, back at the resort

 

Evening stroll around the resort pool and a Chinese wedding scheduled for the evening. We felt really bad for them – it started pouring at 8PM – hope they had a back-up location inside!

 

The rain didn’t bother us! We ordered a small room-service dinner (complete with Bintangs we picked up at an Indomart outside the resort), and washed all our dirty clothes in the bathroom sink. WE CLASSY.

Day 70: Blue Stone Beach & Bali

We decided to take a short trip out of the city during our free morning in Ende. If you look at “Things to Do in Ende” on TripAdvisor.com, not a single activity is in the city (3 out of 4 are in Moni!) – but the Blue Stone Beach was only an hour and a half away, so it was an easy drive back and worth before our flight. So after breakfast at the hotel (Indonesian-style, but at least there was butter & jam for toast), we headed out toward the airport hoping to find a taxi or some ojeks. We were quickly spotted by a taxi driver who seemed really excited to get such a large fare (we tried to bargain him down from 400K IDR for the round-trip, but he stuck to his price) – throughout the drive he was constantly tooting his horn, even when he wasn’t passing any cars. It was as if he wanted everyone in Ende and the rounding villages to know, “Look! I have customers today!”

So, this next part may be a little TMI for some readers – I apologize in advance – but about halfway to the Blue Stone Beach, Lindsay started to get a little stomach ache. At first she thought it was just a little gas, but soon realized, oh no!, this is much, MUCH more than gas. She started squirming in her seat, and told Igor that she might be getting her first bout of traveler’s diarrhea. However, we were almost to the beach, so we continued on.

 

Short day-trip to the Blue Stone Beach, via taxi – but check out the “Titanic”-themed public bus ahead!

 

Black sand and beautiful blue stones cover the beach – and trash-free, despite what some reviews say

 

Some reviews on TripAdvisor.com complained that there weren’t that many stones left – we beg to differ! There were plenty of stones to admire (it looked like they were small chucks from the nearby cliff sides). We did notice many locals selling piles of neatly organized blue stones along the side of the road – looks like they were for construction / interior design purposes, rather than tourists.

 

Lindsay collecting a few stones – see how blue!

 

Other than a few locals hanging out near the trail from the road, we had the beach to ourselves

 

It was really pretty, but Lindsay desperately needed a Western toilet ASAP, so after a few quick photos, we jumped back in the taxi and returned to Ende

I’ll spare you all the horrific details of the conclusion to my, er, stomach issues. Suffice to say that I made it back in the nick of time, but took four Imodium tablets before boarding the plane. After “emptying the tank,” I didn’t poop again for about 3 days. Igor, on the other hand, was perfectly fine – we had eaten the exactly same thing the night before, so we deduced it must have been the butter on my toast during breakfast (Igor only takes jam). Lesson: don’t try to eat Western food – the locals cook their own cuisine best.

Our return flight to Bali had a quick stopover in Labuan Bajo, so we were served two lunches (thanks, Garuda Indonesia!). We ran into two of our new friends from the Komodo tour – small world! In fact, we found that we were constantly bumping into the same 6 people throughout our trip to Flores – it’s definitely less crowded than Bali so all Westerners really stand out. This is the Indonesia we were expecting!

When we arrived in Bali, we dropped off our big bag at the baggage storage for an hour so that we could make a quick run to the mall in Kuta to pick up some essentials: sneakers for Lindsay (to temporarily replace her lots boots), sunscreen, hand sanitizer and toothpaste. We were in and out of Payless Shoes and the drugstore within 40min (paid with credit card), and off to our hotel outside the city.

Since our first hotel in Bali was super cheap, and selected for the convenient location next to the airport rather than comfort, Igor splurged for an Expedia “Special Deal” and got us a room at the 5-star Pan Pacific Nirwana Resort – right next to the Tanah Lot temple (we had a clear view and back-door access via the resort golf-course)! As we were sipping our cool welcome drinks in the lobby – traditional Balinese flute music wafting through the air, next to a serene lotus pond – we decided Bali might not be so bad after all.

 

Time to relax! Ordering room service at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Bali

Day 69: Ende

We had a day and a half left in Flores before our flight back to Bali. On the advice of some fellow travelers we met during the Komodo tour, we decided we would try to visit the traditional village outside of Bajawa – which is a 3-4 hour bus ride from Ende. Originally, we started to plan a self-drive ojek hire from Cristo, where we would drive ourselves to Bajawa and meet him in Ende the next day, but once he discovered on our Kelimutu drive that we had never ridden (nevermind *driven*) an ojek before, he decided he didn’t want us to crash his bike, so he offered to book us seats on the VIP “air-conditioned” bus instead.

We met up with Cristo and Rolf (who was travelling our direction on his way to Ende) at the Rice Field Guest House in the morning, and found out that the VIP bus was unfortunately already full and we would have to take the public bus instead. We were actually a little thrilled at the idea of taking the public bus (and not just because we’d be paying 40K IDR instead of 150K IDR each) – the only downside was that we would have to transfer to a different bus Ende. Also, the public bus is not known for being punctual and it would be delayed even more due to the construction we had hit on our way into Moni as well.

 

On our way to Ende via the public bus – the bus attendant hung out the door the entire ride, yelling, “Ende, Ende, Ende!” as we passed through each village, so that locals could flag us down

 

Construction between Ende & Moni – normally a 2hr drive, delayed to 3hrs. Nothing to do but find a spot in the shade and wait it out

 

Admiring the scenery out the open door of the bus, as we zoom through the countryside

When we arrived in Ende, it was after 1PM. While the bus driver was very helpful in pointing out the bus to Bajawa, we realized that the sun would be setting by the time we reached the village, leaving us to arrange our hotel and return transport in the dark. Given we had a noon flight the next day, we decided Bajawa would probably be more trouble than it was worth with our tight schedule. Next time.

Unfortunately, there is not much to do in Ende. We booked ourselves a room at the Grand Wisata (the “nicest” hotel in Ende for 550K IDR / USD$40) because we were told they have free Wifi. Yeah, after multiple trips to the front desk to complain, we found out that the Wifi wasn’t working that day, and they had called someone “fix” it (Igor suspects they just didn’t plug in the router, because they didn’t want to pay for the service). Two cockroaches and a really smelly bathroom later, we were starting to regret our decision to stay in Ende.

 

COCKROACHES. And this is literally the best hotel in Ende.

We agreed to meet up with Rolf for dinner later that night (he wisely chose a budget hotel down the street – no frills, but then he wasn’t expecting them), so the three of us headed out into the streets of the city around sunset in search of some food. We passed through a market along the way, and finally decided to get dinner at an eatery on the corner that looked really popular – if all the locals like it, it must be good, right?

 

Local marketplace in Ende

 

Fresh produce – and eggs! – from the surrounding farms

 

Rice! With several color options! Rolf and the locals were shaking their heads when Lindsay kept taking out the camera for such silly pictures. Whatever – I’m setting the mood of a scene here. Are you feeling the personality of the city of Ende? ARE YOU? Yes, that’s what I thought – you’re welcome.

 

Chicken and rice dinner in Ende – keeping it simple for delicious results

We bought some bananas at the marketplace and some cakes from a bakery on the way back to Rolf’s hotel (which was down the longest, darkest, creepiest alley in Indonesia, BTW). We shared our dessert while swapping stories about our travels and general musing about life. Ende may have been a disappointing attraction, but it’s the people you meet along the way who can make or break a trip. Safe travels, Rolf!

Day 68: Kelimutu

Our alarm woke us up at 3:30AM, and for once we were not at all tired for a sunrise trek! Cristo and a fellow ojek driver arrived outside our lodge at 4AM, and Igor and Lindsay each climbed on an ojek for the very first time. While there were a few ominous clouds the night before, we could see a clear, star-filled sky during our hour-long drive up the mountain. The ojek ride was awesome – an essential part of the experience of Kelimutu – we are so glad we didn’t walk up or get a car. The feeling of being on the back of a motorcycle, with the cold morning air whipping across your face as you take the mountain corners in the pre-dawn darkness – THAT’S what adventure feels like!

Quick stop at the Kelimutu National Park HQ to pay the entrance fee, while Cristo yawns on his ojek

When we reached the top, Cristo and his friend bade us farewell, as we planned to walk ourselves back down the mountain after sunrise. We had about a 20min hike to the viewing platform on the mountain peak, when Igor noticed a bit of light on the horizon. Terrified of missing the Big Moment, he took off at a run to the top, while Lindsay calmly followed behind. (She didn’t miss the sunrise, and didn’t arrive out of breath either.)

OMG – QUICK, I DON’T WANT TO MISS THE SUNRISE

While we were not alone at the top of the mountain, Kelimutu has been by far and away the least crowded mountain sunrise we have visited in Indonesia (trust me – there are A LOT of them) – there were around 50 tourists, max, at the moment of sunrise, over half of which dispersed within 15min.

Waiting for the sunrise with a small group of tourists

 

Sunrise view from Mt. Kelimutu

What makes Kelimutu unique of the many volcanos in Indonesia, is the tri-colored crater lakes at the top of the mountain. The lakes are constantly changing colors due to chemical reactions from volcanic activity, so our photos may look completely different from photos taken a few years from now. Local legend says that when someone dies, their spirits come to one of these three lakes to pass on into the afterlife: the Good Lake, the Lake of Younger People, and the Evil Lake. (The Lake of Young People seems to be for those who weren’t *that* good in their lifetime, but weren’t really evil either – I guess the local people cut youngers some slack. At least, that’s how a local girl selling tea at the top explained it to us.)

 

The tri-colored lakes of Kelimutu: Atabupu / Lake of Old People (dark blue), Nuwamuri Ko’o Fai / Lake of Younger People (turquoise) and Atapolo / Evil Lake (olive green)

 

Reading up on the lakes

 

Speaking of youngsters – a group of local boys at the top of Kelimutu kept asking each of the Western women to pose for a photo holding a sign that either said, “I love you, so-and-so” or some mystery message in Bahasa Indonesian. They eventually got Lindsay to pose for a photo – hopefully it doesn’t say, “Death to America” on it. As they were all giggling and only asked women to hold the signs, we think it was probably something naughty, but harmless.

Even though sunrise was over by 6:30AM, Lindsay wanted to wait until 10AM so we could see all three lakes in the full sunshine (to better appreciate their stunning colors!), so we decided to kill some time by trying to climb down to the edge of the turquoise lake. There’s no trail, and the mountain is extremely steep. Lindsay soon gave up, and even Igor had to call it quits before reaching the bottom. Don’t’ try it – there are signs telling you to stay on the trail for a reason!

 

Futile attempt to reach the turquoise lake – perhaps our spirits will go there someday…

 

You get a better view of the lake from the top anyways – Nuwamuri Ko’o Fai in the sunlight

 

Checking out the color difference between the Young People Lake & Evil Lake

When we got back to the parking lot, we headed toward the visitor’s center to ask for directions for the way down – there is supposed to be a “traditional village” as well as some waterfalls and hot springs on the way, and we wanted to make sure we were going in the right direction. Unfortunately, the visitor’s center was closed – so we took a picture of the map posted nearby, hoping that would guide us down.

 

Heading down the mountain with our “map”

So, the walk down the mountain is only supposed to take 2 hours. It took us 6 HOURS to get down since we couldn’t find the turn off for the Pemo Village, and we kept backtracking up the mountain trying to find the trail (which, somehow, always seemed to lead us to their stupid Arboretum). When we finally did get on the right path toward the village, it kept forking with no signs saying which way was which – we finally just used the GPS in Igor’s cell phone to get us back to the main road.

 

Sign for Perekonde – which is on the map – showing we went too far. So we backtracked and ended up in a very overgrown arboretum

 

We kept following the paved path within the arboretum, hoping it would lead out into the village. Nope! Straight up, and back to the Kelimutu parking lot

 

Probably the right path to Pemo Village, as we found a marker on the road when we gave up and turned back. Note – this turn off for Pemo Village is NOT on the official tourism map

 

Wandering through cloudy farmland on the face of Kelimutu

About halfway down the mountain, we stupidly decided to try and take another short-cut. According to the map, there is a turn off that takes you directly to the Murondao Waterfall, which is right across the street from the Rainbow Café where we had agreed to meet up with Cristo to return his sneakers. Whatever road we took was not the correct road – after walking through remote farms & little villages, we finally ended up past our hotel, on the other side of Moni.

 

Lots of goats on the road

 

Lost again. Passing by lots of little farms

 

It was a LONG detour, but it was still a beautiful walk

We stopped back at our hotel for a quick shower before meeting up with Cristo, who then invited us to his brother’s post-wedding party later that night (customary “gift” is 100K rupiah / USD$10 pp – fair enough cover for a house party). About half the town showed up (as well as a handful other Western tourists) for a home-cooked rice & chicken dinner, live music (performed by Cristo’s brother-in-law), and arak (we passed on the booze, since everyone had to share the same shot glass). I’ll admit, Lindsay was a bit of a deer in headlights during the evening, but Igor was totally at ease: chillin’ to the local tunes, and chatting for an hour about fundraising options for the litter problem in Moni.

 

Igor breaking bread with the locals, and tapping his feet to the Indonesian-Rastafarian tunes

 

The party was raging late into the night – we could hear it from our hotel room. Glad we didn’t have to be up before dawn this time!

Day 67: Journey to Moni

This morning as we woke up and started packing our bags for the flight to Ende, we realized something terrible had happened. Lindsay’s couple of boots were missing. Tracing back our steps, we realized that she had set them down in the taxi the night before, and didn’t check the seat before getting out. We had no way of finding the driver again, nor would he be able to find us even if he did volunteer to bring them back.

TRAGEDY. I lost my boots!

Lindsay was super upset for the rest of the day, over the loss of her beloved boots. We had no choice but to keep going according to schedule. So we boarded the flight and took off for the next adventure.

Once we arrived in Ende, we were once again greeted by the sound of a dozen taxi drivers, each insisting he had the best price to Moni. Since all of them were shouting prices, we didn’t even have to really haggle – we were more like auctioneers calling out each driver’s price, letting them bargain themselves down. We got the price down to 300,000 IDR for a one-way trip to Moni and headed off. The trip normally takes 2 hours, but due to construction on the mountain road, we waited an extra hour in the late morning heat. We had to insist that our driver turn the AC on.

All the cars and ojeks waiting for the road to clear

We finally arrived in Moni and checked into the AntonEri Lodge – one of very few accommodations in Moni available for booking online. It was pretty basic, but clean. However, when Igor saw that there were no screens over the decorative tiles above the door, he insisted that the manager give us a mosquito net, otherwise we would find a different lodge. The manager (the owner’s brother) complied and we had a very nice net set up for us.

 

We’ve had enough of mosquitos after Kakadu – we don’t need malaria too. The net helped us sleep soundly (literally)

As the main attraction for the area is Kelimutu Volcano – best seen at sunrise – we didn’t have much to do during the day. We wandered over to the Rainbow Café – a “resto” pointed out by our taxi driver as we came into town. We ordered a couple of cold sodas, and while we were relaxing in the shade, were soon joined by Cristo – a local who had noticed us coming into town, and gently started asking us questions: “Where are you staying?” “Are you going to Kelimutu?” “How are you getting there?” He informed us that he was an ojek driver and could pick us up in the morning to take us up the mountain to see the sunrise. As we were bargaining on a price, we were joined by Rolf – an Australian tourist travelling solo, who was Cristo’s current client. We chatted with both Cristo and Rolf over lunch and got a good feel for Cristo (especially when he realized Lindsay didn’t have any hiking shoes and immediately ran home to loan her his old sneakers! They were a size too small, but they were better than sandals) so we booked him for sunrise the next day.

 

A common sight in Flores – people tie up their livestock (cows and goats mostly) on the side of the road and just leave them there to graze all day. This one was particularly friendly.

 

Exploring the outskirts of Moni – many dirt roads to pastoral neighborhoods. Very few people own cars or trucks in Flores (ojeks are the main form of private transportation), but the few that do give everyone a lift.

Across the street from the Rainbow Café was the trail to Murondao Waterfall, so we headed over to check it out. After admiring the falls in silence for about 15 minutes, a group of about two dozen villagers came down the trail – apparently it was laundry-day! All the women had carried down loads of clothes on their heads, and all the children started jumping into the water for bath-time. After observing the spectacle for a while, the villagers eventually realized they had an audience – which made them ask us for pictures! Unfortunately, we have no way of giving them copies of these pictures, but they seemed pleased to know that somewhere, someone was admiring their poses.

 

Walking past so many tropical fruit trees on our way to the Muronado Waterfall

 

Locals coming down to the waterfall for laundry & bathtime

 

The kids noticed we had a camera and immediately starting yelling, “Mister! Picture!”

Unfortunately, Lindsay had been developing a migraine throughout the day as a result from getting so upset over her lost boots, she had to lie down in the lodge to try and sleep it off, leaving Igor by himself for the rest of the afternoon. He spent a good couple of hours chatting with the hotel manager, asking him questions about Indonesia: religious make-up of Flores vs Bali vs the rest of the country (90% Catholic vs 90% Hindu vs 90% Muslim), police corruption (you have to pay 100M+ rupiah to become a police officer because the profession is so lucrative due to the ability to shake down bribes), and tourism (during the high season, the entire town sells out and you would not be able to come to Moni without a reservation – you would have to sleep in the street! Hard to believe when we were the only ones staying in his lodge). Just before sunset, Igor took a short walk to try and find dinner, but the only restaurant with Wifi said it was only for guests of *their* hotel, so he came back to the room at 6:30PM to join Lindsay for a *really* early night (Hey! We’re getting up at 3:30AM the next day).

 

Igor was shooting the breeze with the hotel manager while Lindsay took a nap at the AntonEri Lodge

 

Exploring the outskirts of Moni just after sunset

Day 66: Flores XP Dragon Tour – Day 3

After a super tasty breakfast, we packed up and said farewell to our tropical hideaway, as we headed off to revisit Batu Bolong and Manta Point. Half of the rock at Batu Bolong was protected from the current in the morning, so we got the green light to go into the water. Unfortunately, since we were flying to Ende the next morning, Igor and Lindsay had to forgo diving for snorkeling. Shame too, because this site was another “wall” reef – but we still saw our share of turtles and triggerfish.

 

Chocolate muffins!!!!!

The highlight of the day was Manta Point. There was a very strong current, but we stuck with Paul as our guide and the boat drifted along with us. Guys, there were SO MANY MANTAS! At one point, a school of six mantas – each about 3m wide! – were swimming around us! At one point, Lindsay turned around to see her “buddy” Igor furiously swimming against the current away from the group – as she chased him to try and tell him to come back, all of a sudden a huge manta ray breached the surface an arm’s length from Igor! Mind. BLOWN.

 

Really wish we had a camera for this…

 

I FINALLY FOUND DORY! There were dozens of Dorys at Manta Point. Honestly, I don’t know which fish got me more excited.

Just before lunch, we stopped at another Pink Beach. We were all kind of snorkeled out (after all, what could top Manta Point?), so we mostly just swam around for pleasure and explored the beach.

 

Crystal-clear waters at Pink Beach

 

Having a great day on the beach

 

Chillaxin’ in the water

 

The beach really is pink, due to small bits of broken coral

 

Lots of dead, bleached coral washed up on shore, and artfully arranged by tourists

In the afternoon, we headed over to Rinca Island for our second Komodo Dragon trek. We all agreed the quality of the trek and the enthusiasm of the park rangers on Rinca Island was better than Komodo – so if you ever visit and only have time for one, we recommend Rinca.

 

Pulling up to the dock at Rinca Island

Our park ranger guide explaining the trail

 

You are GUARANTEED to see dragons at Rinca, as the rangers tend to throw small food scraps out their kitchen windows. Not enough to really *feed* them, but enough for a little treat

 

This male dragon is so fat, he doesn’t even care about the bird walking RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIS MOUTH

 

Taking a pic with a lazy dragon, before continuing into the jungle where we found a female dragon digging a nest for her eggs. Apparently dragons will take over nests originally built by jungle turkeys, and then add a few decoy nests to protect their eggs from other dragons.

 

Taking in the vista at the top of the hill

 

Adding to the rock piles! Don’t let them fall!

 

We spotted a deer the distance – one of the many prey for the dragons

 

Farewell to Rinca – it was fun!

As the sun started to set, we headed back toward Labuan Bajo. Our final destination of the trip was a quick stop at Kalong Island where every night one can see thousands of Flying Foxes heading over to Flores Island to find food. Speaking of food, we were getting a bit peckish – our trusty chefs surprised us with one final Indonesian treat – fried bananas! Thanks so much to the crew & fellow passengers of the Flores XP Dragon Tour – it was seriously a blast!

 

Heading back to Labuan Bajo

 

Our new favorite dessert – fried bananas!

 

Flying Foxes at Kalong Island

When we got back to the wharf, we had to settle our bills (beer & dives were extra) before grabbing our boots out of the storage box, hobbling off the boat and looking for a taxi to our hotel. We walked through the fish market on the wharf and for once, couldn’t not find a taxi driver! Just as we thought we would have to start walking the 5km out of town, our confusion finally got the attention of young woman whose uncle had a taxi. Exhausted, we jumped in the back of the taxi, Lindsay tossing her boots on the floor, and settled in for the long drive out.

When we got to the Sylvia, our formally deserted resort was now hosting a party of about 75 Indonesian tourists. When we tried to check in, the receptionist couldn’t find our reservation (our fault – we later realized we had booked a room for the next day), but luckily they had an empty room for us anyways. We quickly escaped the madhouse of the hotel lobby, and crashed in our room.

 

Fresh fish market at the wharf in Labuan Bajo

Day 65: Flores XP Dragon Tour – Day 2

While we were told there would be an early wake-up call the next morning, everyone seemed to get up naturally with the sunrise. After breakfast, we left our baggage on the island and headed off for Komodo to see the dragons! The boat ride took about 2 hours, so it was already pretty hot out by the time we arrived. When our tour guide suggested we walk the short trail through the jungle, there were no compaints. While we were warned that we might not see any dragons as it was “mating season” and the dragons tend to go up into the mountains to mate, I suspect the park rangers were just trying to set our expectations really low so we would be overjoyed when we found the dragons, since we found one almost immediately hanging out in the shade of the trees.

The dragons are, of course, wild animals and can be unpredictable and attack humans, so the park rangers would take all of our cameras in turn to take close-up pictures of the dragon’s face. When we asked the park rangers how many times they had seen a komodo on attack someone, the young guys admitted they had never seen an attack on a human…but there was that one Swedish guy who was bitten and died in the 1970s. So, you know, safety first.

 

Welcome to Komodo Island National Park

 

Komodo Island Beach

 

Found our first dragon at the beginning of the short trail

 

Hiding behind the dragon for a photo-op

 

The rangers warned us that shiny objects might be mistaken for food – I’ll just hide these water bottles…

The rest of the short walk was dragon-free until we reached the beach and found a dragon walking along the shore. We all raced down the trail to try and beat other groups of tourists for an unobstructed view. Poor dragon – he just wanted a quiet stroll on the beach, and soon found himself mobbed by flashing cameras.

 

Dragon under the bridge! Quick – get a picture!

 

Igor got the first pic with the dragon, followed by many more (check out the ranger’s happy-dance!)

 

The dragon – tired of tourists – turns around and runs back to the jungle fast as he can

After Komodo Island, we stopped at Pink Beach for a quick snorkel before lunch (too shallow for diving), and then on to check out the conditions at Manta Point and Batu Bolong – two more dive sites. Unfortunately, our guides couldn’t spot any mantas, and the current at Batu Bolong was dangerously strong. So we headed back to Pirate’s Cove for more Bintangs and dinner.

 

Reading up on all the fishies – still looking for Dory, BTW

 

Checking the conditions at Batu Bolong – look at that current!

 

No mantas today – try again tomorrow

 

Heading back to the Cove for dinner – burgers! Yum.

Day 64: Flores XP Dragon Tour – Day 1

For our trip to Komodo Island, Igor booked us on a 3-Day tour with Flores XP – a company started by two expats (from Spain & Italy) which has built a glamping facility on one of the islands close to Komodo & Rinca. We had a fantastic time – highly recommended!

We met Michael, the Spanish partner, at the Labuan Bajo wharf at 7:30AM to board our boat. There were 8 other tourists booked for the trip (only 7 showed up – one guy was missing) – we all made our introductions over breakfast & coffee, before the boat shoved off.

 

Meeting at the wharf – next to a huge shipment of bananas

 

Fandhy and Paul explaining our schedule for the day: snorkeling/diving before heading to our campsite

 

Ready for our Komodo Adventure

 

So many pretty boats in Flores!

Our first dive location was at Kanawa Island. We were so excited to get back in the water after our Great Barrier Reef certification a few weeks ago – plus diving is so affordable (USD$25/dive) we couldn’t resist! While we had been unfortunate enough to have rainy weather in Cairns, we had a perfectly clear sunny day in Flores – visibility was twice what we had before! The first reef was full of interesting sea life: we saw two sea turtles, a lobster, pufferfish, and even a cuttlefish which changed colors as it swam away!

We brought our old Nikon Cool Pix camera underwater with us. While it is only supposed to work down to 10m, we had used it throughout our trip on the Great Barrier Reef with no problem – it would turn on underwater up to 18m, but would simply give an error message that it couldn’t shoot. Yeah, apparently 20m is the “no go” limit. When Igor pulled out the camera at the bottom of the reef, it wouldn’t turn on and Lindsay could see the screen was bending inwards. When we returned to the surface we discovered that the water pressure had finally killed our camera, breaking the water seal. So no original pictures – just Google Images.

 

I swear – we saw all of these in the wild.

After a delicious fried chicken lunch, we stopped at our second dive location: the Mini Wall. This was Igor’s favorite dive location of everything we’ve done so far, and his first real, “Wow!” moment while diving. Before this, he thought there was no big difference between snorkeling and scuba diving – you see all the same fish, just with a different perspective. The Mini Wall changed all that – it was like exploring a fish city! In addition to a large assortment of tropical fish, we saw two Lionfish, a Crocodile Flathead Rockfish and Garden Eels.

 

All the fish we saw.

We headed over to the “Pirate’s Cove” late in the afternoon to get settled into our accommodations. When Igor originally booked the tour, we assumed we’d be in tents on the beach – the glamping set-up was a very pleasant surprise! After claiming our huts, the 9 tourists broke into the Bintangs our tour guides brought for sale, and enjoyed the sunset on our private beach. Just as the sun was hitting the horizon, we saw another boat pull up in the distance – it was our mystery 10^th guest! Apparently he had forgotten the day of the week and thought the trip was starting the next day (sadly, very easy to forget the days of the week when you’re traveling). We got him a Bintang and welcomed him to the group, filling him in on the day’s adventures. After a delicious fish dinner (our guides are pretty impressive cooks!), and another hour or so admiring the stars, we retired to our huts and fell asleep to the sound of gentle waves on the shore.

Heading back to our camping grounds

 

Pirate’s Cove! Arrr.

 

GLAMPING

 

New friends sharing some beers on the beach

 

BINTANG – the beer of Indonesia

 

A stellar sunset, and a clear night sky

Day 63: Labuan Bajo

Since we were right across the street from the airport, we didn’t have get up too early for our flight to the island of Flores. We hopped on a small propeller plane (cue Indiana Jones music!) to Labuan Bajo – the jumping off point for Komodo Island.

 

Short flight to Labuan Bajo

The rest of the day was open for us to relax at the Sylvia Resort in Waicicu Beach, about 15min outside of town. Labuan Bajo proper doesn’t have a very swimmable beach, so it was nice to hang out at the resort for a few hours. We swam and kayaked and had a jolly time.

 

The beach at the Sylvia Waicicu Resort

 

We had the beach practically to ourselves – we only saw 4 other guests the entire day

 

Free kayaks were available, so we paddled around the small islands off the beach

 

Shuttle boats & a police boat “parked” on a beach? Returning to the Sylvia with a bag full of trash we picked up from the water. Probably futile as we noticed all the trash collected off the beach just goes into a pile behind a building on the property. Next storm will likely blow it all right back in the water.

When we checked our watches, we realized it was only 2PM – we did pretty much everything you could do at the Sylvia, and now were bored. The resort had internet, but only in the non-air conditioned lobby, so catching up on the blog/emails wasn’t really an option. The room had HBO in English (with Indonesia subtitles, of course), so we ended up vegging out in front of the TV until dinnertime.

 

Dinner sunset at the Sylvia Waicicu Resort

Now that we have started to veer off the “easy” places, a lot of our itinerary has buffer days & travel days built into it to account for bad weather & delays. So we’re starting to get used to the uneven pace of bursts of lots of activity, followed by uneventful days. Life of the traveler – don’t pity us too much.

Day 62: Bali – Mt. Batur / Ubud

We set our alarm for a 2AM wake up call, so that we could drive across the island in the middle of the night to climb Mount Batur in time for sunrise. Apparently it’s a thing here. Our driver from the day before agreed to pick us up from our hotel in Tuban and drive us around for the day, get us an English-speaking guide at Batur (guides are mandatory), and admission to the Ubud Monkey Forest for 1,365,000 IDR (USD$100). We probably could have gotten a better deal, but it’s nice to have an English-speaking driver and an air-conditioned car, so we felt satisfied.

We arrived at the mountain very quickly (no traffic in the middle of the night!) and started our climb with our guide, Cynthia, at 3:30AM. The first half of the trek was pretty easy – a flat trail (shared with about 200 other tourists) through farmland with a few ojeks passing by. Once we got to the half-way point, shit got real. It was about an hour, STRAIGHT UP. And the trail was not easy – oh no, this was some jagged-rock don’t-slip-or-you-die trail. Even though the temperature at this elevation was easily in the 60s, we were drenched in sweat and hiking in tank tops until we reached the top. We opted for the second peak lookout in the hopes it would be less crowded. With 200+ people on the mountain, there was no solitude to be found anywhere, but the stadium-style seating benches build at the summit helped everyone get a clear view. As we reached the top at about 4:45AM, we had a good hour to just sit around (while our cold sweat made us freeze) waiting for the sunrise. While there were vendors at the top selling hot coffee and tea, the lack of toilets made us decline.

 

Front-row seat, waiting for the sunrise

 

Batur Lake & Village, and Mount Rinjani on Lombok Island off Bali in the distance

The sunrise was pretty spectacular, especially since wisps of fog kept sweeping through the peaks – each time we get disappointed that the view is obscured, the clouds move and everyone whips out their camera again! After about 100+ new shots on our camera, Cynthia offered to take us around the crater before our descent, rather than heading straight down. Our driver had given us some hard boiled eggs for breakfast, so Cynthia showed us some vents in the volcano’s crater where we could heat up our food. She told us you could also cook raw eggs this way, but we were afraid of cracking the eggs during our ascent (which incidentally we did).

 

The Sun!

Sunrise view of Mount Abang with Mount Agung behind from the second peak of Mount Batur. If you stop at the first peak (right hand corner) you won’t be able to see the second mountain. We also noticed the first peak was often covered in fog, while our view was mostly clear.

 

Daylight reveals some animals at the top! Village dogs and some macaque monkeys looking for breakfast handouts

 

Two very happy trekkers

 

Steam coming out of vents in the crater

 

Our guide, Cynthia, warming up our breakfast

 

Hiking along the narrow crater ridge

 

View of the 1968 lava flow that destroyed the former village of Batur (now moved and rebuilt)

 

Sliding down the steep descent of Mount Batur

 

All the pretty mountain flowers

One thing that really stood out to us was how clean the trail on Mount Batur was – we were warned that Indonesia was going to covered in litter (which true – a lot of it is). But the Mount Batur Guide Collective takes it upon themselves to keep the area clean by designating the first of every month as the official “clean-up day”. Each guide was given a red plastic bag to pick up trash from the trail at the beginning of our hike, and as we headed toward the parking lot, we passed three bemos full of volunteers from the Batur Village on their way up the mountain to collect litter.

 

June 1st – Clean-Up Day on Mt. Batur

On the way back to the city, our driver took us through Ubud where we briefly stopped at the Tegalalang Rice Fields (unfortunately, not the season to be filled with water), then on to the main street to soak in the local atmosphere. Sure, it’s cuter than Kuta, but it’s still a busy street full of shops and taxi drivers constantly asking where you going. Everyone seems to stay in Ubud when they visit Bali, but the faux-hippi commercialism just doesn’t speak to us.

Tegalalong Rice Fields, ready for harvest

 

Walking through main street Ubud

 

A quiet side-street in Ubud

Our final stop was not on our original itinerary as Igor was afraid it would be a tourist trap. The Monkey Forest in Ubud is a tourist trap, but it’s a delightful one! Once again I must state: we love petting zoos. Any attraction that lets us interact with animals is time well spent. We spent a good two hours walking through the extensive grounds, fed bananas to the monkeys, and took a bazillion pictures.

 

An awesome visit to the Monkey Forest in Ubud

 

So many cute faces…and large genitalia (guess which one of us took that picture)

  

Even without the monkeys this place was cool – the giant fig tree and stone bridge were breathtaking

 

Buying bananas to feed the (greedy) monkeys – that 50,000 IDR went fast!

  

Igor trying to ration his second bunch of bananas after monkeys stole the first. Gone in 60 seconds.

On way out of the forest, we passed through a path that was less crowded with tourists. The monkeys in this park of the park didn’t even need bananas as a bribe to jump on us – they were just plain curious!

 

Who’s on my back? Oh, a monkey.

 

Monkeys looking for stuff to steal – luckily we read the warning at the entrance and made sure all water bottles, snack bars, sunscreen, etc. were safely zipped inside the backpack.

 

A little monkey with a couple of boots

We got back to Kuta around 1PM – given the early start we already felt we had a full day, so we relaxed in the AC and took advantage of the respectably fast internet. Around sunset, we headed off to the Kuta beach boardwalk to have dinner at the Boardwalk Restaurant, which had pretty good reviews on TripAdvisor. Turns out someone was having a wedding reception in the restaurant, but it was still open to diners, so we had a lovely dinner (good reviews are well-deserved), and even got to watch the fire dance performance booked for the wedding party.

 

Semi-wedding crashing at the Boardwalk Restaurant in Bali