Brian left off our last blog just before we were about to go on a 29 hour journey from Kuta, Lombok to Labuanbajo, Flores. It actually turned out to be even more painful than it sounded at the time. We took off at 11:30 am from Kuta for a bus/ferry/bus/ferry island-hopping marathon. Two broken down buses, a sleepy bus driver who did the right thing and pulled over on the side of the road for a nap, a missed shuttle bus, and a unexpected extra night sleeping on a bench on a 9-hour ferry with the noise of Indonesian TV shows blasting in our ears later, we were in Labuanbajo at 3 am, 39 hours after we left. To top that off, arriving at that time of the morning, we found ourselves sitting on the side of the road waiting for someone to serve us coffee and let us in a guesthouse to wake up. Lukily we found ourselves in some good company with some fellow travelers so we all sat around on the side of the road waiting and chatting. Around 5:45 am we found a hotel with rooms available and an owner that was awake. We dropped our bags, got some breakfast, and then went to sleep. About that time, all I could think of was that Flores better be worth it!!
I’m happy to say, Flores was definitely worth it. The day after we arrived in Labuanbajo, we went diving in Komodo National Park, another world-class dive site. We signed up for 3 dives with the Bajo Dive Club – two reef dives, and one manta ray dive. The dive sites were about 2 hours away on a boat ride out toward Rinca and Komodo islands that passed by small islands lined with white sand beaches and covered with arid hilltops. It was a gorgeous trip out, and the return trip during sunset was even more spectacular. The diving was some of the best overall diving we’ve done on this trip. Some of the highlights were the manta ray that swam directly over me within a few meters, a couple shark and turtle sightings, some absolutely gargantuan fish, and watching the completely coordinated movements of a school of neon-blue fish trying to avoid becoming food for a handful of mackerels hunting. These dive sites are known for some crazy currents which help create incredible marine life and also made for a little more challenging diving.
The next day, we chartered a boat out to Rinca island with Ian, who we’d been hanging out with since we arrived in Bima, and an Australian couple also staying in our hotel. Rinca island is one of only a two islands in the world that are home to the Komodo dragon, the largest lizard in the world. Our purpose? Hunting for the elusive dragons (before they got to us!). It turned out to be pretty easy. Upon arrival to the island, we saw 7-8 dragons hanging out by the ranger’s kitchen, attracted by the smell of the food (and because it’s likely they’re fed scraps). While impressive in size, I was not nearly as intimidated as I thought they’d be, probably because they didn’t appear too interested in anything but laying around in the shade waiting to be fed. After a brief photo session, we headed out on a trek through Rinca island in search of more Komodo dragons. Walking over the island felt like we were in a scene from Jurassic Park. You half expected velociraptors to come tearing at us out of the bushes. Not to worry, as our guides carried with them long sticks to fend off the dragons. But since these dragons can take down a full-grown buffalo we hoped not to have to find out if they were trained to use the meager sticks with any effectiveness to protect us. We soon came across a stack of pig and buffalo skulls, which our young guides proudly informed us were “dragon carnage”. This was followed by more sightings of dragon food, a wild boar and a large buffalo, which we were told could be devoured by 3 dragons in only 17 minutes. We’re not sure if that is true, but nevertheless, Komodo dragons are still pretty bad-ass to take down such large prey. Their bite is poisonous, so a dragon will bite it’s prey, then stalk it for days until it becomes weak enough to become dinner. During our hike we saw beautiful scenery, various dragon food, a few monkeys, but only one Komodo dragon. It was a baby dragon hanging out on a branch well off the ground. Not only are large mammals dragon food, but other dragons are dragon food. Komodos will live up in trees until they are about 3 years old, big enough to hold their own, because otherwise they’ll likely be eaten by mom or another hungry Komodo. I was actually quite amazed how small they start out, considering how large they end up!
After our day with the Komodo dragons, we made the 10 hour journey to Bajawa, a small town set high in the hills, meaning cool days and downright chilly nights. We had big intentions of climbing our last volcano in Indonesia, Gunung Inerie, but those plans were thwarted as soon as we took our rented motorbike five minutes up the road to the trailhead. We’ve taken motorbikes on some pretty bad roads, but we decided this one just wasn’t worth it. Instead we rode around to the nearby villages, enjoying the scenery and unique houses in the villages. It was a relaxing couple days before heading on another 7 hours to the village of Moni, at the base of Kelimutu.
Kelimutu is famous volcano that last erupted in the 19th century, leaving behind 3 lakes, 2 of which change colors with no warning. The color change is due to mineral deposits in the lakes; the lake that doesn’t change color is a bright turquoise color, while the other two lakes vary between blues, browns, greens, and red. The Moni people believe it’s a sacred place, and that the spirit of the dead will go into one of the three lakes. As all good things in Indonesia seem to happen at sunrise, we dragged ourselves out of bed for a 4:30 am motorbike ride to the parking area, a 20 minute walk from the summit of Kelimutu, where we warmed up with a cup of ginger coffee sold by a man who threatened “no coffee, no sunrise” before making our way up to the summit (which despite our coffee purchase, was covered in clouds). However, the clouds cleared as the sun rose, and the lakes suddenly appeared. The biggest lake was a gorgeous turquoise, the lake next too it almost the same color, and the third lake a dark green. Interestingly, our Lonely Planet guidebook, published in 2010, describes the lakes as turquoise, brown, and red….goes to show how drastic a change you can see. We walked the 14 km down the mountain, which was not nearly as pleasant as described in the guidebook, probably because we missed the shortcut which would’ve cut 6 km off the trip and taken us down a dirt trail through farmland and villages, rather than a knee pounding paved road. We took a walk up the shortcut a couple days later to see what we missed (very nice scenery and villages), and realized how much less sore we would’ve been had we taken it!
Later that night, we crashed our first wedding, so to speak. Technically, we were invited by a lady who lived next door to our homestay, Jenny, and the wedding was also mentioned to us by multiple people since we’d been to Moni. From what I can tell about weddings in the villages of SE Asia, there’s no invite list, anyone who wants to show up can. After 8 months of traveling, I have very few clothes left that look nice enough for a wedding, so Jenny dressed up myself and another girl staying at our homestay, Abby, in traditional wedding apparel – ikat sarong, a nice blouse, earrings, handbag, and some pretty hideous lipstick. Brian, myself, Abby, and Chris, also from our homestay, hopped on motorcycle taxis (ojeks) to get a ride to the party. This was a challenge in a floor length sarong; they originally wanted the girls to sit sidesaddle on the bikes, but I think the fear in our faces convinced them we should straddle the bikes. So we hiked up our sarongs and hopped on, which resulted in a rather harlot look, at least judging by Jenny’s auntie’s frantic yanking on my sarong to get it to cover more of my legs for the ride. We arrived to the big event, which was attended by at least 300-400 people by the time we arrived. Everyone lines up to greet the bride and groom, who were on display on a platform at the front of the room the entire night. Everyone drops a present of money into a box on the way up, which is supposed to help pay for the wedding feast – in this case, two buffalo were slaughtered to feed the masses, which turned out to not be enough (making us feel a little bad that we partook in the meal).
There was a cutting of the cake, similar to the American wedding tradition, except here the bride and groom hand out pieces of cake to a line of 7 or 8 couples (I think they were probably parents and brothers and sisters), and everyone shoved cake into each other’s faces. There were some speeches, and eventually the dancing started. They started out with some traditional local dances, which they were quite excited to teach us. It reminded me of line dancing in that there was a very specific pattern that took me a while to pick up, but I got there eventually (which I still cannot say for line dancing!). After a few rounds of traditional dances, they broke out some dance music I think I’ve even heard back home, which drew all the young people onto the dance floor. Being the only tourists, our presence definitely attracted a crowd. There was never a shortage of people to dance with, and I pretty much had a group of 12 or 13 year old boys with me most of the night.
You know how it seems like at most wholesome family events, there’s always a group of guys that have snuck a cooler of beer that they stand around drinking behind a truck at every stolen opportunity? The equivalent in Indonesia is a group of men drinking arak, locally brewed rice whisky, at the back of the room, and they were quite excited to grab the tourists and pull us into their little drinking party. We’d tried arak at a restaurant in Bajawa, although it was mixed with honey and lemon, which was quite a tasty cocktail. However, the arak they were serving us that night looked like the petrol they sell in the water bottles along the side of the road, and I doubt it tasted much different. They were especially interested in getting the single girl, Abby, as drunk as they could, given the size of arak shots they were giving her. After about round 3 of arak, we decided it would be best to get back on the dance floor before they pushed more on us. We started getting tired around 10 pm or so (having woken up at 4 am for the sunrise that day), but being the most noticeable people in the crowd, it took a good hour to make our way out of the wedding party. A gazillion pictures later, Abby and I hopped on a couple motorbikes and Brian and Chris took the long walk home under an amazingly starry night.
The rest of our time in Moni was spent doing what we seem do best on this trip – chillaxin’. Moni has a pretty temperate climate and beautiful scenery, which made for nice walks and great sleeping weather. Our next door neighbor Jenny took good care of us – we got home-cooked meals, massages, and a good deal (we hope) on some ikat sarongs. We had some nice evenings talking to her and auntie, who’s still looking quite good for 75. Like everyone else we’ve met, she was quite shocked to hear we had no kids after 5 years of marriage. She was also quite shocked to hear my parents didn’t do their part in populating the earth, as I only have 1 brother. I actually saw her mouth drop open. Brian’s parents, who brought 4 children into the world, were clearly more of the norm in her eyes.
All good things must come to an end, and a couple days ago we took a flight from Ende, a city about an hour and a half from Moni, to Bali. We spent two nights on Kuta beach, which was like a reverse culture shock – the place is covered with all the normal fast food joints, high end shopping, Starbucks, and stores that sold anything else you might possibly miss from back home. We enjoyed our nicest room in all of Indonesia – there was almost a hot water shower – and caught up on errands. At the end of our last day we made it onto the beach checked out some surfers - some really good, some not so good. Brian has now been inspired to try surfing before we get back home…hopefully in Sri Lanka. We flew into Kuala Lumpur this morning and are staying in a ridiculously expensive (by our standards) hotel near the airport since we have another early morning flight to Sri Lanka tomorrow. Admittedly, we are enjoying the relative luxury here (super-hot, high water pressure shower, towels, pool), especially given it may be the last luxuries we see for awhile as we head into Sri Lanka and India! We’re excited about Sri Lanka…just wish us luck on getting our India visa there!
