Labuan Bajo, Flores.

We had to fly from Lombok to Flores, but to do this we had to fly back to Bali and then out to Flores on an old turbo prop plane owned by Wings air which had major issues with safety according to the websites we visited. But this was the only company that would do it and the other choice would be to sail there over 4/5 days on a live aboard boat which on the surface sounded idyllic but in reality would have been cramped, possibly dangerous, boring, and uncomfortable according to info we received and you can’t choose who you sail with so could have ended up in a mutiny if there were any ‘loudmouth know it all’ yanks on board. The first flight was late, hot and cramped. The plane looked worst for wear on external inspection and inside was like a sauna but it got us the short journey to Bali. Then there was confusion over our second flight out to Labuan Bajo in Flores as we could not find any departure or gate info. Again the flight turned out to be over an hour late as we were led back onto the same sorry excuse for a plane for the longer leg of the journey, herded across the runway with all the other bemused passengers into the furnace of our cabin as we sat on the runway for an hour waiting our turn to take off.  

Our plane had a few issues

 Anyway we did make it, and I think we were the only flight in to Labuan Bajo that day because the airport was empty. A quick haggle with the taxi ranks outside yielded the result of us arriving at the hotel only a short drive away. The hotel was excellent with cable T.V. showing the new series of Game of Thrones which Kathy was most chuffed about. Labuan Bajo turned out to be a dusty, ramshackle town with the usual tourist facilities with a scruffy habour front and surprisingly enough no decent beaches. We quickly haggled the use of a motorbike and roared off into town which had a strange one way system where you had to drive around the whole town to go down the main high street. Driving standards were as usual - appalling. We shopped around for a tour of the main event which is to visit the Komodo islands to see the dragons. Also high on our agenda was to snorkel the coral reefs and visit the great secluded beaches on uninhabited islands which dot the bay with breathtaking scenery. Kathy and I have travelled a lot around the world and seen a lot of stuff but we can say this scenery on this tour was awesome. We saw dolphins leaping out of the water, wild monkeys, wild water buffalo, wild deer and of course Komodo dragons on Rinca Island. We were told this was a bad time to visit as it was the mating season and the female dragons were off doing their thing (hiding from the males!) but we were lucky enough to see a whopper in the jungle (full grown male over 2 metres long) and also there was a various assortment of specimens around the rangers camp kitchen which looked like were fed to keep them there for tourist satisfaction.

Where's my dinner?

Also on the tour they took us to some amazing coral reefs and beaches where we snorkelled and at times there were so many tropical fish that they took up your complete field of vision as the shoal whisked in front of you as you crossed their path. There was soft coral in a multitude of colours, fan coral and brain coral with blue starfish perched on top of them. The boat was an old fishing vessel that was converted to take tourist and you were able to climb onto the roof and sunbath or watch dolphins as you cruised between the islands all day. The unbelievable thing was the whole trip cost us less than £18 each including a hearty lunch, water and snorkel gear. Got to admit though the crew of the boat did look like extras for the Indonesian version of‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ and did not speak much English which made it all the more fun as we had no idea where we were going or when we would stop and there was only 3 life jackets for the 9 of us, so Kathy and I took the precaution of taking all of them onto the roof in case any emergency did arise as the boat looked like maintenance was not a high priority. As it says in the brochure we picked up from the tourist office in town said “you come to Flores not for luxury but for adventure” and you certainly do get bucket loads here.  

Boat roof surfing 

As we ticked off all our wish list on this tour we decided to decline a further tour to Komodo to see basically a repeat of the same thing which was a bit more expensive. Next day we went to Batu Cermin caves on the bike which turned out a lot better than we expected with bats flying around our faces and huge trees perched off the cliff tops which reminded us of Ta Prom in Angkor Wat, Cambodia. In the afternoon we managed to blag our way onto a private beach out on the headland and watched flying fish jumping out the water from their extensive jetty. The coral was also good here and we saw angel and parrot fish just from sitting on the jetty. I went for a swim off the end of the jetty as the water was so warm and beautifully azure coloured it was hard to resist.  

  "Yes sir, we found a man on the beach and I think he said his name was Robinson Crusoe"

 Next day we blagged some snorkel gear and burned back to the resort but this time they rumbled us and refused us entry to the jetty as we were not members. Undeterred we tried the next exclusive resort, rode the bike in like we owned the place and set up camp on the beach by sneaking in around the back of some construction work. Result! Overall we liked Flores although it was harder to do your own thing as you needed to hire a boat to do anything exciting as there is very few ‘sights’ inland to visit and are hard work to visit without a tour company as the infrastructure is limited for tourists. Also beds are limited ,expensive and hard to come by outside the expensive resorts. Once the Dragons and coral/fish have been seen it’s a good idea to move on although the scruffy town does have a bit of charm to it as it is so uncommercialised and has a good local feel to it and breeds the feeling of charming chaos. With an airport here it won’t be long before it takes off big time. Anyway, that’s Indonesia done for us as we fly off to Kuala Lumpur now for our next part of our adventure.

Smoke on the water,fire in the sky.

That's the end of the road for us in Indonesia.