VAREKAI - My trip to wheresoever: November 2011

Labuan Bajo

Labuan Bajo, a small Village located at the west coast of Flores. I have been never closer to one of my top ten destinations, the Komodo National Park, as now.

I arrived at the late afternoon and so I saw already two hours later the fascinating colors while sunset on Flores. They are really unique, I never saw such a purple light as here.

If you want to visit Komodo too, then just wait til somebody talks to you on the street. This guys want to sell you a two day/one night trip to Komodo and Rinca Island with snorkeling etc.. Basically we are talking about chartering a boat for 2000000Rp. Some of the companies listen to your desires and change their regular schedule for you. I found such an agency and so I could tell them my plan.

If you want a cheaper trip to the National Park, then walk down to the harbor and ask the fisherman there for a trip. Sometimes you can catch a trip with other people for 100000Rp/person for a one day trip.

I travelled by myself and so I looked for companions and found two guys and one lady from catalania at my hotel, the Gardena (first house in Labuan Bajo and is nearly every day booked out).

We looked first at the offer from the Gardena about the trip, but their boat was not so big and it wasn`t possible to stay upright, so we decided after an inspection the company I found. The trip should start at the following day at 6am.

Don`t be suprised on Flores, espacially in Labuan Bajo, when there is no power for a few hours. It seems to be very often and most of the restaurants are well prepared for this case.

If you want to rent a Scooter, don`t be scared about the prices they ask for a day/week. It´s around 75000/60000Rp. Try to talk with them in Bahasa Indonesia and do some smalltalk and you will get a much better price......believe me ;)

Most of the tour agencies told me in advance to book a flight back to Bali again because I would not get any flight out of Flores, but I found in Labuan Bajo enough possibilies to get away again. There is also a new Airline flying to Bali, called Sky-Aviation.....just google it, they have very good deals. May be it is different in peak seasons........

Bay of Labuan Bajo

Beautiful colors at sunrise time. The whole sky lookes pink and purple.

Labuan Bajo`s ferry pier.

A typical boat for the trips to Komodo National Park.

Labuan Bajo at sunset

Yes, I know......too much pictures of sunset, but I love it so much.

Flying to Flores

After recovering from my worse cold, I decided to take a flight to Flores. And also my travel buddy Alexander told me to skip the island Sumbawa. There is nothing really interesting on the way and the streets are sometimes in a very bad conditions.

Flores is the home of the Komodo National Park and also the unique crater lakes at Mt. Kelimutu in the East part of Flores.

It`s a very short flight and I choose Merpati Airlines this time.

You will see on every airport in Indonesia VIP Passengers, where they used the red carpet.

Lombok

On the way to the East it was getting more and more cloudy and some of them looked interesting too.

Doesn`t it look like a flying bird or like the aircraft of the TV-Comic-Series "Käptn Balu"? ;)

Sumbawa

Coralles at the Flores Sea

The sky didn`t looked so pretty while arriving in Labuan Bajo.

Ulu-Watu

Ulu-Watu is a small temple, located on the southwest side of the peninsula Nusa Dua of Bali.
There are lots of aggressive monkeys. They are well trained for getting food from visitors. Pay attention, otherwise you will find your sunglasses in a different kind of using ;)

Temple of Ulu-Watu at sunset

Nice sculptures on the way to Ulu-Watu

Monkey in Action ;)

View from the temple to the cliff

very lush nature around the temple

Unacountable monkeys around the area. Be aware of them, otherwise you might loose your sunglasses or camera. Some of them are trained to take that stuff and you will get it not every time back. You can only try to give them bananas instead. Sometimes it works, sometimes not......