Or: Five Mata Rays is Alright
The only drawback is that we are a bit out of town, which means having to head to a dark corner of town and furtively have locals kids in the dark offer us motorbike rides back, which all feels a little like a drug deal or something. Oh well, the place is beautiful the sunsets are truly extraordinary over the islands in the harbor and beyond.
So it's clear why Flores is the next hot destination in Indonesia- it's a huge and diverse island without many tourists. The villages are still charming, and it's got what the rest of Indonesia does, incredible volcanos and rice paddies, village life, indigenous tribes, and at least here on Flores, Catholicism rather than Islam or Hinduism, and so again has a different cultural feel.
So what have we done? Day one was mostly lounging by the pool, relieved to be off the damn boat. Day two we took a day trip out to a local desert island, which was amazing, though unbelievably hot and we of course ended up a little sunburned. I have to say though, if you are in search of Robinson Crusoe fantasies, Indonesia is the island nation for you. Which reminds me, among the random white people on our boat was a German witha bike who we saw pedaling past us in Labuanbajo as well. Now I'm a biking fan, I love biking at home abd when I travel, I've bird in (mostly down) the Himalayas and Andes, and even fantasize about doing an all-biking trip someday. But one place I do not dream of biking is an island nation. Like Indonesia.
Anyway, the island was great, but now that we are hooked on diving we decided to dive Komodo, which everyone ha told us is allegedly the best diving in Indonesia, one of the bet diving nations in the world. So we set out early with a Dutch family (of course), to an incredible dive with all manner of bright coral and incredible fish. I've never had the experience of diving where it truly looked like a nature video, but the clarity, visibility, diversity was unlike anything I've experienced, not that I've experienced a lot of diving in my life, but I know I will always compare everything to this. The second dive was completely different- we went down where we we just saw nothing but endless dead coral that looked like dynamite fishing aftermath we saw a bit in the Gilis, and were caught in an incredibly strong current. Our divemaster put a stake into the ground and instructed us to hang on in the current. As beginner divers, we had no idea what was going on, but we held on until soon in the distance a gigiantic manta appeared. And when I say gigantic, I mean, like 12 or 15 feet wide, just drifting next to us in teh current, staying perfectly even as it undulated silently on the ocean floor just staying in place. We just held on and watched, until at one point I turned my head to Olivia and looked over her as another one approached, nearly drifting over her, easily the size of a king sized bed hovering above her. And that was the dive, just holding on at the bottom as rays drifted by, over and around. All told we saw about five, which seemed incredible to us, though our divemaster told us that in the rainy season there are literally hundreds at "Manta Point" where we were...
From there the boat stopped briefly at Rinca, the other island with Komodo Dragons, so the dutch family could get a look. We just hung around the cafeteria again, old hands at Komodos, we knew where to spot them, and a huge one came by sure enough. I went over to get some pictures whil a group of Australian doctors and nurses taunted it, throwing their hat to it and taking pictures. (apparently, the Australian Federation of Nurses has a contest in which you win a prize if you get the best photo of the AFN hat somewhere amazing. They got a great one of it in a Komodo's mouth, and the hat afterwards was shredded. Not sure it was the best judgment, but then, Australia's founding father's werent known for that...
So it's clear why Flores is the next hot destination in Indonesia- it's a huge and diverse island without many tourists. The villages are still charming, and it's got what the rest of Indonesia does, incredible volcanos and rice paddies, village life, indigenous tribes, and at least here on Flores, Catholicism rather than Islam or Hinduism, and so again has a different cultural feel.
So what have we done? Day one was mostly lounging by the pool, relieved to be off the damn boat. Day two we took a day trip out to a local desert island, which was amazing, though unbelievably hot and we of course ended up a little sunburned. I have to say though, if you are in search of Robinson Crusoe fantasies, Indonesia is the island nation for you. Which reminds me, among the random white people on our boat was a German witha bike who we saw pedaling past us in Labuanbajo as well. Now I'm a biking fan, I love biking at home abd when I travel, I've bird in (mostly down) the Himalayas and Andes, and even fantasize about doing an all-biking trip someday. But one place I do not dream of biking is an island nation. Like Indonesia.
Anyway, the island was great, but now that we are hooked on diving we decided to dive Komodo, which everyone ha told us is allegedly the best diving in Indonesia, one of the bet diving nations in the world. So we set out early with a Dutch family (of course), to an incredible dive with all manner of bright coral and incredible fish. I've never had the experience of diving where it truly looked like a nature video, but the clarity, visibility, diversity was unlike anything I've experienced, not that I've experienced a lot of diving in my life, but I know I will always compare everything to this. The second dive was completely different- we went down where we we just saw nothing but endless dead coral that looked like dynamite fishing aftermath we saw a bit in the Gilis, and were caught in an incredibly strong current. Our divemaster put a stake into the ground and instructed us to hang on in the current. As beginner divers, we had no idea what was going on, but we held on until soon in the distance a gigiantic manta appeared. And when I say gigantic, I mean, like 12 or 15 feet wide, just drifting next to us in teh current, staying perfectly even as it undulated silently on the ocean floor just staying in place. We just held on and watched, until at one point I turned my head to Olivia and looked over her as another one approached, nearly drifting over her, easily the size of a king sized bed hovering above her. And that was the dive, just holding on at the bottom as rays drifted by, over and around. All told we saw about five, which seemed incredible to us, though our divemaster told us that in the rainy season there are literally hundreds at "Manta Point" where we were...
From there the boat stopped briefly at Rinca, the other island with Komodo Dragons, so the dutch family could get a look. We just hung around the cafeteria again, old hands at Komodos, we knew where to spot them, and a huge one came by sure enough. I went over to get some pictures whil a group of Australian doctors and nurses taunted it, throwing their hat to it and taking pictures. (apparently, the Australian Federation of Nurses has a contest in which you win a prize if you get the best photo of the AFN hat somewhere amazing. They got a great one of it in a Komodo's mouth, and the hat afterwards was shredded. Not sure it was the best judgment, but then, Australia's founding father's werent known for that...
Last night in Flores was mellow, dinner with some Dutch and Germans we;d met on our boat. Ate at the restaurant "The Lounge" (motto - dribbling a little olive oil and squeezing a little lime on your adventure) was clearly the hangout of choice, with a giant TV showing, of all things, the womens netball world championships. Netball, amazingly enough, was a topic our German dinner companion knew something about- as he had a PhDin physical education with a concentration in basketball. (I swear I do not understand the European education system!) we enjoyed dinner, swapping travel stories from this and other trips we've all taken. Of course, we thought our dive had been spectacular, but the Germans were just back from two days of diving to report that they'd been diving with all manner of sharks, baby dolphins and turtles... Not that I'm complaining about what we'd seen, but damn! Decent food too, and not the weird "apple pie" we'd experienced of pizza dough, apples, and chocolate sauce elsewhere in Flores.
An early trip to the airport the next morning, where we were required to be three hours early for our tiny flight back to Bali. Shockingly enough, we were the first people there, some Dutch couple right behind us, who were instructed to be four hours early. And this airport was literally smaller than our tiny hotel. Security was being asked for tickets, with a metal detecting wand half heartedly waved over our bags, no metal detection for us or X-Ray for the luggage or anything. It was a little nerve-wracking, especially as our propellor plane looked, in shape and size, like a kid's toy Still, glad we chose Merpati and not Wings Air, who slogan reads "fly is cheaper." not that Merpati is anything to write home about, and my faith was a little shaken by the fact that in the seat pocket magazine was a prayer card in multiple languages representing multiple faiths- now I appreciate the nod to diversity and pluralism, but reading the prayers for the pilot and flight in many faiths actuat made me mire insecure "in the name of Allah, without whom we are helpless, bless this aircraft and flight crew..." no, not kidding! And the diversity of Indonesia really is great, our flight had a contingent of Indonesian Catholic priests on it as well.
But of course, we survived the flight back to Bali, and arrived in semi-shock back in the land of high traffic tourism, in an otherwise lovely beach town called Sanur, sort of an Ubud on the beach with countless restaurants and spas, and this time there were tsunami evacuation signs everywhere, but at least everything in Bali is on a small scale. (When tourism first hit in the 1920s, the local priests decreed that no new building could be higher than a coconut tree, which keeps massive hotels, at least in height, to a reasonable size.)
Basically spent the next few days lounging around Sanur, taking walks on the beach, and generally just relaxing and resting. The other other thing of note was a trip to Ulu Watu, a clifftop Hindu temple INFESTED with overfed tourist-spoiled monkeys, most of whome were playing with sunglasses, wallets, and other items purloined from tourists, and where we watched a firedance of the Ramayana, which was pretty cool (see pictures.)
So what else from Bali and Indonesia, here's the roundup of other weird observations. Well, the world is getting smaller- every advertisement here as at home suggests "find us on facebook" and the cell phone companies lure customers with promises of "free texting and facebook." The old report on strange potato chip flavors from aroudn the world now includes seaweed, barbecued chicken and barbecued beef. We saw a number of bikes with steering wheels instead of handlbars, and the most amusingly ironically named internet cafe ever, "Wank Internet."
More to come on Singapore, and then my next adventures solo and visiting Dan G in his native habitat...
Basically spent the next few days lounging around Sanur, taking walks on the beach, and generally just relaxing and resting. The other other thing of note was a trip to Ulu Watu, a clifftop Hindu temple INFESTED with overfed tourist-spoiled monkeys, most of whome were playing with sunglasses, wallets, and other items purloined from tourists, and where we watched a firedance of the Ramayana, which was pretty cool (see pictures.)
So what else from Bali and Indonesia, here's the roundup of other weird observations. Well, the world is getting smaller- every advertisement here as at home suggests "find us on facebook" and the cell phone companies lure customers with promises of "free texting and facebook." The old report on strange potato chip flavors from aroudn the world now includes seaweed, barbecued chicken and barbecued beef. We saw a number of bikes with steering wheels instead of handlbars, and the most amusingly ironically named internet cafe ever, "Wank Internet."
More to come on Singapore, and then my next adventures solo and visiting Dan G in his native habitat...
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