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Enjoy!  -Renee

July 14, 2010 Update

Realizing that we had just over thirty days left on our visa and nearly all of Indonesia to explore, we decided that we’d shift gears and get moving.  Here’s an overview of our island hopping throughout Indonesia…

We left Sulawesi by Pelni passenger ship, bound for the island of Flores.  (Makassar, Sulawesi photos here.)  After 26 hours, we finally docked in Larantuka, Flores, Nusa Tengara, Indonesia.  The ride was a comfortable one, as we had a private cabin with beds and our own bathroom (hot water shower included!).  Very swanky, indeed.  We arrived at night, so we decided to go ahead and hop on a bus and go to Maumere.  Although there wasn’t anything we wanted to see in Maumere, we knew we could catch a bus from there to our desired destination of Moni.  We eventually arrived in Moni, where we found a homestay room for approximately $3.50 (inclusive of breakfast for us both).  We arranged for motorbikes to pick us up at 4:00am and drive us to the entrance of Kelimutu Park to catch the sunrise over the colorful crater lakes.

The alarm went off early and we bundled up before hopping on the backs of the motorbikes.  After a chilly ride up a winding road, we arrived at the gate.  For a small extra fee (about fifty cents), we had the motorbikes take us another three kilometers to the bottom of a staircase.  We said our goodbyes and began walking.   It was a very cloudy morning, but we kept our hopes high.  We climbed to the top and eagerly awaited the sun to appear and warm everything up.  Unfortunately, we didn’t see the sunrise as it was too cloudy.  Fortunately, the clouds cleared long enough that we got a spectacular view of the lakes.  The three lakes of Kelimutu have a reputation for changing colors, and we saw one black lake and two turquoise lakes.  The turquoise lakes actually looked fake, almost as if someone had dropped paint into the crater.  Amazing.  More photos here.

From Moni we shared a car with three other people to Bajawa (the jumping off point for several traditional villages).  We went to visit a traditional village called Bena.  Here we saw thatch houses with straw roofs and an interesting blend of Animism with Catholocism.  The scenery was beautiful and we couldn’t have asked for better weather as we rode on the backs of motorbikes.  Because it was such a nice day we decided to also check out Wawomunga (spelling?), Bajawa’s colored lakes.  After the beauty of Kelimutu we were a bit disappointed.  However, it was still an enjoyable ride through the mountains and a nice walk to view the lakes.  See more Bajawa/Bena photos here.

We left Bajawa and headed to Labuhanbajo.  This was our last stop on the lovely island of Flores.  From here we organized a boat to take us to Rinca (pronounced Rin-cha) for the day.  Rinca is the less popular island of Komodo National Park.  We were on a hunt for the deadly dragon!  We arrived on the island, feeling a bit nervous and excited.  We walked to the park office and paid the entrance fee.  As soon as we left the office, we spotted our first dragon.  It was huge!  Far larger than any monitor lizard we’d seen before.  I immediately understood why they are called dragons.  Walking around the corner toward the kitchen, we were surprised to see several dragons lounging about waiting for the opportunity to eat any scraps tossed out by the kitchen.  Our guide told us that they do not feed the dragons, but the smell from the kitchen draws them near.  We went on a short guided hike around the island, where we spotted another dragon lounging under a tree.  We also saw wild buffalo and several macaques.  After Rinca we had our boat driver take us to a smaller island for some relaxing and snorkeling before heading back to the mainland.

We decided to travel through the island of Sumbawa without stopping (due to lack of time), and we arranged for a ticket straight to Lombok.  This was a very long trek and I’ll spare you the details.  Eventually, we made it to Lombok island and arranged for transportation to Gili Trawangan.  We’d heard great things about the three Gili islands and we were looking forward to a few days on the beach.  We spent two nights on Gili Trawangan, eating Western food and enjoying cocktails.  Staying on the island any longer would’ve ruined our budget, so we moved on pretty quickly.  From Lombok we headed to the famous island of Bali.

After arriving on Bali, we headed straight for the Bukit peninsula in search of beach and surf.  Our guidebook told us that Kuta was great for budget travel so we made that our first stop.  We weren’t impressed by Kuta.  The place is extremely touristy (hundreds of people on the beach) and has the prices to go along with it.  Brad did get the opportunity to surf, however.  Board rental cost a whopping $3 for the entire day.  The waves were very choppy and we had to dodge the rain throughout the day, but now he can say he surfed in Bali. 

From Kuta we organized a private car to take us to Medewi, a famous surf spot on the southwestern coast of Bali.  We had the car take us to two famous Balinese temples along the way.  The first was Tanah Lot, which was perched on the water and very beautiful.  The tide was a bit high, but we waded through the water to rinse our hands and drink from the sacred spring.  We also received a blessing, which involved grains of rice being pressed onto our foreheads and flowers stuck behind our ears.  We weren’t allowed to actually enter the temple, so we just took a few photos and moved on.  

We then went to Mengwi, which had very impressive landscaping and several pagodas.  The architecture on Bali is extremely different from anything we’ve seen on the other islands, so it was really interesting to get a close-up view of the Hindu temples.

We arrived in Medewi to find great surf, but no beach.  Brad decided that he didn’t feel like surfing, so after one night here (and time running out), we headed to Java.  All this pretty much brings us up to date.  I’m typing this in our homestay room in Cemero Lawang, a small village very near Gunung Bromo.  Tomorrow morning we’ll wake up very early and hike to the top of Bromo to catch the sunrise over three volcanoes.  I’ll take photos for the next post!

-Renee