Wow. Well, we have a couple of islands' worth of activity to catch up on... Here we go.
After the hot springs we made plans to have a recommended guide named William take us hiking around the area the next day. A price was never settled upon as William wanted 800,00 Rp, but we had heard that it should be like 250,000 Rp. We began the morning with a very nice hike to two lakes that have formed in volcanic craters. One of the lakes is a tomato-y orange color and the other is an equally strange yellow-green color. It was quite beautiful. Once we reached the place that Charles was to pick us up things got interesting. He never showed. William called him many times to no avail. We ended up walking about half of the way back into town and then catching rides on the back of motorbikes. We grabbed some lunch in town (side note: In Indonesia there are all sorts of local places to get nasi campor, which is rice with mixed side dishes, in small shops called warongs. This is by far the cheapest, fastest and most delicious food around! You can get all sorts of things, fried chicken, mixed vegetables, soy nuts and coconut, hard boiled egg, curry sauce, prawns and the list goes on! If you can't tell I am quite a fan) and finally met backup with Charles. It turns out William had gotten the wrong number for Charles and so Charles had no idea when or where to pick us up. They argued about who was at fault for a while, which was awkward for everyone in involved. Next we headed to the drop off point where we hiked for about forty minutes through the jungle to a remote traditional village. William was very proud of his association with this village, mentioning many times that he was in contact with a television crew that had relied on him to take them to the village. William gave us a very brief overview of the symbolism and significance of the structures and architecture found in the village, but it soon became clear that he was more interested in smoking his cigarettes and texting on his phone than telling us about what we were seeing. The village was pretty impressive. Large grass and bamboo huts all arranged in a circle around a common area where ceremonies take place, often involving sacrificing water buffalo or pigs. The center area held impressive stone graves of village founders as well as male (bamboo and grass in the shape of a parasol about ten feet tall) and female (small houses on stilts made of the same materials) totems. Each pair of totems represented a clan in the village. We hiked back to the road and stopped at the more accessible village of Bena (lots of info and pictures on the web). Here we happened to run into a man teaching English to some of the villages who was also a tour guide in that area. He was very knowledgeable, gave us all sorts of information that William had failed to produce and also informed us that an appropriate price for a tour guide was more in the range of 400,000 Rp. (about a 35 dollar difference - a tone of money over here) Meanwhile, instead of accompanying us in the village, William sat in the car smoking and waiting for us. None us were impressed, especially Jill who was paying for the majority of William's services.
By the time we got back to the hotel it was decided that Jill would not be paying to agreed upon price. Alex, Garrett and I stayed in the background ready to step in for backup, as Jill broke the news to Villiam. He was not pleased. There was some yelling, threats to call the police, and general bad temper. Jill paid him 450,000 Rp (about 50 us dollars) and refused to pay him more. Eventually he stormed off on his motorbike and we luckily didn't see him again. The exchange left us all rattled, but Jill stuck to her guns and payed a very fair price for the service that we received. In their language a 'W' is often pronounced like a 'V' making his name sound like "villan" when he said it. After he swore to "make trouble for us" we started referring to him as the villain.
We spent the next day driving back to Labuan Bajo and made arrangements for Garrett and Jill to scuba dive and Alex and I to snorkel on a boat that would take us to Rica island where we could see Komodo dragons. Then next morning we climbed aboard the dive boat and headed to the resort on the otherwise uninhabited island of Sebayur where we would pick up the scuba equipment. In the course of that boat ride it was decided that Sebayur was the perfect place for me to become a certified diver. The boat dropped Alex and I off at the resort while Garrett and Jill stayed aboard to do their planned dives. The resort was gorgeous. Grass roofed bungalows and five star Italian cuisine is a killer combination. We worked out a deal with Antonello, the Italian owner, so the four of us could stay at the resort for the duration of my course, with Garrett and Jill diving with them all at an incredible price. Garrett and Jill's dives were amazing. They saw flocks of manta rays, incredible coral and fish. Jill has been diving for years all over the world and ranked this diving as some as her top dives. My instructor, Lara (also Italian) was a fantastic teacher and we sped through the course. Those couple of days were fantastic with the exception of the weather. It was outrageous. By the time I had finished my scuba course and we were ready to head from Flores to Sombawa, two dive boats in the area had sunk as well as a local ferry and a few fishing boats. Needless to say we ended up flying from Flores instead of taking a ferry as we had originally planned.
So we flew back to Bali (the only option from Labuan Bajo) and promptly backtracked to the island of Lombok by ferry as the weather had greatly improved in the mean time. We stayed one night on Lombok and arranged for transport and diving out on the small and very close island of Gili Trawangan. Gili T is a beautiful island that is completely swarming with tourists and dive operators. It is a huge party spot with mushrooms aplenty (they are legal in Indonesia). It is touted as an incredible place for diving, but with all the under water traffic that it sees the diving has really gone down hill. The coral is largely destroyed and the dive outfits tend to be a bit shoddy. The place had become a diving factory, running the tourists as quickly through the sites as possible. That's not to say that the diving was all bad, we did see a few sharks (so cool!), sea turtles and I saw a nice sized moray eel. After one night there and our day of diving we were all ready to get off that small and very crowded island, so we headed back to Lombok.
Our final destination in Lombok was the surfers paradise of Kuta on the southern coast, but we took our time getting there and enjoyed some of the local culture. We visited temples and a local market where we came away with exotic fruit including the delicious rambutan. We visited an art market full of sculptures, wooden carving, pearl jewelry and sarongs. We learned about traditional weaving and watched a woman deftly whip up two identical hand made vases each about a foot tall in no more than fifteen minutes. We also stopped at a 'traditional' village and were given a short tour during which we were hassled the whole time to buy a bracelet or a sarong. That was a bit disappointing. This unfortunately happens to a lot of "traditional" villages in this part of the world. At first, they are usually very traditional, but as more and more tourists come to visit them the village sees a way to make some money and in essence ends up selling itself to visitors. In a lots of places the kids have been conditioned to beg you for money or other possessions. Its a sad byproduct of tourism. We finally wound our way down to Kuta to find almost all the accommodations full. Eventually we got a room, cramming all four of us into it and still paying more than we would have liked. But the place was very clean and even had a very nice chlorinated pool. We spent 4 days in Kuta zipping around on our rented motor bikes, trying our hand at surfing (way too much fun and way harder than it looks!) and just enjoying to beauty of the coast. After our second night in Kuta, Alex headed back to Bali, from where he would fly home in time for his spring trimester. We were all sad to see him go!
From Kuta, Lombok we took a local ferry back to Bali and headed north to the town of Tulamben. Tulamben is famous for the diving that is done on the US cargo ship, the Liberty, that was sunk by a Japanese torpedo in WWII. The three of us did an early morning dive, leaving at 6:15 am to beat the rush of divers and snorkelers. What a cool dive! The ship was a bit spooky, but beautiful too, covered in coral and teeming with all sorts of fish. We saw a sting ray, a huge blue bump-head parrot-fish and a massive school of shimmering silver trevalle. The rest of the day we jetted around on rented motor bikes looking for a waterfall we had heard about, we finally made it there and enjoyed a very cool and refreshing aqua massage. That night Jill and Garrett decided to do a night dive of the Liberty and had a fantastic dive. Far better than the mornings. I was bummed that I didn't go with them! They saw giant hermit crabs, all kinds of shrimp, an octopus and were followed the whole time by a giant grouper attracted to the lights! Also, with their hand held lights the color of the fish and corals that is usually filtered out buy the water is replaced, making diving truly unbelievable! The next morning we snorkeled the wreck and had a generally lovely time in the water. That day Jill headed back to the south of Bali to catch her flight home; our three weeks with her flew by! Garrett and I moved on the the neighboring coastal town of Amed to see a little more of the coast and get a little closer the airport.
We spent only one night in Amed and our time there was literally so short that all we did was rent a motor bike and drive the coast for a couple of hours, getting caught in a fierce rain storm on the way back to our adorable little bungalow near the beach. That was just last night. This morning we took a car back to Kuta, Bali and have spent the day looking at flights out of Singapore, shopping, and getting some much needed laundry done, before we fly to Singapore early tomorrow morning (our flight leaves at 6:20 am... ugg). From Singapore we are still not sure what the plan is for getting back to Bangkok for our flight home on the 5th. We are hoping that a cheap flight will present itself. Its that or a 30 hour train ride! We'll see.
Sheesh. That about covers it for now. Only 6 more days till we head back to the States! The time has flown by, but we are both starting to look forward to being home.
Until next time!
Ashley
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