Rima Hotel Ruteng

... a result! <br><br>In Ruteng, we went to a place that we found in the Lonely Plant guide, but they were full. They suggested we stay at another place &#8211; and I wasn't sure at first if he was saying 'the nut house&#8217; or the &#8216;nun house&#8217;. Either way, it sounded &#8230; interesting. We were told that it was nice and clean, but I wasn&#8217;t holding my breath.<br><br>Well &#8211 ...

... publieke bus vertrekken we naar Bajawa over de trans Flores highway. Dit is een belevenis op zich. Flores is een vulkanisch bergachtig eiland. De weg slingert zich over de hele lengte van het eiland en als ik zeg slingert dan is dat niet overdreven. Er zit geen recht stukje in. Tel daar het op en neer van de bergen bij op en het feit dat de buschauffeurs niet echt op de meest voorzichtige man met ware doodsverachting over deze weg scheuren en je zult ...

... zu checken. Wir haben dann erfahren, dass diese nur alle 2 Tage fliegen, das hiess also dass wir am Mittwoch fliegen mussten (da ich am Freitag den flug nach Bangkok schon gebucht hatte) und somit nur 23 tage mit dem Roller fuer Flores Zeit hatten, somit war der Kelimutu leider gestorben. Naja war ja nich das letzte mal...<br><br>Rene und ich verstauten unser Hauptgepaeck bei Pater Wyparlo im buero und dann gings los....<br>Wir fuhren von ...

... of Flores, physically, people are more Malay, and the other parts of Flores, people and more Melanesian. So, I did not make it to the hot springs in Bajawa. My guide, a young guy from my guest house drove me on a motor bike, to a small traditional village called Bena, about 30 minutes outside of Bajawa. It was a beautiful day, we drove through bamboo forest of bamboo soooo thick, through tiny villages where I was a minor celebrity to the tons of children ...

... to see the woman who finally tamed Paul McSherry.... We stopped in Ende for lunch and got served with by the most enthusiastic waitress, very eager to try out her English. Meanwhile, Franco, our married guide, was heavily flirting with the girls in the hairdressers next door. Lisa reckons he's got a girl in every port. The scenery from Ende to Bajawa, our next stop, was nothing short of amazing. Huge volcano's shot out of the landscape and wide valleys covered ...

... re 8 or so. The aisle full of shallots was a perch for several more people, and of course there were the requisite men hanging out the door. For the first few hours everyone settled in. My one annoyance was that Indonesian men feel like smoking whenever the fancy takes them, including confined buses. So, in addition to shallots I was choked with the foul stench of cigarettes in my face. Travis decided I was unreasonable. "So some foreigner comes in ...

... is four hours from Labuanbajo, and home to fellow VSO volunteer Bec. We stayed at her very large house with two other volunteers, Jo Marie and Jess (Jesus) who travelled to join us from the east of the island. On the day we arrived in Ruteng, two other volunteers also joined us, Festus and Shadrack, who are from Kenya. So for most of our five days in Ruteng there were seven of us. Bec is a great cook, and the Philippinos really ...

We rendezvoused with Alison's friend Karrie and her friend Michael for our trip to Flores. Flores is part of a string of islands called the Nusa Tenggara, in the eastern part of Indonesia. We started in Labuanbajo, a small fishing village on the western tip of Flores. First we went snorkelling and beach-combing on Bidadari, a small private island and nature preserve about 1 hour by boat from Bajo ...

Leaving behind the city of Maumere we took a 4hr bus ride to arrive at Larantuka, a small port town at the Eastern tip of Flores. The journey was uneventful apart from the occasional 'clucking' from the chickens underneath our seat. A lot of the hotels here were full so we opted for a room at the Hotel Rulie with its 'sunken' beds while we awaited a ferry the following day. With an early start we were down at the harbour by 7.30 - just early enough to get a seat on the ...