A flavour of the Orient
Rai & Stephie in Asia

From Timor we headed back to super mountainous Flores and completed the 700 km trans Flores road from east to west. There were more hairpin bends to look forward too. We counted only two sections of straight road and that lasted for no more than 10 minutes. To our surprise very little vomitting activity on the crowded buses. I guess the locals are used to left turn bend, up , right turn bend , down , left turn bend, down , up , right turn bend etcetcetc. 

Apart from bendy roads there are lots of empty white beaches, traditional villages among tropical jungle and your perfect cone shaped volcanoes in Flores. Also stunning rice paddies in the form of spider webs , black, green, brown caldera lakes (kelimutu volcano) and lots and lots of kids screaming hello mister!

Once on the west coast of Flores (Labuanbajo) we obviously said hello to the komodo dragons (giant lizards) which live on the nearby islands of Rinca and komodos...actually they seem to live quite close to the entrance of the park ...they appeared a little humanised...but apparently more than 2000 of them live hidden somewhere on these islands....makes overnight camping sound really appealing!

From Flores the plan was to head to Lombok for some trekking and snorkelling.....because of the dragons and the good diving in the area, Labuanbajo was more busy than we had hoped for. Backpackers had warned against the dull 24 hr ride across Sumbawa island which included two ferry crossings. Soooooo we ended up going on a two day organised boattrip. We hate anything organised but figured this was the best option for going from A to B.....it was not a boat full of oldies nor was it a party boat...but it was fun. Cheeky rai and steph found a perfect romantic spot on the front deck of the boat and with our thick sleeping bags we slept under the stars while the other tourists preferred to sleep in diesel stinking cabins and on the closed off lower decks....how effing boring...! On the way to Lombok we saw some wonderful tiny volcanic islands, tried our luck on some more snorkelling (still not superb) and cleaned ourselves in jungle waterfalls. Once in eastern Lombok (Labuhan lombok) the tourists were transferred by bus to beach resorts. We refused the bus transfer and checked into the one and only hostel in the harbour town for a nice bucket shower, a hot cup of tea and a good chat with the locals. The nearby mosque and the excited preacher kept us awake for a while longer....