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| But Seriously...Chances of Me Keeping This Up? Slim to None, and You All Know What Happened to Slim. |
Indonesia has offered me a great many unique experiences during my time here, both in traveling and in living culturally. So while it is virtually impossible to compare those two categories against one another with regard to "greatest" or "most meaningful" Indonesian experience, if the two are evaluated independently of one another, there is an opportunity to define a particular experience as one that stands above the rest. What I'm actually trying to say with all of that hullabaloo, is that for me, my trip to the island of Flores stands as the most fantastic travel experience I've had in Indonesia, remembering that traveling in Indonesia is COMPLETELY different from living here. With that run-around introduction, I guess I should tell you a bit about this trip to Flores, replete with multicolored lakes, massive lizards, and motorcycle debacles!
Let's start with a little geography, because if you don't know where you are, how can you know where to go?!?! I will also never pass up a teachable moment...!
Flores is an island to the east of Java (the main island of Indonesia) and below Borneo (the island I presently live on). If you can picture in your mind the main island of Java, then add three more islands in a row going towards the right, and you have the islands of Bali (the most well-known site in Indonesia), Lombok (an island that is toted as "Bali twenty years ago"), and Flores (the super-awesome island that I had the fortunate chance to stay on for 10 days). Quiz time: With my expert description of it's location, who can find Flores on the below map in 5 seconds?! No cheating.
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| Nabbed from asianlitlps.wordpress |
On the 5th of December, with fresh "flyovers" (a code word that I cannot elaborate on in this particular venue...) from our 5 days in Jakarta, Emily, Adam, and I set off to discover all of the wondrous mysteries of the islands of Flores, Komodo, and Rinca.
Our break-of-dawn flight allowed us to arrive in LaBuanBajo (the major city of Western Flores) around midday, giving us plenty of opportunity to begin to make plans for the week that we would spend amongst Flores and the surrounding islands. Now some of you are likely saying: "Wait. You didn't have plans before you arrived? Oh Ryan. You've clearly learned nothing from your mother over all these years." However in Indonesia, the "throw-it-to-the-wind-and-see-what-happens" mentality is a viable travel strategy, and so Adam, Emily, and I embarked on our quest to find a room to stay in, sites to visit, and the transportation to do so! Before you all stress out too much, I assure that we all came out of the experience alive, and only slightly psychologically and physically damaged.
LaBuanBajo, the main city in Western Flores (for those of you who quickly forget the various information that I continually chuck at you), is the jumping off point for most of the scuba diving and snorkeling on and around Flores. It is also the departure point for many of the boats that explore Komodo and Rinca islands, the homes of the famous Komodo Dragons. And while the allure of the Komodo Dragons was weighing strongly upon us all, we would have to wait a few days to embark upon that boat ride, as we had two more friends joining us in a matter of days to experience Komodo and Rinca. In the meantime, while we waited for our other friends to arrive, Adam, Emily, and I explored LaBuanBajo for a day, and then took a couple of days trip to the other side of Flores. And that, my friends, is what I'll describe now.
Quick Re-Cap of My Flores Travel Plans (As I've already confused myself...):
Dec. 5th - Arrive & Stay in LaBuanBajo
Dec. 6th - Half-Day in LaBuanBajo & Departure for Kelimutu
Dec. 7th - Kelimutu & Motorbiking
Dec. 8th - LaBuanBajo & Snorkeling
Dec. 9th - Rinca
Dec. 10th - Komodo
Dec. 11th - Back to Pontianak
LaBuanBajo is an active port town, replete with hundreds of fishing & tourist boats, as well as similar numbers of "bules," the Indonesian word for "white-skinned foreigner." And as a traveler whose been living in a town where the only other bule I commonly see is that blonde-haired, tall white guy named Adam, the sight of women in bikinis and short-shorts made me cringe and attempt to shield Adam's eyes from the horrors of Western dress. (Western in this context meaning Australian or European Dress, instead of the more commonly thought of cowboy boots and ten-gallon hats.) We sure weren't in Pontianak anymore.
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| The View Out One of Our Hotels in LaBuanBajo |
After swiftly booking a little $20 flight to the other side of the island for the next day's adventure, Emily, Adam, and I decided to wander the streets of LaBuanBajo to get a feel for the city, and hopefully find some grub! Fortunately for us, food is never far away in Indonesia, and we quickly settled on a roadside stand that served "nasi kuning" (yellow rice), which gets its color from the ginger and other spices it's cooked in. While the food was certainly delicious, the experience was made by the fact that we were able to have a conversation, all in Indonesian, with the Ibu who ran the stall. For I promise you, there is nothing more heart-warming than having a woman smile and tell you that your Indonesian is "sangat bagus!" (really good) or you're "sudah lancar" (already fluent), even when you only said hello, how much is the food, and thank you! Oh how they do flatter you in Indonesia.
So we enjoyed our traditional Indonesian cuisine on the waterfront, politely said "terima kaish!" to the Ibu who provided us with sustenance, and then set out to find a place to sleep for the night. In short, we were on our way to being grown-ups, and actually pulling our lives together. (I can also now promise that more photos will follow from this point on.)
In order to get about the town and find a place to sleep, we hailed a taxi and asked the gentleman to take us somewhere nice to stay for the evening. The taxi-man took us a little ways outside of the city to the area along the beaches with the high-quality resort destinations (that I HIGHLY recommend you all visit one day!). After a little bit of haggling with the man at the front counter, we scored a room for about $40 for the night, and settled into the life of luxury.
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| Please Note: Adam's awkward hands in the top-right photo. |
I don't believe I can adequately express the excessive elegance of this resort. If the lovely air conditioned room, beach-front view, and cabana with cold drinks wasn't enough, there was also an infinity pool... You can likely see from the photos that we were all wandering around in awe upon first arriving at the resort, even getting right in the water regardless of a lack of bathing suits! Sometimes you just have to get excited about the amazing things swirling around you.
Unfortunately for us, our "flyovers" and lack of sleep quickly sapped our energy, resulting in a three hour nap-fest in our little AC-ed room. (Sleeping on that roll-away cot brought back fantastic memories of many family vacations in which I slept on cots, Murphy Beds, couches, mattresses, and basically anything other than a standard bed. Needless to say, I was where I belonged, and darn happy about it.) I thought we might sleep the entire day away, but after multiple dismissed alarms and half-conscious discussions of wanting to get up and explore the island, we finally rousted ourselves and headed out to the infinity pool for a bit of late night swimming!
The infinity pool was fan-frickin'-tastic! There was no one about, and we were able to just relax, swim, and wind down from our hectic 5 day conference in Jakarta. Luckily enough, since there weren't too many people about, we were able to run out to the ocean (or sea?) and romp around for a bit. However when we first wadded into the water, we were shocked when the water sparkled an odd bluish color! It turns out that the beach was filled with bio luminescent algae, which, god's honest truth, occupied three ETAs for the better part of an hour! The three of us were down on hands and knees, crawling about and splashing the water, just to see it sparkle blue every time the algae was disturbed. I promise you there were multiple Indonesian workers staring out at the three bules crawling around in the water at night, wondering what the heck we were on...but when you put together 2 biologists and a Math teacher in an ecologically unique environment, sanity goes out the window! (I mean, Math teachers have already lost all of their marbles to too many probability problems, so it makes sense that they'd be as excited by bio luminescence as two proper biologists, right?!)
So after taking more than enough time to fully enjoy the crazy algae of Flores, we headed back into the infinity pool, where we ran into a unique plot twist that changed the course of our evening: a drunken Russian gentleman. Through well-utilized hand gestures and an earnest tone in his voice, this gentleman convinced the three of us to join he and his family under the pool-side pavilion for dinner. Sometimes the cultural experiences you have in another country aren't always native to the place you're traveling!
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| A Better View of the Infinity Pool & Cabana |
It turns out the Russian family (& their friends) were a group of scuba divers that travel around the world as photographers, and sell their photos, or something along those lines... As there were only a few members of the family who knew limited English, and since none of them spoke Indonesian, the conversation wasn't able to go too far... Fortunately, the local beverage of Russia that they brought along with them to Indonesia, gave all of us the "liquid courage" to stumble and bumble our way through a unique conversation held over a feast of fish, vegetables, and fruit. Long story short, we went to sleep that night with a better understanding of Russian culture, an appreciation for the patience of Florenese waitresses, and the ability to say the word "woman" in Russian.
After a nice of restful sleep, Adam, Emily, and I woke up a bit early in order to sneak in one little adventure before we flew off to Kelimutu on the other side of Flores. One of the main attractions in LaBuanBajo is a cave known as Batu Cermin, which translates to 'mirror cave' in English, due to the fact that at about 9am, on sunny days, the crystals (or something of the sort) inside of the cave reflect the sunlight and the walls of the cave become something akin to a mirror. Unfortunately the sun refused to shine that day, but we somehow persevered. Ya know, when you're vacationing on a beach, in the tropical paradise of Indonesia, it can be really tough to enjoy yourself...
The cave was beautiful, even though it's not easy to tell from the following photographs, due to fog and the unique shape of the cave. (Shout out to Adam for helping with the photos!) Our guide led us into Batu Cermin along a nice pathway, from which we could see some of the flora and fauna of the area.
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| Top Left: Staghorn Fern (identified by Mr. Adam) Top Right: An Invasive Species to Indonesia - The Plastic Water Cup Bottom Right: Perhaps a Cousin of the Komodo Dragon? |
Once inside of the cave, we were able to see some of the classic cave-y things, as well as a few unique sights I've never encountered before. There were stalactites and stalagmites, and of course, my favorite: Bacon Formations. I don't know what the wave-y limestone patterns are actually called, but the tour guide in Australia called them bacon, and I'm cool with that.
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| Right-Hand Side: Bacon Formation Left-Hand Side: Turtle & Friends |
Can we also just take a moment and appreciate the 'turtle formation' in the above photo? Apparently a whole turtle was fossilized inside of the cave ceiling, which is either false, or AMAZINGLY AWESOME. Probably not so amazing for the turtle though...
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| Bottom Right: Emily Hanging on a Tree in the Open Area In Between Portions of the Cave Top Right: Heading In Left-Hand Side: Heading Out |
All in all, the cave was pretty darn cool. Our tour guide provided us with information in both English and Indonesian, which was much appreciated. We wandered together through dark, low-ceiling-ed locations, during which I was thankful for the helmet they provided. I'm actually starting to consider wearing a full-time helmet due to the height of ceilings and archways in this country...
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| Top Left: An Outside Look From the Edge of the Cave Bottom Left: The Stairs to Climb to the Area in the Top-Right Photo. Please note what looks like a wooden support system underneath of the concrete stairs... Right-Hand Side: A View of the Tree Roots that Have Grown Through the Roof and Down into the Cave |
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| Ya Just Don't Get Much Happier Than That. |
After making it out of the cave with not too many bumps and bruises, the three of us waited patiently for our taxi driver to arrive and whisk us off to the airport to begin Stage 2 of our Flores Adventure. And what better time is there, than while waiting for a taxi, to practice the famous 'Indonesian Squat' - the most desired, yet impossible to maintain, position for those of us who've traveled from outside of Indonesia.
I remain ever envious of my Indonesian friends who can sit for hours in the Indonesian Squat, while I pose for about thirty seconds before either tumbling over backwards or falling sideways with a stiff knee. I guess we all need something to strive towards.
"No, no! The adventures first, explanations take such a dreadful time." - Lewis Carroll
Talk to you soon,
Ryan
