Category Archives: posted by Florian

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Day 104 – “Global Culture”

When Ted Simon was on his second trip, certain events unfolded durng that September of 2001 that would even impact a traveler, roaming the world on his motorbike. I remember reading about his experience of the events – how simultaneous connected and utterly removed he felt.

As we move about and explore Lombok, events have unfolded in the last week that may have an impact that has the power to break through and even touch us, here, a world removed. In the last week, Daesh has carried out thee terrorist attacks against foreign nations involved in the conflict in Syria, Iraq and Kurdistan. And as always, civilians have paid the price. 46 died in Beirut, 220 on a plane in Egypt and now over 120 in Paris. Through being online for the blog every day, but also just because of who we are and how we live we can’t escape but be touched by these events.

Yet it all is so strange, so far removed and so utterly saddening. Our filter bubble on Facebook shields us a bit from the hatred and the vitriol and the 20th century nationalism that seems to be the inevitable result of such events, but we know it’s out there. Yet here we are, in the (democratic) country with the largest Muslim population in the world. We hear the muezzins’ calls every day. We eat, we talk, we smile and laugh with the people. We see them react and share the sadness. All sense seems to escape. We will do as feels right: continue on, watch, learn and prepare to come home and spread the world.

Today, as we were walking back to our accommodation from buying a beautiful fresh pineapple in town, Nina got side-lined. Three giggling girls obviously on their way to some kind of sport practice have waited on us to get a “selfie”. They were delighted when I offered to take the picture (clearly the woman was the attraction here). More giggles, honest thanks and smiles and we walked on with a great experience as they got to it sharing the picture on Facebook. … Oh, and they were all wearing the hijab.

We have escaped the “bule” or tourist circus in Senggigi and the traffic and heat of Mataram. Instead, we have arrived at the foot of the mountain once more. The heat is tolerable here, we are surrounded by immaculate rice terraces and gardens. All the noises are water flowing, frogs quacking and the occasional scooter passing by our guest house. Tetebatu is just the place we need to recover from our first encounter with a touristically developed area.

Nina’s input: Those girls were so cute! We passed them on our way down into the village and on the way back, they “ambushed” me with a request for a picture. I just wish we had our own camera with us. Flo took a “selfie” of the bunch of girls and me, cracking up laughing because I was about 50cm taller than them, while I cracked up laughing at Flo, holding out a mobile phone covered in “Hello Kitty” stickers.

Day 102 – Mehs and Yays

Google is wrong! Well, maybe not in general, but regarding the geolocation of Dalam Loka, a historic sultan’s palace.

Build in the 19th century for the Sultan in Sumbawa

Build in the 19th century for the Sultan in Sumbawa

But in order: We managed to do as we set out to and pack up early enough to get on the road before the heat is too unbearable. Nina wanted to see the weaving of traditional cloth, called ikat by the lonely planet, first hand. We have seen woman dying cloth and weaving in mountain villages on Flores, but did not stop to take photos or have a chat. Going into more and more developed parts of Indonesia, this felt like one of the last good chances to do so. But alas, the geolocation demons struck again. The directions in the lonely planet were sketchy at best, the open street maps has the village mentioned in the wrong place and it was Friday early morning in an Islamic part of the country. We did not even find the right village in the end, but the round trip on beautiful back roads through lush green rice paddies was worth it none the less.

With that first failure under our belt, we decided to give the sultan’s palace a go. Google said it is 20 km south in the mountains. It was also a point of interest on the OSM map, so we let the GPS guide the way. Turned out we ended up back in Sumbawa Besar after all – within walking distance of our hotel …

The palace was a nice photo-op but not much more, and we decided that it was time to head east for good. When we came upon the fork in the road, leading either south to some more Sumbawa surfer beaches or east to the ferry to Lombok, the discussion was a short one. Although we met amazing people, we never really warmed to Sumbawa and we went towards the ferry. We are here to enjoy ourselves after all.

nice place for a ferry port ...

nice place for a ferry port …

The ferry was quick, painless and reasonably cheap. The sea was roughest of all ferry rides so far though and poor Rocinante got a good spray of salt water on the way. Well, at least it was quick this time.

On Lombok, the route was pretty clear: North, up the mountain where it is nice and cool. And green, oh such sweet green. I can honestly say, I am over savannahs. Too dry, too hot. And gosh, Lombok delivered. Lush, green rainforest enveloping the beautiful, winding road. Vistas, monkeys. Our spirits sored. Nina got fresh strawberries in a mountain valley!  Although, we got more than a little homesick for New Zealand at this point.

The accommodation was good, much better than what we got for that price so far, and the climate really suited us. We booked a guide for tomorrow for a half day track through the surroundings and two waterfalls nearby, since Gundung Rinjani (the big volcano on Lombok) was still closed for all climbers due to its recent activity.

Day 101 – A day in Sumbawa Besar

We didn’t make a lot of plans for today just one which was to get up early and visit the market. The day was quite the burner so during breakfast we broke our first sweat. It didn’t help much that we had fried rice and egg omelettes.

People, motorbikes, wares, all zipping around

People, motorbikes, wares, all zipping around

Afterwards, walking to the market was quite the trial. The market itself is gigantic, under a roof and a complete maze to me. I followed Flo around first through the fruit and vege section and then through the clothes section. In between there was a stretch with fish and chicken which I tried to pass quickly only to find that I had entered the innards section. Ewww…the only stall with sweets was right in the middle so I had to pass on those as well.

Within a short amount of time, we were overwhelmed and ready to leave. Not without buying more, strange looking fruits though.

On the way back, we had to take breaks in the shade as the sun was just scorching us. Luckily, our room is air conditioned. It was then that we decided to take a rest day to replenish our batteries. For the rest of the day, we lounged around our room, watching episodes of a series and listening to an audiobook. Despite thinking we’re having a rest day at a beach, we ended up taking it in a city. Flo and I are simply city people and we enjoyed it muchly to walk around one corner to top up our phone credit and around another corner to great street food. Sumbawa Besar is super convenient for us, as there is even a laundry service on the opposite side of our hotel. All our clothes now smell like flowers which hasn’t happened in a while.

Day 100 – Centpostial

One hundred days ago, we left a cold and rainy Wellington, for good, at least for now. If we were a government this would be the point at which pundits would call for a first resume. So did we archive what we set out to do?   Continue reading →

Day 97 – Manta Manta

Morning mist hiding the sun a bit

Morning mist hiding the sun a bit

To our surprise we had a good night’s sleep in the cabin of our little boat near the flying foxes. The sea got dead calm over night and once  everyone was settled into their resting place, the swaying stopped and the boat stood calm and still through the night.

We got up early to watch the sunrise and the flying foxes one more time. The vistas were once again beautiful, the breakfast of batter fried bananas and Flores coffee rocked and soon we were well under way towards Manta Point.

Passing close to the boat

Passing close to the boat

Once again, we scored with the wildlife! Two rays were feeding at this point, and we got within meters of them snorkeling around. Nina was a bit apprehensive of their tail spikes and got back onto the boat while I stuck with them and got to swim a while longer with these majestic creatures.

After that cool start, we made our way, roughly back towards Labuan Bajo to stop at the last itinerary of our excursion: Kanawa Island. We did another two great sets of snorkeling to explore the reef. Once we were good, the last lunch of the trip got served (I got the fish that Aco caught last night). And that was it, two hours later we were back in Labuan Bajo, gave our exhausted but happy goodbyes to our crew and retired to our hotel for some wifi and packing.

Tomorrow, Sumbawa …

Day 95 – Into the heat (again)

Our lovely room for the night

Our lovely room for the night

I might be getting old, but curfew rocks 😉 – we slept blissfully in the clean beds of the Congregation and got a hearty breakfast to kick start our day. I even went for the rice for the first time (the whiter than white bread is dreadful).

Because we pushed so hard to get to Ruteng yesterday, there were only manageable 120 km left to go to hit Labuan Bajo, the western port of Flores. On the way, we rode through forested hills on windy mountain roads, then through a large plateau covered in ride fields and onward, always down and west. This will be the general direction until we hit the end of Java in a month or so.

We arrived before lunch time and were happy with the first hotel we picked from the lonely planet. $17 NZD for the night, including breakfast and it had a secure spot for the bike. While still checking in, we got the first offer for a boat tour to the islands of the Komodo national park (the main reason to come here). The price was mid-range to what the lonely planet suggests and I felt absolutely no desire to shop around the harbour and main street to compare offers in the afternoon heat, so we took it.

So touristy, they even have Nutella! And no, I didn't have a crepe

So touristy, they even have Nutella! And no, I didn’t have a crepe

Labuan Bajo gives us a first taste of regions “developed for tourism” and I am getting wearier about being fleeced or taken advantage of, but so far our open and straight forward approach has worked for us. Still, seeing whites on the street and being the constant target of sales pitches is surely not something that we will overly enjoy.

… said he and went all out tourist for dinner 😉 We had fancy Italian tonight, costing about a third of what we would pay in NZ, but after almost exclusively eating in warungs with the locals for the last week, this felt supremely decadent. The pizza was OK, but we both miss our favorite Italian restaurants: Renato in Frankfurt and Scopa in Wellington.

Day 93 – Mon-three-versary!

cool fruit

cool fruit

What a day this was! It started golden already, waking up as the fishermen returned with their morning catch. The surf was still there, the view was too and the hills gave us shade from the sun long enough to get all our gear packed before the sun hits the beach. As promised our breakfast was waiting for us at Blasius’ place at 7 am. Dried banana baked in a dough mantle that looked a bit like croissants, tea and “kopi” to go with them. I love the local coffee, by the way. A lot like greek coffee, the ground and sugar are all mixed together and served unfiltered. To round it off we got offered sawo. The green fruit is eaten like a fig, broken apart and the inside that tastes a bit like sour banana with the texture of ripe pear is then nibbled out. The fruit was good, but it left a bizarre gum-like residue on the lips, like sap.

Very welcoming.

Very welcoming.

After breakfast Blasius took us and his middle son with him to his parents’ house to introduce us. We had a lovely welcome there, another round of coffee and a round of family photos. When Blasius told us that his dad is growing cocoa, amongst other things, I asked him if he had ever tried the cocoa (knowing that a lot of producers don’t know how the end product, chocolate, tastes like). He was a bit confused, nodded and wandered off. He came back with two fresh ripe cocoa pods, opened one and took a segment with bean in his mouth. We did the same and started munching away, chewing the bitter bean … when he spit the cleaned bean right back out! Turns out that one can eat the sweet sour fruity skin of the bean, which is quite good. The bean is disgusting of course, until dried, roasted and mixed with heaps of sugar …

After the visit it was time to leave and I asked what we owed for the dinner and breakfast and he said whatever we were ok to give. Ah, what a terrible burden! I gave 100k rupiah, and he seemed genuinely happy with this. After a sec, I added another 50k (all together $17.50 NZ). We did not have to pay for accommodation and the food was excellent, plus the kindness we received!

On our way down we saw 15 calmly crossing the road. Magical!

On our way down we saw 15 calmly crossing the road. Magical!

The road to Moni and on up Kelimutu was a beautiful mountain road. We had to stop for 15 minutes at a work site, but it was only a couple of turns and we could move to the shade to sit it out. The Trans-Flores Highway is great, reminding me a lot of NZ roads (although a tad less repaired). After a brief lunch in Moni, we headed up the volcano(es). From the car park it is only a 1.5 km walk to the viewing platforms. It is all about the three candela lakes here, each one a different colour and all visible from a single point. On the way we spotted macaques, shy as they should be, on the track. Wohoo, wild monkeys!

Up top we met Lili and Sebastian, a couple of French backpackers. We had a good chat and were able to fully NZ-geek-out when Lili told us about her working holiday visa and her soon to start NZ year 🙂

satisfyingly green

satisfyingly green

The road down from here to Ende leads through a super narrow valley, beautiful rice fields or rivers at the bottom of them and overall a riding highlight on this trip so far. One of these roads that deserve a youtube GoPro clip. The only downside was another road closure for half an hour and two work sites with muddy roads, but nothing too wild. When the road opened again, we got spilled through the work site in a frantic rush of motorcycles and down and out towards dusky Ende. Once there, a wrong turn got us into a police station, and after we got swarmed by officers we got a final escort through the one-way jungle to our guesthouse.

Day 91 – A question of style

We got of when it was still mostly dark!

We got of when it was still mostly dark!

The boat was early! We were mentally prepared for a lot, but not really for arriving at 5:30 am, ahead of schedule. Never mind, we got a moderate level of sleep out of this night and were ready to embark onto Flores in the first light of day. After a last brief interlude – before everyone could leave, an ambulance backed onto the ferry and the coffin got heaved into it by the assembled crowd. With a long salute of the ship, the ambulance rode off into dawn, and we close behind.

View over the bay at early morning

View over the bay at early morning

I have read about a series of guest houses 100 km to the east offering beach views and much needed tranquility and not too much in terms of sights on our way there. The road offered gorgeous views and was in good repair. That allowed us to arrive at our destination still early in the day at 8:30 am. The first place we went to, Lena House, had a bungalow at the beach available. Tired and exhausted we were more than happy to call it a day and booked ourselves in.

While the room was prepared, we got into a conversation with Andy, a globetrotter character originally from the UK, and his lovely partner from Java, where they currently reside. As we were talking, we discovered that we had an interesting thing in common. A while back I would have been surprised, but NZ and traveling really made us accept that small world encounters are more common than one would think. So it turned out that both of us have hosted Chris Schlatter, a motorcycle traveller from Switzerland, and his partner Francesca at different points of their trip.

Has been alive quite recent

Has been alive quite recent

After a lot of lounging and relaxing, we decided to follow a recommendation by them to have dinner at the guesthouse next door. As it turns out they would eventually join us, and later on we were joined by She Ye and Matt. The dinner turned out to be … exciting. No meat was available in the kitchen, so Andy set out on a quest to find us something nice to share. Nina was sorted, with an eggplant curry using the only remaining eggplants. When Andy came back, there was more than one raised eyebrow. He bought meat all right. In his hand on the bike was a feathered, white and very much alive chicken! Turns out he got the directions to the chicken farm and not to any sort of butcher. Well, the bird met its timely end right there behind the kitchen and we got a great shared dinner out of it. We washed it down with some home distilled arak, a sort of palm tree spirit.

Day 89 – Western Timor

Cheers and all the best to you!

Cheers and all the best to you!

After a somewhat creative breakfast at our hotel in Kefa (egg on toast with jam), we were ready to hit the road one more time on Timor. While we were loading up the bike, we were approached by a young Indonesian who turned out to be Stef Ndun from the island of Rote. He seems to have a knack for collecting overlanders in Kefa  and is aspiring to join us on the road one day. I wish him all the best and would hope that he manages to get out there himself one day. It is about time that we see more travelers of non-European decent.

The road was good to excellent for most of the way and traffic was very light until mid-morning. Because we want to try and catch the ferry to Flores on Sunday, we decide against major detours and headed pretty much directly to Kupang. Around 11 am, coming down from another lovely mountain town on a limestone cliff (Soe), it started getting seriously hot. It is the end of the dry and everything is brown, heating up fast and there is little shade most of the way.

Lovely place, great food

Lovely place, great food

At 1 pm we have made it to a recommended Hotel in Kupang, desperate to get out of our gear and get some food into us. Once again we failed with regards to our spending discipline, going for a double with AC over a twin with a fan for $5 NZ more. Somehow it is harder to keep strong if everything is so comparatively cheap anyway.

On the other hand, cost for food really have plummeted. For lunch we went to a warung recommended by the Lonely Planet guide and spend 42000 IDR, or about $4.50 NZ for the two of us including drinks.

The afternoon was spend hogging the hotel WiFi – all in style with some afternoon tea free of charge. We have really been craving some youtube lately and got our fix. Needs must.

Our night market pick

Dinner was another great experience: We went to our first night market. These kinds of open air temporary food courts are popular all across south east Asia. The local version had loads and loads of fish, barbecued to order over eucalyptus wood fires. For some reason, I felt more like satay skewers myself today, also barbecued to order and utterly delicious. After some small sardine found its unfortunate way into Nina’s dish, she luckily found consolation in the desserts provided by another cart.