Crossing Flores, Part I

After our fun trip to the islands of Komodo and Rinca, it was time to see more of Flores. The next morning (my birthday!) Alison, Maria, Laurent, Esther and I met our driver (I thought his name was Sigfried, but it was only days later I learned it was really Sipri), loaded our bags in the back of a Kijang, and headed off...

The drive across Flores is mountainous and tortuosly windey. It is also stunningly beautiful. The views of rice fields, jungle mountains, and ocean bays are only to be seen to be believed. On each road, there are children all about, and as you pass it is to elated yells of "hello mister!" or "hello tourists!". It makes the time pass quickly, and we spent a lot of time in the car over the next several days. More than once was I glad we didn't take the 'puke bus'.

Our first day we stopped in the village of Ruteng, about four hours from Labuanbajo (but maybe only 30 minutes if we hadn't been driving in the mountains). Along the way there were incredible vistas of spiderweb rice fields (perhaps one day I'll post a pic). Anyway, Ruteng was the village in which I would celebrate my birthday, and it wasn't exactly New York City (but it was slightly better than Alison's Incheon airport). Of course, there was no wine, no steak, no candlelit dinner...but what does it matter? I'm in Indonesia! Anyway, Ruteng is a simple town and there weren't many tourists about, nor tourist facilities for that matter. There were about four guesthouses in town, and most were booked full with Indonesians (at least I assume so, because we only saw two other Westerners the entire evening). We did find rooms, however, in a hotel that looked a bit like a Swiss chalet. It seemed comfortable enough, but later we realized the walls were less than paper-thin--the man in the room next to us was clearly inches from the wall next to our bed, and he snored quite loudly.

But I digress...in Ruteng we wandered the town and talked to the locals. People were so friendly! Lots of locals came up to us to practice their English or just to ask where we were going and what we were up to. In more touristy places this is usually a ruse before the sales pitch, but in Ruteng and throughout Flores it was just genuine kindness and interest, and we really enjoyed talking with everyone who approached us.

Later, Alison and I left the family behind and went for a private birthday dinner. The restaurant was the usual plastic chairs, cheap Indonesian fare, and checkered plastic tablecloths, but a Bintang beer helped the atmosphere. In the back of the restaurant, the locals were glued to the television set for "Indonesian Idol". I guess it's just as big of a hit here...

After dinner we walked back to the guesthouse, and called it an early night. As we would every night, because Flores shuts down early everywhere...

Next time, we move on to the mountain village of Bajawa, and the weather gets cold for once!

By the way, if anyone would like to see a picture of us scrambling for our lives on Mt. Batur in Bali...