27/28-04-09 Indonesia

27-04-09
Another drive for our in total 780 km on Flores from Bajawa to Ruteng through still a beautiful scenery of lush forests, volcanoes and rice fields. Happily during our voyages we make regularly a stop and can walk for about half an hour, a good occasion to see more and (try to) talk with the locals. Like in India, in Indonesia one is never alone.
We visited a home factory of arak (palm wine).
We arrived around 4.30 pm which gave us 1,5 hr to walk around in the market town of Ruteng - not as interesting as Bajawa, the day before – before sunset. Life in these cities slows down at sunset and there is little public lightning. At least it was quite cool here.
We picked a restaurant from the Lonely Planet, but apparently the owner changed, because it didn't look that attractive at all (especially not the kitchen inspected by Arjan), so we changed for another one, where we had a nice dinner with 2 other group members.
So far we are doing all pretty well, still no nasty typical tropical diseases. Our guide is paying a lot of attention to our well being and apparently such is paying off. We definitely do no eat from the food stalls in the streets, nor from the typical Indonesian Padang. With Padang cuisine you sit down and the whole kit and caboodle gets laid out in front of you. You decide which ones look tasty and push others aside. You pay for what you eat – nibbling, sniffing and fondling included. The drawback is that you never really know what you're eating, since there is no menu. Because most dishes are cooked slowly and thoroughly, the difference between chicken and certain types of fish - or dog … - isn't that obvious. On top of that, the food may have been prepared 1 week before.

28-04-09
Last drive on Flores from Ruteng to the fishing town Labuanbajo (or Labuhan Bajo) in Flores, where we arrived at 2.30 pm, so enough time to walk around, but down at the coast it is so damping hot again, that we waited till 4.45 pm before getting off for a walk along the seaside. A quite saddening walk, since the part of the seaside where our hotel is located is the less appealing stretch of town: a lot of pollution, poverty, but ….. welcoming children and parents. There seems to be a Muslim majority here. Interesting to see this mix of Christianity and Islamism in Indonesia, from which I only remember from my 1996 trip the mix of animism, Hinduism and Buddhism.
Labuanbajo is the main jumping-off point for the island Komodo (with its dragons!!) and Rinca for which we are both leaving tomorrow morning for 2 days (incl. the night) on a boat.

Trijnie: wat de Ikat betreft: moet het machinaal (goedkoper) of handgeweven zijn. Nog voorkeur voor achtergrondskleur?

Toshiharu-san: I think that Ingrid's phone (and thus email) is not working in Japan, so far no news from her, but I am sure she is doing fine and enjoying your country.

Annette: zoek eens op internet naar ik meen "de lijn van Wallace" een theorie dat ergens in Indonesië (ik meen Flores, maar ga dat nu niet nazoeken, wil slapen …) een scheidslijn van evolutie is geweest. Daan kan er ongetwijfeld alles over vertellen, moet je
Trijnie even aanschieten.