Early departure at 6.30 a.m. to board our private boat for the following 2 days, simple but big enough for the 18 of us + tour leader + crew. We made an amazing beautiful trip along 100s of islands (remember Indonesia has more than 16.000 of them amongst 5.000 inhabited) between Flores and Sumbawa (island) with stops at the 2 islands Rinca and Komodo.
Stop at Rinca for spotting of Komodo dragons (giant frightening monstor lizards up to 3 mtr) and other animal life like birds and wild buffaloes. I am sitting in a hot bad working internet café so I keep it short, please look yourself on internet for Komodo dragons, they are quite something else. I will come back to you later on these days….
Thursday, 30 April 2009
Tuesday, 28 April 2009
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.
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.
Sunday, 26 April 2009
26-04-09 Indonesia
This morning a visit to the traditional villages Wogo, Luba and Bena near to Bajawa (= the place where we stay last and coming night). Over 60,000 Ngada people inhabit the upland Bajawa plateau and the slopes around Gunung (= volcano) Inerie (2.245 m). They were subdued by the Dutch in 1907, and Christian missionaries arrived in about 1920. Older animistic beliefs remain strong, and most Ngada practice a fusion of animism and Christianity.
The most evident symbols of continuing Ngada tradition are the pairs of ngadhu and bhaga. The ngadhu is a parasol-like structure about 3m-high, consisting of a carved wooden pole and thatched ‘roof’, and the bhaga is like a miniature thatched-roof house.
The functions and meanings of bhaga and ngadhu are multiple, but basically they symbolize the continuing presence of ancestors. The ngadhu is ‘male’ and the bhaga is ‘female’, and each pair is associated with a particular family group within a village. Some are said to have been built to commemorate people killed in long-past battles over land disputes, and they may be more than 100 years old.
In addition to ngadhu, bhaga and the ancestor worship that goes with them, agricultural fertility rites continue (sometimes involving gory buffalo sacrifices), as well as ceremonies marking birth, marriage, death and house building.
We will tell something more about Bena, one of the most traditional Ngada villages. Its stone monuments are a protected site. Houses with high thatched roofs line up in 2 rows on a ridge, the space between them filled with fine ngadhu, bhaga (which are smeared with blood after sacrifices). Most houses have male or female figurines on their roofs, while doorways are decorated with buffalo horns and jawbones – a sign of the family’s prosperity.
Particularly in the village Luba it was confusing to see these animist expressions together with Christian tombs in the middle to the village. The female villagers were selling Ikat (cloth in which the pattern is produced by dyeing the individual threads before weaving), but we didn’t see them weaving, so we wonder if this was really produced in the village itself.
One sees a lot of elder people with broken, missing and corroded teeth because of excessive use of betel nut. Also lots of elder people suffering of cataract (in Dutch ‘grauwe staar’).
Talking with our guide we learnt that we paid an entrance fee of 10.000 rupiahs = Eur 0,60 per person for each village. 80 or 90 % of this fee is going to the chief of the village, who uses this money for the education and healthcare of the villagers. 20 or 10 % has to be given to a tourist service and the tour guide is not sure if this money is getting anywhere else than the pockets of a civil servant….
Surprising that some villagers asked us money for having taken their picture …
We met quite some young villagers able to speak English and our local guide was born himself in such a traditional village, so indeed at least some of the villagers are educated.
After lunch we had the afternoon for ourselves (finally!!!) and we both walked around in Bajawa to meet lots of friendly people. Communication in English is not always possible, but one does not need a lot of words to get some contact, make jokes with the children, take some pictures (the digital cameras have the big advantage that one can show directly the result), give some balloons, etc. Arjan played some table tennis with locals and I talked quite some time with an Indonesian maid serving a family and talking an amazing good English. Difficult to ask her all the questions I would like to since the daughter in law of the ‘master’ was seated next to her… I was surprised to learn that she returns only once a year to her parental home, which was not even 100 km away.
Some villagers have very nice gardens with all kind of flowers blooming.
Ingrid photographed her first fire engine, an old, dusty, apparently long time ago used, Nissan! So far I have only seen 1 fire plug at Sanur at Bali and I am afraid that I have to wait till our return at Bali to see a 2nd one (I hope so, because I didn’t take any picture ..).
Something we forgot to tell earlier: 2 days ago (24-04-09) during our snorkelling day in National Parc Pulau Tujuhbelas on the way to that island, we passed the island Pulau Ontoloe, which has a massive colony of flying foxes (in Dutch, we call them ‘flying dogs’), fruit bats, quite impressive if they fly around.
Yesterday (25-04-09), leaving Riung, we paid a short visit to Chris, the local guide during our snorkelling day. It is heart breaking to see how simple these people still have to live …..
Tomorrow off for a new town village at the Flores island, according to Lonely Planet (edition November 2007) having no internet connections.
A&I Bajawa 26-04-09 nice sunny day, not too hot
The most evident symbols of continuing Ngada tradition are the pairs of ngadhu and bhaga. The ngadhu is a parasol-like structure about 3m-high, consisting of a carved wooden pole and thatched ‘roof’, and the bhaga is like a miniature thatched-roof house.
The functions and meanings of bhaga and ngadhu are multiple, but basically they symbolize the continuing presence of ancestors. The ngadhu is ‘male’ and the bhaga is ‘female’, and each pair is associated with a particular family group within a village. Some are said to have been built to commemorate people killed in long-past battles over land disputes, and they may be more than 100 years old.
In addition to ngadhu, bhaga and the ancestor worship that goes with them, agricultural fertility rites continue (sometimes involving gory buffalo sacrifices), as well as ceremonies marking birth, marriage, death and house building.
We will tell something more about Bena, one of the most traditional Ngada villages. Its stone monuments are a protected site. Houses with high thatched roofs line up in 2 rows on a ridge, the space between them filled with fine ngadhu, bhaga (which are smeared with blood after sacrifices). Most houses have male or female figurines on their roofs, while doorways are decorated with buffalo horns and jawbones – a sign of the family’s prosperity.
Particularly in the village Luba it was confusing to see these animist expressions together with Christian tombs in the middle to the village. The female villagers were selling Ikat (cloth in which the pattern is produced by dyeing the individual threads before weaving), but we didn’t see them weaving, so we wonder if this was really produced in the village itself.
One sees a lot of elder people with broken, missing and corroded teeth because of excessive use of betel nut. Also lots of elder people suffering of cataract (in Dutch ‘grauwe staar’).
Talking with our guide we learnt that we paid an entrance fee of 10.000 rupiahs = Eur 0,60 per person for each village. 80 or 90 % of this fee is going to the chief of the village, who uses this money for the education and healthcare of the villagers. 20 or 10 % has to be given to a tourist service and the tour guide is not sure if this money is getting anywhere else than the pockets of a civil servant….
Surprising that some villagers asked us money for having taken their picture …
We met quite some young villagers able to speak English and our local guide was born himself in such a traditional village, so indeed at least some of the villagers are educated.
After lunch we had the afternoon for ourselves (finally!!!) and we both walked around in Bajawa to meet lots of friendly people. Communication in English is not always possible, but one does not need a lot of words to get some contact, make jokes with the children, take some pictures (the digital cameras have the big advantage that one can show directly the result), give some balloons, etc. Arjan played some table tennis with locals and I talked quite some time with an Indonesian maid serving a family and talking an amazing good English. Difficult to ask her all the questions I would like to since the daughter in law of the ‘master’ was seated next to her… I was surprised to learn that she returns only once a year to her parental home, which was not even 100 km away.
Some villagers have very nice gardens with all kind of flowers blooming.
Ingrid photographed her first fire engine, an old, dusty, apparently long time ago used, Nissan! So far I have only seen 1 fire plug at Sanur at Bali and I am afraid that I have to wait till our return at Bali to see a 2nd one (I hope so, because I didn’t take any picture ..).
Something we forgot to tell earlier: 2 days ago (24-04-09) during our snorkelling day in National Parc Pulau Tujuhbelas on the way to that island, we passed the island Pulau Ontoloe, which has a massive colony of flying foxes (in Dutch, we call them ‘flying dogs’), fruit bats, quite impressive if they fly around.
Yesterday (25-04-09), leaving Riung, we paid a short visit to Chris, the local guide during our snorkelling day. It is heart breaking to see how simple these people still have to live …..
Tomorrow off for a new town village at the Flores island, according to Lonely Planet (edition November 2007) having no internet connections.
A&I Bajawa 26-04-09 nice sunny day, not too hot
Saturday, 25 April 2009
22/23/24/25-09 Indonesia
Back in some civilization, at least a working internet connection.
22-04-09
Finally we saw authentic Indonesia at our way from Maumere to Detusuko, still at the island Flores. With Sumatra and Java, Bali is the main tourist destination with some parts of the island Lombok, so we were longing to see something else.
Flores is a fascinating, mountainous and remarkably beautiful island. It has volcanic topography that has longed shaped its destiny. A chain of cones stretches the length of this verdant island, provoking a complicated relief of V-shaped valleys and knife-edged ridges - terrain that was near-impenetrable until recent years and that has separated the island into many distinct ethnic groups. Today, though Flores is overwhelmingly Catholic, rich indigenous cultures continue to thrive alongside mainstream religious beliefs. Christianity was a successful import, and today a church is the centrepiece of almost every village.
In the more remote areas, some older people don’t speak a word of Bahasa Indonesia (national Indonesian language), and their parents grew up in purely animist (ancestor and spirits worship) societies.
Around 85 % of the people are Catholic, but in rural areas particularly, Christianity is welded onto adat (Indonesian traditional laws and regulations). Animist rituals are still used for births, marriages and deaths and to mark important points in the agricultural calendar. Even educated, English-speaking Florinese still admit to the odd chicken, pig or buffalo sacrifice to keep their ancestors happy when rice is planted.
It is surprising to see tombs for the deceased family members right in front of the main entrance.
The monastery in which we stayed the night, Wisma Fransiskus, is situated in the village Detusoko, quite poor, with floors in the houses made of dried mud (whereas the tombs are decorated with shiny bright tiles ….). The accommodation was simple, but OK. The orphans (or rather kids left behind by their parents / mothers not having the money to look after them) were singing and dancing for us after dinner, something we are not necessarily looking for, but the fact that we are staying in their place contributes to their well being, so after all such is OK.
The people in the village were very welcoming and friendly, even if it was impossible to have any conversation, because of the language.
During the day a beautiful drive through Flores, the roads are simple and often in poor condition (partly because of the rough climate and partly because of the bad material used, and such because an important chunk of the budget for the road construction is going to the government because of corruption …).
We had lunch at one of the beautiful beaches Flores has.
23-04-09
Wake up at 2.30 a.m. to get with our bus to the sun rise above the Kelimutu volcano. The 3 differently coloured lakes of Kelimutu are supposed to be the most spectacular sight in Nusa Tenggara (Indonesia’s arc of eastern islands stretching towards northern Australia), but the colours didn’t turn out that spectacular because of cloudy weather, a pity. Kelimutu is sacred to local people, and legend has it that the souls of the dead go to these lakes: young people’s souls go to the warmth of the Turquoise Lake, old people’s to the Brown Lake and those of the wicked to the Black Lake.
Back to our hotel to have breakfast and get our luggage to get to our next destination. On our way many picturesque stops : rice paddies, fruit market - we learnt about Japanese cucumber, never heard of it before - , high piled up loaded vans, heavy crowded bemos (local transport), beautiful flowers (Bougainville, hibiscus, “Poinsettia = kerststerren” in Dutch, etc. etc.).
Again lunch at the beach. No facilities on the road, so often we take a lunch box from our accommodation.
Though our tour guide is a little pushing, it has to be said that he is well looking after us. For us it is sometimes too much, but after all I think he is sincere and just trying to please us as much as possible. He is very worried about our well being and does not want us to fall ill because of the food. It is true, that there aren’t a lot of restaurants, which deserve the title of restaurant and it is true, too, that we experienced, that the restaurants recommended by our Lonely Planet edited in November 2007 sometimes do not exist any longer.
He told us today an awful story about Foster Parents, a well fare organization, for which his brother and he self used to work. He stopped working for it, when Foster Parents asked him to translate a letter written by a kid, and duplicate it 30 times, to be used for 30 different children and to be sent - so the same letter!! - to 30 different parents. He refused to do such and when he discussed this with his brother, he denied it by saying that the organization is paying him well. Both brothers did not talk to each other for a year because of this argument, till his brother realized, that indeed this was no good. I remember that Foster Parents has a bad review, but can somebody tell me what the exact story was?
Arrival around 5 pm at Riung, a small village off the Trans-Flores main road, so little visited by tourists, so little touristic accommodation and facilities. We were staying again in a place run by missionaries. Only electricity from 6 p.m. till 7 a.m.
Finally we could escape the group and instead of having again a buffet meal at our accommodation, we had an excellent gado gado (vegetables with peanut sauce) in a nearby restaurant with candlelight.
24-04-09
Today we went the full day to a unique isolate superb snorkelling spot at 1 of the more than 17000 islands Indonesia is counting next to Flores, in the National Parc Pulau Tujuhbelas. There were plans to develop this excellent spot - the coral having suffered from the 2004 tsunami however - for international tourism. Lucky us, one didn't do so far and we had all it for us alone, quite an experience! Ingrid her legs got quite seriously sun burnt, we both protected our backs by wearing a T-shirt, but were not thinking that our legs would suffer that much ......It is VERY hot, but slowly but surely we are getting used to it.
In the evening we returned to the same restaurant, for having the same excellent dinner.
25-04-09
Off for another beautiful ride over the Flores island. Just right after the rain season, the roads are good enough to drive again, but the soil contains still enough water to show superb green (coconut, bamboo, coffee, mango, pineapple, etc.) and beautiful flowers.
Lunch at the hot springs Mangaruda Mata Air Panas at Soa, unfortunately with lots of half-finished buildings, which detract from the atmosphere. We both didn’t try it, because the hot water would hurt too much our suffering sun burnt legs…
Arrival at 4 p.m. at our next destination at Bajawa (still Flores), a relaxed hill town at 1.100 m, surround by forested volcanic hills, with the volcano Gunung Inerie (2.255m) looming large to the south. And finally a working internet connection!
We are staying 2 nights here, tomorrow we will visit some ethnic villages.
22-04-09
Finally we saw authentic Indonesia at our way from Maumere to Detusuko, still at the island Flores. With Sumatra and Java, Bali is the main tourist destination with some parts of the island Lombok, so we were longing to see something else.
Flores is a fascinating, mountainous and remarkably beautiful island. It has volcanic topography that has longed shaped its destiny. A chain of cones stretches the length of this verdant island, provoking a complicated relief of V-shaped valleys and knife-edged ridges - terrain that was near-impenetrable until recent years and that has separated the island into many distinct ethnic groups. Today, though Flores is overwhelmingly Catholic, rich indigenous cultures continue to thrive alongside mainstream religious beliefs. Christianity was a successful import, and today a church is the centrepiece of almost every village.
In the more remote areas, some older people don’t speak a word of Bahasa Indonesia (national Indonesian language), and their parents grew up in purely animist (ancestor and spirits worship) societies.
Around 85 % of the people are Catholic, but in rural areas particularly, Christianity is welded onto adat (Indonesian traditional laws and regulations). Animist rituals are still used for births, marriages and deaths and to mark important points in the agricultural calendar. Even educated, English-speaking Florinese still admit to the odd chicken, pig or buffalo sacrifice to keep their ancestors happy when rice is planted.
It is surprising to see tombs for the deceased family members right in front of the main entrance.
The monastery in which we stayed the night, Wisma Fransiskus, is situated in the village Detusoko, quite poor, with floors in the houses made of dried mud (whereas the tombs are decorated with shiny bright tiles ….). The accommodation was simple, but OK. The orphans (or rather kids left behind by their parents / mothers not having the money to look after them) were singing and dancing for us after dinner, something we are not necessarily looking for, but the fact that we are staying in their place contributes to their well being, so after all such is OK.
The people in the village were very welcoming and friendly, even if it was impossible to have any conversation, because of the language.
During the day a beautiful drive through Flores, the roads are simple and often in poor condition (partly because of the rough climate and partly because of the bad material used, and such because an important chunk of the budget for the road construction is going to the government because of corruption …).
We had lunch at one of the beautiful beaches Flores has.
23-04-09
Wake up at 2.30 a.m. to get with our bus to the sun rise above the Kelimutu volcano. The 3 differently coloured lakes of Kelimutu are supposed to be the most spectacular sight in Nusa Tenggara (Indonesia’s arc of eastern islands stretching towards northern Australia), but the colours didn’t turn out that spectacular because of cloudy weather, a pity. Kelimutu is sacred to local people, and legend has it that the souls of the dead go to these lakes: young people’s souls go to the warmth of the Turquoise Lake, old people’s to the Brown Lake and those of the wicked to the Black Lake.
Back to our hotel to have breakfast and get our luggage to get to our next destination. On our way many picturesque stops : rice paddies, fruit market - we learnt about Japanese cucumber, never heard of it before - , high piled up loaded vans, heavy crowded bemos (local transport), beautiful flowers (Bougainville, hibiscus, “Poinsettia = kerststerren” in Dutch, etc. etc.).
Again lunch at the beach. No facilities on the road, so often we take a lunch box from our accommodation.
Though our tour guide is a little pushing, it has to be said that he is well looking after us. For us it is sometimes too much, but after all I think he is sincere and just trying to please us as much as possible. He is very worried about our well being and does not want us to fall ill because of the food. It is true, that there aren’t a lot of restaurants, which deserve the title of restaurant and it is true, too, that we experienced, that the restaurants recommended by our Lonely Planet edited in November 2007 sometimes do not exist any longer.
He told us today an awful story about Foster Parents, a well fare organization, for which his brother and he self used to work. He stopped working for it, when Foster Parents asked him to translate a letter written by a kid, and duplicate it 30 times, to be used for 30 different children and to be sent - so the same letter!! - to 30 different parents. He refused to do such and when he discussed this with his brother, he denied it by saying that the organization is paying him well. Both brothers did not talk to each other for a year because of this argument, till his brother realized, that indeed this was no good. I remember that Foster Parents has a bad review, but can somebody tell me what the exact story was?
Arrival around 5 pm at Riung, a small village off the Trans-Flores main road, so little visited by tourists, so little touristic accommodation and facilities. We were staying again in a place run by missionaries. Only electricity from 6 p.m. till 7 a.m.
Finally we could escape the group and instead of having again a buffet meal at our accommodation, we had an excellent gado gado (vegetables with peanut sauce) in a nearby restaurant with candlelight.
24-04-09
Today we went the full day to a unique isolate superb snorkelling spot at 1 of the more than 17000 islands Indonesia is counting next to Flores, in the National Parc Pulau Tujuhbelas. There were plans to develop this excellent spot - the coral having suffered from the 2004 tsunami however - for international tourism. Lucky us, one didn't do so far and we had all it for us alone, quite an experience! Ingrid her legs got quite seriously sun burnt, we both protected our backs by wearing a T-shirt, but were not thinking that our legs would suffer that much ......It is VERY hot, but slowly but surely we are getting used to it.
In the evening we returned to the same restaurant, for having the same excellent dinner.
25-04-09
Off for another beautiful ride over the Flores island. Just right after the rain season, the roads are good enough to drive again, but the soil contains still enough water to show superb green (coconut, bamboo, coffee, mango, pineapple, etc.) and beautiful flowers.
Lunch at the hot springs Mangaruda Mata Air Panas at Soa, unfortunately with lots of half-finished buildings, which detract from the atmosphere. We both didn’t try it, because the hot water would hurt too much our suffering sun burnt legs…
Arrival at 4 p.m. at our next destination at Bajawa (still Flores), a relaxed hill town at 1.100 m, surround by forested volcanic hills, with the volcano Gunung Inerie (2.255m) looming large to the south. And finally a working internet connection!
We are staying 2 nights here, tomorrow we will visit some ethnic villages.
Tuesday, 21 April 2009
19/20/21-04-09
Hello everybody,
We both had a good trip from Amsterdam/Paris to Kuala Lumpur / Denpasar.
Short drive from 1 hour to Sanur, small beach resort at Bali. Just enough time before sunset to explore the small village and find a nice restaurant run by a Belgian couple, where Ingrid had a delicious peanut sauce (the sateh was OK too :-))))
In between a not so refreshing swim in the swimming pool: the water inside felt warmer than the outside temperature, which is already unbearable hot because of the high humidity. But like in Cambodia last year, we will get used to that.
We got to bed at 8.30 pm feeling very, very tired after the long flight. Excellent night, so normally we shouldn’t have any problem anymore with the jetlag (we are 7 hours ahead from CET).
Group seems to be OK (no tooth paste explosion in the plane …..), we have our doubts about the tour leader who treats us a group of OAD or Fox, ant that is exactly what we are not looking for. He is Indonesian talking Dutch, which is very convenient.
So far he changed for both nights the initial accommodation, and we suspect him of putting the money of the price difference between the initial and the used hotels in his own pocket…
Today another flight from (Sanur) Denpasar via Sumba (island) for a 45 min. stop to Flores (island) where we arrived around 4 pm at Maumere, in an accommodation at the beach, unfortunately too far and too late from the village to get there easily (or is this another trial of our tour leader to organize it the way it suits him best?).
In a way a lost day, because there is nothing we could do before and after, but that is the way you have sometimes to use to get from A to B…..
Tomorrow we go to our next stop, by bus, still at Flores island. We will stay the night at a monastery!
All the best to you,
A&I - hot, very hot, humid, very humid - April 21st, 2009
We both had a good trip from Amsterdam/Paris to Kuala Lumpur / Denpasar.
Short drive from 1 hour to Sanur, small beach resort at Bali. Just enough time before sunset to explore the small village and find a nice restaurant run by a Belgian couple, where Ingrid had a delicious peanut sauce (the sateh was OK too :-))))
In between a not so refreshing swim in the swimming pool: the water inside felt warmer than the outside temperature, which is already unbearable hot because of the high humidity. But like in Cambodia last year, we will get used to that.
We got to bed at 8.30 pm feeling very, very tired after the long flight. Excellent night, so normally we shouldn’t have any problem anymore with the jetlag (we are 7 hours ahead from CET).
Group seems to be OK (no tooth paste explosion in the plane …..), we have our doubts about the tour leader who treats us a group of OAD or Fox, ant that is exactly what we are not looking for. He is Indonesian talking Dutch, which is very convenient.
So far he changed for both nights the initial accommodation, and we suspect him of putting the money of the price difference between the initial and the used hotels in his own pocket…
Today another flight from (Sanur) Denpasar via Sumba (island) for a 45 min. stop to Flores (island) where we arrived around 4 pm at Maumere, in an accommodation at the beach, unfortunately too far and too late from the village to get there easily (or is this another trial of our tour leader to organize it the way it suits him best?).
In a way a lost day, because there is nothing we could do before and after, but that is the way you have sometimes to use to get from A to B…..
Tomorrow we go to our next stop, by bus, still at Flores island. We will stay the night at a monastery!
All the best to you,
A&I - hot, very hot, humid, very humid - April 21st, 2009
Sunday, 12 April 2009
Spring - Sunda Islands
Both Arjan (from the Netherlands) and I (from France) will be in a week on our way to Indonesia. We meet each other over half way at Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) airport, from which we will spend the 2nd part of this flight by Malaysian Airways together. Five months ago I already spent some hours at Kuala Lumpur airport on my way out of Cambodia / Thailand….
We will arrive on Monday April 20th at Denpasar airport at Bali, from which we will leave for Sanur, a beach resort at Bali, where we will spend 1 night before starting our tour on the Sunda Islands, from which we will visits Sumbawa, Lombok, Komodo, Flores and Bali. The more known islands Sumatra and Java are also part of them.
Having received some wonderful cherry blossoms pictures from Tokyo, I went today to the Jardin Albert Kahn, west of Paris. Well, I didn't succeed to find pictures as nice as Toshiharu-san sent us, but still I enjoyed my afternoon!
Saturday, 7 March 2009
Ghent 2009
We visited last weekend Ghent (in Dutch Gent), a pleasant city for 2 days, located in the Flemish region, Belgium. The city became in the Middle Ages one of the largest and richest cities of northern Europe. Today it is a busy city with a port and a university.
In 1500 Juana of Castile gave birth to Charles V, who became Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain. Although native to Ghent, he punished the city after the 1539 Revolt of Ghent and obliged the city's nobles to walk in front of the emperor barefoot with a noose (Dutch: strop) around the neck; since this incident, the people of Ghent have been called "Stroppendragers" (noose bearers).
Ingrid visited the beautiful neoclassistic Grand Théâtre of the Ghent opera - very easy accessible by feet from the Thalys railway station - where she assisted to Tsjaikovisi's opera Mazeppa (not such a success).
Enjoy it!
In 1500 Juana of Castile gave birth to Charles V, who became Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain. Although native to Ghent, he punished the city after the 1539 Revolt of Ghent and obliged the city's nobles to walk in front of the emperor barefoot with a noose (Dutch: strop) around the neck; since this incident, the people of Ghent have been called "Stroppendragers" (noose bearers).
Ingrid visited the beautiful neoclassistic Grand Théâtre of the Ghent opera - very easy accessible by feet from the Thalys railway station - where she assisted to Tsjaikovisi's opera Mazeppa (not such a success).
Enjoy it!
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