Saturday, April 16, 2005
yellow submarine
First impressions of Flores (3rd island east from Bali for those with pins on maps) didn't exactly hold true - for one the main town, Maumere, seemed to be overrun with pigs. 'At last' we thought, 'somewhere to rival India' (I was thinking of the cows). True to form, within seconds we decided the local mini-buses (called bemos) looked bobbins and decided to go for the luxury hire car with driver option.
Anyway, off we trotted for our week in the lovely, lush green mountain and rice paddy field spectacle that is the island of Flores. Little did we know that Maumere was the last time we would see 1. the internet and 2. the sun. Taking the complete cut off from the rest of the world and the deluge of rain that started inevitably at 11 every morning in our stride we still really enjoyed ourselves.
Flores is predominantly Catholic (in fact the Pope's visit in 1989 was the single most exciting thing in living memory, and at least 1 volcano has errupted since then - but that happens regularly here!) so it was no surprise that every tv set in every grass hut was tuned to the vatican for his funeral. Most definitely a 'where were you when Kennedy was shot' moment.
The main activity in Flores is to climb the aforementioned volcanoes. We tackled 2, Kelimutu and some other one. Kelimutu is home to 3 multicoloured lakes, and our climb went so well we decided to forego the hot springs the next day (Pete has taken against hot springs for some reason) in favour of climbing 'the other one' (not it's name in Indonesian btw). Little did we gamble on the daily 11 o'clock deluge coming a little early while we were still at the top of the hill. Cue one very, VERY wet descent... the path turned into a torrent, our raincoats and shoes soaked through, but luckily the camera, passports and all our money were safe in a plastic bag in our rucksack. Or so we thought. Somehow the hour long sprint downhill would have been infinitely less hilarious if we realised that we were ruining all our belongings in the process.
The next day was spent blow drying our money and passports and praying the camera would somehow miraculously turn on (it didn't, and we ended up buying a 1994 special edition to tide us over).
But Flores was not all rain, dead popes, ruined camera and no internet. It was also the home of some of the friendliest people we have yet to meet. Every person in every town seemed to want to rush up to us and shout 'hello mister' whenever we approached. It was like being travelling royalty, waving at our screaming public from the tinted windows of our car. Locals offered to guide us around their churches, peopled swarmed us in shops, it WAS like being back in India (except the pigs turned out to be a bit of a red herring).
Not only were the locals very friendly - so were the other tourists, and we spent the week essentially in a convoy with Fred and Leni, our new friends. Imagine - they are the same age as our parents and we are still friends!! We must be grown-ups now! We also had a rather nice day with 2 Dutch exchange students (Annemika and Celina) touring some of the most primitive looking villages we have ever seen.
Finally, (for this is getting waaaaaay too long and Pete will surely reprimand me) hours spent in the car listenting to the same 2 karaoke classics tapes was beginning to wear until, until lo and behold we found the only English tape on the island - Revolver! Our driver, Eddy, now knows ALL the words to Yellow Submarine!
And even though it has been over a week, and I have lots more to tell I'll stop there. Except one last thing - we saw a group of monkeys fighting on the beach, and a giant lizard which we decided was a komodo dragon, - all very exciting. And more... we bought some local textiles, ate new fruits, played lots of backgammon... really there is so much you can do when you don't have to spend 2 hours a day on the internet!!
Anyway, off we trotted for our week in the lovely, lush green mountain and rice paddy field spectacle that is the island of Flores. Little did we know that Maumere was the last time we would see 1. the internet and 2. the sun. Taking the complete cut off from the rest of the world and the deluge of rain that started inevitably at 11 every morning in our stride we still really enjoyed ourselves.
Flores is predominantly Catholic (in fact the Pope's visit in 1989 was the single most exciting thing in living memory, and at least 1 volcano has errupted since then - but that happens regularly here!) so it was no surprise that every tv set in every grass hut was tuned to the vatican for his funeral. Most definitely a 'where were you when Kennedy was shot' moment.
The main activity in Flores is to climb the aforementioned volcanoes. We tackled 2, Kelimutu and some other one. Kelimutu is home to 3 multicoloured lakes, and our climb went so well we decided to forego the hot springs the next day (Pete has taken against hot springs for some reason) in favour of climbing 'the other one' (not it's name in Indonesian btw). Little did we gamble on the daily 11 o'clock deluge coming a little early while we were still at the top of the hill. Cue one very, VERY wet descent... the path turned into a torrent, our raincoats and shoes soaked through, but luckily the camera, passports and all our money were safe in a plastic bag in our rucksack. Or so we thought. Somehow the hour long sprint downhill would have been infinitely less hilarious if we realised that we were ruining all our belongings in the process.
The next day was spent blow drying our money and passports and praying the camera would somehow miraculously turn on (it didn't, and we ended up buying a 1994 special edition to tide us over).
But Flores was not all rain, dead popes, ruined camera and no internet. It was also the home of some of the friendliest people we have yet to meet. Every person in every town seemed to want to rush up to us and shout 'hello mister' whenever we approached. It was like being travelling royalty, waving at our screaming public from the tinted windows of our car. Locals offered to guide us around their churches, peopled swarmed us in shops, it WAS like being back in India (except the pigs turned out to be a bit of a red herring).
Not only were the locals very friendly - so were the other tourists, and we spent the week essentially in a convoy with Fred and Leni, our new friends. Imagine - they are the same age as our parents and we are still friends!! We must be grown-ups now! We also had a rather nice day with 2 Dutch exchange students (Annemika and Celina) touring some of the most primitive looking villages we have ever seen.
Finally, (for this is getting waaaaaay too long and Pete will surely reprimand me) hours spent in the car listenting to the same 2 karaoke classics tapes was beginning to wear until, until lo and behold we found the only English tape on the island - Revolver! Our driver, Eddy, now knows ALL the words to Yellow Submarine!
And even though it has been over a week, and I have lots more to tell I'll stop there. Except one last thing - we saw a group of monkeys fighting on the beach, and a giant lizard which we decided was a komodo dragon, - all very exciting. And more... we bought some local textiles, ate new fruits, played lots of backgammon... really there is so much you can do when you don't have to spend 2 hours a day on the internet!!
// posted by courtney and pete @ 20:59 
