Well it wasn't quite "Sabang to Marauke" as the saying goes but we had a couple of weeks in June towards the end of our stint in Indonesia to do some travel and so decided to do a bit of an extended backpacking trip.
This was to be our last trip in Indonesia and the original plan was to head to Ambon, the Banda Islands and finally to Papua. Unfortunately a spanner was thrown in the works when threat levels for those places went up. And when we realised that Candice couldn't take anti-malarials during pregnancy (yes, Candice is pregnant!) it seemed a bad idea. The last straw was when the violence in Papua flared up again.
So our trip began in Surabaya, Indonesia's second largest city and the provincial capital of East Java. I (Nat) expected a sprawling smoggy metropolis like Jakarta but was pleasantly suprised by a well-groomed (by Indo standards) city with plenty of colonial and art-deco buildings to gawk at. Despite the large population size, they are only just discovering skyscrapers. A definite highlight here was the
House of Sampoerna museum - a must see.
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| The House of Sampoerna museum in Surabaya |
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| Workers hand-manufacture and pack kretek (clove) cigarettes at Sampoerna House |
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| Candice poses as a street vendor at the museum |
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| On the way to Malang we passed the site of the Lapindo disaster where works caused by PT Lapindo (a company) caused hot volcanic mud to rise out of the earth destroying several villages and making tens of thousands of people homeless. The villages are still fighting for compensation. |
Next stop was Malang, a city 3 hours south-east. Surrounded by mountains, Malang is a lot cooler than most cities - in fact they can actually grow apples there. We stayed longer than expected and used it as our base while we explored the beautiful Mount Bromo (2329m) which is probably Indonesia's most popular volcano attraction. Utilising the services of Helios Travel (
http://heliostour.net/web/), we departed at 1am to the higher peak of Mount Pananjakan (2753m) to watch the sun rise over Bromo and its neighbour Mount Batok (2470m). Absolutely stunning but quite freezing for Indonesia. We then drove down to the "sea of sand" and I climbed Bromo to have a look myself. We rounded the Bromo trip off with a break in the "savannah" grasses and visits to a waterfall and Candi Jago (an old Hindu temple) on the way back to Malang. Definitely worth a visit if you're in that part of Indonesia.
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| Sunrise from Mount Pananjakan |
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| Mount Bromo, Mount Batok and Mount Smeru in the distance |
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| Savouring the cool air |
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| View of Batok from Bromo |
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| Hanging out in the "Savannah" |
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| Candi Jago on the way back to Malang |
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| Candice captures a migrating snail near the waterfall |
Oh and here's a little plug. Above Hotel Helios which we stayed in is
Kampong Tourist, a rooftop backpackers with an all-night bar owned by the same mob as Helios Travel. It's cheap, clean and run by a Dutch woman named Martina who's married to a local. Although we stayed at the hotel below it, we ended up hanging out upstairs almost as much. Malang really impressed me - it's probably my second favourite Indonesian city after Jogja. Plenty of beautiful colonial buildings, decent weather and affordable food. Had a hip, student feel about it too.
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| A Malang scene typical of many Indonesian cities |
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| Malang is full of old Dutch buildings including these churches |
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| Toko Oen bakery has been operating since 1931 |
The next stop was Bali by bus. The journey itself took around 12 hours, including a food stop. We were lucky that our bus wasn't very full and we had plenty of room to stretch. We left at 5pm and arrived early the next morning pretty much on the doorstep of our friends' Anne and Dan's place. I slept through the ferry ride. It was awesome to catch up on good food and a bit of home in Bali. We dined well and hung out with mates. We didn't even bother with the beach, probably because we'd been in Bali only 3 weeks prior for a week-long volunteer conference. Don't think you've visited Indonesia if you've only been to Bali. It just seems like an extension of Australia.
The next day we flew to Ende via Labuanbajo in Flores. Flores was a world apart from Bali and urban Java. Suddenly the "hello misters" were everywhere and the air seemed fresher. Obviously the people look different too, way more Melanesian. Conveniently we were actually able to walk to our hotel from the Ende airport. Despite the dusty town, the landscape was breathtaking - we were surrounded by sea and mountains.
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| The airport scenery was impressive enough in Ende |
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| Locals waiting to pounce on us at the airport. We walked to our hotel. |
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| Sunset in Ende |
We bargained our way into a van heading towards Maumere and got off at Moni, a roadside village in the mountains frequented by visitors wanting to see the Kelimutu Lakes. The Lonely Planet only lists a handful of hotels/homestays and believe me, they rip you off. One of them quoted me Rp 300K per night over the phone. We ended up spending our first night at Hidayah which charged us Rp 250K for the night. Upon arrival there were plenty of others offering equally good accommodation for as little as Rp 80K! Our recommendation is Maria Inn and Homestay (085337294365). Look for it as you sort of exit the village. Our second night there cost us Rp 90K in a cabin and the breakfast was awesome. Maria and her son Aran were absolutely wonderful and we were able to also sample some delicious local cuisine.
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| Local kids in Moni kept asking for photos |
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| Maria Inn in Moni, highly recommended. |
Anyway, the lakes were another great experience. These three volcanic crater lakes high up on Mount Kelimutu (1639m) change colours periodically. One of them is usually blue but the other two vary between red, green, black and white. We rode up to the park on
ojeks (motorcycle taxis) at 4am so we could catch sunrise. Unfortunately it was cloudy until about 7.30am but we braved the cold and stuck around. The precise reason for the changing colours is unknown but is probably a chemical reaction between the minerals in the lake waters and volcanic gas. The last eruption was in 1968.
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| The mist didn't lift of the Kelimutu Lakes until well after sunrise |
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| The black lake |
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| This lake is occasionally red or white. This time it was blue. |
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| Hot springs in the middle of paddy fields |
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| The falls at Moni |
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| To our surprise there was dolphin meat for sale at the market in Moni. Each dolphin cost only $25.00! |
Leaving the fresh air and village life of Moni was difficult but we eventually made our way by car to Maumere, another coastal city in Flores. There's not much in the way of attractions in this town especially since tourism here was decimated by a tsunami that killed thousands in 1992 and destroyed its world-renowned coral reefs. We were lucky to be staying with fellow-volunteer Brad Bazley who was working at the hospital. Brad was glad to see us and did an amazing job of showing us around a place that would normally just be a transit town. We had a great time and breathed in as much fresh air as we could before we flew back to smoky old Jakarta.
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| View of Maumere with Pulau Besar in the distance |
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| The statue of Mary at Nilo which overlooks Moni |
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| Posing for shots at Nilo |
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| Brad took us to his "secret" beach near Maumere |
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| I'm gonna buy one of these when I get home |
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| The Maumere sunset |
island we were greeted by our first Komodo dragon that was sunning itself by the entrance to the island. The guides on the island took us around with a stop off at the kitchen used by the rangers. Underneath the kitchen were heaps of Komodo dragons. They are not fed by anyone but they apparently come because they can smell the food. After this we went on a big tour of the island and saw the nests in which the female Komodo dragons lay their eggs. We eventually came to a watering hole where three wild buffalo were bathing. Lying near by, quietly, were two Komodo dragons waiting for their opportunity to bite and kill the buffalo.
die but the Komodo dragon will wait patiently and then gorge itself on the buffalo. Komodo and Rincah are actually quite big and way too large to walk around in a day. There are even villages on both islands which existed before the whole area was gazetted as a national park. The locals have
a bit of a shock to the system after seeing all the wealth in Jakarta. We trekked through rice fields and forest to get to the waterfall while a hoard of local children followed us and taught us words in their local language, Manggarai. The waterfall was beautiful and freezing and well worth the trek. Once we trekked back to our staring point we sat down and some of the other people who were with us shared their food around with the local children. It was amazing to see the children break biscuits in half and share them with the other children. No one asked us for money and no one tried to sell us anything. They were a group of people who were as intrigued to see us, as we were to see them.
