Lombok & Bali

12th April: The bus trip was promising to be quite complex due to all the changes  needed to be done: from Maluk to the harbor on the southwest of Sumbawa Island; still inside the bus a ferry to Gianyar in the east side of Lombok Island; and finally, the road from Gianyar to the capital of Lombok Island: Mataram. I was wrong about it. Very simply, well organized and punctual, arriving at 3am in the terminal nearby the airport, exaclty as predicted. Actually I was the one who was praying for the trip to have delays so I would have more time to sleep in the “confort” of the bus. But no, from 3am until 8am I had no other option than sleep there in the terminal, on a bench of a roadside restaurant, protected by my sleeping bag.  At 8am, as previously agreed with Mr. Klaus (my next couchsurfing host, from Germany), I called him and went to his home. I asked a couch for Mataram, the only place in Lombok where there’s active couchsurfing accounts, but actually Mr. Klaus lives a few km north from Mataram, near the touristic Senggigi, nearby many dream beach destinations. Promising, no doubt, but what I would never imagine was that in only 20 minutes I would be jumping from a dirty and smelly bench of a roadside restaurant to and indescribable luxurious home inside a private neighborhood appropriately called “Secret Garden”. It has all, the wild and rich tropical forest in the backside, the paradisiac beach 2 minutes away by bike, and an astonishing exquisite swimming pool (and quite big) shared by the owners of the several houses of the private neighborhood. There’s no need many details to explain how happy I was, after almost one month travelling, to be in such a place, able to sleep in a real (good) bed, to take a hot shower/bath or to have the possibility to really wash my clothes… These are examples of basic needs in Europe that here are usually luxes. So imagine me being presented with European style luxes! :p Ahahah

Probably one of the bests decisions I made so far in this trip was to rent a bike for 3 days (10€) soon after have settled down at Mr. Klaus home. With it and some maps I copied from my guest, I was from this moment on completely independent and free to move around in this paradise called Lombok. For the first day, and because I was very tried, I decided to only go to Mataram Imigration Office to extend my VISA for 1 more month, and to make a small tour, crossing around 25km of coast to visit the first 5. Four of them were probably the best ones I visited so far in my life: Mangsit, Coco, Malimbu and Nipah. The remaining one I didn’t like: Senggigi beach, situated right in front of the touristic town with the same name. Exhausted but happy, I came back home knowing I had succeed to accomplish my mission for the first day, once the bureaucracy went pretty well, and the data collected for my friend’s website www.mylovelybeach.com was very promising! The day finishing in a perfect way, having a wonderful dinner with Klaus and his mate: Mexican beans and meat sauce remembering in taste and aspect the meal my sister so well is able to prepare too! 🙂

13th April: As the woman in the Immigration Office had told me to do, punctually at 10am I was again there to do the second step: the payment, 250.000rp. The third would be to receive back the passport at 2pm, but that will completely destroy my plans for the day, once it would force me to not travel too far away. The solution I found was to bribe her with extra 50.000rp. She accepted and made it immediately! :p

With the tips I got from a guy in the Immigration Office, I managed to cross the rest of Mataram city and get out at the right exit, in the direction of Lembar, my first destination. The reason to go there was to check out the ferries’ schedule to Pandangbay (Bali), and also because it was on the way to the forgotten and paradisiac beaches Mr. Klaus highly advised me to explore! Immediately after getting out of the urban zone (Mataram), many interesting and exotic sights kept my attention: colorful and exquisite mosques, workers in the rice fields, street markets, tiny villages, kids fishing or playing in the water, palm trees forests and so, so much more… Unfortunately, for you, there are not many pictures to show this wonders. Not because I didn’t wanted to take pictures, but because it would make the bike tour very complicated. First most of the roads didn’t have large roadside where to park the bike for a while. Besides that, if I would stop to photograph all the wonders on my way, I wouldn’t have time to make the planned circuit. I’m really sorry for that, but still, there are a few photographed exceptions, and plenty of pictures from the surreal beaches! :p  And believe me, it was really joyful to drive a bike with a quite good speed, crossing beautiful towns, endless rice fields and getting into “Lost World” like mountains and jungles…

Before arrive in my first destination, but not too far, a mega rain storm started suddenly, giving me no time to park the bike and protect myself before get completely wet. Not a big deal, once it was quite warm. I stopped in a motorbike garage, took out the shirt and used my “anti-rain pack”: the hot towel (kept under the seat, near the engine) and toilet paper to clean my glasses. The rainstorm lasted for 15 minutes, but the consequences of it were unbelievable: big pools of water in the road, and worst, much worst, instantly created strong rivers of orange vivid color, coming down the hills and crossing the roads. I was quite afraid to cross those deep and fast “rivers”, but after realize that everybody else was crossing it I went back to the road too. It was still raining a little, but nothing that would prevent me to drive. When I sighted a quite big town (for this zone), I decided to stop, this time to dry myself well, take a hot coffee and wait the rain to stop completely. While drinking the coffee I asked about the name of that place, and for my joyfulness, it was already Sekotong Tengah, the last landmark before turn northwest and move towards Taun Beach. There in the shop they had also colorful slices of watermelom tempting me. I asked the price: 4cents! Mmmm, delicious and, basically, for free! :p

Right after Sekotong Tengah a found a not mapped beach and I decided to stop. Although very narrow, the environment was very rich, and the view of the bay superb… A few kilometers more and I finally found Taun Beach. What can I say, I’m running out of adjectives! Yap, definitely worth to visit! 🙂 To get into the second destination, I needed to come back again to Sekotong Tengah and then move south, crossing the “Lost world” like mountain range full covered by an incredibly rich jungle. Better than this one, only in Flores.

In the south coast of Lombok is situated the Sepi Beach. Its name (“sepi” means quite/deserted) says everything. A magnificent and forgotten paradise beach of white and clean sand, with the mountain range behind and, in the front, an endless bay that leads to a wonderful archipelago of tiny Islands and rocks…

To get into Kuta Beach, I needed to get again inside the mountain. So far, and besides being in a forgotten part of the Lombok, the roads were quite new and with good asphalt, but the next part would be completely different: a completely destroyed road, with 1 and 2m deep craters, dozens of meters without a single bit of flat surface and, in some parts, I was even forced to move out of the road, passing through the forest, or jump out the bike and push it! What madness! Yah, it sounds terrible, but my only worry was to not get into Selongblanak and Kuta beaches on time, I mean, before the sunset. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have any kind of worry or reason to feel upset, once crossing this outstanding landscape and the third world villages with welcoming and surprised people was such a good experience that I didn’t felt the time going by. Even with the feeling that I was really running out of time, I couldn’t resist to what my eyes were showing me: a little and poor village, with no running water neither electricity, where I found people who looked really shocked to see a foreign. And that’s not all. The best was the beach: immense, long and large, with white sand and no vestiges of plastic rubbish. A really lost paradise in potential, once I don’t want to offend those people living there calling it paradisiac (and consequently their lives paradisiacal)! No, not at all! But the place is definitely special, having even a little lake reflecting the beautiful shapes of their bamboo houses and the beginning of the beach. Ah and the kids! Better to watch the pictures! Because it is not mapped, as I said, I decided to call this it Nangong Beach, after the name of the village also not mapped but whose inhabitants taught me its name.

Still in the mountains, I found a great spot with an open view to the coast, when I was able to have the first glimpse of my next destination: Selongblanak Beach. From this privileged spot, not only the beach was easy to sight, but also all the bay and hills surrounding it, as well as the islands in the shore. And separating me from that beach was a luxury forest hopefully there to complete the idyllic scenery. Front the top of this mountain, the beach looked to be very near, but actually it took me quite long time to get there and confirm how wonderful Selongblanak Beach was. Back to the road, one more cool surprise: a traditional wedding going on in a small village, completely blocking the traffic. Once I was forced to stop the bike, I get out of it to check the wedding closely. Good it happens! Really worth to be seen! But not for long, the sky was getting a little bit dark, and I still had to make 25km until Kuta beach. Unfortunately I really needed to move away, and more, I needed to drive fast. Actually really fast I drove, once there’s a great road in the south leading to Kuta Beach: several kilometers of a perfectly straight line with very good asphalt. I reached 95km/h there, with an automatic scooter! And yah, just on time to be presented in Kuta with a magic and multicolor sunset. Really lucky! The sky has very cloudy for the whole day, cover of clouds that made the favor to get away at the right time! :p Kuta Beach it is not so quiet as the beaches I have seen previously in this day, once it as a town nearby (with the same name) and there’s enough tourists coming here to sustain the increasingly growing number of restaurants, guesthouses and bars. But, the beach itself, is surely the most complete and exquisite dream scenery in Lombok Island, and probably also one of the best in whole Indonesia. So much to say about and at the same time so hard to express it! I highlight its endlessness beach enriched by 3 zones with 3 different kinds of sand, the vivid green trees right on the beach and, above all, the beautifully shaped rocks spread throughout the beach (especially near its capes) that are at the same time great to complete the “perfect picture” and very useful to take other great pictures from its tops! Still at the top of a rock, now simply enjoying the idyllic view, I had a surprising and lovely visit. A group of young people (2 girls and 3 boys) came to seat next to me, inviting me to drink their local drink made of fermented rice, the “brom”. When I say local I don’t mean the whole Lombok, only this southern part where live the Sasak People, one of the 3 main ethnic groups in the island. Authentically welcoming and truly enjoying the presence of a foreign (not a “turist”), they were very curious to make questions about me and my homeland, and also willful to teach me about the region, their culture and their Sasak language, while pushing me to drink (a lot) of their delicious and strong rice wine. Their unique kind expressions and their genuine smiles would be one of the best memories I will keep for my whole life…

A little bit drunk and without (international) drive license, I still needed to make around 50km through unseen roads without artificial illumination in a night particularly dark. Hopefully my destination was Mataram, the capital of the island, so there’s was a bypass (kind of narrow high-way). Besides that, every time I stopped to confirm the right direction, obviously everybody knew which roads to take on the way to the capital… Once I got into a known place (somewhere in the road between Mataram and Senggigi), I immediately parked the bike and look forward to satisfy my starving stomach and “relieve waters”! Ah, too much Brom! Lucky me, I got wonderful seafood rice for 80 cents. Great, simply great… :p

9 hours after have started the journey, I was again at Mr. Klaus “palace”, feeling all my bones broken, but the mind immerse in bliss… “mutluluk”…

14th April: The main goal of the day was to visit one of the three worlds renewed Gili Islands, a top destination for snorkeling and diving. From Senggigi I should go north crossing again the paradisiac west coast of Lombok. Not far from the harbor where I should take the boat, I had the found a cape with a perfect view for the three islands, and better, two more wonderful beaches to had on http://mylovelybeach.com  database: Pandanan and Nara beaches.

In the harbor there were not so many people going to the island Mr Klaus advised me to visit, Gili Meno, the middle one, so it took 2 precious hours to fulfill the boat. At the least I had plenty of time to discover the tiny harbor, buy enough food for the journey (yah, must count on the insanely high prices of goods in the hiper-touristic islands) and have a discussion with a stupid guy who had enough good skills on English to express himself, but still the mind with the size of a peanut, impeding him to understand the difference between “tourist” and “traveller”. 99,9% of Indonesian do the same mistake, but I understand it when is said by a child, and old man, or by illiterate folks in general, not from a guy speaking English as good as me… anyway…

To have opted for the middle Island (Meno) was mainly a consequence of Mr. Klaus advises. Only when I was in the boat moving towards it, suddenly a great thought came out: being in the middle one, with a tele-zoom lens on my camera, I would be able to “spy” a little bit the other two (Trawagan and Air)! Cool! :p

The first impression I had when I got into Meno Island was of being “jumping inside the TV screen”, joining a documentary I previously watched. Why? Because those kinds of unreal sceneries, with absolute clear and crystalline waters, ones usually just know it from the TV! :p After have made a short walk on the south part of the island and have swimming on its dream waters, I moved to north, looking for the snorkeling spot shown on the map. The view from the other islands, the forest, the animals, the insects, the coral and shells spread throughout the beaches… everything was great, except the overexploited tourist industry…  and the silliness of those “orang-hutan” who don’t know how to make business: wanting all the money at once often leads to the absence of it! In front of the snorkeling spot I found a single person renting masks, snorkels and fins. She wanted 40.000rp for the whole day. I said: “ok, I just need for 1 hour, so I will pay you 15.000rp for this hour, the equivalent of a whole day in Labuan Bajo”. She said “no way, this is not Labuan Bajo but the touristic Gili Island”. Yah right, but the point was to pay the same amount of money for a SINGLE hour. When she understood it she drop the price to 35.000 and finally to 30.000. The husband joined her to call me a greed tourist! F****** bastards! Tourist not for sure, otherwise I would pay their price with no complains, second they were the greed ones. Renting 40.000/day, I offered them 15.000/hour! Insane orang-hutan’s mentality people. I gave up! Continuing to walk west eventually I found a cool bar with cool young guys also renting snorkeling equipment. Their prices: mask+snorkel for 15.000rp/3hours or mask+snorkel+fins for 25.000/3hours. I proposed to remake it: 15.000rp for the 3 objects instead of 2, but only 1 hour instead of 3 hours! With no arguing and smiling they accepted immediately! 🙂 Ahahaha, and I got exactly what I initially proposed to the stupid woman! :p About the snorkeling experience, it’s a matter of luck, not an exact science to sight the famous turtles, so I sighted no one. But in the other hand there are no words to describe the feeling of immerging in such rich and exotic waters fulfilled by colorful fishes with bizarre bodies and wonderful corals. And yes, I saw some of the very famous and rare blue ones! Simply great! 🙂 Finished the underwater adventure, I moved towards the inner-island to visit the salt lake and photograph (by chance) a giant spider! Without much time left until de departure of the boat that would bring me back to Lombok, I decided to seat nearby the harbor and enjoy the view, now with a better light thanks to the clouds that decided to open the sky for a while. Unexpectedly a wedding ceremony started right next to me, a great occasion to take some more nice pictures and luckily meet 2 Dutch persons who were also happily photographing and enjoying the ceremony! She was a professional photographer and took a great album of pictures of myself with my camera. He was a musician, partying for his birthday, so invited me to join them and drink a strong sweet alcoholic drink made from dark rice! Later in the evening, when he added me on facebook, I discovered we had four friends in common! :p

Back to Lombok, quite drunk, I still had enough energy and willing to move a little bit more north, to discover Sira Beach. Surely one of the longest beaches in Lombok, with crystalline waters almost like Gili Islands, a dream place, very quiet, perfect to relax and also for snorkeling. There I found a reggae stile bar, with very cool guys smoking joints, Bob Marley hits playing on the radio and a “rastafari” young guy, who surprised me with his kindness and his skills with Portuguese language. He was able to say, with perfect accent of Brazilian Portuguese, sentences like: “E aí meu irmão?” or “E aí maconheiro”! Ahahahah, great! 🙂

Around 6pm I was again at Mr. Klaus home.  Prepared a tea and went outdoors, seating in the terrace enjoying the perfect light and the Bossanova songs perfectly mixed with the sound of the singing birds in the backyard. What a surprise Mr. Klaus made me with his music preferences, especially when I heard two of my favorite songs: “Desafinado” and “Corcovado”… again “mutluluk”…

15thApril: Early morning: time to finally try to swim in the exquisite swimming pool available in the paradise where Mr. Klaus live. Refreshed and completely woke up from the swim, I went to the terrace to take my last luxurious breakfast of exotic fruits with coffee, while discussing again the Libyan Faked Revolution with Mr. Klaus, who as a completely opposite opinion of mine! :p The guy from the renting bikes company took too long to came and receive the bike back, and made me loose the only bus of the day to Lembar harbor! Great, great! Better run away with the bike on the next time! Some mad guys were asking me between 100.000 and 150.000rp to take me there. Lol. Want all at once? Mmmm, again you get nothing…  Luckily a French guy was there trying to buy a tour ticket for the mountains and, having heard the conversation made me the following proposition: he was planning to rent a bike today and go south (Lembar harbor is on south too), so I could pay him 20.000rp and we would leave me at the harbor. Great! I accepted. We decided two meet around 2pm in the restaurant where I would be using internet and eating, but soon after he came back saying he changed plans once he didn’t manage to make a deal for the price he wanted. French are known in this part of the world for being persistent negotiators and for barging too much, now I see why. About be, this was catastrophic news. I still could pay 500rp Bemo to Mataram, and then try to find something for 20.000 or 30.000 to get into Lembar, but that would take a lot of time and patience, so I told him I would pay 40.000rp to rent the bike for him and he would bring me there after all; he would pay the fuel. The French guy accepted, rented and before 2 was there to pick me up. He didn’t knew the way, but my memory was still fresh about it, so I explained the route and he drove, under a heavy rain in the first 10km. Hard negotiator but real cool and friendly guy. It was a really big pleasure to meet him! He was a traveler blog too. Check it please: . 🙂

The ferry ticket was cheaper than what I thought: 40.000rp. Plus 40.000 for the bike, still much cheaper than the 135.00 for the pack: shuttle bus Senggigi-Lembar plus ferry Lombok-Bali. Good I missed the 10.30am bus and met this French guy! 🙂 Nice price but not social environment in the ferry: a multitude of stubborn guys trying to sell me all kind of stuff were coming to talk with me every 10 seconds, although I had made already very clear that I had all I needed in my bag and that I would not by for sure nothing from them! What tiring people! So, I put the music in my laptop on the maximum volume and start to write!

5 hours later I was in Padangbay, east Bali. It was already night, nobody was able to explaining me where or if there were buses to the west side of Bali, or at the least people didn’t looked that interested on helping me. Only the typical boring guys, the motorbike-taxi guys, were coming to talk to me offering insanely high prices to bring me nowhere, to bring me to the next abandoned corner… what to say… hopefully I saw a western guy passed by (I had seen him before in the ferry) and asked him for help. He told me he lives and he was going to Ketapang to, the harbor city in east Java where I was planning to go next! Uoh, what a coincidence! I asked if we could share the fuel bill in case he would give me a ride, but he said the fuel was no problem for him, no need to pay him nothing. The question was if I would like to make the tour he was about to start. He would drive is car until the South, to Kuta, sleep one night there, then next morning he would be dealing with his business partners and only afternoon he would go to Java. I said I was open to everything, so I joined him! Ah, what a mad surprise. This is the kind of unexpected travelling experiences I’m always ready to get into! 🙂 And who would guess that precisely one month after have started my trip, I would be back to the very starting point!?! Amazing…

While crossing the southeast coast of Bali, we had a lot of time to start to know each other, especially me about is unique and eccentric life story. My “new friend” is Italian and his name is Enrico.  He got married with a woman from south Lombok, a member of the Sasak People like the teenagers I met in Kuta (Lombok one, not Bali one) for who he needed to fight a according with the tradition of the village against her husband. The win for the Italian guy in this fight would make possible to the woman to divorce and get rid of the domestic violence she suffered since she married forced, at the age of 14. No need to say the result of the fight, just mention that Enrico and the Sasak girl are now together and have a little baby. About having a “wife” (they are not married) who grew up in a countryside third world village, he told me and I believe him that in many aspects he his firstly a father, secondly a husband. Very easy to understand it, after all I had seen around here. Most of the people have an intellectual age of a 6 or 8 years old European child. Not joking. Only in the big cities (Surabaya is a perfect example) I found mentally adult ones! Enrico explained me where is situated the village in south Lombok where his “wife” grew up and, if I’m not equivocated, I passed there before yesterday. And that’s not the cool coincidence. The really cool one is that Enrico recognized one of the children in the pictures I took in the “uncharted village! Unbelievable! His skills with Indonesian language completely surprised me! He really speaks fluent Bahasa Indonesia. I asked him how he managed to reach such a high level. He told it was very simple: he lives with a woman who knows barely anything about English! Yap, I got it! :p Once Enrico lives in Indonesia for quite long time and visit Kuta many times, he knew where to find a quite cheap and very good hotel, with swimming pool and a cool view. To share the room also helped a lot to make it cheaper! Last interesting information about Enrico today: he told me he bought a huge land in Sumbawa Island, including a long white sand beach and a hill with fresh water source in Sumbawa for a ridiculous price, where now he is building is dream house. For instance, a hectare of this paradisiac and desert land costs around 2000€! You see guys what I mean when I talk about live in Indonesia!

16th April: Enrico went to Kuta airport zone to take care of his business; I stayed for a while in the hotel, enjoying the swimming pool and the quite good breakfast, having also time to meet a cool Israeli guy who wanted to keep secret his nationality because, according with his point of view, it would be dangerous to spread out it in a Muslim country like Indonesia. Yah, sure! Lol! With still enough time I decided to make a tour around the neighborhood, coming back at noon to check out from the hotel and take my bag and Enrico one. The plan was to wait for him in the roadside next to the hotel and so I did. There, another amazing coincidence happened. Do you remember Garry, my “first friend” of the trip that I met in the last day at Kuta? Yah, this very same guy moved his job from the place we met to another place right in front of the hotel I stayed this time! I felt really happy to find this great guy and to have time to continue our very interesting conversation, especially because Enrico came much later that what we had agreed, giving me extra time to enjoy the company of Garry! 🙂

One of the best reasons to get in contact with guys like Enrico, who knows everything about the country that adopted him, is de fact that he knows where to eat good and cheap food, including in Kuta. We went to have lunch in Warung Nikmat, the restaurant with the biggest variety of food I found so far in this trip, and undoubtedly the one who as the best ratio price/quality. Here is the address for those interested on it: Warun Nikmat, Jalan Bakung Sari GG, Biduring, Kuta-Bali.

Back to the road, we crossed Denpasar, the capital of Bali, on the way to the north through the road that leads to the lakes and mountains I wanted to visit and later gave up about due to the insane prices they offer to the “turists”. Without expecting I eventually did it, and in a much better way, with a guys who know everything about the Island, who was stopping frequently in the best spots for me to take pictures of the lakes, the mountains and the monkeys, and all this with a genuine altruism or, if you want, completely free of charge for me! The empathy we built with each other became a great a memorable think. There was not anymore this uncomfortable feeling of the silence when next to a strange person, when we always urge to find a theme to keep talking, even when we even nothing else to say. With Enrico the silent moments were as natural as when next to an old friend. The conversations interrupted the silence naturally, when there was truly something to say, both from me or from him. Keeping with the unbelievable stories, Enrico explained me with details about the 2 times we was attacked my sharks, and the other one when a snake bit him. All these stories and many more are fortunately registered in his diary, that’s waiting to be published as a book. I will wait for it impatiently!

One more tip for travelers: in Indonesia, when you take a ferry as a passenger of a motorbike, a car our any other kind of vehicle, you only need to pay the ticket for the vehicle, doesn’t matter how many people are inside it. So, while crossing the strait between Bali and Jawa, Enrico paid the ticket for the car and I paid nothing once I was seated inside the car. Great! I may try to repeat it on purpose, asking people with cars or trucks waiting to embark if they let me go in just a few minutes until get parked in the ferry. Let’s see! :p

 

Sumbawa Island

Sape & Bima (7th to 9th April): My arrival in the completely unknown Sumbawa (for me) couldn’t have happened in a better way. After the big storm that followed us in the last 2 hours of the ferry trip, the air was now extremely clean, pure. Also the sun appeared again, shyly but enriching the panorama of Sape’s harbor and the clouds at the horizon with an outstanding light never seen before. Already stepping on Sumbawa Island and besides the rain that was starting again, I still took the decision to walk around for a few minutes, enjoying the surreal light and discovering the first yards of this magic land with suspended houses, what made me guess that I would be travelling in a flooding zone for the next days. And guess what, I was right! After 7 hours in the ferry, the daylight was about to finished, and I still had to take a bus to my first destination Bima. It took around 1 hour, so when I got there was already night. A little bit confused with the absence of light and any kind of idea about the city, I looked for a place to eat where at the same time I would ask information about cheap hotels. The meal was quite expensive but wonderful, and the owner, a very old man (with no idea about English language) made his best to explain me where to find a very cheap hotel. With his explanation I easily got there, and once the rest of the hotels in Bima are quite expensive, I want to leave here the information about this one, so you can get there in case you visit the Island: Hotel Dara, rooms from 40.000rp (3,3€), next to the left exit of the bus terminal (5 meters); you will actually see it from the middle of the terminal). It has also an internet-café in the hotel, 4000rp/hour (0,33cents/hour) with quite fast connection.

Bima it’s a big city, and like every big city,, full of people, noisy and quite polluted, but believe me, its people makes worth to visit it! Their kindness, their talkativeness and their happiness for being with a foreign are so great that even if Bima would be the dirtiest city in the world, I would easily spend a long time there (if I could)! The kids are great here! Sometimes shy, but always very curious. They love to be on the picture, jumping and smiling of happiness when they see themselves on the camera’s screen. Probably the best moment with kids was when I reached the coast marginal, where I found 2 little boys who explained me their fishing technic. Other great moment, this time with a group of teenagers, took place in a suburb of Bima. They were playing a cards’ game and invited me to join them. I couldn’t understand it and I don’t like to play cards. Still, I stayed watching them playing for a while, astonished with the “punishment” they have for the loser one: a hearing made from a string and a bottle fixed on it! The looser must keep it on his hear until the next round is finished! Lol. Unforgettable were also the 10 minutes spent on walking in a street, followed in the other side by a big group of very young girls wearing white traditional Muslim dresses.  In a confusing mix of shyness and curiosity, they were waving their hands to me and asking to take picture of them, to immediately after cover their faces with the hands or hiding themselves behind the trees on the roadside. They repeated it several times, getting less shy each time…

Adults treated me very well too. Always ready to give me information or help, even when I didn’t need or didn’t want! And more, offering me stuff or doing special prices, like the old guy on the internet-café who told me I could stay online (with my own laptop) unlimited time for 5000rp (40cents)! That very same guy spent the rest of the day joyfully watching the pictures of Indonesia in my website and showing it to everybody! Even better, the guy with a drying helmets business (yah, it exists here, and it’s very used in Indonesia): I saw he had those wonderful traditional hats for only 2,5€ so I went inside to buy one. What happened there was far behind of what my imagination could guess: this guy, Haris, speaking fluently English, drew me a map of the city center with the places I was looking for, presented me his lovely wife and the beautiful kids, and 2 hours later when I came to take my hat, offered me tea, patiently explained how works his machines, shared a really nice conversation and… yes, he gave me the hat as a gift! And about the conversation: Haris explained how he and a group of German guys built a traditional wooden ship in Sulawesi to then make a 3 years trip (all of them) around the world sailing it! There’s a book about this trip and he proudly showed me a copy: Die Dschunke, Axel Brummen, ISBN 3-934996-13-2. What an amazing life’s story this guy has, who now settled down in this forgotten island of Sumbawa, humbling living from a cleaning helmet company, enjoying and loving life with his family, day after day… the minimum I can do to this friend I got in Bima, is to share with all you reader the address of his business, in case one day you will need to clean or dry a helmet! :p Here it is: Jalan Poros Pelabuhan, Sebelan Barat Jembatan Romo Tanjune, Kota Bima, NTB, Indonesia.

Although mister Haris drew me a good and precise map of the city center, eventually I didn’t succeed to visit all the main attraction. Not because of my bad orientation, but due to my volleyball passion. After visit the big mosque under construction/in ruins and watch kids playing in its backyard, I sighted a group of people playing volley, and I decided to get closer and learn more about. They were only women playing, and the “assistance” was also women and female children. I seated for a while, taking pictures of them game and of the people, but later I convinced them to let me play, and so I did for an hour, until the sunset. They were so happy that even invited me to come back next day at 4pm, but unfortunately my trip plan wouldn’t let it happen…

About the food, it is really interesting in Bima, very tasty and with a bigger variety comparing with what I had seen so far in Indonesia. And the prices are very small, in general. I highly advise to try some local food on the traditional roadside restaurants. A good dessert, for only 5000rp: a big fruit salad with peanut cream. You will find people selling it in the roadside.

Funny moment of the day: while taking pictures of kids playing football, a very old man with a high quality mobile took also several pictures of me! :p

From coast to coast (9th & 10th April): It was told me the bus from Bima to Sumbawarbesar would leave the terminal at 9am, but once the hotel I was staying was right in front of it, I went there to check the bus around 8am. Good that I did it! The bus departed at 8.15am, so overloaded of people and goods that I bet it will eventually get a flat tire. Less then 10km later: a flat tire! :p While the guys fixed the problem, I went out of the bus to try an exotic and tasty cheap food: Peaces of tofu and meatballs with boiled egg inside, with a vivid red sauce very spicy! 🙂 Mmmm! Back on the road, and with the “kilometers” passing by, I confirmed what I was guessing. Not only the Sape and Bima zone, but the whole Sumbawa Island is a flooding zone, and that’s why the houses have a very specific characteristic: the “first floor” its completely empty. Its only made of the wood pillars who support the second floor, where people live!

With the bus already overloaded, they still stopped to take a group of 8 teenagers in a small village. Of course from this moment on, people started to hit and hurt each other, complaining of the insufficient space and the bad seating positions. Anyway, for the driver was still not enough, and in the next 30 minutes, stopping in every village and passing by all bus terminals, he managed to get 8 more costumers, with many on the roof, and several outside the bus (with only a foot in the stairs and a arms in the windows)! After a few weeks in Indonesia, I already understood that the afternoons are particularly rainy, so I was guessing also about what would they do in case it would start to rain!?! Easy, the guys from the roof came inside! What a madness! Super-hiper-overloaded bus of people trying hard to breath! Fighting for survival! :p

About people here, they look to be (probably) a mix of native people quite similar with Flores, and of Javanese who (also probably) settled down here later. Being closer to Jawa, it is not a surprise that the main religion is again the Muslim. After have crossed Flores and Sumbawa, sighting so many people just staying at their houses’ entrance, seated, watching the emptiness, playing cards or smoking cigarettes, I started to believe that if folks here are more poor that in other regions of the world (like Europe), it is not (only) because of lack of opportunities, it is also a life style, a conscient decision. They are more poor mainly because they are less productive. So to be poor here is not like to be a jobless guy in a European slum. They work enough to keep going, they pick up from the rich nature enough goods, and life goes on. So, somehow, they are richer than many Europeans, even if life is taught here… and definitely more happy for being alive than the westerns with their “consumption-unhappiness”…

The last big road trip I did, in Flores, I had the problem with the battery not full charged, what prevented me of making a better photo album of it. This time I paid attention on in, the battery was full. Also full of people was the bus, and that was my biggest obstacle to take picture this time. The weather also didn’t helped a lot, once it was continually raining, but still, I think the album is worth to be watched! :p

11 hours later we were finally in Sumbawabesar. It was already dark and I was worry about how I would manage to find a cheap place just for sleep, was I would be continue the trip further west until Maluk, my final destination in the Island. I asked the guys from the bus if they knew about something very cheap. Somehow, with body language and Indonesian, they managed to explain me that would be possible to find 1 for 50.000rp but, once I would be continuing to travel in the next morning, I could sleep for free inside their bus, just like they would do! Uoh, great! To so, first I would need to wait while they would clean up the bus and fix it suspension. Deal! :p While waiting I got in contact with a very welcoming and friendly people who offered me a glass of hot milk and asked if I wanted to wash myself with a “mandi”. Ohhh, yah, definitely! After the refreshing I started to really enjoy to be there, in a slum stile corner of the terminal. I took a seat next to them and we “talked” for a long time, waiting the bus to be ready, but eventually I asked if I could stay overnight in the bamboo “bed” they had at their restaurant entrance and they kindly said yes! 🙂 On the next day morning, still with pain on my backs for the bus and for the bamboo bed, I got inside the kitchen where a old woman showed out to prepare the chili sauce they use here. The minimum I could do to these great people was to buy a meal there, and so I did. Finished the meal, I restarted the adventure, find a bus until Taliwang, from where I would take the last one to Maluk.

Half way between Sumbawabesar and Taliwang, in the northwest coast of the island, there’s a very long beaches’ area, with clear water and very clean sand. The surrounding landscape is also unbelievable beautiful! Sure it is not wild as Flores, neither its fauna is as reach as in Flores, but this is definitely a unique dream place. Culture changes a lot also comparing with Flores: the tipic hanging houses as I wrote before, and also the religion. The east is 100% Muslim while in the west of Sumbawa Island it is possible to sight a tiny Hindu influence, probably because it is not that far from Bali, the Hindu Island.

Maluk city (10th & 11 April): Ratna, a couchsurfer told me to leave the bus in Benete Terminal. I ask for it to the driver and he said ok. Already in Maluk, after have crossed almost all the city, the driver told me to leave the bus a take an oje (motorbike taxi) back to the beginning of the city, a few kilometers behind!!! I asked for what reason, he told me the reason was the Benete Terminal was back there! Ah, great, so why we didn’t stopped there when we passed by! Yah, sure, “pay, tourist pay”! Outraging mentality! Mother f***** guy! I walked back, but eventually I gave up (too many kilometers with the bag and feeling very tired) and called the couchsurfer. She came to meet me and I was confused because she showed up from a corner next to the place I was. Why did she tell me to wait so far away, back in the distant Terminal!?! It would be worst for both to meet there!?! But that’s ok… Surprisingly Ratna came not to lead me to her home and host me, but to help me to find a hotel!?! Ok… She said a cheap would cost 200.000rp (16€) per night! What, what, what!?! I said, impossible, I will sleep in the road or on the beach. Then she told me she will try to find a cheaper one. And yah, 20 meters from the place I firstly called her, there was one for 8€/night! Still very expensive to me! I changed immediately my plans! Instead of 2 nights in this cursed land, I would stay only one but enjoy the 2 days, taking the ferry to Lombok Island only on the next day at night. And I stayed in that “very cheap” hotel. Ratna told me everything was very expensive here due to the mining works nearby. Yap, one more reason to host me here! Especially because she was the one who invited me and convinced me to change my route and come to Southwest Sumbawa! It all started a few days ago when I sent her a couchsurfing request to stay at her place in Mataram (Lombok). She kindly replied me saying that she was not living there anymore, but that I would be welcomed to her new place, in Maluk, in case I would decide to go there! Strangely, in the last 2 days before get into Maluk she stopped to reply my SMS. Only a few hours before arriving in Maluk, at early morning, I got a message from her, with a strange excuse for her long silence… So, I wrote all this for a specific reason. People often ask me if it is not dangerous to use couchsurfing, or if it doesn’t bring troubles. I always say “no, not really”, but an exception can happen. There’s the exception! :p

The weather was also not very kind to me too. A big storm started when I was paying the room, and it lasted for several hours. Later, around sunset time it got better and I walked fast towards the beach, trying to enjoy the last sunset light. A little bit later, but I got there and finally felt happy for being in Maluk, thanks to the paradisiac beach and surroundings. Back to the hotel, I was invited by the teenager working in the reception to join him and his friends and play PES2011 with his Playstation2! Ahaha, cool guys! I played 2 matches, and then went out for internet, playing also a little badminton with a girl I found on the way. Went I went back I was planning to go slept, once I was feeling exhausted, but the guys invited me to play again on their Playstation2, and so I did until 1am! Mad life… :p

In the next day I was really feeling like sleep for the whole morning, but I really couldn’t do it. First because I had only until 8.30pm to discovery the city, and second because I now know that usually in the morning the weather is quite good and it is rainy in the afternoon. I went back to Maluk Beach, this time with enough light to see it all! :p And what a place! What a perfect postcard. Clear water with corals, clean beach, thousands of shells spread out through the beach, outstanding mountain picks surrounding the bay, friendly people like the old woman trying to talk with me in Indonesian! Ah, so nice she was! I bought a soft drink from her and later helped to pack her stuff when it started to rain. A very kind couple nearby offered me wet peanuts: strange, but believe me, it tastes good. Ah, and the teenager who joined me on the water, competing for the best wave to make “bodysurf”! :p Later, when I started to pick up the most beautiful shells, he helped me too! 🙂

I needed to check out from the hotel at 2pm maximum (that was cool!) so, although it was raining I went back on time to take a shower, prepare and eat a pack of Chinese noodles and even check the news: a plague of caterpillars in Bali and Lombok; a “pornoskandal” as it was written on TV screen. As far as I understood, a photographer took a picture of an Indonesian deputy searching for porno pages on his Ipad in the parliament! Lol

While searching a path to get closer to the big mountain nearby, accidentally, I went inside a very poor slum here live the newcomers who are here seeking for a better life with a well-paid salary in the mines. As I always say, if we don’t move at all, surprises will not happen, good things will not come search after us. We are the ones who must seek it. Et voilà, in that little village I met a huge group of friendly and smiley kids who never said nothing about money or candies! They truly enjoyed my presence there and to see themselves in the camera screen. The adults were also very kind and one talking quite fluent English made me a very good introduction about the place and the people lives. When I was about to leave the village the last surprise came: a man asked me to take a picture of him with his children in his arms, and to show his gratitude he offered me a boiled root that had a very similar taste with yams! It is important to sexplain that I’m crazy about yams, and I really miss eat! 🙂

 

EAST FLORES AND NEARBY ISLANDS

04-04: At 5.30pm we checked out from the hotel, feeling completely exhausted, but it was time to move on and go to take the bus to Labuan Bajo in the terminal. Yesterday the guys constantly offering me their taxi and tourist guide services drove me completely mad. Today, early morning, only a few were passing by, not stopping even Paul and I waved our hands up. The terminal was a few km away and we needed a ride, or at the least informations how to get there. Eventually one stop, but with an absurd price. Paul took it, I kept walking, and met again a few minutes later in the terminal. I wonder where is the empathy,  the hospitality, the willing to help somebody who probably needs help, once he’s waving his hands? I guess when they find a foreign, the only see a walking wallet. Therefore, if they have no space in their motorbike or car, of if they are in a worry, here in Bajawa, they will not stop. That’s for sure!

Now the 1.000.00$ questions: First, why they build bus terminal outside the cities and really far away? Second, why they have terminals at all, once all buses come to the city and pass by every street looking for passengers until it gets full?

While reading Paul’s phrase’s book, I found the translation for the word orangutan: “orang hutan“, in Indonesian. Immediately I realized that this should be a word originated from here, but I wanted the confirmation, so I checked if existed the translation to the term “hutan”. There was, and it means “forest”. Knowing that “orang” means “human being/person”, I got where the word came from… 🙂  Now I’m just wondering how they call a man who lives in the forest! :p

The landscape we crossed in this long 11 hours trip (with only a stop for lunch at Borong) was outstanding. Once again I don’t know which adjectives I shall use, but believe me, it is definitely a trip worth to be done, although very tiring. Giant picks with round clouds on top, forest and jungle, surreal range mountains, dream beaches, endless ricefields… unbelievable! Sadly the battery of my camera was almost flat (no outlet in the hotel’s room), so I only photographed the first 2 hours, but still, this wonder pictures would be saved in my memory until my last day of life, and I hope I will have enough opportunities to share with people until this day. 🙂

A word’s picture:  the green flat plateau, becoming yellow with the strong and shining sunlight, contrasting with the sharp and dark green picks covered by enormous clouds touching its summit…

05-04: The first think to do today was to check about ferries and flights from here to Sulawesi Island. Then I would be able to schedule my staying here in Baluan Bajo and also the trip to the islands where Komodo Dragons actually live! Travelling in this adventure stile, specially with short budgets like mine, it’s not always an easy thing. Transportation out from here is the perfect example of it. There’s a cheap ferry to Sulawesi only on April 12th (too late), and flights to expensive to my wallet. I know they have another ferry in Maumere on April 9th, but it doesn’t make sense to do all the way back to there, specially because it is quite expensive and tiring, and would also take too much time. And there’s more, my one month visa is expiring soon, so i need to go out and in of the country in a few days or find a city where to extend it. In Labuan Bajo there’s not an emigration office, so let see how much will change the trip’s route. Probably i’m not going to Sulawesi (at the least in this part of the trip), but there’s plenty of options, actually thousands… just check the Indonesian map! 🙂

Paul rented a bike to go around, I opted to walk towards the Pede beach. Dream, quiet and clean one! Great choice! There I had time to finally relax for a while and swim on its clearly water. 🙂 Later Paul showed up there, asking me if I wanted to take the bike for the rest of the day, once he had already “seen all”. I made a short tour on the semi-automatic gear’s bike to check if I was able to drive it and then took the road towards the sightseeing that Paul told me about. What a feeling of freedom to drive a motor bike through this exotic and and unseen lands! First stop, the communication towers, on the top of the hill. Paul said the people there invited him to climb the tower. He went up some stairs and made great pictures from there- I was jealous and willing to get there to and climb even higher! Once I found nobody in the area, I didn’t ask permission before climb it. Several minutes walking slowly and focusing on nice things to avoid thinking about highs and vertigo… and yah, I got to the first stage, really high. Far higher than my previous record! :p I was proud of my self and feeling extremely happy for have succeeded on doing  it, but the main idea was still the pictures. To take advantage from such exclusive place to taken unique pictures. Unfortunately, the moment I reached the stage, several people down in the base started to calling me, ordering me to come down. They refused my request to take just a picture before go down. They refused, so I simply took several quick shoots and followed their order. Mission accomplished, somehow… :p

Second mission: to find Binonko Beach. Not so easy to find the right entrance, because of the rich fauna covering the roadside, but eventually I discovered a less dense spot and walked in. Big mistake, it was a swamp with moving sand! F***! I got stoked on it, very scared, not knowing how to get out from there. My instinct told me to step on a laid down trunk nearby and start to run fast. It was very sticky, but hopefully I managed to do it. Already on save land, I was then enough calm to see the exotic red crabs that were there all the time in the swamp, probably surprised with this strange mammal in troubles to walk on it. The beach was now only a few meter away from me, but on the way I still had the opportunity to see more bizarre wild life: giant butterflies, fishes walking on the water surface, a kind of a black stork and an unbelievable beautiful kingfisher bird! The beach could be cleaner but, to compensate it, the water was warm and the view from the small island in the coast was really, really great!

Back to the town, I kept asking in the tourist offices for the tours in the Komodo Islands. Still now solutions for the next day, so I went to the bar where Paul was relaxing. Unexpectedly, there Paul introduced me Katerina, a German girls who kindly offer herself to find a solution to my problem. She call an Indonesian guy first, then I took a bike and went to meet him in person. A few minutes late the problem was solved, ans I was finally ready to share a mint “shisha” with my travel mate Paul on that bar…

NEW WORDS:

Lingua (old word, now they say bahasa) – Língua

Prosesi – Prossissão

Komuni – Comunhão

Back to the hotel I had the chance and the pleasure to meet a group of 8 French persons, very kind and talkative, and with a big travelling experience. They gave me many tips and advices about Thailand and Cambodia. I explained them all I knew already about the tours to visit the Komodo dragon islands and snorkeling on Labuan Bajo islands, drinking, meanwhile, from the beers they kindly shared with me.

06-04: Yesterday night Paul arrived late and really drunk. Today I was trying to wake him up, but was impossible. I really needed to talk with him, because I was going to take the boat to visit the Komodo dragons, and he would be taking a flight back to Australia a little bit later. I needed to organize a way for Paul to leave the room’s key in a safe place where I would take it back later. The alternative was to bring the bag with all the expensive stuff with me for the whole day… And that’s what I did. While taking my breakfast in the corridor a smiley English couple (Steve and Claire) asked me about breakfast. Once I had a double one (they brought for me and Paul by mistake), I shared with him, especially because they were in a hurry to take the boat to visit the dragons in Rinca Island and snorkeling in a very small island. Cool! The 3 of us were going to take the very same boat! Jefry, the guy who sold us the tickets told us we would be 5; a few minutes later we discovered the other in Jefry’s office: 2 Polish girls. They were in the same hotel as us too! I remembered very well the face of one, who rudely and arrogantly came next to me and the French group, yesterday,  literally saying “shut up because I have a trip tomorrow”, without and “hello”, a “please”, and with a threating expression. :p But you know, really fast we realized that she was the “kind one”, comparing with the indescribable rudeness of the other!  Lol. Better not bring details to here, but because of their arrogance, everything in the trip needed to be done on their way, regardless to the fact that Steve, Claire and I, together, were the majority! Just pay attention in these detail, I mentioned the name of the English couple, but I have no idea about the names of the Polish girls. Still, we had a lot of together (the 3). About them, always quiet, not even talking to each other. The less rude communicated a little with us during the journey. The extremely rude one was opening her mouth only to criticize somebody, to complain on something or to impose one more rule! I hope they will find a way to enjoy their trip too, but according with what I saw from them, it will be very improbable, unless they call fun to behavior this way! :p For Instance, the very nice guy who drove the boat during the day (gave us also coffee and tea,  and even let me drive the boat for a while):  he shacked hands with all of us at the end, in the harbor. The extremely rude one, face to face with the guy, and with his hand there waiting her one… she simply ignored and kept walking…

Yesterday Jefry, the guy who organized the trip for us for a very expensive price, told us that the snorkeling EQUIPMENT was not included, but we could rent it for 15000 rupiah more. Today, when we went to take the EQUIPMENT at the place he told, he conveniently disappeared when the owner of the renting shop asked for 30000 rupiah, saying that 15000 was only for the MASK, and that his business is separated from the other one! Yah, of course. Steve, Claire and I tried to renegotiate the price renting the 3 together, but the f***ing guy took the equipment from our hands and ordered us to leave his place, complaining that we western are greed and never stop bargain. But we only did it because the price changed, for double! Eventually we found Jefry who, lying, argued that he had talk about MASK, not the whole EQUIPMENT. Lol.  I do have a good memory, come on! Anyway, we order him to talk with the guy, and the finally price reached was 25000 rupiah (RP). Keep talking about money, you will not believe the kind of few they have the effrontery to apply in Komodo National Park (at Rinca Island). Per person: 20000 RP for the park, 20000 RP for the government. Per group: 50000 RP for the guide, 50000 RP to park the boat in the coast! Yah, to PARK THE BOAT! And there’s more 50000 RP per camera or video camera. Steve, Claire and I had previously decided to cheat them, saying we were together and with only my camera, so we shared the cost of this last few. It could have been cheaper if the other 2 girls were not from another galaxy…  So, with the price of the tour: 200000 RP, the total for me was 300000 RP, 25€! It looks like I will be eating rice with rice and sleeping in the jungle for the next days…. :p

Now the good side of it: 🙂 Separating the Flores Island from the Komodo National (Komodo Island and Rinca Island), there a small sea with plenty of small and tiny paradisiac island from all colors and shapes. Flat ones with dream beaches, others with mountains covered by forest or by simple grass, even just a volcanic pick! Unbelievable landscape they have here. About the sea, some parts were light blue with dark spots, letting us guessing about nice places to dive.  For me it was interesting to finally see the traditional fishing boat on action, away from the harbor, and it was very cool to sight 2 dolphins passing by our boat… 🙂

2 hour later and we were  in Rinca Island to finally visit this amazing and exotic creatures called Komodo Dragons. We gave the first few steps in the island and, luckily we sighted very first one, very big, resting in the shade, in a great position to take a photo! 🙂 Short moment of bliss, before the stress with the fews in the tourist office. Already with hour guide, we opted for the long path (2 hours), once we will have enough time for it, and more time means bigger probability to find wild life. Dragons we sighted a lot, both in the wild and nearby the guides’ houses, and during the trekking we sighted also buffalos, monkeys, wild pigs, a kind of wild chicken, many birds and insects (my favorites were the colorful butterflies, the water walking fishes again, colorful crabs. In the other hand,we didn’t sighted the vipers, neither the eagles or the wild horses.

I called it “trekking”, as it was told us to happen, but here comes some explanations that would be useful for the next visitors: Once again, what I found was careless people about the need of the visitors (who paid a lot to be in the Island). The guide was literally running, not trekking, giving us no time even to breath under the intense heat, scaring the wild life with the noise and speed, making hard to sight the animals I wanted to photograph, or scaring them before I get into a good spot to do so. I got really upset with the guide and asked him to slow down and start trekking for real! He respected my request for 10min, then kept going with his mad rhythm. As you can imagine, I started to stay behind, loosing them for a few minutes, getting enough quietness so the animals could show up, taking some good shoots, then running to catch them, several times… over and over… I have wonder words to say about the nature in this part of Indonesia, but people is a very big disappointment. It’s all about many! For the very high prices they charge, the minimum they could do would be to do things in the right way. And visitors should be able to decide their own rhythm, not the careless and stressed  guy who has the effrontery to call himself a “trekking guide”. Yah, sure… We are only walking wallets for them. Their work is like “mass production” visits… Shame on them!

Back to the entrance where we drunk some refreshing sodas, I met a Timorese guy who was listening Brazilian music. I told it it was it was singed in Portuguese. He said the music was from Porto, but I explained that this was a traditional Brazilian stile of music, the “sertanejo”  if I’m not wrong. Happy with the information, we introduced himself as Da Costa (Portuguese name), and made effort to say some words in Portuguese! Really cool guy! 🙂

Again in the boat, we moved towards the dream Kukusan island of  to snorkeling in its clear and light-blue waters. Steve and Claire have previously snorkeled at Gili island and Lombok (ultimate destination for diving and snorkeling), so they didn’t found that interesting. For me was the opposite, being the first time I snorkeled in Asia, I was astonished with the the immense variety of colors and shapes the fishes have here! Corals not so much, but still interesting. Now I’m wondering about Gili and Lombok. They said it is hundreds of time more rich and it’s easy to sight turtles! 🙂

At the evening I came back to Abbas restaurant, my new friend in Labuan Bajo. He’s a really wise and interesting guy, and also very friendly. He was not there, his smiley wife served me the food and explained me that Abbas went to pray at the mosque. When he came back, we continued our previous conversations, and after finished the meal he presented me the wife and his daughters, a little girl, and a baby who I took in my arms and played with for a while! 🙂

07-04: I had to take the ferry today to Sumbawa Island, but I was not sure about the departing time: some said 8am, others 9am. I woke up at seven and bought the ticket at 7.52am, and the ferry would actually depart at 8. I still had time to run and by a cheap meal before enter the ferry! :p In the hotel I stayed in Labuan Bajo, a guy tried to sell me a tickets’ pack for several ferries and buses to Sumbawa. I was confused, insisting that one ferry ticket would be enough. In the harbor the same happened again, but this time they told me the final destination: Mataram, the capital of Lombok Island. It is situated in Sumbawa region, but I only wanted to go to the very island of Sumbawa, not Lombok island, but they kept insisting! Is like they want to force me to jump from the tourist Labuan Bajo directly to the hiper-tourist island of Lombok, without check and visit the non-tourist Sumbawa. But come on, I decided to stay in Sumbawa several days precisely because of that! It was a very cool Korean girl, back in the hotel, who said so, and that tip was the final information I needed to have in order to take such decision! 🙂

Once again, during the 7 hours journey by ferry, I had the opportunity to sea plenty of amazing island and surreal landscapes. The best one was the Sangeang Island and its outstanding 1949m volcanic pick! Ah, and the big storm just before arrive in Sape harbor.

 

3 Days in Darma Kencana Ship

27-03: Besides had prepared the alarm clock to wake up me, I did it by myself much earlier, thanks to the enthusiasm of knowing that the departure to Flores was near. The last hours were spent in the company of my lovely hosts, who gave me the last tips and advises before leave. Soe come with me until the Bemo stop (Bemo is a very small public bus) and explained me how to get to the harbor: to leave the Bemo on Rumah Sakit Islam and take the bus to T. Perak. So I did, and 1 hour and half later I was in the harbor. Once I found the departure gate, the troubles started too. The ship was scheduled to leave the harbor at 2pm, but people where talking about 4pm, 5 pm and even 7pm. I called Soe and gave the phone to somebody to talk with her. Then she translated me, and yah, departure postponed to 7pm. I decided to take a meal nearby, and while doing it I saw a man with a very dark skin and facial expressions more African than Javanese. Eventually he came to seat next to me, and we started to speak in English. He was from Papua, but studying in a Javanese university. He told me wonders about Papua, trying to convince me to visit the island. Not that I wouldn’t like, but I have no time for such a long journey and it costs too much money. He continued to talk about Papua, this time to complain (with reason) about the stealing of Papua resources by the central government and the economic elite (as I said in the previous post), complaining at the same time that Papua natives never see a single rupiah from those resources. That’s why he “hates the republic” and full supports the independence of his island. In the east part of the Island there’s the country called Papua New Guinea, a name given by Europeans, and it is easy to understand why: the dark skin color, the round face, the big lips and the nose of this man really resembles with people from western Africa, where there’s countries like Guinea or Guinea-Bissau.

After had lunch, and with many hours to wait for the ship’s departure, I decided to walk around and visit the harbor slums. More than ever I found smiley faces and welcoming words of people who implored me to take picture of them! No problem! The best moment was when I found a group of kids playing football and I joined them. We talked, we played, we made pictures and video together, and they even taught me some words in Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian). A half hour wonderfully spent!

When they finally opened the gates for the waiting room I went inside and choosed a nice place to seat and read a book, surrounded by people with faces resembling much more Timorese than Javanese. No doubt they were all Flores inhabitants! I read almost nothing from the book, once a young guy started to chat with me. He was from Flores and finished the university a few weeks ago, going now back to Flores to teach English at an elementary school.  One of the first topic was religion, and he made me realized that after had visit a Hindu island (Bali) and a Muslim island (Jawa), I was now about to go to a Catholic one (Flores). A few days ago somebody told me that the reason for Flores to be Catholic is the Portuguese influence at the early times of European colonization in these lands. Looking carefully in the bags and boxes spread out through the waiting room, I found more evidences of the Portuguese influence, in the names of the people written on it: Silvino, Pareira (Pereira) or Nita (Anita). When his friend offered me to take some food from her bag, I took a boiled egg, while he took something unknown for me. I asked the name of it, he said “batata”. I asked “potato”? He said “no, it is similar with potato but it is a different thing and with call it batata”! Unbelievable! For those who don’t know, the Portuguese word for potato is precisely “batata”! Talking about houses prices, he told me that a small house in Flores can cost 1500€ and a good house some 4000€. Interesting, very interesting. Talking with Javanese people earlier in this trip, it was told me that here in Surabaya (Jawa) a small house nearby the center costs around 8000€ and one in a village near Surabaya 5000€. Indeed very cheap house prices, here or in Flores… and Flores has quietness, wildness and pure nature to offer, away from traffic jams, pollution and tourism mentality… really interesting…

Hopefully my new friend from Flores was very interesting, and his family and friends were very kind to me, because the postponed ship was re-postponed a few more time until finally, at 8.30pm they opened the ship’s door, and at 9pm we departure with 7 hours of delay. My friend told me not to be surprised; he said this happens often here in Indonesia, and in all kind of situations. For instance, if high school classes are scheduled for 7.30am, it will not start before 9am!

The ship is great, with beds, movies/tv room and restaurant (3 meals per day, included in the price, will be served in the next 2 days) and a very kind and helpful crew. Thanks to the free electricity in the movies room, I decided to seat there to use my pc, but once I started to check the pictures (to select and delete), a big crowd grew up around me willing to watch it too and asking for Bali pictures! When I started to write, the crowd didn’t found it that funny (lol) and went way. This time came Mister Suryo Darto Pamilih, second-officer (sub-capitan) of the ship Dharma Kencana, who seated next to me and talked with me for a while in good English. He was curious to understand which kind of trip I was doing and who was I after all. When he realized that I passed nearby his town a few days ago (on my way to Jawa) he showed me a big smile, precisely explaining me where is his house and passing me the mobile phone to talk with her shy wife! I showed him pictures and movies of my trip, and also my website (offline). He enjoyed it, and asked me to exchange emails and Facebook contacts. For me it would be a pleasure so of course I accepted it. A funny surprise, he introduced me his cooker and his personal massage man who were passing by! What a life! In the long time spent next to me, Mister Suryo gave me the first Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian) classes, which I saved in my computer. And for my big surprise, invited me to come to the ship’s room control in the next day morning, to see how it is, to have a panoramic view of the ship and sea, and maybe to observe some dolphins, if they show up! So, tomorrow around 12 they will announce my name on the ship speaker calling me to go upstairs! I hope it will be really like this! 🙂

28-03: Getting used with the Indonesian life style, I started the day by wash myself the same way they do: a bucket full with water and a “giant spoon” to take the water little by little. The “shower” I took right inside a toilet room, so I was able to do 2 in 1! Lol Then came the first of 3 meals very similar: rice with something else! While eating some Flores guys joined my table and we started to talk about their names. Unbelievable, so many Portuguese names they have there in Flores. The name of the man talking with me has Antonio de Gregorio. He told me that their grandparents and their ancestral were Portuguese who decided to stay there. Antonio gave me also a list of names very similar or evens exactly the same lake in Portugal nowadays: Mariano, Alfred (Alfredo), Alfonso (Afonso), Domingos, Tadeus, Carlos, Ricardos (Ricardo), Cristian (Cristiano), and much more…

Around noon a cadet came to take me, the second-officer was calling me to the control’s room. Finally! There he introduced me to the ship’s Capitan, mister Dimas and a few higher level crew members. Will taking pictures and making movies, I had time to talk with them, learning very interesting stuff about navigation and asking many questions about their instruments, a mix of very modern equipment with very all stuff incorporated already on the ship when it was built, in 1988 in Japan.  Those old instruments still have the labels in Japanese, but they have paper lists with the translations written on it. Talking about translations, mister Suryo, the sub-Capitan, showed me a technical book of navigation translated to Indonesia. The interesting is that, although the international language to communicate is the English, many of the words were Portuguese, and I found also a few Chienee and French…

The dinner I ate also in the company of the sub-Capitan and a member of his crew. While showing more videos and pictures, he recognized the name of the ferry I took from Bali to Jawa, and assured to me that the Capitan of that ferry is a good friend of him! With so, so many ferries crossing that strait, I must say: What a coincidence! Later the Capitan Dimas joined us, curious to see their first pictures and videos of my trip, and read a little bit of my blog. Meanwhile, a huge thunder-storm appeared on the sea, presenting us with an admirable natural fire-work! Was almost 7pm, time to go down to the video-room to attend the live show (2 girls singing). I was not expecting so much from this show, but I was very curious to see if the Capitan and sub-Capitan would respect the promise they made to me and sing too! The sound was not so good, but the happiness, the natural amusement, the simplicity of their smiles, their dance… everybody was so happy and joyful, the singers, the passenger and even the crew. And yes, the sub-Capitan singed and very well. But the Capitan, uoh, his voice and his performance is like a really professional singer. I was amazed with his singing skill! What an amazing ambiance of happiness and humbleness, where everybody mixed together and truly enjoyed to do so, something very improbable in Europe. I know I’m only on the beginning of the trip, but still, I’m already starting to be afraid to go back to Europe and loose this unique lifestyle (I say in general, not only for the day spent ship), to leave behind me this lands where live is truly lived, where people have the courage to love to be alive…

Later in the night I went upstairs again to the dinner room, looking for a coffee, when I was invited by two young guys to seat next to them. Unexpectedly they started to give me the kind of information I was willing to get, just didn’t knew how and from who. They told me places to visit in Flores, explained me about bus prices, renting motorbikes and routes. And more important, they told me about the options to make the connection from Flores Island to Sulawesi, my next destination. They said there’s no connection to Sulawesi in the western Flores, so I thought I would be forced to come back to Maumere in the central Flores, doing the same road twice, but they assured to me that there are cheap flights in a western city in front of Komodo Island: Labuhanbajo. And even better, they drew a map of Maumere (the arrival city) indicating the office of the flights’ company. Let’s see how I will deal with that!

29-03: with so many conversations and thinks to do yesterday, plus de movies watched in the computer, the time passed by really fast, hopefully, but consequence was to sleep all morning and miss the first meal. The second meal I took, again in the company of the two guys who gave me tips about Flores yesterday. If I would explain here all we talked about, it would be necessary many pages, so I think is better even not start it, only say that were several hours very joyfully lived with this kind guys who even paid me a coffee.

In the afternoon was time to the kids’ photo session. I had play with them several times previously and they saw me taking pictures of many thinks and many people except them, so this time they came to invite me to take pictures. Fighting, smiling, jumping, together or one by one, even with me, we tried all…

From a conversation with a Flores man, descendent of Portuguese people, came a new list of of Portuguese names: Da Gama, Da Silva and Da Cunha. By the way, he’s full name was also Portuguese: Augustinus Franciscos Xafeiro Henriques (Augustino Francisco Chaveiro Henriques). Later Antonio de Gregorio (the guy who gave me the first list of Portuguese names previously in this trip) came also to talk with me, this time not to talk about names, but about something more important and with deep meaning. In this last 3 days he was the singer man, the dancing man, the jokes man, the clown, even the buffoon of the trip. Today he asked me if I knew why he behaviors like. I ask why? He said: “You know mister, I’m funny, and we must be funny, because life is full of problems, to many problems…”

 

 

 

Around Surabaya (Jawa Island)

22-03: The shuttle bus left Kuta at 6.20pm, with the promise to be in Surabaya (Jawa Island) 12 hours later. The first hour was spent collecting people from Kuta and other small towns on the way, once this kind of transportation takes everybody from their door’s homes. It was told me that I would have the right for a meal in a restaurant, but when they gave me a box with water, a cake and a snack, I started to doubt about the dinner. I was wrong. At 11pm we stopped in a restaurant nearby Gilimanuk where they served rice with vegetables and chicken, soup and a cup of tea. I seated next to the 17 years old boy who previously showed me the toilet, and with who I had an interesting conversation in basic-English. After the meal, we promised each other to leave the bus when already inside the ferry, in order to better enjoy the view of the strait and the fresh air, and so we did. Around 1pm I was finally in Jawa, but still far away from my destination. I slept most of the time, to awake precisely when the driver come to tell me to leave the bus and change to other one, in the middle of nowhere! Still sleepy and tired, I felt very confused but I had no other option than enter in that new bus. 13 hours later, at 7.20am we finally found the address of my hosts Santi and Soe in this enormous city of Surabaya.

23-03: Santi and Soe live with other sister, a brother and their mother. Besides them, there’s also another family living in the backside, a house-sharing situation very common here in Indonesia. Once Soe had work to do in the city center, I joined her and both went out on her motorbike! What a mad traffic here! You better watch the videos! Lol. And the size of the city! We took half hour from her home to her work, crossing only a part of the city!

This first day in Surabaya was surely the one in which I spoke with the largest amount of people ever in my life. I said Hello at least 1000 times, and had short or long conversations with more than a 100 persons. I bet it is impossible for Europeans to understand how happy and relaxed is the mood of the people here, without come to check it live. Everybody smile, or make jokes, or do something funny, or talk, or invite to seat next to them and take something (a coffee, a piece of fruit, etc). And it is amazing how people love to take pictures; here I don’t need to ask authorization to photograph somebody because they come to ask me for the same first, showing their immense gratitude if I do take a picture. Some of them even ask me to take pictures of their products or their shops, and then ask me to show it on the camera’s screen, feeling very proud if their friends come to see it too!

With so friendly and welcoming people around me, I had almost no time to see the city; I spent most of the time in shops or houses talking with people, playing with children, making great pictures of their real life! What a day! Weird is the feeling of being observed by the whole city. People point the finger to me, call others to look back to the foreign passing by. When is a group of girls, one of them says something and the others look to me while trying to hide their shy expressions. Men often come to shake my hand. Kids say “Hello mister”… So, it is weird to have all the people looking at you, but at the least it happens in a good way, with smiles, with kindness, with sharing of goods…

Earlier this day, I went to the main harbor of Surabaya checking for ferries to Flores Island. Hopefully they have, but only on March 24^th (tomorrow) and March 30^th. Tomorrow would be too early, this city is immense and with a lot to do and see, and besides that, I ask a couch for 3 nights, not 1. In the other hand, I asked myself what to do here during one week (one option, to go to the paradisiac island of Madura by motorbike with my new friend Faiz; the island is only 5km away from Surabaya by the new bridge), and I was wondering about what my hosts would say. They accepted to host me the whole week, and the wonderful people in the street (who made me feel at home) also influenced my decision to stay. Anyway, something else, the first bad sides of the trip, really forced me to stay longer:

In the second day in Bali, while riding the bike, I got my arms burned. Since then I’m being using always shirts with long sleeves to cover my arms. Today, the arms’ skin started to get bubbles and to fell down. And this is not my main problem. The real stress is than my heels started to swell this morning. At the evening it grew up to my feet and legs. And to make it worst, I made a second degree burn in one of my legs on a exhaust pipe of a bike, close to the left heel. This two things together made me unable to walk at the end of the day. Soe, one of my hosts, went to a pharmacy to by a cream, which I’m using both in the arms and in the burned leg. It looks like the next day or 2 I will be mainly resting, recovering back to later discover the rest of Surabaya and to take the ferry to Flores Island on March 30^th. After all, this was the best day in the trip. I feel myself very happy and as being at home…

24/25-03: After an almost entire day resting in the bed waiting for my legs to get better, I went out of home only to go an internet-café. After that I came back home to rest again, watching a documentary and reading before sleep. And yes, on the morning of 25 I was feeling enough good to go out. But because I was not 100% good yet, and having also this burn in my leg complicating my movements, I decided to walk just around of Rungkut area (where I’m staying), which in Portugal would be a very big city for itself! Once again, and very easily, I started to communicate with people, receiving goods and smiles from them, seating in a bench trying to talk with old people. The best moment, undoubtedly happened when I was walking in a suburb street and I found kids playing badminton. I was the older boy if I could play with him, and the two together had some fun, while the little girls stop to watch us play. After all these years without play badminton, and with the left leg movements limited, it was really weird to play but, still, I really had fun with these guys. One of the young girls, very kind and very cleaver, was my translator and made me also de favor to record us playing with my camera. What a great moment! After had taken some pictures of the curious lovely baby (also from their family) I realized that it was about to rain, so I walked as fast as I could, and I arrive at home just on time to avoid the huge tropical storm that started a few minutes later.

To be a vegetarian in Europe is a recent fashion and a lifestyle; the way it works is quite artificial and is far more expensive than the rest of the food in Europe. Here, in Indonesia, to eat what westerns call “vegetarian food” is cheaper that eat meals based on meat, once their traditional food is mainly vegetarian and there are plenty of common products that substitutes de meat. Indonesian tofu is an example, but there many more similar products. That’s why for them is very strange to understand why western created this new fashionable vegetarian goods that are made with soya or tofu, but resembles in aspect and texture to an hamburger, a sausage or a beef. It’s illogical, specially went it is necessary to add artificial and unhealthy ingredients to give the final aspect of real meet goods. Here there’s not even the concept of vegetarian, only stupefaction about the unbelievable big and unhealthy amount of meet consumed by westerns. It was told to me that in a traditional family, a beef if served very rarely and it is enough for a bunch of people, not like in west, where a person eats more than one beef in a lunch, and probably the same amount at the dinner. Still, Indonesian is living fast changing times, thanks to the introduction of western eating behavior, through the TV, the movies, the McDonalds, etc. About this faked food, the McDonalds one, it is curious to acknowledge that here it is not yet considerer a meal. Folks here eat their meal before go to McDonalds, and its “food” is only a very expensive, exotic and fashionable snack!

26-03: Yesterday Soe, my host, discovered another ferry’s company with connections to Flores. She called them asking for the next one and day said March 27^th. Great news! So, this morning we went together to the harbor to buy the ticket. Hopefully they still had tickets available, and cheaper than the previous I had found by myself. With the ticket in my pocket, plans suddenly change, completely! I had just one more day (this one) for Surabaya, so Soe took the rest of the day to show me interesting parts of the city, always on her motorbike, what helps to see much more than walking or using buses. After buy the tickets with we went around the endless harbor, with remains of the Dutch colonial era facilities now used in completely different ways. She brought me also to the free entrance museum of Sampoerna Tobacco Company, an Indonesian brand that sells worldwide and it is famous for their very peculiar cigarettes with cloves (cravinho, em português; sim, a especiaria!). There I learn that cigarettes are still produced manually and Indonesian preferred this way once it gives more job for people (and well paid) in a country with a very big unemployment rate.

After the rain, we took the road again to drive thought completely flooded roads with bikes and cars still driving and kids playing or washing themselves in the dirty water pools. Soe decided to stop in a very poor neighbored where we took a lunch in a street side, improvised and humble “restaurant”. Great, great, both the meal and the price. Tasty rice with chicken, hot chili sauce and salad for 50 euro cents, and a Coca-Cola or Fanta for 25 euro cents.

Besides the very interesting situations lived in this day, like taking pictures while Soe was driving her bike through flooded old roads, the best I got from this day was the conversations I had with Soe and all I had learn meanwhile: I learned, for instance, that there’s a company called Freeport (sim, mais um corrupto Freeport. Parece moda!) that extracts minerals in Papua island. There they have a special city just for their works, with doctors, school, spas, all the best from the western world, but highly protected by securities, weapons and fences, once the natives there still live in very precarious conditions, in a kind of primitive lifestyle. It is a scandal, it is outrageous! The central government of a country with hundreds of ethnic groups doesn’t give a shit for the Papua natives, but allows private companies to extract their resources and take most of the profit. The remaining profit goes to the corrupted political elite. For the Papua inhabitants, the natural owners, nothing lefts… All this money, or part of it, with a more comprehensive government should obligatorily be spend to take the Papua natives out of their miserable life conditions, to give them school and hospital, at least,  to make them less poor, with life standards more close to the Javanese, this last ones yet not very high comparing with the world average!

Soe and her family have Chinese origin, the seventh generation since the first relatives arrived in this island long time ago. For several decades they were forbidden to speak Chinese, so the younger members of the family do not speak this language. Because this family was a quite rich one some generations ago, they were naturally more connected to Dutch who colonialized Indonesia. From them, the Dutch, they learn the Dutch language and they took the catholic religion, that helped to make them a very peculiar minority of Chinese Catholics in Indonesia, a country mainly Muslim…

Tomorrow is time to leave Java and depart on the way to Flores, so that’s the last line of this post. I hope you enjoyed it! 🙂