Outside the Dragons Lair
Labuan Bajo in Flores, Indonesia is a scruffy little town. It has a large mosque and a ferry port, neither of which are conducive of a good nights sleep. I found this fact out on my last visit 15 months ago. Our accommodation that time was pretty squalid. It was in the centre, convenient for the shops and also convenient for the mosque and ferry port should I feel the need to pray or chase after a departing ferry at 5am as it sounded it’s horn as it left harbour.
Our visit this time to Labuan Bajo is better prepared and researched. For an extra £10 a night it seems you can get a beach, 2 pools, air con, unstained sheets and breakfast better than stale toast and brown gritty liquid. I prefer this accommodation at Sylvia Resort a few miles out of town, even if it is less convenient for the mosque.
And so it was that the group arrived, dropped kit and staggered down to the beach, like a bunch of Tom Hanks in reverse, soaking up the view, the water as warm as a bath and the approaching sunset
It had, to be fair, been a relatively stressful few days. From Medan I had dragged them (metaphorically) out of bed at 5am to catch the first of 2 planes to Kuala Lumpur and on to Denpasar. The excitement of visiting Bali was perhaps tempered by the fact that we were there for under 24 hours and staying in a touristy, built up area not far from the airport. Seminyak has many bars and restaurants, as well as a lot of traffic, tourists and noise.
After a stressful minibus ride and stressful booking in with a few issues to resolve, several dropped bags and scurried off to the beach for cocktails and seafood. I had a meeting first. My long term friend Mike is currently living in Bali and fancied joining us for the next leg of the trip.
The Group have discovered Uber taxis here and Ralph in particular has been using them to great effect. Local taxi drivers and hotel workers are on the whole very anti-Uber as they undercut their tourist taxi prices severely. The hotel wanted 150000 per taxi to the airport, Uber charged about 50000. This was the preferred transport back to Denpasar airport for our third flight in 36 hours.
So, why are we staying outside this scruffy, noisy town in Flores ? Dragons. The famous Komodo Island lies off shore in the Nature Reserve. Komodo dragons, the world’s largest lizards, inhabit the island. We shall be heading there in a few days on a boat trip. There is other wildlife to be seen. Manta Rays, coral and fish, bats, monkeys and so on. We also have a birthday to celebrate and the Flores Ladies Formation Wine Drinking team are on standby to perform. Better still, we have 4 days without travel...unless you include reclining on a boat as it takes you from island to island viewing wildlife. Not really arduous eh ?
Our visit this time to Labuan Bajo is better prepared and researched. For an extra £10 a night it seems you can get a beach, 2 pools, air con, unstained sheets and breakfast better than stale toast and brown gritty liquid. I prefer this accommodation at Sylvia Resort a few miles out of town, even if it is less convenient for the mosque.
And so it was that the group arrived, dropped kit and staggered down to the beach, like a bunch of Tom Hanks in reverse, soaking up the view, the water as warm as a bath and the approaching sunset
It had, to be fair, been a relatively stressful few days. From Medan I had dragged them (metaphorically) out of bed at 5am to catch the first of 2 planes to Kuala Lumpur and on to Denpasar. The excitement of visiting Bali was perhaps tempered by the fact that we were there for under 24 hours and staying in a touristy, built up area not far from the airport. Seminyak has many bars and restaurants, as well as a lot of traffic, tourists and noise.
After a stressful minibus ride and stressful booking in with a few issues to resolve, several dropped bags and scurried off to the beach for cocktails and seafood. I had a meeting first. My long term friend Mike is currently living in Bali and fancied joining us for the next leg of the trip.
The Group have discovered Uber taxis here and Ralph in particular has been using them to great effect. Local taxi drivers and hotel workers are on the whole very anti-Uber as they undercut their tourist taxi prices severely. The hotel wanted 150000 per taxi to the airport, Uber charged about 50000. This was the preferred transport back to Denpasar airport for our third flight in 36 hours.
So, why are we staying outside this scruffy, noisy town in Flores ? Dragons. The famous Komodo Island lies off shore in the Nature Reserve. Komodo dragons, the world’s largest lizards, inhabit the island. We shall be heading there in a few days on a boat trip. There is other wildlife to be seen. Manta Rays, coral and fish, bats, monkeys and so on. We also have a birthday to celebrate and the Flores Ladies Formation Wine Drinking team are on standby to perform. Better still, we have 4 days without travel...unless you include reclining on a boat as it takes you from island to island viewing wildlife. Not really arduous eh ?
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