Flores::: Bejawa

From LaubanBajo we took an excruciating 10 hour long bus ride (we only went about a 100 miles!!) to Bejawa. The bus was cramped with people, luggage, and giant bags of rice. It was quite an experience...

all the buses have crazy pictures, often of people or american rip offs (brand names, etc.) airbrushed on the backs of them
there were lots of crazy characters on the bus- this was one of the 4 or 5 guys that worked on the bus--their main job was to jump off and move fallen trees out of the way--and then run and jump back on the moving bus!!
everybody's packin' a machede around this part of the world
joe and friends
a lady jumped on the bus with her 5 kids- and they all sat in one seat!!
and we were lucky enough to get a flat tire on the way!!!
i hid behind a banana leaf i was so upset

the flat tire gave us time to meet some of the mountain folk- these kids were scared to death of the camera, who knows what they thought of it they may never have seen one before
one of the nicer mountain bamboo shacks
finally we arrived to bejawa- a quiet mountain town with cool temperatures-
and not a whole lot else
the majority of Flores is Catholic- the diversity (and acceptance) of so many religions not to mention traditional tribal practices is very interesting
joe looking tough on the motorbike


shortly after this photo i test drove the bike (first time) and nearly crashed into a parked car.


the car however belonged to these two fellows, Ferry & Bimbang. Bimbang works for a Indonesian cell phone company and was doing work in Flores, Ferry was his driver....as we were already debating driving around the mountains with the dirt bike we were very lucky when we stumbled into the offer of them driving us around to the sights... which was great, as a car and driver cost about $50 bucks a dayin the area-- we had a lot of fun with our new friends and they offered to drive us the rest of our trip in flores; we provided some gas and dinners and english lessons-- they provided friendship, car, and tour guide.. it was a sweet deal!!!
they took us to a local hot springs where there were pools, springs, and waterfalls of very hot water. in parts it mixed with cool river water for a refreshing experience.
the guys in the hot pool...or town bath it seemed... even though it has fresh flowing hot
water i was stilled a little turned off and did not join..