Flores:::: Drive to Moni & lakes of Kelimutu

Moni is the a very small village in the mountains. It is main claim to fame is that it is the shooting off point for seeing the famous Kelimetu lakes. As there is not a lot going on in Moni we were invited to have partake in a traditional Moni style indonesian meal- we were more or less brought (not without paying of course) to a home for this meal where we waited three hours as they prepared the meal (meanwhile we played uno by candlelight).....Did they have to kill it first you ask.. oddly enough they asked our indonesian friends to kill the chicken (not us luckily) which we would all be eating for dinner... afterwards we listened to stories about the lakes and learned about the (odd) beliefs held by the local people and their relationship to these mystical waters. a final view of the great volcano on our way out of Bejawa a small coastal community who gathers and sells these special green stones which are used as building materials around the island
a game of dominos in Ende (where the losers wear clothes pins on their ears!!)

a small waterfall spotted along the jungle covered mountain sides
this river/stream reminded us of the salmon river areas.. minus the palm trees and rice paddies of course.

a young native girl takes a shower in a waterfall
we woke up at 3:30am (aahhh!!!) to begin the journey up to Kelimutu in order to watch the sunrise... after a 45 min drive up hill and a short hike-- we then headed up the thousand step climb to "inspriration peak" (seen in the picture above)

Kelimutu is known for three lakes formed inside volcanic craters that change colors. Currently they are bright turquoise, red-brown, and black. They usually change colors every few years, becoming as odd as maroon, due to the mineral deposits in the water--or most likely the sediment at the bottom. However, the locals say that no one has ever seen the lakes start to change, they change immediately over night- or in some mysterious split second no one has seen.

They also believe (although nearly all of them are catholic) that the lakes hold the souls of dead. Each lake represents different afterlifes, depending on how strong your supernatural powers were on earth. The local boy explained to us that people carry on in these lakes just as they would on earth and that there is even a king and queen of the lakes as well.

We also heard many other odd stories... a mangy lion-esque kelimutu man who's photo diasappears off cameras.. lucky color changing kelimutu rocks that make you immune to any weapons or bad luck...music and party sounds coming from the depths of the lakes....

as it slowly made its journey over the horizon the lakes began to take on amazing hues.

Ferry, Joe, Bimbang
The red-brown lake
Joe and I with the turquoise lake & black lake in the distant right



As the sun moved higher into the sky the water became a spectacular color
the walls of the crater are very steep and dangerous- both tourists and locals have plummetted to their deaths- so it is advised to stay on paths and behind the guard rails

some local (and scrawny!!) doggies warming up in the morning sun

Flores::: Bena traditional village

Near Bejawa there are many traditional Ngada villages. The most famous is Bena. Built in steps up the side of the mountain, each house/hut is owned by one family- the whole family lives within the hut as well.

view upon entry
the stone slabs are meant to commemorate ancestors- and many are the actual graves

of the victims of land dispute-battles

while human sacrifices took place in many parts of indonesia (even up to the last century), now many tribes and groups only hold animal sacrfices. the ngada people sacrifice buffalo during special rituals....dont worry the puppy is not a sacrifice and the "blood" is actually spit from the women who chew an addicting betelnut- which bleeds red juices, rots your teeth, and gives a buzz like nicotine

our new friends and I

nghadu (male structure) representing fallen soldiers of land dispute battles

bhaga (female structure) representing ancestors fallen to battles and also showing stones for animal sacrifices

the ngada people worship a combined religion of animism and catholicism, the dead are celebrated through both kinds of rituals and burials

horns placed on houses show prominence of the family residing within

some sort of strange voodoo on tops of the homes
they have no running water, no vehicles, they worship the dead....

but they have a satellite dish!!!!
a view from the "top of the town"
view of the Gunung Inerie volcano in the backdrop of ngada houses
verncular construction techniques

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..

Flores::: Rinca & Komodo National Park

Komodo National Park is just off the west coast of Flores it occupies a few islands, mainly Komodo & Rinca..the only place in the world where the fierce Komodo dragon is found. We met up with some crazy travellers whom we shared a boat and a few stories with- and headed off on the 2 hour journey to an island filled with man eating dragons.

a picture of joe..... or if you look a little closer it is appears to be our captian stretching in his underwear!!!
views of some of the many islands we saw on the way. it had been raining in Flores, an aftermath of the Australian tsunami, and the water was very dark in most areas.
..and quite rough as well...


this island looks like a whale...and its left side looks like a profile of a witch..
komodo national park and an odd poster of the dragons fighting and mating?!? these are the weapons the guides use against the dragons. very reassuring.
at the base camp we found 5 dragons including a rather large male that was probably
close to 50 years old. Komodo dragons are very fierce animals, much like alligators or crocodiles, however they are actually still considered large lizards or monitors. there mouths contain poinsonous bacteria and they are able to kill giant water buffalo. they are cannibalistic so the young dragons must stay in trees until they are five years old and able to protect themselves. do they eat people? you ask....yes they do--only one tourist has been eaten so far though--all they found was his hair.


one was enough for me however, and after I saw the large group of them coming towards me with the guide screaming " back, back, look out!!!" and starting running with his stick- i decided to skip the 3 mile nature walk and hang out in the camp.especially because they can run upto 30 kmph!!!
komodos have long forked tongues to track down scents
joe of course went on the walk (they ended up only seeing a few more dragons..) and spotted some water buffalo as well
the sparsely placed palm trees on top of the mountain ridges make very interesting profiles in the light of the setting sun