Flores - one love

As mentioned before, a day after my Visa run, I went to Flores. Flores is an island further east of Indonesia and not as crowded. Most people only stay in Labuan Bajo (in the far west) because they can take tours to see the Komodo dragons and a couple of islands from there, and it is one of the most beautiful diving spots. I also flew there and spent a few days in and around Labuan Bajo. Shortly after arriving at my hostel, I met lovely Anne and we spent the next few days together. On the first day, we walked around the 'city' and checked out offers from various tour and dive providers. In the end, we signed up for diving the next day (Friday, 19th July). I did 3 fun dives and since Anne had never dived before, she tried a discovery dive. But before I tell you about that, let's first go with the scooter to a cave where you can even swim.

We drove for about 2 hours to the first diving spot, Turtle Point. It was really beautiful! Just the clarity and the distance you could see were a dream *.* and as the name suggests, there were some turtles to see. And what turtles they were! They were huge, really huge!! It really felt like being in a big aquarium. And it's so nice to see well-preserved big corals. So dive number 1 was already a success :)

*Oh by the way... I don't have any photos because I still don't have a GoPro, so you'll have to use your imagination ;)*

After a little snack and a break, we continued to Manta Point. A diving instructor told us that the manta rays come to this place once a year, but it varies each year. For example, last year they came in February, the year before that around May, and this year they actually came about a week ago, so we were very lucky!

I actually met an American woman on Nusa Penida who had spent 4 days on a dive boat before and didn't see a single manta ray, and we saw 3 of these fantastic creatures! After this breathtaking dive, we had lunch and made our way to the last spot. Three dives in one day are quite a challenge, and after the second one, I was pretty tired. But the last dive was by far the most beautiful. The coral reef went steeply down, so we dove down to 19 meters deep. The variety of corals and the colors (!) were simply amazing. We also saw turtles and even 3 reef sharks, and of course all kinds of colorful fish. It was almost better than being in an aquarium, a dream!! This day was truly a success :))

And for the next 2 days, we also have a full program because we are going on a boat for 2 days. Snorkeling is on the agenda, as well as visiting the islands Komodo and Rinca, where the Komodo dragons live, and seeing the sunrise from the beautiful island Pulau Padar. Oh, and the whole fun wasn't exactly cheap, but it was definitely worth it! I have to admit that some strange things happened and I had a bit of a bad mood, especially on the first day. But let me summarize the highlights briefly...

• The Komodo dragons, especially the handsome ones!

I won't even mention the nature...

Image above: Komodo Island / Image below: View from Rinca Island

• The incredibly gigantic starry sky at night! • Pulau Padar...

• And the intensely turquoise water...

When we got back, it was Sunday and we had already seen everything in and around Labuan Bajo.

Oh yeah, that's the view from our hostel.

My plan was then to travel the island from west to east to Maumere. Anne came with me to the first stop in Ruteng. So on Monday, we took the bus to Ruteng, or rather, we drove through the winding roads because these island roads consist ONLY of curves. No exaggeration. Once we arrived in Ruteng, we stayed in a very cool homestay. We had dinner with a French family, another couple who were also staying there, and the host Jeff. It looked something like this:

We all wore a sarong (that skirt) and the food was pretty awesome! *.* The next morning at 5:30, Jeff took us on a SunRICE trek, which was a dream come true. (New favorite word, right?)

After breakfast, I continued to Bajawa, and Anne went back to Labuan Bajo because her flight to Bali was in the evening. But we haven't seen each other for the last time ;) So let's go, 5 hours of winding roads. I traveled with Anne in a small bus, but another option is shared taxis. I used those most of the time. There were other tourists on the way to Bajawa, and I bumped into them again in Bajawa from time to time :D As you can see, there weren't too many tourists. Speaking of tourists... In Bajawa, there were mainly ONLY French people. No joke! For example, in the homestay where I stayed, there were only French people. Without exception, except for me. Sometimes I chatted with a family in German, and there were also 2 other families with whom I talked in a restaurant, and they could speak German better than English. And in this particular restaurant, they even played German music every evening. Mostly Peter Fox and Materia. It was all very, very absurd! :D In Bajawa itself, I rented a scooter for 2 days and visited one or two traditional villages, went to hot springs, and hiked to dried-up crater lakes.

I visited one of these villages, not so exciting, but the journey itself was. Here's an example of what I saw :)

Next day... off to Moni. I have a 6-hour journey ahead of me, or rather, a 6-hour ride on winding roads. The first 4 hours went to Ende, and there I had to change taxis. And the further east you go, the worse people speak English. At some point, the other car arrived, they put my backpack on the roof without securing it (I mentioned the curves), and then drove maybe 500 meters and parked and disappeared. Uh ok..? I waited and waited, nothing happened. In the meantime, I had also forgotten what the driver looked like, and then I got out and bought myself an ice cream. At some point, someone came to drive the car and invited a few other locals. There was one with a disability who didn't want to get in the car for some reason, and I felt like she might have been afraid of me. Then I sat in the passenger seat, and it turned out to be my lucky spot! Because she got carsick for the last 1-2 hours to Moni. She even vomited on the floor... I have come to know that locals usually can't handle cars and curves, as they usually only ride scooters, but I have never experienced it to be this bad. She threw up her soul, and I'm not lying when I say that I could still hear her even though I had my headphones on full volume. Oh, this traveling can be quite tough :D On top of that, I had a little argument with the driver because he didn't want to drive me to my accommodation, and sometimes people here just can't think and act independently. Anyway, I'm in Moni because of the Kelimutu volcano. It has 3 beautiful (mostly) different-colored crater lakes.

Like all the other volcanoes, I also visited this one at sunrise. After breakfast, I headed for the last leg of the trip, which is to Maumere. Or rather, to Ankermi Happy Dive (Resort?), which is 30km east of Maumere. In any case, I traveled this distance by local bus. It was actually the easiest way, and they stopped right at the accommodation, although it took 4 hours. But I don't care, as long as I arrive! I'm staying here for the whole next/last week (Sat-Sat). It's a beautiful resort with 8 lovely bungalows right by the sea, and as the name suggests, it also includes a dive center.

That was my fancy little hut.

And that's also the reason why I'm here. BUT, my body decided to chill for the first few days. So I went diving for the first time on Tuesday, and I did a muck dive. That means mainly looking for small things, like shrimps, crabs, and more. On Wednesday, I went on a boat to the islands. We dived along steep walls, saw turtles and sharks, but also, for example, orangutan crabs :D Seriously, what I saw in the underwater world far exceeded my expectations. Just looking up at the sun shining through the fan coral and everything glittering and shining... It was amazing! *.* On Thursday, it was Claudia's birthday, who, by the way, is Swiss, and it was also Swiss National Day (:D) so there was no boat trip. However, we still went diving. And in the bay, there is even a shipwreck from World War II. So we went there and for the second half, we searched for little things in the seagrass and mud. The highlight was finding 4 seahorses (!!) and a little cute octopus. In the evening, to celebrate, we had a delicious buffet and tasty wine (finally! :D). It was a very nice evening, lots of laughter, and great conversations. On that evening, I also met a German couple who are both teachers. They have always traveled and are now taking a sabbatical year to travel for a whole year. They were in countries 15-20 years ago that I have now seen, and the differences were really interesting and sometimes shocking. But it was crazy how they talked about Vietnam '97 :) The curious thing was that he strongly reminded me of Mr. Isbert from Engelberg, he is also a physics teacher and they actually had certain similarities in appearance :D On Friday, it was my last full day, and I went diving twice more at the islands. I won't even start on how beautiful it was again, but I have to mention that the second dive site was at a fissure that was created by a strong earthquake in 1992. It was very impressive! I don't remember how long it was, but it was definitely 30m deep. Just diving over it and looking down took my breath away! The dive sites in Maumere were much better than in Labuan Bajo. However, I only did 3 dives there, and they were in the 'center'. The north there is considered much more beautiful. But in general, you will probably see much more and more beautiful things if you go further out with the boat, meaning being on the boat for several days. Either way, diving in Maumere was a paradise on earth! And with this beautiful sunset, I say goodbye ;) My time in Indonesia and Asia is over now, but the journey continues! See you in Australia :)