PARTY TIME IN LABUAN BAJO

Just above the Mutiara was a restaurant/bar named Mediterraneo, that overlooked the harbour (most places did), I had my first couple of beers here and although the menu and food looked amazing, it was a little pricey for my liking.  Most mains were between $7 - $12, not a lot for the 3 week holiday maker but I rarely ever pay that for a meal.  The food did look exceptional though.  

Then it was onto The Lounge Bar and Restaurant, this quickly became my favourite place in LB, great food, service and atmosphere plus one of the best views of sunset over the harbour.

I was using their free wifi on the rooftop bar overlooking the harbour on sunset with a couple of cold drinks, thinking I was going to call it a night and head off.  There was few young guys all sharing a shisha and having a beer so I went over and got chatting and before you knew it we were about to start an epic night out. 

These guy’s had all met on one of the boat trips that goes from Lombok to Flores over 4 days, I was going to do that myself but had read a lot of negative reports.  I don’t usually let this sway me too much and like to make up my own mind, but there really was a lot of incidents to make you think twice. 

More than 1 of these boats has gone down due to sheer incompetence, I spend a lot of time on the ocean and I know what can happen out there and prefer to have my life in MY hands on the ocean.

 It was mainly the weather that decided it for me, I had been struggling over which way to go and in the end decided to try the more testing overland route.  I don’t regret for a second doing the overland crossing, but this would have been a great group to be on a boat with for a few days.

 After a few drinks at the Lounge Bar, we made our way to Paradise Bar to meet up with the rest of the boat tour group, this bar is the only late night venue in town and Saturday night is really the only time it gets going and has a live band.  Wouldn’t you know it….  It was Saturday! 

When we arrive there is a massive table set up and around 20 people that had just spent 4 days on a boat together, I was the stranger but they welcomed me warmly and we had a fantastic night, not finishing up until around 4am!  

Many drinks were had and stories swapped, once again being in the right place and not being scared to go up and say ‘hey, mind if I join you?’ paid off and really added to my experience. 

The only problem was that Patty arrived that Sunday without telling me and I was very hungover and catching up on sleep half of the day.  Boy did I get an earful when we finally met up, she had been waiting for a few hours in one of the café’s as my phone had died and she couldn’t call me,  Ooops.  In my defence though, Patty was supposed to let me know when she was arriving and didn’t…  sooooo….

Coming into the harbour

Views from The Lounge Bar