CHAOS IN RIUNG THEN FINALLY
OFF TO ENDE
Hmmm, so packed and organized early the next morning to hit Ende, we are
informed that there isn’t a bus until 11am?!
WTF, this was not the only issue we had with management at Nirvana
Bungalows, but I think it was mostly just their inexperience in dealing with
tourism.
Though we were pretty pissed off about the fact that they knew the evening beforehand, that the bus wouldn’t be coming and simply chose not to tell us.
Though we were pretty pissed off about the fact that they knew the evening beforehand, that the bus wouldn’t be coming and simply chose not to tell us.
So we were packed and ready with nowhere to go, I told the staff I
would be borrowing their scooter because of their stuff up and we took off for
a hoon around the area and to find a nearby waterfall.
This whole little adventure did not go according to plan in the slightest either (read - total clusterfuck) but I won’t go into it, as I said, simply a case of tourism only just starting to happen and the locals still coming to grips with it all. But then, that’s the kind of place I like.
This whole little adventure did not go according to plan in the slightest either (read - total clusterfuck) but I won’t go into it, as I said, simply a case of tourism only just starting to happen and the locals still coming to grips with it all. But then, that’s the kind of place I like.
Once we were back in town our ‘bus’ was just a tiny angkot that
was taking us along the north coast of Flores to a town further away where we
would be getting a car the rest of the way to Ende.
So we were absolutely crammed into this tiny little van with all our gear, a bunch of locals plus all the goods being transported to the other villages. The drive was interesting to say the least though with some great and often contrasting scenery that switched between mangroves, beaches and dry dusty almost barren villages.
So we were absolutely crammed into this tiny little van with all our gear, a bunch of locals plus all the goods being transported to the other villages. The drive was interesting to say the least though with some great and often contrasting scenery that switched between mangroves, beaches and dry dusty almost barren villages.
We switched transport in ? god knows where, and found that we
would be sharing with a few other people, all locals, and were squashed into
this little car with no air-con, for the price we paid I was not expecting
this.
Even in a car the trip was hot, uncomfortable and cramped, no point breaking tradition I guess! The views and landscape were incredible though as we made our way to the south coast of Flores, easily the best I had seen here so far, aside from the islands.
Even in a car the trip was hot, uncomfortable and cramped, no point breaking tradition I guess! The views and landscape were incredible though as we made our way to the south coast of Flores, easily the best I had seen here so far, aside from the islands.
But trouble again once we got to Ende, they had closed off the
road to Moni where we were supposed to be heading to, we were stuck and the
road was going to be closed for 3 days!
Not good news at all as we were going to Moni to see the 3 coloured crater lakes of
Mt Kelimutu, pretty much my inspiration for coming to Flores, plus we still had to
get to Maumere to catch our plane. We
were going to be stranded after what had already been a long and frustrating
day.
Your typical angkot, just a pic I pulled from uncle google
The 'loaner' from the staff after their stuff up (much more to the story than written)
Cool number plate! I love Nirvana
