MAUMERE, UNIQUE TO SAY THE LEAST!
From Moni it was a local bus onto Maumere,
our final stop on this whirlwind tour of Flores, a 3 – 4 hour bus ride costing
about $2 or $3. Indo rarely fails and it
was quite scenic as always, not overly comfortable as is par for the course,
but we made it.
The driver and a couple of the locals were helpful in finding us accommodation for the night, it was pricey, but after the last 3 weeks of not a whole lot going to plan, we didn’t care, it had hot water! Yoo yoo!
The driver and a couple of the locals were helpful in finding us accommodation for the night, it was pricey, but after the last 3 weeks of not a whole lot going to plan, we didn’t care, it had hot water! Yoo yoo!
The place was Hotel Pelita and we paid about
300k rupiah I think, but after cruising the town and surrounds by bike for a
few hours that afternoon and the next morning and having some mixed
interactions with the locals, we opted to head out of town the next day to a
beach side getaway to catch our breath.
This was the first time I had travelled on a schedule and it was bloody hectic! I had to meet up with one of my best mates back in Thailand in a few days and Patty and I already had our tickets booked.
This was the first time I had travelled on a schedule and it was bloody hectic! I had to meet up with one of my best mates back in Thailand in a few days and Patty and I already had our tickets booked.
It seemed to be common on Flores, even having
Patty there didn’t seem to make a difference, some of the people are just
outright shifty bloody scammers, neither of us had really seen it anywhere else
in Indo.
As with most places though, they were the exception, not the rule and we certainly did meet a lot of great locals along the way. I think with tourism being so new there, they are simply seeing us as dollar signs at the minute but hopefully will learn that with great experiences come more tourists and more money.
As with most places though, they were the exception, not the rule and we certainly did meet a lot of great locals along the way. I think with tourism being so new there, they are simply seeing us as dollar signs at the minute but hopefully will learn that with great experiences come more tourists and more money.
One day I stopped the bike to check the beach
in town, which was actually really nice and clean, and was invited to come
drink some locally brewed concoction with some 'on their way to being drunk' locals. This was about lunchtime mind you! It was really only my motto of not refusing
interaction with the locals that made me reluctantly agree to a quick couple of
shots before I moved on.
I
think I have tasted better kerosene than this stuff, it had quite the burn to
it, but we made pleasantries, had a quick chat and I was off again, with a bit
of a buzz on actually!
We had organized to change guesthouse, so I returned our bike to the random guy in the street we had ‘rented’ it from and our bus from Gading Beach Hotel came to pick us up.
If you book a room there they will come pick you up in town, we had driven out there the day before on our very cool sight-seeing ride and decided it looked like a great place to relax for our last couple of days. We had explored nearly everywhere around the area, don’t miss out if you’re in Maumere.
We had organized to change guesthouse, so I returned our bike to the random guy in the street we had ‘rented’ it from and our bus from Gading Beach Hotel came to pick us up.
If you book a room there they will come pick you up in town, we had driven out there the day before on our very cool sight-seeing ride and decided it looked like a great place to relax for our last couple of days. We had explored nearly everywhere around the area, don’t miss out if you’re in Maumere.
For internet, have fun finding ET Shop Cyber Café
The best food we found in town was MyResto, look for this sign
My Maumere machine, just asked some guy in the street to rent his bike
