Good morning 2011 and a Happy New Year. We woke with breakfast included and even though we were still disappointed about the Komodo Dragons the show as they say must go on.
We decided to explore Labuanbajo, and this didn’t take too long. The main town on the island of Flores consisted of one main street and is said to be the next big tourism destination in Indonesia. This is maybe not due to the place but more for the scuba diving sites and of course the Komodo Dragons or not.
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| Labuanbajo, Flores |
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| The one and only main street |
With being New Year’s Day everywhere was closed so eating in the afternoon was a bit of a problem. Instead I decided to entertain myself by visiting the Perama Tour office to complain about the boat trip we had just finished. To be fair the guy was very sympathetic and said that he would give feedback. We were apparently on the old boat which has been out of circulation unlucky for some. We then found out that the island of Rinca was a much better destination for viewing Komodo Dragons in the wild. They should tell you things like this earlier. After some deep thinking we booked another trip with Perama for the following day, just the two of us. I couldn’t believe that I was giving this company more of our hard earned cash but he did give us a 50% discount. Fingers crossed this would make up for Komodo Island. One last shot.
Labuanbajo was a sleepy town but we had a pleasant time just relaxing and in the evening found an amazing bar/restaurant called Lounge. An Anker Beer and wood-fired oven pizza was just the tonic we were after following three days of rice, noodles and rice and rice with a little bit of fruit.
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| Waiting for our Pizza at the cool Lounge Restaurant |
ANKER BEER, PILSNER STYLE, BEKASI TIMUR-INDONESIA, 5% ABV
Anker Beer is brewed in Bekasi Timur, Indonesia by Delta Djakarta Brewery, which is a subsidiary of San Miguel Corporation. As well as Anker Pilsner they also brew Anker Stout, Kuda Putih, San Miguel, San Miguel Light and Carlsberg Beer. Back to the Pilsner as with a lot of lagers we seem to come across the label quotes that it is a ‘quality pilsner’.
Unfortunately that isn’t really the case. Somehow sticking Pilsner on a label is the thing to do. However even though a little extreme and over exaggerated I think they need to travel to Germany or Czech Republic and actually try a Pilsner style lager. The colour is the typical yellow lager colour with plenty of carbonation which keeps a white head alive for a short time but there is not much taste to the beer.
The aroma is a little malty with a hint of sweet-corn but there is very little hop character and no bitterness at all. The flavour is pretty bland. But, there always has to be a plus side and this is the first adventure review of 2011. It's not a bad liquid when ice cold with the temperature outside being at 35 with high humidity, and to be honest it went down pretty well with the wood-fired pizza. Overall not quite what I expected from the label but at least we found another Indonesian beer pretty much out in the back of beyond.
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| Anker 630ml Bottle served in a Stout Glass |
The following morning we climbed aboard another old boat for the two hour crossing to Rinca Island. Our local captain and deckhand were great and the boat cruise took us past some amazing scenery passing Flores and some other volcanic islands.
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| We set sail with the Captain & Deckhand |
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| Never-ending Islands of Indonesia |
We docked at Rinca and found a guide before embarking on another 5km trek. The two hour trek was amazing and much better than Komodo. The tour guide was very knowledgeable and Rinca itself was just stunning. We were even lucky enough to see some Komodo Dragons. A large group were down near the living quarters as we started but at least the park rangers didn’t feed these scraps from the Kitchen. We did learn that it was out of season for the Komodo due to the cooler temperatures. Now you see information like this could have helped the Komodo Island guides. However we got lucky and came across one Komodo dragon out in the wild lying on a huge rock out of the suns raise and back at base we managed to video a baby dragon just strolling around. Amazing creatures to watch and we were so happy that we had taken the plunge to give the experience one last go, while in this part of the world.
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| This is Rinca part of the Komodo National Park |
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| Awesome Guide |
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| A Group of Dragon's just as we begin the Trek. Scary! & NO Closer Thanks |
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| 3 days on a boat, 10km's trekking & 2 islands later a Komodo Dragon in the wild |
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| Kate taking one for the lense but no stroking |
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| Vast, beautiful island of Rinca |
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| Baby Komodo on the hunt |
With the tour over and Reed and Becker much happier we set off back to Flores stopping at a deserted island for some snorkelling and another great pack lunch. Overall visiting Rinca really did cushion the blow of the Hunting for Komodo by Camera Tour and was a great way to start the New Year.
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| Nice spot for some snorkelling on the way back to Labuanbajo |
Now we just had to pray that the flight back to Flores was scheduled on the 3rd January with our next flight to Singapore being on the 5th January. We had heard rumours that sometimes they decided not to take off according to what the tickets stated.
It was time for Bali and Kuta one more time, so we headed off with our fingers crossed in the back of a local taxi bus to Flores Komodo Airport. It started well with a five hour delay at the smallest airport in the world but at least it was taking off today. This meant sitting on the floor reading until we could actually check in and what an experience this turned out to be. Your bags didn’t need to be scanned, which makes me think that Indonesia is not really up on aviation secuirity and once through the only thing that I can say is complete carnage and not even organised carnage like usual. With no queue’s and two hundred people trying to check in you had to fight your way to the front before your baggage was weighed followed by the fact that you personally also had to be weighed. Now this is a first for us and pretty funny before we had to pay yet another airport tax. Getting away from Indonesian airports seems to cost more than flying to them.
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| The smallest airport in the world |
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| Kate 3 hours into the 5 hour delay at our exact location. Bags as chairs! |
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| People get a grip. Who fights to weigh themselves infront of a crowd! |
The tiny aircraft that took us back to Denpasar was much better than we expected. I had visions of being sat with chickens while the pilot spun the propellers around to get the engines started. Not the case and after an hour we arrived once again in Kuta with two days to spare before we headed back north into South East Asia, destination Singapore.
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| Fairwell to the land of Komodo |
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| We set out across the giant runway. Nice plane though |
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| 30,000 ft on our way back to Bali |
Not much more to add about Bali and Kuta since our last visa extension visit. We checked back into LA Inn where the staff remembered us and charged us the pre-Christmas rate which was nice and the umbrella was back out in force. The weather hadn’t changed and it was still pouring down so it was back to the internet cafes and wandering the streets. We did come across the cheesy shopping district with Top Shop and Marks & Spencer’s and visited the beach one last time which was pretty entertaining watching the surfers in the rough surf. This left time for more laundry before heading back to the airport for our Air Asia flight to Singapore. Now we were pretty excited about Singapore because Chris who we met on our New Year Boat Trip had offered to put us up in his condo and show us around. A legend had been met by two scruffy backpackers having spent four months on the road living in holes.
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| Balinese entrance to Kuta Beach |
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| The cheesy tourist area of Kuta Square |
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| The narrow lane of Poppies Gang 1 |
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| An isotonic beverge! Just can't get my head around the name 'POCARI SWEAT' |
That is rap or a tick for Indonesia and overall what an amazing country. Maybe not so much Bali but they do say that Bali is a separate country. Sumatra on the other hand has been one of our favourite places. It really is a shame that tourism had died over the years due to the negative media attention surrounding natural disasters and political unrest. It was also a real shame that we didn’t have time to visit Java but there is always next time. The food might not have been the greatest but the beer has been a real eye opener. Some good brews and the domination of Bintang is massive. It has been the first country even surpassing Kingfisher in India where a beer can be a real identity of a country and how visitors get in the spirit. Just the shear amount of merchandise purchased is phenomenal. Everybody drinks-it, wears the t-shirt, buys the shorts and has a personal stubby holder. Kuta even had a Bintang merchandise shop. Basically what I am trying to say on my final Indonesian beer note is this. Indonesia = Beer Bintang!!!
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| Just had to buy some sort of merchandise |
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| Rock 'N' Roll Bir Bintang |
Next stop Singapore...
Well it is good to see that people are advising to the tourist who needs good informations most.
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