No one even sent me any Flores

Having turned 28 yesterday I feel like these posts should become more descriptive and informative. Balls to that, I just saw a fat German fall into a ditch while walking along the road. Apparently my offers to help would have been more warmly appreciated if I hadn't been doubled up in laughter during my half hearted rescue. Poor fatty.

Since my last update I flew to Ende where I planned to stay the night however on arrival a sweet family (also German) offered me a space in their car for nothing. Naturally I accepted immediately and so ended up in Moni a day earlier than planned. Moni seems to only exist as a place to stay for the handful of tourists who head up to Kelimutu each day (photos will come later). As such it has little to recommend it, except for a Rastafarian named John who meets every car/minibus and shows them round the available rooms, then joins you for supper and gets hammered on any drug available. I liked him. Kelimutu itself was beautiful and the 15km trip up at4.30am on the back of a motorbike was spine wreckingly enjoyable. I'm not quite sure why I walked all the way back though, it was fun for the first few steps then became a very tedious ordeal. Strange decision really.

After a quick breakfast I decided to see if I could get to Riung the same day. Everyone told me it would be impossible but I decided they were all idiots so set out to see for myself. Technically I was right however I'm not sure a combination of 5 trucks, a minibus, 2 motorbikes and 5km walk is the accepted way of getting there. Still keg 1, technically correct locals 0. Either way I arrived just before 9pm and found a room in a semi-converted convent which was run by two sweet Indonesians called Josephine and Margaret. I signed myself in as Judas Broke just to try and fit in. Got a bit weird when they said happy birthday to a "pak Judas" at breakfast though.

The 17th was a write off as I was exhausted so I just pottered around taking photos and bearing the innumerable cries of "hello mister" from anyone under 30 Also it was their independence day so there wasn't exactly a lot on offer. For my birthday I hired a boat to take me out to the island national park which lies just off the coast. There are actually 21 but as independence day is on the 17th they decided to ignore 4 of them, brilliant. Firstly we headed to an island full of Flying Foxes (something Indiana Jones had inspired me to want to see someday), then on to an uninhabited island where there was just me, 2 indonesian boatmen and a random but highly entertaining spaniard called Bruno. A local fisherman gave me a tuna as a present which was strange but highly generous considering (I might have ended up accidentally leaving him it's value in Rupiah on his boat...). After that we headed off to look at groups of flying fish which were being hunted by some 2 foot long Tuna, we had a go at catching one but ended up with a disappointing Grouper instead. I also saw something about a meter long fly 5 feet out of the water but I'm not 100% on what it was. The captain's best guess was that it was another type of tuna, just massive.

On to today where I got woken up at 5am to catch the Riung-Bajawa minibus. The ceiling was at my shoulder height and the seat in front was 4 inches closer than my knees. Oh and the road was a shambles. Also the man next to me kept falling asleep on my shoulder. That was a fun 5 hours... Also I fell for the trap of being really optimistic that it wouldn't be too full when I got on as it was just me on board. I forgot that in Indonesia they just drive round and round until every possible space in, on and around has at least some sort of animal product in it. Oh, and two tyres blew out at different moments. I think the Indonesia transport system will not be something which I miss all in all. Anyway we got in at lunchtime and I hopped on the back of a motorbike to head out to the traditional Nggada village of Bema on the flanks of Gunung Ierie (sp?) (photos to follow...). Utterly stunning, so much so that I bought some vanilla pods from a local woman who looked like Dracula's wife with red Betel Nut juice running out of her mouth (all the older ones here do to be honest). So now I've got a sore arse, some beautiful photos and a selection of very fragrant vanilla pods. A decent afternoon considering.

10 hour bus journey to Labuan Bajo tomorrow where I will try to post the best pictures so far from my time in Flores.

Until then...

Keg