When my husband and I visit Indonesia, we have our regular stops on Java and Bali as we have family and friends on these islands. Now that I know these places quite well, I wished to explore new places, and if possible, a new island. So we went further East than Bali and Lombok and made a four-day-stop at Labuan Bajo on Flores. Labuan Bajo is a small but growing tourist place at the island’s coast and right in front of the Komodo National Park. The four days allowed us enough time to do a jungle trek down a mountain towards a waterfall. The other day we rented a boat to ship through the Komodo National Park, a Marine Park with a few medium and many tiny islands, among them the island of Rinca where you can find the Komodo dragons. Another day we could explore a small cave which is a 20-minute drive away from the city, and we visited every local market in the area in order to get the spices I wanted to bring home. Unfortunately, it was not Vanilla season as I had hoped. The rest of the time we were sleeping and relaxing by the beach as we were actually pretty sick, especially my husband! I’m very thankful that we could still explore a lot as I was super curious to see more of Indonesia’s beauty.
Pictures taken in September 2016 with my SONY Nex-5R and iPhone SE.
On a hike down a mountain towards a river!
We arrived! The waterfall is actually behind me but to fully see its beauty, I would have needed to jump from these five to ten-meter-high rocks. It was super hot and humid; this would have been a refreshment. But I had to face and surrender to my fear of heights and skipped it. The water is quite muddy already from the rain that brought dirt from the top of the mountain.
On the way back it was pouring rain from a thunderstorm over us. As my partner was pretty sick, it was a mood killer. We were so thankful that our guide invited us to his home for some hot coffee and some fried dough balls. Of course, the whole family said hi, also these super cute kids who had a lot of fun splashing water around. Can you see the cheeky grin on the face of the little one? He was ready for a water fight
This beauty approached me shy but full with curiosity. During our stay, she hid behind her relatives and tiptoed around the house, giggling when I would look at her and ask her questions. In the end, she was quite relaxed as you can see.
The end of our hike: Driving down lush rainforest mountains in the rain.
The rainy season started already at that time of the year, a bit early. During the day, you would see big rain clouds developing over the islands, but the sky over the calm see was always clear.
All I can think of is the word majestic.
A tiny fisher village on the island of Rinca.
Many boats make a stop at the crocodile bay (teluk buaya) on the island of Rinca to see the Komodo dragons. We only saw the lazy ones in the village, who like the smell of the kitchen. On our hike through the fields, we did not see more dragons, but got to see beautiful views!
We made a stop on one of these tiny islands to relax a bit at the beach and snorkel as well. We saw some pretty cool fish, but the views were not that perfect. It’s supposed to be a snorkel and diving paradise, so I assume the rain from these last days stirred up the waters too much.
Close by the city of Labuan Bajo is a small cave that we got to explore. To be honest, I was a bit afraid of darkness and narrowness. But usually it’s all worth it when you overcome your fear and it turned out to be a super cool experience. On this picture, you can see an outside part of the cave where bats hid in a gorge.
I was on the hunt for some exotic spices that are just way too expensive back in Germany! I did not find everything on my wish list, but it was cool to mingle among the locals and surprise them with my Indonesian skills.
The colorful assortment of the local markets.
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