A 2-day layover in Hong Kong...

Erik: It was finally time to head home. Hard to believe – after 18 months, we'd soon be sleeping in our own bed, free to take long, hot showers with great water pressure, etc. Flying back from KL, we would need to overnight in either Tokyo or Hong Kong. We opted for the latter for budget's sake, and decided to take a couple of days there to get to know the city. We did some research on hotels and came up with the Butterfly in the Tsim Sha Tsui area of HK. It was a new, very modern and comfy boutique hotel, and they were offering 3 nights for the price of 2. We had 3 nights there, so perfect!

The flight on Cathay Pacific was luxurious compared to our spartan trips on Air Asia – food, wine, in-seat movie system – nice! There's a great train system in HK, and we arrived at our hotel in about 30 minutes after clearing immigration and customs. For once, our hotel splurge was worth the price – a decent-sized, well appointed room with AC, cable TV, broadband wifi, fridge, coffee maker and even a microwave, not to speak of the large shower with steaming hot and powerful water. We never wanted to go outside!

We did make it out the next day, though, to the Museum of History, which was free on Wednesdays (and thus swarming with locals and tourists). It was very well set up, with interesting displays on HK ethnicity, culture and history. We learned about marriage rites, fishing techniques, gods, theater, etc. Most interesting, though, was the history of the city including the Opium War, from which Great Britain took control of the island, and the horrors of the Japanese occupation during WWII.

Hong Kong reminded us a bit of New York – tall, modern buildings, busy sidewalks, hot and humid, just like a NYC summer, only more so. If New York's Chinatown were to continue to expand into the financial district, then you'd end up with something very similar to HK.

The next day we got up early and took the scenic (and cheap) Star Ferry across to Hong Kong Island, where we took a 100 year old tram up to the top of “The Peak” - a very touristy lookout point, but rightly so, as the views were truly beautiful. We were lucky, as we narrowly missed the early morning rain, and the skies cleared as we headed up the peak.

The Avenue of Stars was fun as well. On the waterfront, it is modeled on Hollywood's Walk of Fame, with inlaid stars and hand prints of famous figures from Hong Kong cinema. I'm sad to say that I was only familiar with a few, but it was fun to see the stars for Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Chow Yun Fat.

Perhaps the one thing I'll remember most of Hong Kong, though, are the never-ending shopping malls. There must be more high-end shops per capita than any other city in the world. Getting from here to there will almost always necessitate walking through one or more of the fancy mega-malls – they're absolutely everywhere. They're huge, and they're oh-so-modern and chic. After a year and a half of living out of a backpack, though, we were hardly in consumer mode, and had no urge to shop. The AC inside was nice, though.

Finally the day arrived for us to go. Such an odd blend of excitement to see our city, our apartment, our family and friends mixed with fear of culture shock, unemployment, and generally being able to “fit in.” I'm writing this several days after arriving home, and I still feel odd and very unsure of what to do with myself. More on the travails on re-entry later though. Hopefully we'll have the gumption for one last installment of the blog discussing our feelings on being back.

Talor: My skin was shot, my knees had dropped and I had put on 10 lbs... yes, it was time to go home. After three days spent in KL, which was surprisingly quite pleasant (because we hardly went out) and productive (worked on the blog), we were ready for one last hurrah in Hong Kong...

If it was one of the the first stops on our tour of Asia, HK would have been so exciting, but given that it was our last before going home, it just wasn't all that. First of all, HK is all about consumerism... everywhere you go, there are mega-malls after mega-malls for all budgets, but especially high-end. It's also all about eating, which normally I have no problem with, but surprisingly, a lot of the eateries we went to, the menus were in Chinese. Let me clarify... there was always a Western Menu, but the more interesting stuff and cheap stuff was on a Chinese-only menu or written on the walls in Chinese. It was frustrating given that the staff couldn't tell us what the specials were. But we managed to get a taste of HK... indulged in Yum Cha (tea with dim sum) and an oyster pancake, deep-fried and yummy!

After our weather break in Perth and pleasant temps in Kuala Lumpur, we were back in the super hot and humid territory again. It was all too tempting to hole ourselves up in our way-too-comfortable room at the Butterfuly on Prat, but not wanting to waste the two short days we had, forced ourselves out to see the sights and be tourists again... hit the HK museum, the Jade Market, an old temple and the square where folks congregate and socialize under the banyan trees. But above all, I will remember HK for the amazing views of the skyline from the waterfront. Every single time we walked to the waterfront, it was like “WOW!”

Two days passed in the blink of an eye, but it was time to go home. I felt ready... sorta...

Our photos...

Hong Kong

G'days in Perth, Australia...

Talor: Perth was my idea, and it seemed like a good one up until we arrived at the airport at 5:30am, and it was freezing! Took a taxi to Northbridge, a neighborhood just outside of the city center, then checked into a clean but very basic and cold room at Governor Robinson's Backpackers for AU$75 (about US$60)/night! And that was with a shared bath...yikes! I immediately thought... whose brilliant idea was this?!? After 5½ months in Southeast Asia, we were in some deep sticker AND temperature shock! And as a cruel twist of fate, we happened to choose a neighborhood with blocks and blocks of Asian eateries... HA! Ohhh, the irony... the only affordable food was the one we were tired of... and it was at about ten times the prices we were used to paying... HA HA!

So we immediately went out in search of warm clothes and cheaper housing. Hit the good will second hand stores all over town, and checked out every single backpacker lodging. Every time we needed to reach into our pocket to pay for anything, whether for coffee, food, clothes, etc., it was like OUCH! It was more expensive than New York City! It's not like we didn't try to mentally prepare for this, but it's still always a shock when reality sets in. Anyway, mission accomplished... by the end of the day, we got warm outerwear and found much more affordable housing at the North Lodge, just a short block away, which made everything seem a lot more manageable. With a sigh of relief, we went out to celebrate the fact that we were in Australia! Woo hoo! We may have celebrated a little too much...

The next morning, feeling a bit hungover, we moved into a large room on the second floor of the North Lodge. With a balcony, a kitchenette, dining table and chairs, we thought it was the best deal in town... twice the room for about half of what we paid at Gov Rob's. And it had the tiniest bath, but it was all ours, with plenty of hot water! Yay! Though we couldn't cook in our room because we had no burner, we could prepare coffee and simple meals such as sandwiches and salads. Also, there was a community kitchen downstairs we could use to cook if we wanted to. And we wanted to, not just to save money, but it's been ages since we've had kitchen access, and it was exciting. So we went shopping for food. And also treated ourselves to a space heater. Felt a little guilty whenever we turned it on, but better than being cold and miserable.

With all that done, we went out to explore the capital city of Western Australia and its surrounds, hoping the good weather (sunny and mild) would hold out. Walking around Perth is a pleasure... it's super clean, the sidewalks are in good condition, drivers don't try to run you down, and it never seems too crowded even during rush hour. The public toilets are cleaner than most private toilets we've had. It even smells good... environmentally conscious, the buses use clean gas, there are no open sewage systems or piles of rotting garbage lying around. Then it occurred to me... all these pleasantries don't come cheap, and that's what we're paying for. After that epiphany, I stopped complaining about the prices.

Perth is not a new city, but it has been built up quickly over the last decades with the mining boom. Everything looks brand spanking new, except the old stuff, which has been wonderfully restored. The city planners must've taken great care when they experienced rapid growth because there seems to be a coherence to it all. It's not in your face either. I just realized that after a few days, I had yet to point at something and say, “what were they thinking?!” Population is 1.3 million, but you wouldn't know it since everything outside the city center is spread out. The multi-cultured folks of Perth are friendly, but not in a needy way. Overall, they are very easy on the blood pressure... kinda like the city, or is it that the city is a reflection of the people? That's probably more like it. But no matter what came first, the chicken or the egg, it was all good, and I was happy we were there. On the other hand, we could've been anywhere, especially when we went out into the suburbs, which generally consists of neat rows of manicured houses with malls and car parks... sound familiar? There was nothing uniquely Australian about it, except for the accent, the way they play football, and seeing kangaroo burgers on the restaurant menus.

We considered traveling around the country a bit, but that would require lots more planning and a whole lot more time, which we didn't have. But like I said, it was all good! Felt great just to take a break from the heat, humidity and biting insects. It also felt good to see Erik putting a bit of weight back on with a more protein/less carb diet (beef, cheese, eggs, etc.).

After nine days, I would say my top three experiences were:

1. Petting kangaroos and koalas at Caversham Wildlife Park;
2. Walking through King's Park on a beautiful sunny day; and
3. Meeting Justine, a new friend. Had so much fun talking to her and listening to her life story, which is pretty interesting. Let's just say if she wrote a book, I'd buy it immediately. (Hear that Justine?)

Of course the time flew by, and despite the earlier adjustment period, I'm really glad we went! Would love to go back for an extended stay, but that will have to wait til the next time...

Erik: Perth in mid-winter. Who's idea? It's a city known for its beautiful golden beaches, but it was too cold to spend time at the coast. It's also known for its diving, but it was a bit cold for that as well. Cricket? No, that's summer as well. Before I sound too let down, though, it is a beautiful place any time of year. Just seemed that the more we read about the top things to do and see, the more we wished we had gone there at the beginning of this trip rather than the end.

And sticker shock, indeed! The place really is more expensive than New York in many ways, and two that are dear (no pun) to me: beer and coffee. A pint in an average pub is about AU$8 – about US$7!? And it's only marginally cheaper to buy it in a shop and take it home – crazy. Coffee is about AU$4 (US$3.50!) At least we could make ourselves coffee in the room, and I found some passable and relatively cheap Western Australian wine. We did need to keep our evenings in the pub to a minimum, though.

The city did remind me of a small American city except for the accent and the cars driving on the wrong side of the road. Actually, that's not entirely fair, as the streets are much cleaner than in the US, and Perth's waterfront is drop-dead beautiful, especially seen from high-up, as the view from Kings Park. We also got a great view from the top of the Wheel of Perth, a large ferris wheel like its famous cousin in London. It's formal name is the Wheel of Excellence, which I found comic in a Simpsons kind of way.

With our usual impeccable timing, we arrived the same day as a huge American aircraft carrier, and by the end of our first full day, the streets and the pubs were filled with American sailors, adding to our general geographic confusion. Luckily, having the city crawling with rambunctious, uniformed yanks didn't seem to dampen the warm, friendly welcome we got from everyone – Perthians are an open, friendly and unpretentious lot – very refreshing after all of the odd looks and money-grubbing we'd encountered throughout Indonesia.

We took a few days trips while there – one to the old colonial town of Guildford, where I greatly looked forward to having a pint in the oldest pub in Western Australia. True to what we'd seen throughout Perth, though, they'd recently remodeled the place and it was now a posh wine bar. (Aaargh!) We didn't stay long enough to even peruse the drinks list. I left feeling a bit depressed, but I did find what I was looking for around the corner in WA's 2nd oldest pub, which was a real dive full of drunken old-timers at 5pm on a weekday! Phew – stayed and had a couple there.

We also headed up the coast to see the Aquarium of Western Australis (AQWA), which was fun. It has an underwater walkway where you get inches away from sharks, rays, turtles, etc. It's really well put together and it was fun to share with Talor some of what I see when diving.

Finally, on our last evening, we took the train out to the nearby harbor town of Fremantle to see an Aussie-rules football match. It was exciting, and remarkably easy to understand, especially with all the curious locals coming up to help explain the rules to us. We finished off the evening with delicious fish-n-chips near the harbor, and finally felt that we were truly in Australia. Too bad we had to leave the next day!

Here's a link to our photos of Perth:

Perth, Australia

Buses, boats and bemos - Sulawesi

Talor: After Flores, we were desperately in need of pampering so we went back to Bali (since we knew it a little already) and had a “vacation” from our travels. Checked into a lovely room at the Villa Pisang Mas, then it was all about indulging ourselves... eating, shopping and taking dips in the pool. A week later, we were ready to hit the road again, and though neither of us were crazy about Indonesia in general, we decided to give it another go. So many people have raved about it, it must be good, right? Maybe we just hadn't hit the right spot yet...

This time, we set our sights on the Togean Islands just off of Central Sulawesi, which by the way, is interestingly, mostly Christian, and the site of much sectarian violence in the past. But now it seems they've put their differences aside for the time being. It was strange to see churches and cathedrals after seeing nothing but mosques and temples.

Flew to Makassar (the Southern end of the island), which is supposed to be an cool city with great food and it's own Chinatown. We were excited because we hadn't been in a proper Chinatown since we left Malaysia, and we really missed it. Well... it was a bit disappointing... there was none of the hustle and bustle you usually associate with a Chinatown, and the food was nothing to write home about. All we saw was just another city with a hodge podge mix of old and new and way too many pushy rickshaw drivers. And we ran into a problem with the language. Very few people spoke English. Our fault really... we should have gotten a book and studied Bahasa Indonesian, but we got spoiled up til then and had only learned a few basic phrases. It was a real struggle just to find out where the bus station was.

The fun thing was that they're not used to Western tourists so Erik was a real celebrity. He got stares wherever we went with people shouting out, “Hello Mister!” and kids followed him around. While we were walking, a bus full of high school kids got out, and the teacher came over to ask if he would mind taking a few photos with them. It was really hysterical to see all the kids jostling for position to be in a photo with him. He was a star!

After a couple of days in Makassar we made our way to Rantepao in the Tana Toraja region. The Torajans have their own language, culture and architecture, and are fairly unique in the way they deal with the dead. When a person dies, they are treated as if they were still alive... family and friends visit with them and bring them meals. Only after the family has raised enough money to have a great big party, and a water buffalo is slaughtered in their honor, are they considered dead and the spirit has left... weird, huh?

Once in Rantepao, we hired a guide named Martin, to take us to a funeral ceremony, which he did. The village was located on a hill with gorgeous rice paddies, and the dramatic architecture of the houses were pretty stunning. Platforms were built under the houses to accommodate visiting family and friends. The guy who passed away must have been an important person because it was a pretty big affair with many gifts of water buffaloes, a sure sign of a person's standing in the community. Unfortunately, the day we went, there wasn't much going on, but we were told the next day there would be a water buffalo slaying. I wasn't sure if I had the stomach to watch, but thought the whole ritual was fascinating. Well, the next day, we went back, but because the man got so many gifts of water buffaloes, they were still counting and announcing them. This went on for hours. We went and presented one of the families with a gift of a carton of cigarettes (strange, but we were told that was the appropriate thing to do) and were invited to sit with them and have lunch. Martin turned out to be worst guide... spent more time text-messaging than explaining what was going on. Watching them count water buffaloes was none too exciting, especially since we couldn't understand a word being said so we were a bit disappointed, but also a bit relieved that we didn't see an animal slaughtered because I'm sure that would not have been pretty. Instead, we had Martin take us for a lovely walk through the rice paddies.

Then we were on our way to the Togeans, which three days to get to. First we took a bus from Rantepao to Tentena, spent the night, then the next morning got in a shared SUV to the town of Poso where we changed to another SUV for Ampana. We arrived in the early evening and got a room for the night, then the next morning we boarded an old-fashioned wooden ferry for the island of Kadidiri in the Togeans.

We stayed at Paradise Resort, one of only three resorts on the island. In fact that's all there is on the island... no village, no store, no roads, nothing. And nothing to do, but go diving or snorkeling. It wasn't exactly paradise... electricity just in the evenings from 6:00 to 11:00, jungle water coming out of the faucets (when there was water), and inflated prices for everything, including drinking water. But the ocean was pretty and the sunsets amazing. And the resort came with three friendly dogs, Lola, Bonbon and Zero who kept us company as we wrote our pages in the mornings. Plus we scored some really good books from their book exchange. That came in really handy since there was nothing to do. But the best part was meeting a lot of very cool people who we chatted with while dining community style. After five days, I felt it was enough. Time to move on...

Rather than go back the way we came, this time we decided to head to Manado on the northern tip, an international destination, world-renowned for great diving. Thought it would be faster and we'd have more options. You see, we had less than a month left and we didn't know where we wanted to spend that time. Figured we'd go to Manado, a modern, developed city, find a place with wifi and do some research. So we boarded a ferry bound for Gorontalo, where we would get transport to Manado. This one was a more modern affair with air-conditioning and a room with reclining seats. But because it would be a 13-hour overnight ride, we decided to share a sleeping cabin with Niels and Nicky, a really sweet Belgian couple we met at Paradise. As soon as we got on the ferry, it was a mad scramble to get one of just a handful of cabins, which actually belong to the crew. The crew regularly rent them out to passengers willing to pay $25. Not a bad deal really considering it would be split four ways. With the help of the Manager of Paradise Resort who came on board with us, we managed to score one, and though super-tight with child-size bunkbeds, it was a lot more comfortable. With that done, we went up on the deck and hung out watching the pretty sunset and chatting with other travelers, most of whom we had met on Paradise.

Not sure if I even got any sleep that night, but I must have dozed off at some point because I woke to the sound of the boat docking. We quickly got our stuff together then rushed into the madness of everyone trying to disembark at the same time... cars, motorbikes, people with cargo, etc. We pushed and shoved along with everyone else, and with Niels and Nicky, and Dan and Calista (another great couple we met on Paradise), we managed to bargain a pretty good price for a shared SUV to Manado. It really helped that Dan was fluent in Bahasa Indonesian after having spent a year teaching English on Kalimantan, the Indonesian side of Borneo. We couldn't have asked for better travel companions... everyone was considerate, played nice, and we all took turns rotating seats so no one would be stuck being uncomfortable for too long. Then a travel nightmare happened... not sure if it was the fish we ate for breakfast, but I got sick and felt seriously nauseous throughout the 10-hour ride to Manado, having to make emergency stops at the worst outhouses imaginable... UGH! Everyone being really kind, they let me ride the last few hours in the front passenger seat, but even then, it felt like it was taking forever to get there despite our driver going at break-neck speed.

Took two nights, one day to recover in Manado before heading to yet another tiny little island, called Bunaken, where Erik could dive. By now I was pretty tired of little islands, but I thought this may be his last chance for a very long time. And so we went, but this time, we looked on-line and booked a full-board stay at one of the more luxury places, Bunaken Village Resort. Though no A/C, they had a small swimming pool and electricity 24 hours... a big step up from the Paradise. Spent three days there eating well and visiting with our friends Niels and Nicky at a different resort and also making new friends as well, like Katrina and Ulrich, who gave us a lot of advice about places to go.

Back in Manado, we were still undecided as to where we would spend the rest of our time. Thought about going to the Philippines, but that would mean more islands, which I was pretty sick of. We were really close to getting a ticket back to Bali to regroup, but at the last minute, purchased tickets to KL because we figured we could get to anywhere from there.

Just then, I was reading Bill Bryson's “Down Under” (which by the way is one of the best books I read on this trip) about his travels in Australia, and I thought, “Why not?” It's somewhere I've always dreamed about, and though we'd talked about it, we'd always dismissed the idea because it was so expensive. It's also winter there now so it's cold and we had given away all of our warm clothes back in Laos when we decided not to go further north. On the other hand, this was towards the end of our trip and we had managed to save a bit so why not splurge and go for gold? And by then, I was really sick of the heat, humidity and biting insects, and the thought of winter sounded refreshing, especially since once we get home, it'll be the height of summer... more heat and humidity. Plus when will we ever get to this part of the world again? Probably not for a good long while. So I managed to convince E that it was a good idea. Problem was, when we looked at flights to Australia out of KL, it being last-minute, the only affordable flight was to Perth, the most remote city in the world! Oops! Undaunted, we decided to go anyway. Yay! With thoughts of kangies, koalas and clean bathrooms floating in my head, for the first time in a long time, I was really excited!

Erik: So instead of continuing on to exploring Flores, we made the decision to u-turn back to Bali, regroup and re-energize there. we were just tired, road-weary and wanted a little comfort. We were lucky to find a little resort on a side street in Legian that offered self-standing villas for semi-affordable prices. we managed to negotiate a decent price for a large place with a little kitchen unit, and basically chilled out for a week, getting our energy level back up and our interest in Indonesia alive again. So far we'd been disappointed with the country, finding the food incredibly boring and the overall cost of living much higher than we'd thought. We were considering the Philippines, Thailand, etc. But we'd been given advice way back in Mexico (16 months ago) that Sulawesi was a wonderful place to visit – with some of the best diving in the world and really interesting culture. It was possible to fly there directly from Bali, so off we went.

In retrospect, I think that we really must have just been burnt out on traveling – as the little things that one might find interesting were becoming annoying to us – language barriers, street touts, having to haggle and negotiate for everything...and the long, uncomfortable bus rides just held no allure anymore. So in the end, perhaps it was a mistake to head to Sulawesi, as those things are exactly what we got. Long, long days of travel, crappy, unenthusiastic guides, and boring, boring food. We really tried to like it, and perhaps we would have if we'd visited Indonesia earlier in our trip. Even the diving ended up a disappointment for me, as I'd had so many people tell me how great the diving on the Togeans and Manado was – but it really wasn't. Dynamite fishing had killed off the majority of the fish in the Togeans (I accidentally picked up an unexploded pipe bomb diving there - “gee I wonder what this could be?” - then realized my mistake, put it down very gently and paddled away as quickly as possible.) Manado diving was better, but I think I'd been spoiled by my dives on Flores, as even there I found it so-so.

The architecture in Tana Toraja was fascinating – the village houses built with huge arching roofs, and buffalo horns adorning the fronts of the VIP houses – the more horns, the bigger the VIP. I wish we'd learned more about the culture – been to a funeral on the proper celebration day and made it out to the burial caves, where coffins are suspended off cliff walls, and infant coffins dangled from trees. Our great guide managed to waste most of our time there watching people prepare for the funeral, and not much more (which was interesting on its own, but we were still left feeling disappointed...)

What I am very happy about from the Sulawesi trip is the great group of people we met there – Nicky and Niels, Marco the crazy Dutchman, Dan and Calista, Katrina and Ulrich as well as Stefano and Patricia from northern Italy, who's contact info we're very sad to have lost – we were invited to stay in their tiny village whenever we made it out to Tuscany – damn!

After the disappointments in Indonesia, I was eager to check out the Philippines, but T had her sites set on Australia. After I'd been spoiled with so many tropical islands and so much diving, it was only fair to let her call the shots on this last leg of the trip – and I can't say I was unhappy to be going to Oz – always wanted to go there – but I'd never considered Perth, and in the dead of winter? Oh well, it would be something different at least, and I'd never seen a kangaroo and knew nothing of cricket nor Aussie-rules football, so why not?

Our photos from Sulwesi:

Legian, Bali Indonesia 2

Makassar, Sulawesi Indonesia

Tana Toraja, Sulawesi Indonesia

Kadidiri, Togean Islands, Indonesia

Manado, Sulawesi, Indonesia

Diving and dragons on Flores...

Talor: 30-freakin hours to get to Labuan Bajo! What the hell were we thinking??? Actually, I think it was more than that because the last ferry arrived two hours late. It was one of the most grueling journeys yet! It started off at 1:00pm in a van to the big bus at the main terminal. As we waited, a guy who seemed like he was with the bus company tried to sell us ferry tickets from Sumbawa to Flores. We declined knowing the price was much less than what he was quoting, but I guess he felt like he wanted to make money off of us somehow, so just when the bus was about to leave and we were comfortably settled into our seats, he came and demanded we pay to have our packs stored in the baggage compartment on the side of the bus, or else we'd have to keep them with us by our seats which were tight to begin with. We literally got into a shouting match with him, and I am not proud to say that at at one point, I lost my cool and threatened him with bodily harm if he touched our bags. Then, the real bus guy came by to say that the guy was crazy (which we knew) and reassure us that our bags would be fine. Argh!

The busride took us to a ferry that had several not-so-interesting live entertainers, including a bizarre one-man show where a strangely effeminate guy was, at times, literally writhing on the nasty floor as everyone looked on with expressions of amusement, puzzlement and horror. Then back on the bus, we stopped in the evening for dinner, which was truly a cheerless affair of rice and a bowl of chicken soup. Then it was back on the bus til they dropped us off at a town on the island of Sumbawa (between Lombok and Flores), where we would have to wait for a smaller bus that would be better suited to negotiate the narrow broken roads to another ferry. At 3:30am, we wondered when the smaller bus would be leaving so we asked and were told at 6:00am... crap! We had 2 ½ hours to kill in a dark and ugly bus terminal in the middle of nowhere while we were being eaten alive by mosquitoes! When the bus finally took off, I was so exhausted from lack of sleep, I actually fell asleep on the two-hour bumpy ride to the port where we would get on a ferry (the last leg) to Labuan Bajo, Flores.

Got there, sipped on coffee until the ferry ticket office opened, got our tickets and were told the ferry would leave at 8:00am so we hurriedly boarded, and found it peculiar that we were the only passengers. When we asked one of the staff, he said we wouldn't be leaving til 11:00... what?? With nothing else to do, we waited... and waited... and waited... until finally, we were moving at 10:00. I felt a sense of excitement because we were almost there! Nevermind that it would be an 8-hour ride! Not even sure how we managed to pass the time... napping, reading, napping, reading some more, and so on. When we finally saw the bay up ahead, it looked absolutely lovely!

Unfortunately, once we landed, it wasn't as lovely as it looked from the ferry. The main road was completely dug up making it hard to walk as we went from place to place looking for accommodations. And this was the first time in awhile that we saw shades of meanness... when we asked one of the pricier places if they had any rooms for cheaper rates, the guy looked at us contemptuously saying, “That's the price.” Then we looked at another place which was totally overpriced with a squat toilet, and when we kindly said we'd think about it, the guy suggested it wouldn't be available if we were to come back. Shit like that kinda turned me off. But after that long journey, we were definitely in need of comfort so we decided, the hell with our budget, let's splurge and be comfortable. Well... seems that's not as easy as it sounds. We checked into the Sunrise, which is one of the more luxury places with AC, but after negotiating, we settled in to find the bathroom had some real issues. So we moved to another room that was not as nice, but we were too tired to move so we settled in for the night, got ourselves cleaned of the skank and went for a meal.

The next day, with a bit more energy, we walked around and found Laguan Bajo to be one of the dustiest, ugliest places we've ever been in. But we decided to treat ourselves by moving to the Green Hill Inn... it turned out to be a big mistake. The room looked nice enough, but once we settled in, we discovered it's shortcomings... the bed sunk so badly, we couldn't get comfortable, the bathroom was full of mosquitoes, and the doorknob was broken. The band-aid gluing the lightswitch to the wall should have tipped us off. But oh my! Once we got a look out on the views of the bay, it was a beauty! It was up on on a hill with panoramic views of amazing sunsets. And in the end, that's what we were paying for. It wasn't for the constant hassle of them turning the water off, or the measly serving of coffee and breakfast in the morning, it was the views... absolutely gorgeous!

Anyway, the other drawback about Labuan Bajo is that tourism is just taking off and there is no infrastructure. In order to do anything or go anywhere, you really need to rely on the locals, but the locals were in the mindset of “get as much as you can” so we were getting super-inflated prices for anything and everything. And nobody would say what all the options were, they just told you what they wanted to sell. Needless to say, this really put us off.

But we decided we had made it that far, we were going to see komodo dragons, at the very least damn it! We negotiated hard and booked a half day boat trip to the island of Rinca, a two-hour ride away. Though the scenery was lovely, we were sucking in petrol fumes the whole way as the boat loudly chugged along the water. But as a bonus, we spotted dolphins! That alone was worthy, but then we got to Rinca, and after paying the park fee, the conservation fee, and every other fee they could think of, we began our tour and lo and behold! Just a few minutes into it, there they were... the most crazy looking, prehistoric, amazing creatures I have ever seen, hanging out right by the park kitchen! Wow! I'm talking WOW!

Anyhoo... after that we were so ready to blow that dusty town, but when we went around asking about transport to the next town, we got crazy inflated prices, at which point, we decided, it's not worth it. The prospect of having to deal with this every time we wanted to move round the island on the rough roads in broken down buses just didn't appeal to me anymore. What would have seemed like an exciting challenge in the beginning of our trip was now becoming more of a chore than anything else. Truth is, we were travel-weary and ready for a “vacation” from our travels. So we booked a flight back to Bali for a little R&R and to buy time to figure out our next move.

Erik: Yes, T's right about so much – the trip getting to Flores was grueling. 30 hours on tiny, winding roads during which the bus was weaving and bumping and heaving – impossible to sleep. When we arrived at the final, 8-hour ferry to Flores island, I saw the cushy banquettes inside and was sure i'd sleep for a good few hours, but they put the tv's on full volume to music-video and children channels, so there was no chance of dosing off unless you had a packet of morphine stashed away.

Labuan Bajo is, indeed, one of the nattiest, ugly cities we'd been in. What T didn't have the chance to benefit from, though, was the absolutely amazing diving there. I'd never seen so much marine life in my life – i couldn't figure out what to look at – there was just too much – sharks, lionfish, turtles, scorpionfish, so many things i'd never seen before. I was dumbfounded. The currents are wicked-strong, if any of you happen to go, so be forewarned and be careful – i and two diving buddies were nearly swept out to the open sea on one dive (never been so scared on a dive in my life!), but the next dive, we were graced to see 10 manta rays doing a mating dance, after which they swam (flew?) past us in formation, only a few feet away. My diving buddy captured this on video. Check this out:

So, labuan bajo is a horribly ugly, unaccommodating place, but if you dive, i'd totally suggest you go there nonetheless – the best diving i've done anywhere.

I'd have stayed a few more days to dive a bit more, but t had nothing to do ashore, so we decided to head back to bali (the only place you can fly to from the town), and relax and have a little r&r.

More photos...

Labuan Bajo, Flores Indonesia

Friends and parties on Lombok...

Erik: From legian, bali, talor negotiated us a great deal on a speedboat out to the gili islands (off of the island of lombok, near bali.) $40 instead of the usual $60-$70 the boat should cost. T's become the best price negotiator during the course of the trip. We were on the tiny tropical islands within a few hours of leaving, but the boat left us on the super-touristy island of gili trawangan. there we found that everyone was after the all-mighty tourist dollar, and all the tourists looking to do drugs and party all night. Kappy and I had booked a dive for the next morning, but we soon canceled it, wanting to move on to the smaller island of gili air, where we hoped we'd be less a walking money-bag and actually meet some nice, local indonesian island folk.

What difference a short boat ride makes! Gili Air was totally chill, though just lively enough to keep us entertained. We found a wonderful little italian-run set of bungalows, Biba Beach Chalets, which were beautifully done up – very luxurious, except for the on-and-off electricity and the salty tap water which the entire island suffers from. We made several local friends in bars and restaurants around the island. Kappy even was serenaded by a couple of singing bartenders at the tiny Corner Bar where we had a send off “party” for her. (The party consisted of the 3 of us, a guitar player and our singing bartender, Sonny G, but we had a great time.)

Kappy and I had a few days of good diving before it was time for her to move on. She wanted to fly west to Java to see the Borobudor ruins, while we had our sites set east, towards the island of Flores. In the oddest bit of timing, Kappy left 3 hours before the arrival of another friend of ours, Rumana, who'd worked with Talor in NYC. We don't have anyone come travel with us for 15 months, and then we get back-to-back visitors, separated by only a few hours! Wish they could of overlapped a couple of days so we'd be more of a gang to contend with, though I might have gone crazy with all the “girl talk” (just joking, ladies.) Our musical bar tending friends were very surprised when we showed up again the very next night, but with a new friend this time – ready for a “welcome Rumana” party to follow up on Kappy's farewell.

Rumana seemed to love Gili Air, and she decided to learn to dive there, so we ended up staying much longer than we'd planned – 10 days in all. Not that i was complaining at all. During that time I got to know the dive staff at Manta Dive quite well, and I very nearly stayed for another month to do my dive master training. Up until the morning we left, I was still unsure if i'd be staying or not, but in the end i decided it was best to continue our travels and leave my DMT for a later date.

We had a great time with Rumana, though after gili air, she wanted to head back to bali to check out ubud, etc., and we still had our sites set west, so we said our goodbyes one morning after 5 days together, and got on the small wooden ferries heading in opposite directions. Still, we felt very lucky to have had friends come visit us from so far away. We were also a little eager as well to get back to our travels.

The gili islands lie offshore of the much, much bigger Lombok Island, which is where we headed next. After the ferry we got a taxi to the beach town of Sengiggi, which was supposed to be beautiful and laid back. What we found was one main touristy strip where we were constantly hounded by touts wanting to help us find hotels, scooters, tourist trinkets, etc. We couldn't walk more than 10 steps without being approached by someone wanting to sell us something. It was so bad that we decided to leave the next morning. And not just leave Sengiggi – we left Lombok all together, getting a combined series of buses and ferries all the way across lombok, across the next island of sumbawa and on to flores. 30 hours non-stop travel. Woo-hoo!

Talor: Gili Air is a nice little island with a friendly chill vibe. Like Gili T, all the locals wanted to sell you something (everyone's gotta make a living), but they were also happy just to get to know you. And like Gili T, everything was overpriced (for the tourists, which is their main industry), but they were a lot nicer about it and were willing to negotiate.

But what made our time there special was the company we had. It was great hanging out with Kappy then having Rumana join us... so the parties continued, including a super-fun one Saturday night at the Blue Bar where we got totally trashed and kicked up our heels in the sand. Then, in a state of euphoria (or stupidity), Erik decided to go in the water, and I followed suit. Within minutes, tragedy occurred... I lost my ring! I felt it slipping off my finger and two seconds too late, I was frantically searching, but all I saw was pitch black... aghhhh! The next morning, Erik went searching, but to no avail. Felt like I lost a friend, and shed a few tears, until Alice (the ever-wise Dive Master) posed her theory that the ring left because it felt it had done its job making me happy and it was time to move on to give to someone else... not sure if I was completely convinced, but it did make me feel better or maybe the hangover wore off... hmmm.

While everyone went diving, I spent the days walking around, exploring the island's many sandy paths into the interior and chatting with the locals. I was really surprised at how well everyone spoke English. Had nice conversations with Arsa, a horse-cart driver who also worked as a tour guide. Talked a lot to Roling, who dreamed of going to Korea one day for a better life. He spoke better Korean than me! Then there was also the teacher at the public school and his students eager to practice their English. And getting my hair cut, the hairdresser happily talked about her family. It was really nice being able to chat with the locals and learning about their lives. But outside of that, there wasn't much to do since I couldn't go into the water...

I have an allergic reaction to sea lice. For most people, their stings are just an annoyance. For me, I break out in a rash that bubbles into tiny little blisters, and it itches like crazy for about two weeks. Usually Erik will go in the water first and let me know if he feels them, and if so, I won't go in. Unfortunately, that has been the case through most of SE Asia. Not being much of an aquatic person, I've always preferred beaching more anyway, but I still enjoyed looking out into the lovely blue waters.

But after 10 days, I was ready to move on. I was really missing stuff like reliable electricity (the island was having power issues so it would go out for hours), good food (there wasn't much of a variety on the island so we ate a lot of fried rice, which is Indonesia's national dish), fast internet (there were two internet cafes using dial-up which cost a fortune), and a fresh water shower (never actually feel clean after bathing in salt water). So we decided to go check out Senggigi on the main island of Lombok to enjoy some of these luxuries.

Unfortunately, we never stayed long enough to find out... the super-aggressive touts annoyed us so much, literally following us around at times, that we decided to get outta Dodge! The very same day, we booked a 30-hour journey (that's how desperate we were to leave) to the island of Flores... OY!

For more photos...

Gilis, Lombok Indonesia

Senggigi, Lombok Indonesia