LABUAN BAJO, FLORES, INDONESIA

This morning we left Ruteng and drove the final four hours to the coast, stopping at Ndaru to climb a steep hill and take a few pictures of the rice fields there, which are laid out in an interesting spider-web pattern.

The drive across Flores was beautiful, to be sure, but after four days I'd had about enough of those winding mountain roads (and enough "hallo mistahs" from everyone we passed). And at this point, Chris and I were really anxious to get rid of that little weasel Hayun--last night we found out he overcharged us for the park fee at Kelimutu, and pocketed the money! What a right bastard, as the English say.

And perhaps just as bad, he's been subjecting us to the same two CDs for four straight days (an Alpha Blondy CD and a country music compilation), which wouldn't be so bad if he didn't keep playing his favorite songs 3 or 4 times in a row. So when we finally pulled up to our hotel, it didn't come a moment too soon!

Luckily, Labuan Bajo seems like a good place to spend a few days--it's a little fishing village set in a picturesque harbor, overlooking about a dozen mountainous islands, including the islands of Rinca and Komodo. The town itself is kind of decrepit--from the hillside it's a sea of rusty tin roofs--but it has a certain run-down charm (a little like the town of Sweethaven in the Popeye movie).

And our hotel, the Gardena, lives up to its name--it's a well-kept cluster of bungalows in a lush garden of bougainvillea, hibiscus and papaya trees, set on the hillside above the town, with a great view over the harbor.

Not long after we arrived, Chris and I noticed some familiar faces in the hotel restaurant: Henrik from Sweden and three girls he's been traveling with, Megan and Sarah from the U.S., and Smeeta from the UK. They've been working their way westward across Flores, too, and since there's basically one road, we've seen them at just about every hotel we've stayed at.

So after talking with them this afternoon and comparing travel plans, we've decided to join forces for a few days and do a few activities together to save some money. (Well, with Henrik and Smeeta, at least--the two American girls are only spending a day here before flying to wherever they're going.)

So in the afternoon, we walked across the street from our hotel to a "Tourist Information Centre" (really a tour operator) and scheduled a two day, one night boat trip to the islands of Rinca and Komodo. We then went to the Reefseekers dive shop a few doors down (recommended by the folks at the dive shop on Gili Trawangan), and after getting some information about dive sites, booked two days of scuba diving after we get back from Komodo. Diving here is really cheap--only about US$40 for an all-day dive trip consisting of two dives, plus lunch and drinks. Not bad!

At about 2pm the electricity went out, and didn't come back on until just before 7. Apparently this is a regular occurrence in Labuan Bajo, due to the high cost of fuel. It's kind of inconvenient, though, especially in the hottest part of the day! The only thing to do at that point was to sit on the porch of our bungalow, watch the sun set over the harbor, and drink some of the arak we bought yesterday, while listening to the sunset Call to Prayer from the local mosque. A pretty relaxing way to end the day, really.

After the power came back on, we ate at the hotel restaurant with Henrik, Megan, Sarah, and Smeeta, then we all walked to Labuan Bajo's only internet cafe', at the other end of town. There's only one PC there, though, so the four of us had to take turns checking our e-mail.