The end of a chapter: how we left Indonesia

With a heavy heart I have to announce that our time in Indonesia has come to an end. I have started to count down the hours until we leave this magnificent country. It was a great time, we've met incredible humans, animals and some strange hybrids.

We are sitting at the airport waiting for our flight to Australia, our next chapter. I am curious how that is going to turn out. I am scared of the sun, we both have transformed into lobsters already. But I did not start this to complain, only a little. I started this to kill the next hours before it is reasonable to hand over our animal companions to the care of the flight people. So, grab a drink (I have a ridiculously expensive black tea from Starbucks, which is still a cheap one in comparison to the other drinks offered in this place. Airports are strange places.) and enjoy my ramblings. Or don't. I don't care. You might be bored.

The last chapter told the tale of our magical boat journey, which ended in the town of Labuan Bajo on the beautiful Island of Flores. When you try to google it, don't confuse it with the Flores in Ecuador. Happened to our google several times. Our hotel was on a hill and offered a great view over the bay. But sitting outside especially in the afternoon was not really an option unless you don't mind being burned by the evil fireball in the sky. That one was also to blame for the way to hot temperature of the water in our pool. All that being said it was a lovely hotel. Benji and Nona also stayed there so the company was good too. The afternoon after arriving we spend in the pool, trying desperately not to be boiled. Didn't work out too well. For dinner we ventured down the hill into the little town of Bajo. A nice, but very touristy place.

The next day shocked both of us out of bed very early. We both spend the early morning hours as productive as possible. Artey decided to do a work out in our cool room, while Sesy went down to the pool to swim until the sun crept over the side of the hill transforming the pool into a boiling pot. We broke our fast with the view over green hills and blue waters. Can't really complain about that. They could have given us more food, but it was alright. Eager to see more of the countryside we hired two two-wheeled speeders and set out, up mountains and down treacherous roads. Artey and Sesy steered and our Mom was seated on the back. The road winded up steep hills, past dense jungles and through cute villages. Our Mom did not enjoy the ride too much. Apparently her trust in our skills ends with 180 ° serpentines. After several wrong turns and a slightly dodgy stop for petrol (just bought a plastic bottle filled with petrol of a guy selling them on the street) we ended up at a strange road apparently leading into nowhere. Deciding to ditch our plans for waterfall number one, we turned around and headed to a waterfall we saw on google maps. The road quickly turned to loose rocks, so we decided to leave our speeders behind and continue on foot. At some point a guy living in the village we passed joined our group. This turned out to be great, for we would definitely not have found that waterfall on our own. The waterfall was hidden in the depth of the jungle and we were the only people there. It was beautiful with red rocks and several pools below it. After a bit of climbing over the slippery rocks, we headed back to our scooters surrounded by the local children. Our next stop was lunch. We drove exactly 200m before we stopped at the first place offering food. Hobbits need their sustenance. You don't want to meet us hungry. After lunch we realized that we were quite far away from our hotel and not in the mood to drive much further, so we headed back. The further down the hill we went, the hotter the air grew. We arrived in our hotel sweaty and tired. Therefore, we treated ourselves to a delivered dinner, before heading to bed.

The next morning, we did not wake up as early as the day before. During breakfast we said goodbye to Benji and his mother. Their adventures and quests lead them to other parts of this earth. It was great meeting the two of them and hopefully our path cross again somewhere in the future. That day was a very hot day. The sun tried its best to boil us alive. Both of our circulative systems decided to ditch us and we threw all our plans for an exciting day into the wind and retired to our room to not die. The only other interesting thing about the day was dinner. We ate really good food down at the docs. Freshly grilled parrot fish and veggies. It was really a feast!

The next day we made our way back to Bali. We tried our best, but due to the circumstances we did not find a good way back to Bali without a plane. So, we headed to the Komodo airport for our first flight this year. I don’t like it, but it was the best and only reasonable option at that point. So, we spend some time exploring the little airport and ate a good Soto. Our plane landed in the afternoon in Bali. There we took a grab to our hotel. It was right next to the beach in a very touristy area of Bali. We chose this spot, as our mom would only spend one night there before heading back to the airport to fly to Germany.

On our last day in Bali we had a decent breakfast and then headed down to the beach to find a surfing instructor. All three of us were eager to learn the art of riding waves. We had a lot of fun doing that. After 45 min all three of us could stand on a board and ride a wave all the way to the beach. I am sad to say that after 2 h we had not turned into surf-pros but into lobsters. We put on an extra thick layer of sunscreen before starting, but apparently that was not enough. To broaden your mind: a sunscreen is allowed to call itself waterproof if after 2x 20 min in the water half of the sunscreen is still on the skin?? That is ridiculous. And I curse whoever decided that that can be considered waterproof and I hope they too suffer from intense sunburns.

After we turned into lobsters we treated ourselves to a massage. Though only a back massage, our legs were too red to have someone poking them. After that we said goodbye to our mom. She is waiting for our return in Germany. While she started her journey through the air, we started our sunburn treatment. We spend the evening and the next morning laying on our stomachs spreading cool aloe-vera yogurt with lemon juice on our legs and taking cold showers. It is ridiculous how much a bad sunburn can impact you. As we had to check out our hotel at noon and our flight only leaves at 11:30 pm we had some time to kill. Walking around in the sun quickly turned out to not be an option. After a while switching places and eating lunch, we decided that we don't give a damn and just went to the airport. At least it is cool there and we have Wifi. So now we are sitting in the airport Starbucks. Our plane leaves in 5.5 h. The Wifi is really shit and my legs hurt. At least we already have dinner.