It was tough saying goodbye to Wi from Be Balinese Tours when he dropped
us off at the airport at 5am as we
felt we had gotten to know him quite well on our 3 day trips.
We were flying from Ubud to stay at a small island for
almost 3 full days called Labuan Bajo (LBJ from now on) located east of Bali .
We had come to take a day long cruise to snorkel with manta rays, see komodo
dragons in their native habitat and view flying foxes – sounds pretty
fantastic, doesn’t it!
Our flight to LBJ was with Garuda Indonesia, a small
carrier whose staff told us to walk right out to the last plane on the tarmac,
past all the other planes. Once again we were surprised that there were no
issues about taking full bottles of water or wearing shoes through security.
When was the last time you flew in such a small plane with
the first row being #21 and the seats were H & K, and not A or B?!
Funny hearing the captain simply say the weather on/in (?)
LBJ was ‘fine’ without any reference to temperature!
The landing was one of the neatest ever as we came in over
the mountains and then almost directly down onto the small runway.
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| Labuan Bajo Airport: beautiful but still under construction |
While waiting for our luggage at tiny Labuan Bajo airport, I
chatted with a group of 11 travelers on
vacation for 28 days They were with OAT, i.e. Overseas Adventures Tours. Some of
them jokingly referred to it as ‘Old Age Travelers’ or my favorite ‘Oh, Another
Temple!’
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| What stunning views of the sea and harbor as the taxi driver drove us to the Golo Hilltop Hotel. |
Since we took the first flight of the day out to LBJ arriving before 9, our room in the 10 room hotel wasn’t quite ready. What a shame as it meant our ‘having’ to sit out by the pool and relax in the sun. Steven was in his element as anyone who knows him realized what a sun worshipper he’s always been.
View from our bungalow 's veranda: Never stayed at a place like the Golo Hilltop Hotel perched at the top of the mountain that has such breathtaking views overlooking the bay. The cost was only $34 a night including breakfast.
Not surprisingly the wifi connection at the hotel was very
spotty in such a desolate spot – it took on average over 5 minutes apiece to
load just one photo from the computer into the blog post. I ended up loading photos
all night long so as not to get even further behind than I was already with the
posts!
Photos of LBJ:
Finally decided to walk down the long hill and into town to
see what it looked like and to grab a bite to eat. We could have eaten at the
hotel but this was our only chance to see LBJ itself so we took it.
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| Can't get any fresher fish than this right on the wharf. |
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| LBJ's small market |
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| The town's mosque. |
This was obviously the slow season though for tourists as we
saw so few other Westerners.
Shop after shop advertised itself as a tourist information
center but they really were just selling dive trips to the nearby islands.
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| Glad we're staying at Golo Hilltop and not at this hostel. |
Stopped at a local restaurant that had the best view of the
setting sun over the water; the food wasn’t bad either! We both had nasi
goreng, the rice and vegetable dish we were almost getting a little
tired of by that point.
Steven mentioned that this was the first of our long trips
that has been so relaxing; we had built in lots of beach and pool times. We’ve
been gone for a month and Steven felt he could continue for months at this
pace. I hope he still feels that way at the end of this month and next month!
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| Heard of a wine rack before but not a beer rack, |
Posted on 10/8 from Singapore.
yes, Annie. the Cool Corner hostel did look a tad hostile. Looks like an awful lot of fun! We'll miss you at Thanksgiving! Love!
ReplyDeleteGlad this trip is a tad more relaxing!
ReplyDelete