Sulawesi

We are going to use our extra time in Indonesia to explore a new island for our last few weeks before the big return to normality. Our plane from Maumere was tiny and the only flight leaving that day. It looked cute sat all alone on the tarmac!

We started in Makassar, a big city with 1.5 million people. There were some nice eateries - I loved an authentic Italian - La Piccola and posh brekkie in Verda. 

The top sight in Makassar is Fort Rotterdam. The Dutch took this over from the Goa and made it feel like a slice of home. The guide taught us all about the traditional boats and the history of Sulawesi. Olive took an opportunity to try out clay painting with the resident artist. 

We took a look round 99 Domes Mosque. It’s a stunning building which is still under construction. You see it from every angle as you travel round the central part of city. It looks equally impressive at night when it is lit up in changing colours. 

We took a slightly depressing trip out to see Pulau Samalona. It’s a tiny island about half an hour away. It was pretty but had loads of rubbish washed up. We grabbed this as an opportunity to teach Olive about the climate and impact of rubbish. 

We then took a pit stop at Pulau Lau Lau on the way back, a bigger island where locals live. There was loads of rubbish everywhere. Really shocking. Although it still wasn’t as much as we saw bobbing around under the stilted villages in Flores.

Maumere

We gave ourselves a few days in Maumere to recover from the hectic fortnight with Sara. She worked us hard!

We took in Koka beach - yet another gorgeous beach. 

We kept going back to a small night market with a bunch of toys for Olive and Boo to play on - a cooking station, painting, rides, a shooting game and Olive’s favourite - electric cars, although this one was a bit fast! 

We buzzed around on the local bemo trucks and we kept getting offered lifts by different people. One night we got stuck at the night market and two of the stall holders gave us lifts on the back of their mopeds!

We also spent a happy afternoon being celebrities in Warung Peninsula, only 20 minutes out of Maumere. All the locals followed us round as we walked snails pace to the end of the peninsula where the houses are on stilts to protect them from flooding. It’s nice to experience what David Beckham must feel day in day out just for a few days here!!

Our main reason to stay in Maumere was to sort out a visa extension to give us an extra 30 days. It’s meant to take 3-5 working days but we managed to sort it in one day thanks to the great immigration staff and a lot of me running around town getting various things sorted at break neck speed, like photocopies and making payments into a bank! Brilliant. 

Flores road trip

Sara did some great planning for our time together. Our first driver, Gusti, took us from Labuan Bajo right across to Ruing. First stop - Ruteng. 

We stopped at Spiderweb rice terrace. Each village has their own web to grow enough rice to live on over the year. 

We stayed in a gorgeous Airbnb with Adi. He took us for a walk round Ruteng in the morning to see the farming and meet some pigs. 

The next day we went to see Hobbit Cave. Twenty years ago they discovered some bones in this cave and they unearthed different animal remains of a Komodo dragon, a big rat and an elephant from 100,000 years ago, as well as a new species of human, Homo floresiensis - a smaller, Hobbit sized human. 

We then did a looong day of driving to get to a traditional thatched village in Gurusina. We stopped off at a distillery where they make kobok, a strong liquor made from the flowers of a local tree. 

The traditional village was quite rustic. We slept in the huts that were open to the elements - a little chilly at night!

We visited a hot springs where a hot and cold river meet. There were loads of mosquitos. We loved messing about in the river. 

We also visited another traditional village called Benne where Olive got to try cracking open the macadamia nuts. 

The kids loved a daft ride in Riung. 

We took a trip to four different island from Riung, enjoying the sight of hundreds of massive bats flying around and snorkelling in beautiful turquoise seas with lots of multi coloured tropical fish. Stunning. We also had a BBQ with some of the best fish I have ever tasted - Jack, barramundi and squid. 

The final piece in our adventure with Sara was visiting the Kelimutu volcano with its three lakes representing a young girl, a ghost spirit and an old man. It gave us some lovely views. The water colour was crazy. Olive also got to ride a horse again which she loved. 

Thanks Sara, Hugo and Harrison for giving us some really memorable days. I think the kids will look back really fondly on the time they have spent together here and back in Peru and Ireland.