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.

Meeting dragons in Komodo

We met up with Sara, Hugo and Harrison in Bali for one night, staying in Kuta close to the airport,  before taking a flight over to Labuan Bajo in the island of Flores. 

We stayed in a lovely five star hotel. It had a massive swimming pool and the kids loved the chocolate lava cake in the restaurant. I loved the buffet brekkie, especially the pastries. 

Then we took a two day boat trip to go meet the Komodo dragons. The boat trip took sooo much organising but was worth it. 

On the way we stopped to snorkel at Makasar. It was like swimming in an aquarium with thousands of fish.

Kanawa island used to be the size of a football pitch according to the guide book, but now is much smaller. It was also rammed with a lot of tourists enjoying the stunning views. 

We stayed in a really basic homestay in Komodo village. We shared our room with some noisy rats, scampering around at night!

The next day we got to see some Komodo dragons - amazing. They are impressive beasts. It’s mating season at the moment so most are up in the mountains not on the lowlands we were walking around. They hunt animals like water buffalo and deer by biting them then following their prey until they are too weak to carry on and they can grow up to nine feet. 

We then headed back towards Labuan bajo, stopping at Pink Beach. The broken up coral gives it its name. 

We had super tasty lobster and prawns from the seafood market to celebrate being back on dry land.

Cooling off in Bali

It’s much cooler here in Bali - phew. We spent the first few days near Sanur beach on the South East corner of Bali. A lovely chilled out part of Bali compared to the super touristy Seminyak area we stayed in five years ago. There are still a lot of tourists though. 

We snorkelled in the sea, ate yummy Massimo ice cream and lazed on the beach till it got dark, wandering up and down the promenade. 

Olive squeezed in a Balinese dance class which she seemed a natural at. 

Then we travelled on to stay on the edge of Ubud. It was super busy with sooo much traffic and the weather decided to get very wet. 

But we still had fun looking round Ubud Palace and taking in a cultural performance with some great chanting and a man in a trance jumping around in a fire. 

We did a class to understand the daily offerings people make to their God. Every home has their own little temple space. We got to make an offering which we took back home and placed outside with lit incense.

Ubud lived up to my Bali memories of super western food. Yellow flower cafe and Alchemy were particularly impressive. 

We went to Neka art gallery and Olive had a go at some different Balinese musical instruments. 

We also went on a tour with Lopi who had super English and gave us lots of insights into Balinese culture as we looked round a rice terrace;

the Holy Water Temple with a long queue of people waiting to take a dip;

a coffee plantation where we got to see Luwaks, a cuddly looking animal that eats coffee beans then poops them out - someone collects the poop, cleans it then roasts it and sells it at top dollar;

and the super Manuaba Waterfall. This was our favourite bit. It was late in the day and there wasn’t a single other tourist as we walked down to one waterfall then walked through a river to another one - magical.

Selina’s sister Sara and her kids are joining us now for a fortnight of adventures round Indonesia.