Stuck on Lembata Island

We leave Maumere this morning, to head east as we try to go to Pulau Alor, about 4-5 islands east of Flores. We catch the local bus at 7am, complete with your usual loud tacky music, lots of luggage and items for delivery, other passengers and chickens. We get to port town Larantuka and they tell us to get the ferry to Kupang (which is about as far away as Alor however in the wrong direction) to go to Alor, however we decide to head to neighbouring Lembata Island to try our luck there. We are just in time for the slow boat which takes 4hrs to get to Lembata Island. We arrive in Lembata Island in the afternoon and are told again to go to Kupang as there isn't a ferry for Alor until Wednesday (today is Saturday). We resign to being stuck on Lembata Island for at least today and Jean searches for a motorbike rental which he eventually finds. After being taken to 2 other hotels, we settle for the 3rd in the main town Lewoleba.

We take a ride to some beachside bungalow which look a little pricey and decide to head there to see if we can negotiate a better price. It's a nice ride seeing next to Ile Api volcano and also passing a traditional village. We reach the beachside bungalows to find they are closed, so head back to town stopping for a simple Bakso on the way back.Read more