Our little family adventure

We are travelling for 6 months for a bit of world education for Lila before she starts school + we like travelling :) Read more

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Our little family adventure Traveler
Under the sea adventures
October 26, 2018 in Indonesia ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C
Today we go on a little boat trip to visit the Maumere Bay, which is home to several islands and some amazing reefs. In 1992 there was an earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Maumere which resulted in significant damage to the reefs, however now recovering. Fisherman also practice bomb fishing, which has hurt the reefs as well.

We head out on a wooden boat together with a Canadian family and German couple. Our first stop is an amazing reef wall, home to some lovely corals and lots of small tropical fish. Lila is excited to see Nemo and sea stars and lots of little tropical fish. Our second site is another equally if not more amazing reef wall with great coral and a huge amount of sea life. One of the others on the boat saw a shark, but we didn't see it. We then stop for a quick swim at the crack caused by the earthquake in 1992. There is some beautiful coral which has grown in this crack attracting some sealife. We stop for lunch at a picturesque beach before heading for another snorkel stop in more choppy waters. We then head back to our bungalows after a very nice day under the sea :)Read more
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Our little family adventure Traveler
Stuck on Lembata Island
October 27, 2018 in Indonesia ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C
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
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Our little family adventure Traveler
Exploring Lembata Island
October 28, 2018 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C
So we head off today to visit the port to try get info about going to Pulau Alor. The port is closed (today in Sunday) and after visiting a few places and asking different people, we seem to have more different information about when the boat leaves for Alor. Some people say Wednesday or Tuesday but give different times, someone tells us tomorrow at 1am?

We then decide to head to the east side of the island as we hear there are smaller boats that leave more often for the next island and from there we can get another boat to Alor.

We have lovely views of Ile Ape volcano as we head along the coastal road to the east of the island. The road quickly deteriorates and it becomes a bumpy, however stunning ride with volcanic mountains in the back drop to glistening blue sea. We stop for a quick swim in very warm waters and then continue on for a simple roadside lunch at stalls next to the beach. We continue our bumpy journey passing the dry surroundings and occasional village or roadside stall. We continue on a little longer and reach a port town, different from the one we were searching for. However we get more ambiguous information, so head back to Lewoleba for the night.

PS. The last picture is a popcorn maker we saw at a market. It makes a huge pop when opened!Read more
TravelerI am glad to see you are probably still dealing with transport logistics on East Nusa Tenggara, and not on the ill-fated Lion Airways flight from Jakarta! Terrible situation. BTW, it looks lovely where you are, from the photos. x
10/29/18Reply
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Our little family adventure Traveler
Yum...the local market
October 29, 2018 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
We head out again to check for ferries. The port is again closed and the tourist information (which we discovered closed yesterday) was closed again this morning, we were told it would open at 10am...however we returned after 10am and found it was still closed.

The advantage of this is the local market which is on the way to the port. We stop in again today and it was just as lively as yesterday. Today we saw the chicken corner, more fresh fruit and vegetables sellers, lots of fresh and dried fish too. We bought some spices (which we can hopefully get through customs in Oz), and enjoyed the sweet cool Es Campur drink (sweet drink with jellies and bread pieces and ice).Read more
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Our little family adventure Traveler
Lamalera village
October 29, 2018 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C
Today we head to the south end of the island to Lamalera, which is a known tourist site due to their traditional whaling and festival they have for this. Luckily it's not at this time of the year! We are told it would take about 2hrs for the 20km, so we assume the road will be worse than yesterday...of which it was! It was a long very bumpy ride with much enjoyed short parts of good 'road'. The scenery goes from dry to quite lush green tropical forest the closer we get to the southern coast. We arrive at the black sand Lamalera Beach, which has slightly chilly but clear blue water. There are fisherman cutting up a huge marlin they caught today and young children splashing in the waves and playing in the sand. Jean and Lila take a quick swim, before we make the return journey.Read more
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Our little family adventure Traveler
More of Lembata Island
October 30, 2018 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
So Pulau Lembata has proved to be not such a bad island to be stuck on. This morning we went on our usual routine trips to see if we could get any information about the ferry for Alor. They say the definition of stupidity is doing the same thing over again and expecting a different result... I don't know what we were expecting but the result was not so different, ferry port closed, tourist information closed. We decided to stop by one of the other hotels in town and someone called someone else and apparently the ferry comes tomorrow around 2-3pm. This is is probably one of the most consistent things we have been told, Wednesday anywhere between 2-6pm...so we are going to rock up at the ferry port tomorrow and see if there is a ferry to Alor. If not, plan b?

Today we took the motorbike to explore the coastal surrounds of volcano Ile Api, which we quickly visited our first day. We did some nice snorkeling, with some nice coral and many tropical fish. Lila was most excited by the sea stars, pointing excitedly at each one she saw. We met a nice man at the next village who could speak good English and had coffee whilst Lila enjoyed chasing around with the village children. Further driving around this beautiful coastline we were treated to views of stunning clear waters and villages dotting the coastline. It's the time for baby pigs and goats, and it was sweet seeing so many very cute baby pigs and goats running around in villages.

It was a nice time to be driving back at the end of the day and seeing school kids walking home, people going about their everyday lives collecting water from the well and transporting things on their head (buckets of water, branches for firewood, other vegetables or leaves). Jean is like a rockstar as we pass, people calling 'mister, mister, mister...' often with requests for photos. Lila also getting lots of cheek pinching and calls of 'cantik cantik' (meaning beautiful).
We are treated to a beautiful sunset on the way back and treat ourselves to some pisang goreng (fried banana) on the way back :)Read more
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The elusive ferry... On our way to Alor
October 31, 2018 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C
Finally a different result...today we head for the ferry port and we find an open gate and we are told that the ferry in fact leaves for Alor today at 5pm!

Happy with some confirmation, we take the motorbike to check out some of the beaches on the west coast of the island. Jean and Lila have a quick swim before we head back to get ready for the ferry tonight.

We arrive to the ferry port early, at the cleanest port Jean has seen in this world (water is crystal clear and beach is white sand) and wait until it comes in to board. Lila has a try of the captain's chair and is very excited to be on a 'sleeping boat'.Read more
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Arriving on Alor Island
November 1, 2018 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C
Welcome to Alor Island. After a slightly crazy, half horror, half comedy trip on the ferry we arrive on Alor. Half horror, half comedy because the crew decided it was a good idea to blast the music at 2am and also check tickets around 4am. The boat has a stench of cigarette smoke as I think almost the whole male population smokes (this includes the captain on the plane we took from Denpasar to Bali)! So with the lack of sleep, it was really nice to finally get to Kalabahi on Alor Island.

The positives though...we got to see sunrise :) Lila proves again that she can sleep through anything as she got quite a good night's sleep. We got to Alor and found the best Es Campor which was very welcome in the hot weather.Read more
TravelerGreat photos
11/4/18Reply
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Exploring around Alor
November 3, 2018 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C
We find a motorbike to rent again to explore the western part of the island. The bike is probably the oldest we have rented this trip, having a temperamental kick start and a special thing with the wires to work the lights.

We spend a day in Kalabahi town to get our outward ferry ticket and find they now charge children over 2yrs an adult ticket. We stop for our favourite Es Campor and then take a ride to find a nice beach with a resort which is closed. We end the night with a yummy dinner at a guesthouse in town and Lila discovers she likes tuna fish. On our way back we get a flat tyre and are initially told we wouldn't find anywhere open to repair it at this hour. Lila and I then get whisked off on another motorbike to an open petrol stop with compressor and in the mean time Jean is stopped by an off duty policeman who says he can fix the puncture!

The next day we head to check out the neighbouring villages. There is gorgeous coastline as well as lush gardens and beautiful mangroves.

On the Sunday we try go to the local market to find that it's only got 2 stalls open and it usually is busier after church. On the way back we see lots of people out in their best clothes on the way to church.Read more
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Sebanjar Beach
November 4, 2018 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C
We spend a few days on Sebanjar beach, which has quite nice snorkeling from the beach. It's nice to be using our snorkeling gear every day, as they have been in our backpack for the past 5 months. The beach is a pinkish white sand, due to specks of red in the sand from red coral. There is a huge amount of broken coral which makes a wall behind the beach. There is gorgeous transparent waters at the right time of the day. However quite strong currents mean we have to time our swims and snorkeling.

It's a shame we can't take underwater pics as there is a huge variety of different hard and soft corals and lots of different fish. We see lots of cardinal fish, quite a few Nemo's, lots of sea stars (Lila's favourites), angel fish, parrot fish and quite big schools of fish too.

Lila is getting more confident and happy snorkeling and swimming and today did some swimming without her back bubble (so she is very proud) :)Read more
Traveler Great swimming Lila!
11/6/18Reply
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Our little family adventure Traveler
Kalabahi town
November 5, 2018 in Indonesia ⋅ ☁️ 32 °C
Today we move to Kalabahi town, the main town on Alor Island. We thought we would base here for a few days to be closer to explore the eastern parts of the island.
We take the Bemo (shared van taxi) from Sebanjar for about 30km to Kalabahi town. We get off all feeling a bit nauseous from the ride!

We head off in the late afternoon and find a nice beach with mini island created by low tide. Lila enjoys throwing her slippers in the water and finding them. And the water is so warm it's like swimming in bath water!Read more
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More exploring Alor
November 6, 2018 in Indonesia ⋅ 🌧 30 °C
It's really nice driving through beautiful small villages which dot the coastline of the island. Lots of smiles and calls of 'mister mister' as we go past. The faces of the people of this island are an amazing mix and you can see resemblance from nearby Papua, Islander, Australian Aboriginal and even Indian and African.

We stop a lovely mangrove beach. Lila finds an idealic swing over the sea which is currently at mid high tide. We get a nice shelter here for some monsoonal rainfalls, before continuing along the coast passing amazing turquoise waters with quaint little wooden fishing boats in sheltered bays.

We reach beautiful 'Pantai Battu Putih' which is essentially the end of the road. The road does continue however they say it's about 1 hr for 2 km to get the the neighbouring village! We turn back for town as more rains threaten and get treated to a gorgeous rainbow as we find some more shelter from another downpour.Read more
TravelerBeautiful photos xxx
11/8/18Reply
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Es Campor / cendol
November 7, 2018 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C
We visit our favourite Es Campor place today for the last time, as our ferry back to Flores leaves tomorrow morning. It's our favourite because it's super tasty and has such a great variety of different textures and flavours. Es Campor is basically a dessert drink filled with mixed jellies and fruit. This one is great because it has fruit, 3-4 types of different jellies, bread, red rice and has a sweet coconut drink plus ice. It's such a nice treat on a hot day (it has been hot every day we have been here). The young guy who owns the cart is really nice, he started working in an Es Campor cart when he was Lila's age, never went to school, but is now opening up his 3rd cart!Read more
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Air Panas Tuti (hot spring)
November 7, 2018 in Indonesia ⋅ 🌧 31 °C
Today we visit a hot spring (Air Panas in Bahasa) in the eastern part of Alor. The spring is located a little in the middle of nowhere, in surrounds which are almost unearth like. There are amazing orange and green colours in the surrounding waters and we see 3 geysers with water spraying out and a man made pond with boiling water. There is a faint smell of sulfur, however not as strong as others we have been to. The weather is quite hot to bathe here, so we head back on the road to the beach.Read more
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Exploring Alor Timor
November 7, 2018 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
After visiting the hot spring we head along the coastal road to visit more of the eastern part of the island. It's a beautiful ride next to the sea with small mountains that meet the water. We pass villages with lots of smiling people, roadside stalls selling fish, vegetables, fruit and petrol. Looking towards the sea there are always small boats with people, small groups of kids playing in the water or people spear fishing.

We stop for a swim at a nice pebbly beach. There are local village kids here and Lila has fun blowing bubbles in the water and playing with them in the sea. We continue further along the road and find another pebbly beach, this one desserted, and we stop here for a swim in the lovely transparent waters.Read more
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Back to Flores
November 8, 2018 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
We arrived at the ferry port early this morning, courtesy of the ferry horn blasting through town. It blew a few times, which we though it signalled it was leaving, however after rushing to the port at 5:45am, we find it is just arriving. A very civilised 11hr journey from Kalabahi to Larantuka sees us arrive back in Flores. Lila makes friends on the ferry and Jean and Lila see a pod of dolphins playing near the ferry during the journey.Read more
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Back to Maumere Bay
November 9, 2018 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C
We head back to the bungalows we stayed at when we first arrived in Flores in the Maumere Bay. It's a nice relaxed place to stay while we decide what to do for the last week and half of our trip. Lila and I have a little snorkel in the afternoon at the front of our bungalow. The coral is pretty destroyed but is regrowing and we see quite a lot of little fish. Lila is getting a lot more comfortable with snorkeling and loves to practice her swimming.Read more
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Snorkeling boat trip
November 10, 2018 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C
We head out for another snorkeling boat trip today, since the last trip we went on was so great. The water is a lot calmer today than the last time and Lila manages to stay snorkeling in the water for longer than last time. We enjoy a great day seeing lots of Nemo and Dorys. We also see some lion fish, lots of angel fish and different schools of fish. On our way back to the bungalows we are treated to some dolphins that leap alongside the boat for a while and lots of flying fish.Read more
TravelerThat water looks amazing
11/12/18Reply
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Hot Spring visit
November 11, 2018 in Indonesia ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C
Today we visit another Air Panas (hot spring) close by. There is a nice little walk through forest to get there (where we get lost and luckily find some local kids who show us the way). The hot spring mixed with cool water from an adjacent waterfall, making a nice bathing pool.

We stop and get some yummy corn from the roadside and tonight it's quite a treat to have avocado and tomato sandwiches, corn and mango for dinner. We pick up all the ingredients from little roadside stalls and picnic on our little bungalow deck, listening to the sea.Read more
TravelerNice
11/12/18Reply
TravelerLooks beautiful
11/15/18Reply
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Maumere to Paga Beach
November 12, 2018 in Indonesia ⋅ 🌧 30 °C
We find it to difficult to decide where to go for the rest of our time on Flores, so we decide to take a motorbike trip to Labuan Bajo where we will have our flight in 1 weeks time. It is quite a popular motorbike trip along the trans-Flores highway, which we hear is a good road with beautiful scenery. That way we can just decide as we go, giving us a week to cover roughly 600km.

Today we drive through bamboo forest, banana and coconut plantations and rice paddies. We end up in Paga Beach tonight (only 30km from Maumere), but the beach is nice and we find a welcoming homestay.Read more
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Paga and Koka Beach
November 13, 2018 in Indonesia ⋅ 🌧 31 °C
Lila and Jean visited nearby Koka Beach today enjoying clear waters in a double crescent bay and a clean beach (which is sometimes rare here)...probably something to do with the 2 random entry fees you pay to get to the beach.

Otherwise we enjoyed another relaxing day at the homestay at Paga Beach.Read more
Traveler Lovely photo of Lila
11/15/18Reply
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Paga Beach to Ende
November 14, 2018 in Indonesia ⋅ 🌧 31 °C
Today we leave the lovely relaxing Paga Beach towards Ende, probably the second biggest town on Flores. We take the scenic and windy roads through plantations of banana, coconut and cocoa trees. We stop at Kelimutu National Park, before continuing on to Ende. We make a quick stop at a traditional village before getting into Ende just before it gets dark.Read more
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Volcano Kelimetu
November 14, 2018 in Indonesia ⋅ 🌧 23 °C
Today we stop to visit Kelimutu National Park, home of Kelimutu volcano and it's 3 different coloured crater lakes (which also change colour depending on a number of factors eg. Balance of volcanic gas vs rainfall). Today we saw mostly shades of blue green, one lighter, one deeper turquoise and the other like and emerald jade, however apparently they can become red, black, brown, white! Each lake has its own local name, 'Tiwu Ata Bupu' (lake of the old people), 'Tiwu Koo Failed Nuwa Miri (lake of the young men and maidens) and Tiwi Ata Polo (bewitched or enchanted lake).

You can drive to the parking area which leaves an easy paved 1.5km walk to the viewing platform to see these spectacular big lakes with very vivid colours.Read more
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Ende to Bajawa
November 15, 2018 in Indonesia ⋅ 🌧 25 °C
We leave Ende this morning, taking the highway along the coast with nice views of the southern coast and the bay west of Ende.
We stop by the beach for Lila and Jean to have a quick swim. The beach was known before for its blue pebbles, but now it seems they have been collected in piles along the road next to the beach, maybe used for making the road surface or selling?

The road leaves the coast and there is almost an instant temperature difference from hot and humid to very cool mountain air. It's nice for a moment, but then on the motorbike it gets quite cold, so we get out our wraps and sarongs to shield a bit of the cool air.
The continuously windy roads bring more great views of surrounding volcanos, rice paddy fields, bamboo, coconut and banana trees. We pass many cows and goats grazing by the roadside and we see buffalos with the increasing number of rice paddies.Read more
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Visiting local villages and hot spring
November 16, 2018 in Indonesia ⋅ 🌧 26 °C
Today we stay near Bajawa to explore the area which has lots of traditional villages and hot springs. The surrounding area takes us on some more windy sometimes steep roads and we see lots of coconut, bamboo, mango, banana, papaya, cassava, coffee, cloves and cocoa plants. There are villagers preparing the rich volcanic soils for their next harvest and we can see them growing tomatoes, salad, corn, pineapple. Most villages have some if not a majority of traditional structures like houses, huts, gates.
Lila and Jean enjoy a hot spring which was located in a river of a local village.
We visit 2 traditional villages and see women doing 3 different processes of making their ikat. Someone preparing yarn for dying, someone lining up the yarn to prepare for weaving and someone weaving. We have seen quite a bit or carpet making and weaving during our trip and Lila says this is what she wants to do when she is older.
We also help someone seperate their drying corn from the cob (which Lila loves doing too).Read more
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