Watogana

I rolled in to Moni at 3.45pm. Moni is a collection of homes and tourist lodgings flanking the Trans-Flores Highway. Coming in from the west, one goes downslope. It is likely that anyone coming in from the west without a room would start from the top of the hill and work their way down.

The bus dropped me off at Homestay Daniel. It was the last one at the bottom of the hill at the eastern end of town. Guess what? They didn't have a room. The guy I emailed is nowhere to be seen. I now knew I was in deep shit. Just up the road, I am accosted by a very pushy woman from Homestay Jhon who shows me the worst lodging I have ever seen. She then tells me that all the earlier arrivals have taken all the rooms uphill from us and this is the last available. This is of course entirely plausible. I tell her I will look elsewhere. She drops the price. I still say no. I start walking up the hill. The first four accommodations I check are full. A driver coming down the hill with his charge inside his car then pulls up to me and asks if the homestay I just emerged from is full. I reply to the affirmative. His response is: "oh shit". Now, when a driver who plies this route says "oh shit", you know it is bad. So, I make a run for the worst lodging I have ever seen to find that a German guy has taken it. He agrees to share it with me. His name is Jonas.

So, here I am, in the worst accommodation I have ever stayed in (and that bar is already set very low). The toilet has no seat and it doesn't flush (you pour water into the toilet bowl instead. I've been in such places, it doesn't faze me). There is no hot water. No wifi. The tap in the sink has no handle. No towels, toilet paper, or soap provided (luckily I packed these as I have been I this situation before). Worst of all is the blackish-bluish scum all over the bathroom. I take a cold bath before it gets too cold (we are at high altitude). I also learn that entry to the park is almost doubled on Sundays - I'll be paying almost $20. The price for locals is around $2.

I dislike the lady proprietor of a Homestay Jhon. She is pushy. She demanded immediate payment. She berated me when she learned I already booked my ride to Kelimutu in the morning ("book only through me, I get you best price") and she reacted negatively when I told her price I paid. But then all is fine when she learns that the driver I hired is her uncle. She goads me into eating at the restaurant she owns, and tries to make me order too much. She claims to not have change when I pay her and tries to get me to buy stuff to make up for the change she says she doesn't have. Disgusted, I fish out exact change. Jonas, who had joined me, rolls his eyes. She then reminds me to sleep early because of my 4am wake up call to see the sunrise. Like I don't already know that. She's desperate, but also a control freak. Bad combination.

Roger, a Spaniard staying in the same homestay, put things into perspective. He says that these people are poor, and that Homestay Jhon probably doesn't have the principal to upgrade the accommodation. So, it remains the least desirable accommodation on the strip, and she only has a three month window during high season to make as much money as possible. It explains the desperation but it doesn't excuse the control freak behavior. He's been here a couple of days because his girlfriend Carol is sick. He tells me that they don't change the sheets when guests check out. Later when I went to sleep, I could tell that a smoker had slept on the bed before me.

This town doesn’t seem friendly. At one highly rated restaurant with wifi advertised, the waiter just shakes his head without looking up when I ask him about wifi. He then motions me to a table that has occupants. I leave. I decide to not stay another night and instead book a third night in Maumere. I'll be splurging - one night at a nice resort for a little under US$100, and another two nights at a less fancy place for US$50/night. Budget blown, although I have been very frugal all week (my accommodations have ranged from $11 to $32). God knows what I am going to do for 2.5 days in Maumere, but I am stuck because I decided to plan ahead instead of going with the flow, and I am committed to an August 9 flight out of Maumere. I'm not the only one booking it out of here. My roomate for tonight is going to leave immediately after we come down from Kelimutu (he has a rental motorbike). Liz and Sunil, who managed to book a room further up the road, aren’t enchanted by this town either.

Now, to add insult to injury, in the evening I received an email from Homestay Daniel asking me where I am staying in Moni. What a f**ktard. I resist the temptation to send an expletive laden response. Instead, I delete the email and block him. For reasons I cannot fathom, Homestay Daniel is recommended in the Lonely Planet.

I'm not whining. This is intended to be a factual account of what can happen when you try to enjoy the journey and not plan ahead, and how you can get stuck when you plan ahead and things don't work out. This journey of mine is about letting go and finding new joy, and there is still joy to be had, like listening to a nun reminisce about her trip to Chicago and St. Louis, and having silly ice breaking conversations with people who don't speak your language.

I’m hindsight, though, had I been more flexible in my thinking, I would have simply stopped at Ende, explored that town, and then gone to Kelimutu the next day. That way, I would have avoided the Sunday entrance fee, and maybe Moni would have been less crowded as the domestic tourists would have left by then.

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