Kelimutu

I slept surprisingly well in the worst accommodation I have ever stayed in, despite the fact that the sheets reeked of tobacco, and there were people yakking away directly outside my window till the wee hours of the night. We have to meet our driver at 4.30am, but both Jonas and I are ready to go at 4.15am. The drive up to the park entrance is long and winding. After paying our insane entry fee, we walk up to the lookout point and get there around 5.30am. We're not optimistic. There are too many clouds. According to Jonas’ GPS app, this lookout point is between two of the three lakes.

The sun rose just after 6am. It is spectacular, but the clouds failed to dissipate except for a 30 second window over one lake. The water is pale blue. It is beautiful. The second lake remains covered with clouds. Around 6.50am, we leave dejected because we went through a lot of hassle and we paid a lot of money for this experience. Walking back to the parking lot, we saw a second lookout point over the third lake. There were a few people there. We go up to see that the third lake - a darker shade of blue than the first one - is clearly visible with few clouds. Wow. The first lake is also visible. It's breathtaking. We never saw what color the second lake was (they change colors periodically due to mineral content and other factors; I later found out it was green). On my way back to the parking lot, I had a brief reunion with Pierre.

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