The Journeys ... The Current Trip

Yes, this episode of the travel logs will bring you such dramatic climaxes as Adrian and E! hunting for dragons, fighting off the curse of the PELNI experience and in the end, they still find themselves in a bit of a pickle. And all of this without having cycled even one kilometer in over a week.

We haven't been doing too much since the last diary entry. We had to wait in Labuanbajo for the PELNI ferry (National Indonesian ferry company) to show up on Sunday, 24th May to take us to Makassar. Most of the time was spent reading on the veranda of our Losmen, the Matahari.

On Friday, we went to the Komodo National Park to see the famous Komodo dragons. The dragons are the main reason why people come to Labuanbajo to begin with. Flores as a whole doesn't see that many tourists, but in Labuanbajo you will find dozens of them – coming over with four day boat tours from Bali or Lombok. People, who will constantly complain about the 'standards' of the food and accommodation in Labuanbajo, because their set standards for Indonesia is from Bali or the Gillies. All really annoying stuff.
There are a few pleasant tourists around though, like our British neighbor Joe – with whom we had the predictable result of a crazy Arak night out.

Anyhow. I digress. Back to dragons. Due to the popularity of the Komodo National Park, it is actually pretty expensive to go see the beasts. Hiring a boat set us back 400k, then we had to hire a guide to protect us from the ferocious animal and the park entry fee was a whopping 15 US$. Generally, I don't mind paying that, because the formation of the NP led to a fishing ban in the park which in turn, according to Joe who is a Dive Master, led to some to the most intact reefs and marine life he's ever seen anywhere on the planet. What did bug me a bit though, was the fact that in Labuanbajo, you can not see the effect of the constant and considerable income stream from the National Park and the diving: it's a very dirty city and the infrastructure is in shambles. So, where do the millions of bule dollars go?

Digressing again. The dragons themselves are pretty cool. The male ones are massive animals, growing up to three meters in length and 100 kilos in weight. They are carnivores and hunt monkeys, birds and even deer and buffaloes. They seem to be docile enough in the mid-day heat, but we still kept a respectful distance from their bone-crushing, bacteria-spreading jaws. That was also ensured by Irvan, the young guide who walked the island with us, carrying a long stick to fend off grumpy dragons. We opted for the short tour (one hour hike) and it really was enough. After you've seen a few of the dragons lazing around, it really starts becoming old pretty quickly, except if you are into lizards, I guess. We also came across a massive buffalo bull taking an afternoon bath and dozens of monkeys.

On Saturday, I went to buy our tickets for the ship to Makassar. We have heard many horror stories about the PELNI experience and even though I knew that I'd opt for the economy class anyway, I did inquire about cabin prices. Economy was 141k rupiah and 1st class was 400k rupiah. That's a difference of nearly 80 AU$ which is really a fortune out here. So economy it was.

The ship was to leave at 7 pm on Sunday and Erika and I rolled our loaded bicycles down to the harbor at 6 pm. We've been told that porters will take our luggage on board and we just need to follow the luggage in. With a backpack, that would seem unnecessary – with a fully loaded bike having to get on a ship several stories high, a porter sounded like a grand idea. This being Asia, we expected to be hassled by porters as soon as we'd step on harbor ground. But it wasn't to be. We arrive under the usually scrutiny of the locals, but nobody approached us. So, we had a quiet meal and waited like everybody else. When we realized the ship was coming in, we rolled our fully loaded bikes to the gate and joined the crowd.
Once the gangways connected the boat to the dock, we saw two possible entries: one steep staircase up to the third deck or a wide, gangway going almost level into the ship. It was obvious which one we had to take with our bicycles. Once 20 meters away the pushing and shoving started. Again, with just a backpack on, that would have been a piece of cake. But if you have ten people pushing and pulling your 40 kilo bicycles in all directions, it gets difficult. And then, out of the blue it started raining. No, let me correct that. It started PI#$%^ DOWN. Immediately the throng became pure chaos. People started climbing over each other, trying to get into the hull before everything was wet. One person was even pushed off the dock into the water some five meters down. It was messy. Erika and I eventually managed to get out the other end and regroup. I only saw one way to get on the ship now: brute pushing force, loud insults and the threat of violence. We rejoined the pushing and shoving just a few meters away from the gangway. Even when I already had half of my bicycle on it and it was very obvious that people would have to let me push it up because there was really no room left for anybody else, they tried to pass me, climbing over my bicycle and the panniers. That's when being two heads taller than everybody else comes in handy. Let's just say, I wasn't going to win a popularity contest on that ship. I saw Erika trying to stay close behind me and eventually just pushed my way on and up the gangway under cheers and curses of many locals. The gangway was slippery from the rain and with the bikes being rear-heavy the front wheel kept slipping especially with people still trying to push over and past me. It was a struggle. Erika struggled even more and her being slower up the plank than me cause the locals to get even more impatient and angry.
Once on the ship, I saw our next dilemma – there were people and boxes everywhere. The economy sign pointed up and down a narrow stair case. But I had already decided that this wasn't going to happen. After stubbornly waiting for E! to get into the ship while dozens of passengers and crew were yelling at me, we eventually pushed away from the entrance to the other side of the ship pushing and pulling everything in our way clear. We were sort of 'guided' into a small hallway that was running along the hull of the ship. People and cargo everywhere. We stopped and I went to inquire about a sleeping berth. It became obvious very quickly that the ship was more than fully booked and we would find a berth to sleep. We quickly decided that staying were we were, in front of the pantry and the drinking water supplies would simply be hell. We therefore unloaded the bikes, chained them to a railing and just dumped our luggage and our soaking wet selves between two rows of sleeping berths on the floor.

The idea was, to unroll our Thermarest mats and sleep on the floor – like so many other people. First we had to get out of our soaking cloth though. After settling in a bit, we started talking to the people occupying the berths around us. They probably liked the idea of us bule suffering on the hot, overloaded boat with them and willingly parted with one of their mattresses. Which was a blessing. Our Thermarests are short and self-inflating. Made for camping. The mattresses provided by the shipping company are over two meters in length and provide much more comfort. Yes, and that is how we spent our time on the boat, sitting and laying on a narrow black mattress.

The boat trip itself wasn't really that bad, despite our position. The locals were very inquisitive and friendly, shared food, jokes and stories with us. Which really is why economy is better than the isolation of a 1st or 2nd class cabin.
The trip from Labuanbajo to Makassar was supposed to take 18 hours. But apparently, the shipping company recently changed the route so, instead of one night on the boat, we spend two nights there. In the end, everything becomes a big blur: you sleep, you listen to music, you talk to the people around you, you complete some tricky Killer Sudoku, you shuffle to the pantry when everybody else does, you go on deck to check the sea, the weather or even just if it were daylight or night time.

While getting off the boat with the bicycles was a bit of a push and shove as well, it was much easier and much less painful than getting on. We had learned our lesson, loaded our bikes up early and got as close to the exit as we possibly could. Once the gate opened, we took a very resolute no-bu#$%^& stance: either you let me pass or I will simply roll over you. Got us off the boat in minutes.

Yes, and this is how we got to Makassar the 1.4 million populated city on the island of Sulawesi. It definitely feels more like 'true Asia' here than on Flores that had a definite Pacific island feel. I like it. I like the Asian metropolis feel.

We had a bit of a dilemma over the last couple of days though. Thing is, we really do like Indonesia so far. Yes, we haven't seen much yet, but what we've seen and the people we have met really has impressed us. Initially, the plan was to cycle from Makassar to a town called Toli-Toli in the islands north to catch a ship over to Kalimantan from there. But, we only have 25 days to do this. From a cycling point of view, that is not really that big of an issue. Doable. However, we would really like enough time to explore Sulawesi. There's the obvious destination of Tana Toraja. A mountainous region in the center where animist rituals are still performed and the Torajans' funeral ceremonies are Sulawesi's main tourism drawing card. But we would also like to explore the little traveled to South-East of Sulawesi, a part of the island that isn't even connected with roads yet. We are also interested in doing some hiking in Lore Lindu National Park and find us some megaliths. And some R&R on the Togian Islands sounds like a good plan as well.
So, we decided to spend more time on Sulawesi. We will head to the the South East in a few days. We reckon that it'll take a good week or two to get there and explore it. Then we'll come back to Makassar to extend our visas by a month. After that we'll head up to Tana Toraja, Poso and maybe Lore Lindu and the Togians. But, who knows, maybe we'll change our plans again soon and my next travel entry will be from Maluku or Papua or the Philippines. Hehe.

I have uploaded some images from Komodo a few days ago and we also have published Episode 003 of our Vlog on our YouTube Channel

I don't expect to find reliable internet too often over the next few days and weeks. So, if you don't hear from us in a while, don't panic, we are just a bit off the radar.
I hope, my ramblings still provide you with some entertainment and distraction.
Adrian