My first impression of Bali was not good, I can’t lie. The Denpasar airport was full of tourists, and the taxi drivers had a very different attitude than we had experienced. Some of the experiences of the next days would show me the beautiful part of Bali, but that feeling of a ‘tourist trap’ and ‘spoiled paradise’ accompanied me for the rest of the trip.
One of the goals of our Indonesia trip was to dive in the Komodo National Park, which apart from hosting the last dragons of the same name, contains one of the richest marine reserves on the planet. We had made a reservation with a local diving company, Wicked Diving, which lived up to the expectations of its near-perfect Tripadvisor reviews. They also ended up having Spanish dive masters 🙂 and together with four other PADI divers, we went on a 2-day sailing trip with 5 dives.The plan was pretty simple: dive, eat, dive, eat, dive, sleep, repeat. It’s definitely worth bargaining with any operator, as we realized that we had been able to get a significantly better price than the rest of the group (~$250 vs. ~$350).
In the afternoon of our 3rd day in Indonesia, we landed in the small town of Maumere, in the northeast of Flores. Flores is one of the least developed islands and one of the least touristy (with the exception of Labuanbajo, on the opposite end). It is my favorite, for it has an authenticity that is lost in most places by now.
Our idea was to hire a local driver to cross the island over 3 days/2 nights, stopping at several points of interest, which we believe is the best way to explore it. It was harder than we had anticipated, and after rejecting one driver for high price and one for sketchy manners, we found ourselves negotiating with our last option, with the sun setting and no real alternative. Luckily, the driver ended up accepting our conditions and being a great guy. His name was Stefano, and after a quick stop at his home to pick up a bag and sharing some candy with his 3 kids, we were on our way.
For our 2 week trip to Indonesia, Elena and I decided to focus on 5 areas: Yogyakarta for temples, Flores for landscapes, Komodo for diving and dragons, Bali for spirituality and Gili for beach. Indonesia is one of the largest and most populated countries in the world, and being comprised of 17,000 islands, you can imagine that there are a lot of spots worth visiting, but it’s hard to get to all of them at once.
We met at Yogyakarta airport, since I had decided to do a 1 day layover in Spain to visit my friends and family 🙂 It was pretty late, so we quickly hoped on a taxi and got to the hostel we had booked online. It was rather crappy but well located near the main street Jalan Malioboro.
Tibet is one of my favorite destinations ever, for its explicit beauty as well as for everything it represents.
Entering Tibet is not easy, the Chinese government forces travelers to buy an organized trip (today even more so than when I was there). China is also wiping the Tibetan culture, so I’m afraid the Lhasa I knew doesn’t exist anymore… and the Lhasa of today won’t exit in the future, so hurry up!
I recommend spending 2-3 days wondering the streets of Lhasa, visiting the Potala Palace (one of the most enigmatic structures in the world), the Jhokand Temple, and observing locals (many different tribes come in peregrination).
It will take a bit getting used to the altitude, you’re at 3,650m/12,000ft after all.
From the city you can arrange a 1-2 day visit to the Namtso Lake area. I got to stay with a local family of gnu farmers and hike in the lower Himalayas.
If you have more time, you can join forces with other travelers and hire a 4WD with a driver to get closer to the Everest, though most people recommend that experience from the Nepal side.
Full trip report coming up soon
Bona Travels 