Flores - Kelimutu - April 2008

I flew from Kupang to Ende and then went up to Kelimutu. It's almost hard to believe how different Flores is from Timor. The lush greeness of the place just smacked me in the face as soon as I got off the plane – gorgeous. The drive up to Kelimutu was beautiful – mountains, rice paddies, waterfalls, rural villages…it doesn’t get much better than that! This photo was taken along the way.



Kelimutu isa very scenic, serene place, situated in a valley, overlooked by Kelimutu moutain. I stayed one night at a guesthouse along the highway, but it was bloody noisy, because trucks come along there and whine their way up the hill. So, the next two nights I stayed at a beautiful place 1km off the highway. It was called Palm Bungalows (e-mail robertid@plasa.com, phone 085292858791).

To get there from the main Kelimutu village walk down along the valley until you get to the hotel that looks like a construction site (can’t miss it, an eye-sore), turn right and walk along this road, go over a river, then up a small incline. Palm Bungalows is on the left hand side. Three lovely, large bungalows with a good size bathroom and little balcony. The owners are very friendly and the views wonderful (but lots of roosters crowing in the morning!) 50,000 per night.

Here is a photo of the bungalows.



I was planning to stay for three weeks but disaster struck – I got sick and had to leave and go to Bali. I was so sad, because I just loved Flores, and I didn’t even get to go up Kelimutu!

I caught a bus to Maumere, a three hour ride that was full of twists and turns, mountains, rivers, little village churches.



From there, I bought a ticket to Denpasar. The flight was great, because the plane flew fairly low along the coast-line up to Bali and I had a lot of fun trying to work out what I was looking at.