11.08.10 Flores, Maumere to Moni

First day in Flores and Augustinus our german speaking guide picks us up at the airport together with a driver. You can also do a budget tour by public bus but you might end up sitting on the roof of the bus because the buses are always crowded and full of whatever besides humans. Now I understand why we have a driver the streets are difficult to drive if you are not used to it. When the cars are passing each other they switch on the indicator lights to show the space left between each other. After a 4 hour ride we are reaching our first hotel in Moni called “Flores Sare”. Lonely planet says it has the best kitchen in town. But this time might have passed. I feel like being hijacked by the natives and put in a huge ugly dirty room with neon lights. Next to us is a room for the staff, 6 or 8 people sleeping in bunk beds. The walls are so thin you can here each word they say. I hear a guy in the bathroom moaning, I hope it is the cold water that makes him do this. When I enter the bathroom I take my glasses off and pinch my eyes to make reality a little blury. We have a date with our guide in the restaurant for dinner. A french woman whispers: “Don't eat!” When we enter the restaurant/ the place were the hijacked are allowed to meet. The atmosphere is very tensed, a Japanese couple and a french family staring on the floor nobody is speaking a word. We decide not to eat. Our dinner for this night was about 4 Dollars, we had one beer and two Sprite. Back in the room I am reading a book about Karl Lagerfeld which feels a little odd here but I try to get my mind away from this place.
The guide is waking us up at 4 o'clock and I am more than happy to leave this place, but he tells us to leave our luggage in the room, we will come back for breakfast, I dont know if I should start laughing or start crying the situation is to absurd for me.


best Mrs. Trip




We had a delicous tuna at augustinus restaurant in Paga called:
“Restaurant Larys”.





Augustinus and his wife

Laundry hast to be done by hand, there is almost no running water on the island.




Our driver. It is Ramadan at the moment, thats why we had to stop at dawn, so he could finally have something to eat.



The organic cashew nut company “Nusa Permai” in Wolowaru-Ende, we had lemon flavored cashew nuts, very tasty.


Welcome to the Lobby of our hotel. I am not joking here, promise, no kidding!

Let me guess a new mattrasse delivery?



The backyard of the hotel, on the left and on the right you find the hotel rooms each one comes with a veranda.







The only power plug in the room
The lovely restaurant “Flores Sare”




corridor
Sharing my bed with big A