FLORES ISLAND / INDONESIA:
We saw a sink and cried. A sink, the pinnacle of civilisation. That is what spending 10 days on Flores Island does to you. We are now back on Bali Island, making the most of a pool, hot shower, mirror, toilet. ahhh, bliss. I will just add that we spent the last 2 days in a hut on the beach with no electricity or water and Cristian dared to bathe in the "mandi" (the tub they fill with water to flush the hole in the floor and wash their bits and bobs down under with). He was motivated by the fact that the previous days were spent in another hut in the mountains were the water was pumped from the same source it was released into (drains, yes, drains)... Other than that, yesterday we discovered that Merpati Airlines serves a rose shaped and coloured soap instead of desert, and we confess that we did not dare turn it upside down (as I usually do with most airline deserts, just to check if they do stay glued to their container) - recommendable, and a nice way to say bye to Flores.

The traditional village of Bena.

Bajawa market.

Rice fields in Moni.

Kalimutu volcano.

LABUANBAJO (FLORES ISLAND), RINCA ISLAND / INDONESIA:
It took 2 days and 2 nights to get here, but it was well worth it. Flores is wilder than the other islands and is also the starting point to get to Rinca Island, where the mighty Komodo Dragons eat buffalo, chickens and the occasional tourist. We plonked round Rinca, tracking the dragons under the midday sun, snorkelled to cool off, then celebrated Xavier's birthday with the best ever tortilla espanola, cooked on the boat. That was followed by an excruciating number of hours on bad buses, with chickens both inside and on top. Even dogs and pigs were loaded onto the roof, with packs of rice and coconuts stashed on top of them... not a pretty sight.

The Captain was a duck - and I drove part of the way to Rinca.

Cris, Nabil, Daniel, Javi, Safri the trainee guide, O, Monse, Justine, Www something, the second guide, braving the abominable dragons.

A 2.5m long Komodo Dragon.

Independence Day, day 3, a parade in Labuanbajo, celebrating the safe return of the group?

PADANG BAY (BALI ISLAND), GILI ISLANDS (LOMBOK), SAPE (SUMBAWA ISLAND) / INDONESIA:
"Do you have a room for tonight?" "We pool" "Lovely, but do you have a room?" "We pool pool!" Pool is full. Air is water and the main bottled brand is ATM. Weirder than the Australians?
Padang Bay is where you take the ferry to the Gili Islands. We stopped long enough to sample great fish and pineapple, and chat with Claude who works in Les Diablerets during winter and travels the rest of the year (I am now looking for vacancies in the ski resorts ;-). Then we met Marco and Brigitte from Toulouse - Helene and Josu, if you see them around, say hi to them from us! - and also Andrea and Sabrina from Milan. Gili Trawangan turned out to be Little Italy, a mini Rimini in August. The snorkelling around there was astounding; we followed turtles, saw beautiful corals, and flopped on fine white sand.

C in paradise, again, before getting a massage - ohh life is hard!

Indonesians in traditional dress, boarding a boat in Pandang Bay.

Marco and Brigitte, Toulouse vs Gili?

Lunch on Gili Air with Sabrina and Andrea.

Fish drying by the side of the road in Sape.

KUTA, UBUD (BALI ISLAND) / INDONESIA:
Welcome to Indonesia. We land at 3am but we can already feel the vibes of a totally different culture and a radically different place. From the airport to our hotel in Kuta Beach we swerve through a series of alley ways, squeezing past lots of scooters and a few pedestrians. AP Inn has a huge pool, private room with bathroom - an obsession after the gloom of dorms or sleeping in cars in Australia! Kuta is frenetic, with shop vendors everywhere and people asking you questions all the time - transport? transport? taksi? dinner? (a bit like Cusco!!) From there we go to Ubud, a lovely spot surrounded by rice fields (full of snakes, we discover after prancing around in our flip flops...), then out to visit temples, museums, shrines, batik factories, the lot. Totally touristy but worth the effort. Bali is nice, Indonesians are friendly and happily put up with our broken phrasebook communication skills. We are thrilled to be back out in the world of culture shocks and travel.

A Balinese dance in Ubud. C has been imitating the eye and head movements eversince.

Fighter cocks, possibly the ones that wake us up in the morning?

Kemen Temple, in Bangli.

Klungkung Old Court of Justice.

DARWIN, KAKADU / AUSTRALIA:

Our rental vehicle included 4 luggage trailers.

Views from the top of Ubirr rock art site.

Did the Aboriginal People invent sushi?

Termite salad.

CAIRNS, GOVE, DARWIN / AUSTRALIA
We feel like annihilating Qantas. Who said they were a brilliant airline? Who let them into the One World alliance? Why doesn't Brandson get out here and give them some competition? winge winge winge. The bitterness of having spent a full day trying to do a reroute on our Global Explorer world ticket and getting screwed big time is still present.
Anyhow, after much stress, we finally caught the flight from Cairns to Darwin, looking forwards to a celebratory G&T - but no, not on Qantas (now is that not a totally valid reason to hate them, surcharge or no surcharge???). We then landed in Gove. Where the hell is Gove?! We found another wolf's bum as Senor Yardini calls it. This place is not even connected by a normal road; the closest town is about 400km by 4x4: lovely. For some reason, they decided to disembark all passengers. Transits were told to wait in the lounge. Well there was no lounge. We walked from the plane to the carpark, directly... We eventually had to make our way back on board via metal detectors and x-ray scanners. Cristian, who that very morning had announced that he was shaving only his neck, or underchin, or whatever men call it, got stopped by a security lady, not for beeping though. The lady told him that he had to undergo and explosives test. yes, an explosives test, in Gove, after having walked in via the carpark slash lounge. So she took out this suction device and started to remove dust particles from his shoulders, knees, feet and bag (at which point i asked if i could have a go too), she then put the device in another device and eventually told us that Senor Y had not been handling explosives or gun powder recently. always good to know.
So we embarked and made our way to Darwin, which, along with Gove, has a time difference of 30 minutes with Cairns. We thought it was a joke, but no, we are now 30 mins behind ourselves.
Tomorrow we are driving to Kakadu National Park. More, after that, from Kuta, Bali.

COOKTOWN, CAPE TRIBULATION, CAIRNS / AUSTRALIA, Day 196:

The sign was warning us...

few shy one at first...

and the star of the group.

The girls ready to travel the far north Queensland...

then another warning sign...

while Sandra was holding on to it...

Sabine happly used the natural bushes service...

but she was not lonely there.

Finally back to civilazations, Cairns watherfront.