Makassar and the volcanic lakes of Moni (or not!)

Makassar is the largest city in Sulawesi, with over a million inhabitants. I never really grasped the sheer size of Indonesia before visiting so here's some interesting facts - there are about 17,000 islands in the archipelago, with nearly 240m people living on them! That makes it the fourth most populous country in the world. It totally looks mental on a map too, particularly Sulawesi which we travelled the length of.

As we made towards the aforementioned Makassar on the overnight bus, Damien had a prolonged disagreement with a young Indonesian girl about the music she was playing loudly on her phone (all night). Calling it music is doing her a kindness - it was more like the high pitched keening of a tellytubby sucking helium, but whatever. She sat in front of us and despite repeated requests, hand gestures and in the end kicking of her seat, she would neither quell the volume nor even pretend to understand what we meant. This went on all night, with her parents turning the racket off when she went to sleep and her turning it back on when she woke up. There was steam coming out of Damien’s ears at this stage (about 4am) then it all began to make a bit more sense when she started laughing hysterically at us and stroking Laurent’s face as he slept..

Bob the builder blankies

Everyone was totally exhausted arriving in the town and relented when a taxi driver physically pulled our bags out of our hands and pushed us into his cab. He got us to a hotel where we all tried our damnedest to push that damn phone song out of our heads and get some sleep.

This was to be our only time in a large Indonesian city and what better time to party it up than the first day of Ramadan!! Jaysus. The McDonalds in the mall seemed pretty busy though so maybe it’s not observed that widely I thought. Who knows, but it was certainly being observed when we didn’t get served a beer anywhere that night. What - no Bintang?!! Thankfully we were off to the mainly Christian island of Flores the next day so the panic died quickly enough.

We have no photos of Makassar, because basically it’s a bit of a shithole and I wouldn’t recommend staying there unless you had a flight to catch. We didn’t even get to visit Vagina Street (the affectionately named bar/karaoke/port/brothel area), assuming it would be a bit subdued this time of year.

The next day we boarded on another plane on another airline banned in the EU (living life on the edge) to be propelled over to Flores, a thin volcanic island an hour or so south of Sulawesi. The plane careered on to the runway with alarming speed, but the views while we swooped in were spectacular, the mountainous lush spine of Flores falling into a turquoise sea.

Gado Gado - a yummy veg and satay Indonesian dish

Our first stop was Moni, a small town in the shadow of a giant volcano called Kelimutu, which recently has started acting up and is officially closed. Not to worry though, this is Indonesia and laws are flexible! When we arrived we were told we could go up for sunrise (allegedly the best time to see the beautiful coloured lakes in the crater) with a “guide”. This was just a thinly veiled attempt to wrangle some more rupiah out of us, but left without another option we agreed.

This volcano is CLOSED (officially)

The next morning at 4am (Caoimhe and Laurent? Holiday? They love this crap!) we got up and walked for about hour up to the volcano. The guide did nothing except pant along beside us. Once at the top we began to question the sunrise option, it was very cloudy and very cold and there was no sign of any coloured lakes. Groups of other tourists huddled around also realising that they had been duped. After two hours there was a little break and we got a brief glimpse of a blue-green lake. Damien couldn’t really see anything which beggared the question as to why a colour-blind person would get up at 4am to see some coloured lakes?!

Nope, can't see a bloody thing

Disappointed we trudged back down, at the last second deciding to go to another viewpoint. Result!! We were rewarded with a few minutes view of the deep and vivid turquoise lake. It was lovely, but perhaps not worth the 4am start.

Having found ourselves a driver already it was now time to decide on some logistics, what we were going to do in Flores, where we would go and how we get there. After Caoimhe and Damien played good cop/bad cop (can you guess who was who?) in the price negotiations, we ended up with an almost week long itinerary with our driver Dus. (Now before you think, look at those flash gits living it up in Indonesia, surely they’ve ran out of money by now?! It only cost us $350 between four people for a six day drive, all petrol included, which really aint bad.) Given that Flores is a nightmare to get round and we weren’t flush on time, it really was the best option to get the most out of it. We hadn’t quite got the measure of Dus yet, he seemed to be pretty sound, telling us all about how many cows a husband had to give to the family of his new wife and other such interesting local info.

Finally getting the Bintangs in

So with everything done and dusted we set out on the first leg, to a beach resort with some glorious islands and great snorkelling. 

Our first day of driving began well when we were stuck on the side of the road for over an hour to wait for a police blockade to clear. Dus hadn’t paid his motor tax, but then again neither had anyone, so a clump of vehicles laid waiting just before and practically in sight of the police cars. I don’t think this strategy would work at home!

Car friends!

Finally we got going, stopping first at an incredible deserted beach with silvery grey volcanic sand and piles of aquamarine coloured stones. The drive took us along the meandering coast and over the hump of the island to the other side and in the bright sunshine the beauty of Flores really began to hit home.

Dus and the boys

We arrived in Riung in the late evening and checked into groovy little huts which had al fresco loos, honestly better than they sound! The day it was time for a boat trip out into the 17 islands marine park. 

Outside shower

Also on board were a lovely Kiwi couple and our first stop was an island with trees teeming full of giant bats. They’re nicknamed flying foxes because of their size. We pulled up beside and watched the creepy looking things flap around. Next of all there was some snorkelling which wasn’t all that bad (but no Sulawesi!) and freshly grilled fish on the beach.

After some more snorkelling we made back to land and another fish dinner. Finally the food was really picking up in Indonesia! That evening Dus took us to a First Communion (honest!) of a local kid which was totally hilarious. But I’ll leave it for the next blog to tell that story...