getting there is another story!



(Ange waiting to board the ferry, Padangbai)


Because of our limited holiday (time and money), and our stated holiday goal (ie. SURF), we decided to take an 'organized boat tour' to get half the way along our route toward our selected destination (ie. the island of Rote (or ROTI, depending whose map you read) in Flores, West Timor, Indonesia). This tour was also going to enable us to 'Hunt Komodos by Camera', and see some other difficult-to-reach places along the way! Everybody's happy. Of course, we booked the tour in Bali, however it departed Senggigi, Lombok the next morning. So... we would have to bust our butts to get to the starting point on-time instead of wandering leisurely along. Little did we know at this point that several strains of malaria were brewing in Martin's system!




Like any holiday, one has to start off happy to have new and exciting adventures ahead!














but regardless of the adventures, let's face it, sitting in any vehicle for extended lengths of time wears thin!









we sat on/in: ojek, taxi, bus, different bus, feet, ferry, bemo, another bus, and, finally...
THE Tour Boat:




I'm afraid that for us, the tour was not all it was cracked up to be... Malaria tends to have that effect on a holiday, it seems... so I can't say anything bad about the tour itself. We saw the Komodo Dragons, and that was the aim (although even that was overshadowed by the stress of worrying about Martin's then-mysterious illness). Martin had been sleeping and with fever almost the entire trip, but he summoned all his energy, put up a brave front and came on the hike to look for the Komodos (although only five minutes in he was absolutely exhausted)!



The weather conditions were less than conducive all around during our boat trip! The waves and driving rain were enough to make numerous people sea-sick, and you can imagine our dismay when we were awakened by large waves that were crashing over the bow rushing around the doorway INTO the cabin, giving us a bath in the middle of the night!

This is our 'comfy' sleeping area... We opted for the cheaper option of 'deck' accommodations instead of splurging on a cabin, since the difference in description seemed minute. Our 'mattress on the deck' accommodations, however, in fact turn out to be mattresses... it was a 1-inch thick, hard, foam... that I didn't even think existed until I saw them take it up in the morning!





Well, if you've read my last few posts, you know the rest of the story, and that our first holiday in Indonesia turned out to be a non-holiday... three days... all three of which were spent pitching on the deck of a boat with Malaria (Martin) or worried about Malaria (me!)! We will have to find another time to get to the as-yet unattainable isle of Rote.