Flores island is one of the most important islands of the "Nusa Tenggara Timur" located in the southern part of Indonesia. The name "Flores" was given by the Portuguese "Cabo de Flores" during the 16th century when they colonised the island. During this time, the main religion was the Dominique order. It was not until the 19th centuries, when the Portuguese ceded all the territory to the Dutch, when they renamed the island to "Flores" which means Flowers.
THE LANDSCAPE
The Indonesian weather is tropical, with two monsoon seasons. From June to October is the dry season, the better moment to visit the country. Instead from November to mars is the rainy season. However, in Flores, the weather changes a lot between the mountain areas (Bajawa, Ruteng and Moni) where can be rainy all year, and the north which is much drier.
As Flores is located to the other side of the Wallace Line, their vegetation and wildlife are considered to be partly influenced by the Australian. That's the reason why their reefs are full of many unbelievable corals. As the rest of Indonesia, their ground is very rich thanks to the volcanic activity and their people use it to farm the land. The landscape is full of amazing rice terraces, exotic fruit, cocoa or coffee.
THE PEOPLE
People in Flores are extremely nice and open to different cultures. They will be very happy and proud to show you the best places from their stunning island and their ancestral culture that are still very important to them. Traditional villages are all over the island, most of them are still used to perform their traditional ceremonies, even, in some of the houses, the floriens still live in.
The citizens are almost entirely Roman Catholic Christians, whereas the other Indonesian island which is mostly Muslim. However, there are Muslim communities located in big cities like Maumere, Ende and Labuan Bajo where people live in peace together.
To learn more about their culture and habits click at Knowing Flores people.
PLANNING MY TRIP TO FLORES
How to get there
There are two ways to get to Flores, by ferry or by plane. The first one might be more beautiful and pleasant, usually this kind of trips stop to see some islands on their way. However, it takes at least 2 or 3 days to get to your destination.
The second way is to go by plane from Jakarta or Bali. There are some agencies like NamAir, WingsAir or LionAir. The easiest and safest way to buy the flight is through Traveloka webpage. It can be interesting to go by ferry and go back by flight if you have time.
How to get around
When we were planning our trip to Flores we took a lot of time to decide how we will get around the island, by bus? Motorbike? As we found out that the roads are not really well preserved, with many holes and narrow curves, the distances between the towns were so long and the nice places were far away from them, we decided to rent a car driver. After the trip we can say that this is true. As our driver used to joke about: Do you know what FBI means? Flores bumpy Indonesia.
I found a really nice web from Anne Mieke, Travel2flores with a lot of information about Flores, where to go, things to do. She helped me to found a reliable car driver who could speak English and with the planning of the trip. Stef, our driver, (phone number: +62 822-4449-9249 and blog Flores island tour driver) with his safe driving and his passion about his country, made our trip to Flores even better than we expected.
Where to go
The island is divided into 8 regencies. From east to west you can find Flores Timur (Larantuka), Sikka (Maumere), Ende, Nagekeo (Mbay), Ngada (Bajawa), Manggarai Timur (Borong), Manggarai (Ruteng) and Manggarai Barat (Labuan Bajo).
Most of the tourism that goes to Flores end up in Labuan Bajo, the west region of the island, take a boat to the komodo National Park, do some trekking, snorkelling or diving. Even though the islands, the reef and the wildlife are wonderful, the rest of the island is waiting for us to be discovered.
With Anne Miecke's and Stef help, we planed our overland trip of 6 days, starting at Maumere and ending at Labuan Bajo. Stopping at Moni to see the Kelimutu volcano, Riung to have a boat trip, Mbay, Bajawa and Ruteng.
The boat trip at Labuan Bajo
While planning our trip we checked what people did at many different blogs. Most of them took a boat trip around Komodo National Park. There are many different trips fitted to every kind of person. One day trip, private trip, two ore three days by an open trip, even the public ferry for those who only want to see the dragons.
At Labuan Bajo there are plenty of companies that offer this kind of trip so the best option is to walk around there and compare the prices. However, if you go with a tight time, just like us, you can compare the companies that have a web-site at home. We checked many companies like "My Komodo tours", "Open Trip Komodo" and the prices were similar.
We finally decided by the open trip at "Long Lasting trip" because they offered the planning most accurate to what we had in mind. The pictures of the webpage were not exactly as the real boat and we had to slip at an underground cabin. Even though the first angry feeling, the crew and our guide were really nice and made us really enjoy the trip. The picture above is not our boat.
Recently, the Indonesian government has been talking about closing Komodo for the whole year 2020. The official information is that they do it for the poaching of the Komodo dragons, however, we heard many other reasons, the people of Flores have in mind. Actually, they are going to close only Komodo island, no the whole national park, so the tourist will still be able to see the dragons at Rinca.
Where to sleep
Moni
Moni is a small town of one road, located at the base of Kelimutu's volcano. Even though this town has become more and more touristic, thanks to visitors that want to see the volcano and has to stay overnight, the accommodations are simple and rudimentary. There are different hotels all over the street and a few nice restaurants.
We slept at Mahoni guesthouse which is nice. It has a small garden where they give you the breakfast and is close to Mopi's restaurant. However, our rooms were like 5 min walking from the rest of the guesthouse. It was quieter there but it looks a bit lonely at night.
Riung
Riung is a small Muslim village with only a few wooden houses. It is famous for their coast with the National Marine Park 17 islands which is almost as wonderful as komodo national park but less crowded, more peaceful and laidback.
Nirvana bungalows is where we chose to stay. The bungalows are located surrounding a beautiful courtyard full of different animals such as dogs, chickens... We stayed at a family bungalow which was nice and the beds had mosquito nets which is very important there. One of the dogs stole one of my flip flops!! I suggest you keep your thing inside, jaja.
Tam, the owner of the nirvana bungalows, helped us rent a boat for the next day to do a boat trip at the national marine park 17th islands which we enjoyed a lot. The crew prepared an incredible fish barbecue for us.
Mbay
Mbay is a Large town and the capital of Nagekeo regency. This town is not really common for tourists so there are not a lot of hotels or restaurants.
We stayed at Pepita hotel and it really surprised us. It has a European style, with a lot of comforts and the price was not so different from the other hotels we stayed in. There was a celebration of a well-known doctor of Flores at the hotel the night we were there, so it was nice to see. At the pictures, you can see the hall and the balconies of the rooms.
Bajawa
Bajawa is the capital of Ngada Regency. A small city surrounded by mountains and with an elevation of 1.300 Km. The Gunung Inerie volcano can be seen from the outskirts of the town. The weather is very different at this part of the Island, it is much colder and there is more vegetation. Actually, to get to the town we had to cross a rainy mountain.
There are many hotels and restaurants in Bajawa, not as the other cities we had already been at Flores. We had dinner at Emtry Cafe. However, most of the restaurants are located on the same street. You can have a walk and choose the one that fit's you best. Usually, there's one with live music.
We spent the night at Bajawa roo guesthouse. Even though it has great reviews at booking we found the guesthouse good but not great. The owners are very friendly and talkative and the room is nice but lacks some comforts, for example, I couldn't find a blanket at night.
Ruteng
Ruteng is a big city, as Bajawa it surrounded by mountains and the weather use to be misty and rainy. In the city you can find a nice church and a big market where you can get lost.
We spend the night at Sky Flores Hostel. The hotel is quite big, with many rooms. We had bad luck and ours were on the ground floor. At the top of the building, there is a big terrace with views where it is located the breakfast restaurant.
Labuan Bajo
Labuan Bajo is the most famous city among Flores. The vast majority of the tourism that go to this island spend all the days at this city or the surroundings. Due to this, the city is the most crowded and expensive. There are plenty of hotels and western restaurants but most of them are high-priced.
We decided Dragon Dive Komodo as our homestay and we would dive with them as well. The owner is a nice French gay and our instructor was a Catalan girl. The hostel was very nice, with so many wall drawings that made us fall in love and chose them. If you want to know more about the diving click at Diving Komodo.
MY TRIP TO FLORES
With the adventurous feeling with us, we took a flight from Bali to Maumere and started our overland trip of 6 days to Labuan Bajo with Stef, our driver.
To know more about our trip and all the places we discovered, click at Sikka regency, this was the first part of our overland trip. If you want to go directly to another regency click at their link:
In Labuan Bajo, we did an awesome day of diving with Dragon Dive Komodo and finally we took a 3 days 2 nights boat at the Komodo National Park. If you want to know more about it click at Diving Komodo or at Boat trip at Komodo. After 10 days in this enigmatic island, we took our flight back to Bali from Labuan Bajo.
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