Pete Loud wrote:
Hi Manfred,

I presume that on your trip around Nusa Tenggara you went up
Kelimutu?

Yes, we landed in Maumere coming from Ujung Pandang and travelled then
westwards ...

I went up one morning, I took the bus at about 4:00am then sat at the
summit freezing in the clouds and rain and didn't see a thing so
walked down at 9am. The next day I walked up starting at sunrise.
This time the clouds hovered around the top of the volcano. I walked
around and hung around for a few hours and eventually managed to get
a holiday snapshot of the place.

I was up there twice. 1st time going up and down by bus, because we
wanted to catch the bus from Moni to ende on the same morning (wrong
decision!). I do not remeber the weather, but I think it was good. I
remember that is was ****ing cold up there .. I also remember that I
forgot my camera in the Homestay in Moni before leaving with the bus to
ende, threfore I do not have any pictures (maybe the one who found my
camera ;-)).

2nd time we took more time, went up by bus and then down walking
(joining the guy who sells tea for tourits up there). The three colered
lakes (which had only two colors at that time) are a spectacular site,
but I remember the walk down to Moni as the highlight of that day. We
wandered down through gardens, had very nice chats with lokals there,
and ended up in a hut of an old man eating potatoes and drinking tea...
learning how he lifes there and listening to his opinions about the
western world... I can only recommend to all of you to take your time
and do the walk down to Moni after visiting Melimutu ... btw, the second
time we were without camera, because I had it in a water proof rucksack
when a plastic bottle broke inside ;-( ... can you imagine what fun this
was for my indonesian fellows in the cabin of a pelni? ;-)

http://www.peteloud.co.uk/indonesia/...lores_w750.jpg
I see, you had only two colors as well ..

I didn't get a chance to go up Kelimutu again and get some better
some photos when the weather was good because later that day I became
ill with either typhoid or para-typhoid, - the joys of travelling ;-(
Well, I'd really like to go back to flores, but unfortunately I do not
have the possibility to do longer trips right now. And Flores is in my
opinion not a place to rush through (although a lot of people do so..)
I remember for instance a place near Bajawa, which was kind of
"traditional village" about 1h driving on very small dirt roads ... very
weird place, spent a day there and I still have very nice memories about
the people there (although they got really open only after most tourists
left ...) - unfortunately I do not remember the name of this village ...

Salam,

Manfred alsia Mansur