Sorry sorry sorry...we know it has been a while since the last posting, but please know it is not for lack of effort. This side of the archipelago is a bit more "rustic"....
Anyway, a somewhat brief update: Toba despite the rain ended up being great. I sneezed three times in a row and according to our neighbors from Holland, that made for good weather the next day. We rented a motorbike and cruised around the island. Gorgeous scenery and we even took in a bit of culture. There were two things on the "tourist map", but sadly we could only find one - the stone chairs, which are exactly what they sound like and sadly not the most impressive things in the world. It was a nice ride though and we got back just in time to take a swim before it started to rain again.
From there we headed the next day to Lombok, a island east of Bali (they dub themselves "Bali's sister island" but we don't like that title....) It was a 4 hour car ride with 7 others (one vomiting most of the way) to Medan and then two planes to Lombok. 
We arrived late in the evening, but were very happy to wake up on the beach. We were in the main tourist center - Senggigi to do some basic planning since that is the last tourist hub we would see for a while. Senggigi is not much to speak of so we booked our boat to Flores (where we are now) and headed to Gili Air - a small small island off the coast of Lombok quite popular with backpackers. It was nice and relaxing. We had fresh fish for dinner brought in by the fisherman right to shore for us to pick out and we did some nice snorkeling as well.
We arrived late in the evening, but were very happy to wake up on the beach. We were in the main tourist center - Senggigi to do some basic planning since that is the last tourist hub we would see for a while. Senggigi is not much to speak of so we booked our boat to Flores (where we are now) and headed to Gili Air - a small small island off the coast of Lombok quite popular with backpackers. It was nice and relaxing. We had fresh fish for dinner brought in by the fisherman right to shore for us to pick out and we did some nice snorkeling as well.After 2 days of Gili Air, we headed back to Senggigi and joined 12 others for a 4 day/3 night boat trip to Flores, stopping on the way for snorkeling and a trip to Komodo National Park to see the famous endangered Komodo Dragons. Before you get any glamorous ideas, this was not in any way shape or form a luxury cruise. The first reaction at the sight of the boat was "This is it??" We all slept on deck (10 on the upper upper, 4 on the upper) and the squat toilet was some porcelain around a hole to the ocean. The engine had some trouble and we missed much of one day and there is one day where you sail for 18 hours where we hit some slightly rough seas at 2:30 AM. 
Everything was slightly damp, if not wet, and the bag of ice that was chilling our 8 beers for the journey was melted by day 2. BUT, with all that said, it was a fine cheap way to get to Flores, we had some really good snorkeling that included a shark sighting, a couple eels and a lion fish. We also caught sight of some komodos, which was cool. We were a bit disappointed as none were chowing on buffalo or really doing much more than lazing in the sun, but they are enormous.
Everything was slightly damp, if not wet, and the bag of ice that was chilling our 8 beers for the journey was melted by day 2. BUT, with all that said, it was a fine cheap way to get to Flores, we had some really good snorkeling that included a shark sighting, a couple eels and a lion fish. We also caught sight of some komodos, which was cool. We were a bit disappointed as none were chowing on buffalo or really doing much more than lazing in the sun, but they are enormous.The scenery in this part of the archipelago was amazing as well. Like nothing else we have seen, Komodo and many of the surrounding islands are dry - like something out of a sci-fi movie there are great hills of nothing but scorched yellow grass with a couple random green trees poking out of the tops. Although a long journey, it was pretty.
We had big plans to get some things done upon arrival in Flores at Labuan Bajo, but sadly our efforts were a bit fruitless - the Internet was nonexistent, the boat office we needed was mysteriously closed and the post office as well shut down on Fridays at 11 AM. Oh well. We wandered all we could of Labuan Bajo and then headed to Seraya Island - a small almost completely deserted island about an hour from Labuan Bajo. There is only one little string of bungalows (very simple with electricity only on from 6 PM to 10:30 PM) a white sand beach and a really nice reef for snorkeling.
A great hide away and by sheer luck some friends from Jakarta were staying there for Christmas. It was nice to see friendly faces. We had amazing snorkeling here - we followed a turtle for about 45 min (he even let Howie pet him a little on the back) saw a school of polka dotted sting rays, and a ton of beautiful fish and coral. It was a nice escape before what we think will be the real backpacking in Flores.
A great hide away and by sheer luck some friends from Jakarta were staying there for Christmas. It was nice to see friendly faces. We had amazing snorkeling here - we followed a turtle for about 45 min (he even let Howie pet him a little on the back) saw a school of polka dotted sting rays, and a ton of beautiful fish and coral. It was a nice escape before what we think will be the real backpacking in Flores.Flores is a lot less developed than most places we have been. Just to give you some idea, we are in Ruteng, the big city that has - gasp! - a grocery store. The road here was incredibly curvy, actually never straight for the full 3 hours, and we were up in the clouds for a long time. The views were amazing and we hear it only gets better from here. Hopefully so will the internet connections and picture will hopefully be soon to follow. From here we head across Flores to see some of the small villages and volcanos and then on to Dili (East Timor) for a visa run and visit to our friends John and Shelly who just moved there about a month ago.
Happy holidays to all. And Happy New Year (just in case we are not close to a computer then...) Pics to be posted as soon as we have the connection to do so...
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