Exploring Kelimutu lakes, Climbing Mt. Rinjani & relaxing on Gili Air - Lovely Indonesia

Friday 2nd May

Finally we were leaving Labuan Bajo on Flores. We were a little stressed out, when the bus still hadn't picked us up at 6.45, I ran to the diveshop and tried in vain to get a hold on the divemaster who booked the tickets for us, meanwhile Erik tried to get a hold on the buscompany, which  we didn't have any informations on. The delightfull manager of the hostel, Gregorius knew the buscompany and called them, and sooner or later we realized that the guy who booked the tickets for us had said the wrong time to us, so instead of 6.30, it was 7.30am. So no need to worry, and being affraid of being stucked in Labuan Bajo for one more day. 

Well the bus came at 7.30 and off we went.. None of us was excited about this day, we knew it was gonna be a long day of travelling, and it's so rediculous tiring to sit in a hot bus a whole day. 

Before we left Denmark I saw a picture of some lakes on Flores (Kilimutu), and I haven't been able to get them out my head, I just had to see them in reality, so that's the reason why we decided to take this long trip to central Flores. 

It was basically narrow and sharp curves on mountain roads, roads with potholes and every now and then gravel roads. In the rainy season a lot of the roads gets washed away by the massive amounts of rain, so there was a lot of construction and digging going on, on the way. 

When we reached Ruteng, we had a 2 hours lunch break, which we really didn't need, just wanted to finish the travels. It's crazy that we only got 384 km in 15 hours and 16 minutes. 

The trip was suppose to take 8-10, or that's what the natives said, but you can never count on them.. There's always a surprise somewhere along the way, as for example the lunchbreak. We reached Ende at 10.20 pm, and got dropped off right outside Hotel Ikhlas. There's nothing to see or do in Ende, it just a transportation hub, where most people end up spending a night or two, on their way to Kilimutu. 

An odd sight where cows and football players sharing the same field

Saturday 3rd May

With help from a native we got picked up at the hotel in the morning, leaving to Moni. The busride was one of the more exciting ones. Some places only had one lane, and on one side we had a steep ledge, going almost 90 degrees straight down, the other side a scary landslide cliff. Let me put it this way, it wasn't a boring ride, and two hours can seem very long in places like this. 

We were relieved to reach Moni, a sleepy mountain village, located close to Kilimutu. Compared to the little village, they had a wide range of accomodation. We found a family-runned guesthouse for 150.000 rupiah (75kr) with breakfast included. 

Then the day went by with relaxing and from my point of view, an exhauting uphill jog.. For Erik it went much smoother, so he continued by himself. We arranged to rent a motorbike for the next morning, so we could go explore Kilimutu. 

We found it funny how the woman of the house in every sentence mentioned us as mister and misses, like “Maybe mister want to try the motorbike, while misses is waiting”. “ Does mister want tea or coffee?”. She was very polite in a funny way.

Waiting to pass one of the many dangerous parts of the road

Find Erik....

Moni "highway"

A native is sorting rice

Sunday 4th May

Breakfast was delicious and fresh made, so we got good value for our money at this place.

We left towards Kilimutu, around 40 min. uphill drive in sharp curves. Then we walked 20 min to the first view point. 

Kilimutu is a volcano, that contains three summit crater lakes, of varying colours. According to some natives the colour changes as a result of chemical reactions, from the minerals in the water, maybe also depending on the activity of the volcano. From the second view point we had a view over all three lakes at the same time, it was really an amazing view. Since it was weekend, there was a lot of local people visiting the lakes aswell, and a lot of them was very interested in taking pictures with us white and blonde ones, so we got really famous for 30 min, and the locals came home with more pictures of us, than of the lakes. 

Kilimutu is definitely very unique and special, it took some days of travelling for us, just to see that, but it's one of those once in a lifetime opportunities that makes it all worth it.

The rest of the day went by with visiting the rainbow cafe, a nice waterfall and then we got some blog done. There was no wifi in the village, I really like the places with no possibility to waste time on regardless news on the social media. I really hate spending my time on that, but I still tend to do so, as soon as we have wifi. It's the best and worst invention ever..! We only had each other to entertain, and THAT IS being social..!

Buying fuel, 1 liter is 10.000 rupiah (5 kr)

Kilimutu lakes

Some locals who was dying to get a picture of us.. So we did the same!!

10 min. of fame...

On our way back to Moni

Rice terraces

This guy was collecting empty bottles - we wondered how much money he earned.. It probably dosen't make you rich... But neither does travelling..!! 

Love the color contrasts on this picture

Monday 5th May

There's a market every monday in the village, and all from near and far participates, everyone has something for sale and everyone seemed so happy. This market was clearly a big thing for most of the natives, like a weekly celebration. To us it wasn't inviting at all, with all the dust, dirt and trash everywhere.                   After a quick walk around, we catched a bus back to Ende.. 2 hours back through the narrow roads with the terrifying cliff drops and then getting off at the local busstation in Ende.

We had a hard time getting out of the bus, cause all the local guys litterally jumped into the bus to offer us transport, and blocked our way out. We kept telling them that we had to get out of the bus before we would think about our further transportation. They didn't listen and at last we told them certainly to stop asking us the same questions over and over again.. Where are you going? You need transport? You have hotel?. 

We got so annoyed about all their yelling, that we just walked away from the busstation - knowing that it was a long walk to Hotel Ikhlas, but also knowing that we could find a bus/taxi on the road, that would be a lot cheaper than from the busstation. We didn't even walk 100 m. before a minibus pulled over and brought us straight to the hotel. Sweet! And for 25% of the price they asked for at the busstation. Back at the hotel Erik had another afternoon jog, while I did it the next morning - we tried to prepare our bodies for the next big adventure!

The airport which we were leaving from the next morning was in walking distance from the hotel, so everything was perfect - except that we had to shower in buckets, because we were to poor to pay for a normal shower. It was 20.000 rupiah (10kr) more. Haha! Poor backpacker prioritys!

Monday market in Moni

The delightful bus back to Ende...

Moni & Kelimutu video

Tuesday 6th May

A day full of new experiences. Walking to an airport - check! Visited a tiny airport with both airport fee office, security check, bagage wrap, bagage drop and check-in squeezed into a  room on 85 square meters - check! Waiting for a delayed flight in a too cold waiting room - check! Getting to Kupang on Timor, and being nervous if the organisation in the airport was good enough, for our luggage to get on the right flight - check! Getting safe to Praya on Lombok together with our luggage - check!

We had booked a trekking tour 3 days / 2 nights, to the summit of Mount Rinjani (actually a volcano, but it's called a mountain), and Erik had bargained the price down + got us a free pick-up from the airport, untop of a free night at the companys guesthouse, and of course the trekking, food, tent, matress, sleeping bag and a guide, that was already in the price. It ended out in 1,1 million (550kr) each, normal price 1,7 million. We were pleased that we didn't need all the hassle about getting from the airport to our destination. We just found a guy with a "Erik Kraft" sign, and then we could relax for the next three hours while he brought us to Ahmet's expedition in Senaru, in the northern part of Lombok. 

Later we were sitting in Ahmet's restaurant and talking to a Philippino guy, when we heard the loud noise of a motorbike sweep and then saw the motorbike tumbling down the road, followed by a young girl who rolled over several times and got tossed into the side of the road.. Of course without a helmet on!! It only took seconds before she was surrounded by natives trying to help. They pulled her out of the grass, but quickly she fell down again. Her neck was rubbery and weak, she couldn't hold her own head. There was a warning alarm ringing in both of us, and we wanted to help and let them know they should mobilize her neck, but the guys already pulled her up from the grass again, and put her on the back of a motorbike and left to the "hospital". 

We felt so bad after seeing this, especially after seeing how they treathed her, they really didn't know what they were doing. Later we asked Ahmet if he had heard any news from the hospital. He assured us that she was okay, although there was something wrong with her neck, he said..What? Then she's not okay! We tried to explain him why, but he clearly didn't know anything about it aswell. He even asked if we wanted to go and see her on the hospital.. How in the name of the Lord could he even think about asking that..! We seriously thought he was kidding, but no, we could go and see her if we wanted. 

We gave him a lesson about how stuff like that isn't a tourist attraction and how dangerous it is if there "something" wrong with your neck. We were god damn worried about this girl (12-15 years old), but we had to forget about this poor girl and her circumstances. At night we had a short briefing about the trek the following morning. 

Ende airport - the smallest airport we've seen

We only spend a few hours on Timor.. But I already love Ove Timor...!!

Neat view from our lodging in Senaru

Wednesday 7th May

First day of trekking was suppose to be easy, about 7 hours of trekking from 600m to 2641 m, and then camp in tents on the summit of the crater lake.

Before leaving we had breakfast; a small pancake - and that's all the nutrition we got for a 2-3 hours trek, until we got to the lunch point. The trek itself wasn't hard, it was easy going through a rainforest. We (us and a german/american couple - Steffi & Ross) quickly separated from our guide, who always walks behind the last person in the group.

We had a long waiting time before lunch was served, even though our 8 porters was at the lunch point, we didn't get lunch before everyone was there. Then we walked another 2-3 hours, the last 1½ hour was steep, difficult and a bit slippery due to the small loose rocks everywhere. We had a steep slope on each side of us, so we were really concentrated at this point. 

We were surprised to reach the crater rim , since it didnt take as long as assumed. It was a breathtaking scenery that waited for us there. We could see the summit of Mt. Rinjani, Indonesia's second highest volcano/mountain, 3726m. It has a huge crater lake (Segara Anak), which is raised 2000m above sealevel, and within the lake is a new and active volcano (Mt. Barujari). An absolutely stunning view. We spend some time around the viewpoint before the other guys from the group showed us. The porters sat up our tents and cooked an incredible good dinner for us. 

Today we had put 10 km behind us and ascended 2.041 in 4 hours and 23 min – it was time for a rest.

Making my walking stick perfect

The porters are cooking our lunch.. Actually a good meal considering the circumstances

The beginning of the hard part...

And the porters are only wearing flip-flops - and they're almost as fast as us..

A great idea of how the trail looked.. Much steeper in reality though...

The crater lake with a "small" volcano inside it.

Before the wind picked up the tents seemed to be fine...

Thursday 8th May     

Had a horrible sleep in the tent, the wind had picked up during the night and our tent was falling apart, plus that the ground was so uneven that none of us could find a comfortable position to fall asleep in. It had become really annoying in the early morning hours, and we couldn't fix the tent. Lucikly we had enough relaxing time to feel all right when we got up. 

We watched the sunrise over the crater lake and had some breakfast before we continued our trekking. There was 5 people from our group giving up this morning, they walked back down together with one of our guides. It was a bit early to quit we thought, especially because the way down was definitely harder, than the “relaxing” day we had ahead of us. It was mentally hard to think about the remaining two days of trekking, but it wasn't impossible to do. 

We walked 600 m. down to the level of the lake, then we had time to relax and gather strength, in the hotsprings and waterfall. Lunch was served down by the lake, and a deserved nap was taken, before we started the 600 m. ascent to the next campspot, in 2639m height. With exception from the very tall steps every now and then, the trek was easy enough for all of us. 

We were still 8 in the group, and we all walked in the same pace, and didn't need to wait around for anyone. So we enjoyed the walking. Due to our fast pace we reached the camp much earlier than everyone else (like people from other companies, doing the same as us). We found a good spot to camp with a better and more even ground than last night, and we double checked everything on our tent. Then we watched the sunset, and got fed by our porters. Actually Erik used an hour or so in the afternoon, to help our porters cleaning up the area around our camp, because there's trash and litter everywhere. 

We should start our trek to the summit of Mt. Rinjani at 3 am, so we tried to get some sleep before the big day was up. This day we walked 6,3 km, decended 641m and ascended 639m in 3 hours and 40 min.

The three small islands are the Gili islands, and behind is the volcano on Bali. Great view to wake up to.

The lake is raised 2000m above sealevel - and at one point there was smoke coming out from the active volcano in the middle.. 

View of the volcano from the lake level

The waterfall where we had a rest.. Not the worst view we've seen..;)

Our camping area the second night.. The blue "tent" is our common toilet - just a whole in the ground!!

Friday 9th May

Actually had a great sleep, we were in protection for the wind, by the mountain and our tent was still standing when we woke up at 2.15 am. We were fed with delightful salt crackers and burning hot tea and then we were ready for the trek to the summit. 

The trail was really hard and exhausting, the last part was in loose deep gravel and very steep. In almost every step we took, we fell half a step down again. It was mentally tiring, but not physical impossible. I got really annoyed at one point, cause it didn't seem like we were going anywhere, and I just didn't bother spending more energy on going to the summit. Erik talked me into doing it anyway, since we got this far, it was too late to give up now, he said. 

We struggled for another half an hour, and then we were finally there. In 3726 m. height we could see Bali and the Gili Islands to the west and Sumbawa island and the crater lake to the east. It was really beautiful, and I was glad that I made it. Although for me, it wasn't worth it, but that's just me being silly. Erik and everyone else thought it was worth the effort. I would have been satisfied with seeing the lake from the rim.

Walking down was much faster, in every step we took we slided down at least one or two more. I got tired of falling all the time though, sat on my butt so many times on the way down, so actually that wasn't any fun either. After our first climb on Borneo I thought I liked climbing high peaks, but this definitely proved me wrong. I didn't enjoy it, it was too difficult and I was just really annoyed of the trails. Erik was on the other hand, high on life, happy and very satisfied with his accomplishment. Probably also slightly annoyed of me complaning all the time. 

Back in the camp we enjoyed breakfast before we continued our descent. The way down was through a savannah, most of the times on normal trails, some parts were steep and slippery but we learned to walk like the porters and guides do - with spreaded feets, like ducks and then always looking for the next safe place to stop. The pace down was quite fast, also because we just wanted it to end as soon as possible. 

After 19,2 km, 1087m ascent and 2700m desent in 8 hours and 22 min we finally reached Sembalun. It’s quite ironic that all of us felt like the transfer back to Senaru was the most dangerous part of this whole trip. We were placed in the back of a truck and the driver was irresponsible, the roads were in very bad condition and a lot of places, the concrete was missing on half of the road, and without knowing what was around the next corner he speeded up as soon as he got a change. At one point it got a little too exciting for us, and we had to tell him to slow down. The drivers here take it as a compliment if you tell them they’re crazy drivers, so we told this guy that we didn't wanna die yet, and then he slowed down. 

We got transferred to Bangsal and further on to Gili Air (also a part of the deal with Ahmet's expedition). We were knackered when we arrived on Gili Air, and we knew it wasn't a good idea to take a nab. We had arranged to meet up for food and beers, with danish Line, and an american guy (Ben), who we meet on Mt. Rinjani. It was a short meeting from our side, we were simply way too tired to socialize ourselves.

We made it... Yiipi ka yay..!! And Erik brought his chicken legs with him..;)

Summit of Mt. Rinjani.. Notice the shadow of the mountain in the background

Still a long way to the valley

Happy and tired mountain climbers.

Mount Rinjani video

Saturday 10th May

Feeling much better after a prober sleep. For me, my legs was a bit painfull, but nothing compared to last time we hiked a mountain, where I couldn't walk proberly for 4-5 days after. This hike was definitely easier physical, than all the extremely high steps on Mt. Kinabalu. Erik didn't feel any pain at all. 

This day we actually ended up walking around the island, only 5 km, to find a nice beach to relax on. We really deserved that. 

We used most of the night on booking flight tickets, which seemed to be more complicated than it should be - due to the bad wifi connection everywhere on the island. Late at night when we eventually got it all sorted out, we went for a few beers with Line, Ben and some other dive nerds. We had a long day ahead of us, so none of us felt like a big night out.

Westside of Gili Air island

Oh my buddha...

Erik fell in love with this beach/snow bike.. But we couldn't fit it into our backpacks

Our 30 cm. roomie

Sunday 11th May

We left Gili Air with the morning boat to Padangbai on Bali. Then a bus took us to Kuta beach where we spend most of the day on a sports bar, just killing time with blog and watching Formula 1, before we flew out of Indonesia at night. Travelling around in Indonesia and meeting new and old friends has been awesome and we loved every place we went. There’s still so much more to explore, the country is unique and beautiful. We both left a piece of our hearts there. Hope that we will come back again some day!   

Indonesian rupiah

Our flight to Manila was around midnight, and we didn't get a lot of sleep that night, since the flight got tossed around all the time. I think it was the most lively flight we have been on, it literally felt and sounded like it was about to get ripped apart at any moment. Well, we were happy when we finally hit the ground in Manila airport and had solid ground under our feets again.