to kick off our vacation time off the island of java, we headed over to the island of flores, which is east of java. in order to get there, b, w, s, and i all had to fly to malaysia to get new visas (ours ran out at the end of june). we were all six going to fly to malaysia and then on to bali, but we ran into problems as the solo airport re roland and cathy's visas. due to some completely unforeseeable problem, we had to quickly buy r and c tickets directly to bali, and then just the rest of us flew to malaysia. it made for a stressful time at the solo airport, but ultimately, we all got on planes and ended up in bali by that evening. (as an aside, the four of us only went to the kuala lumpur airport--so we didn't see or do anything in malaysia. although it was a noticeable difference to be in the kuala lumpur airport than to be in central java. we had grown so accustomed to life in the solo part of java, that it was weird to see so much "worldliness" at the kl airport.)
after arriving in bali, we met up with roland and cathy at our hotel in denpasar, bali. we spent the night there and then took a plane the next morning to labuan bajo, flores. sadly, i accidentally deleted the pictures of our plane ride to flores. b took a lot of nice pictures from the plane.
we arrived in labuan bajo around 10am and got a quick ride to our hotel. labuan bajo is a small town with a small airport. we checked into our hotel and then headed down into town to check in with our boat tour operator (more on that to come) and to explore this fun town.
we walked along the harbor. it was hot out--so we would walk along the pathway in the blaring sun for awhile and then retreat into the shade. here, we're in the sun. 
we watched some men walk out into the water towards their boats. 
we saw some big shells in the muck, but opted not to go in after them. 
labuan bajo has a beautiful harbor--when you see it from a distance it looks like a picture out of story book. 
we came across some interesting uses for pisang. some bananas were whole drying in the sun. and then others had been pounded out flat into little tortilla-type items. in our travels around indonesia, we had never seen this done before. 
w loved looking out towards the shoreline. 
we learned that the houses down by the water were where most of labuan bajo's muslims live. here is an ornate home in the muslim part of town. (the christians lived up higher in the hillier part of town.)
a cool repeating-patterned roof. note the big satellite dish too. 
there were so many interesting boats in the water--all in various forms of repair and disrepair. 
a very cool wind chime we saw. b said that this is his second favorite wind chime of all time--my hand-made shell wind chime being his favorite. 
close up looks of the neighborhoods down by the shore. 
walking around labuan bajo (up higher from the shore) were where the tourist shops and tour operator businesses were. we walked along the main strip to check things out. we thought this shirt and wind catcher necklace was an interesting combination of us native american iconography with a komodo twist. 
a beautiful lorry we came across. 
i love this picture! it's funny how up close they almost look fake. 
some oleh-oleh at a tourist shop. 
me talking to a shop owner about the price for a string of pearls. 
an interesting sign we saw that's in french and talking about the caribbean. it seemed a little out of place in indonesia. 
grandpa, s, and w. notice how nice roro looks in his tilley (hat). (we had a scare later on in the trip where we thought we'd lost both roland and cathy's tilleys. thankfully, though, they found them at the bottom of one of their backpacks. no one wants to lose a tilley!)
s modelling a lovely lady had and fan.
we found some hawaiian fishing hook necklaces.
also some interesting carved cow skulls. 
w would love to own something like this! but, as you can see, it's 2M rupiahs, which means it's about $175. 
here we're getting into the less touristy parts of town again.
a nice harbor shot.
b got lots of nice boat shots.
here we are at the ferry terminal. little did we know at this time that in less than a week, we'd come to this exact place to catch a ferry to sumbawa!
lots of people were waiting for the ferry to arrive.
and lots of people got off the ferry.
there were some backpackers who got off the ferry and asked us where they could go to find a place to stay.
s covering her nose/mouth to keep the exhaust fumes out.
w showing off his new flores cincin.
a nice view into the eating area of a boat.
notice our long shadows. 
the masjid far away.
a zooming in of the masjid. 
r, b, and i walked to an atm to get some money out. we came across some kids playing soccer on a big field next to the bank.
we always a sucker for a pretty rooster.
a group of men hanging out--notice how well the man in the foreground squats. indonesians are very good at squatting flat-footed. 
w looking at cincins. notice all of the rocks in the background. these will be used to make cincins from. 
this might be a university building. although we aren't sure.
we liked the brickwork and turquoise pillars on this house. 
one of the catholic churches in town.
another christian church.
it really never ceased to surprise us how many cactus we would see in indonesia. this is a lovely one.
a hotel we inquired about staying at after our boat trip. they were all full though.
we thought it was neat how they used old ropes as their speed bumps. 
a rocky little, or actually wide, road we walked down.
a sign to show just how touristy labuan bajo is.
a nice map of pulau flores, rinca, and komodo.
some beautiful sunset images of labuan bajo harbor. isn't it gorgeous?
darkness setting in on our first night in flores.
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