So, after beautiful Gili Air I didn’t have anything plan but decided to go to Flores. Going to see the Komodo Dragons was part of my initial bucket list (the list keeps getting bigger and bigger). I thought the way to go was, get back to inland Lombok and go to Mataram airport and get a ticket to Flores.
Now I know that is not how things work but I was naïve and clueless, Oh innocent me 😛
I made my way back, taking the little boat and the mini bus that took me to the airport.
I went to the ticket selling desk and I asked the guy “Can I please get a ticket to Flores?” to what he replied “Kupang”. I told him I didn’t know I just wanted to go to Flores and he kept repeating Kupang, so I assume he was right and I bought my ticket.
Flores is one of the many group of islands that for beautiful Indonesia. Back in the 16th century Portuguese came to take over that’s why is called Flores, which means flowers. What I didn’t know is that the place that I wanted to go was called Labuan Bajo. This is why is so important to search and inform yourself before buying a ticket, they are not cheap and, I don’t know now, but back then they charge you an extra tax every time you take a flight.
The big question now was, where am I? So I arrived to Kupang, I was the only tourist on site. I tried to find someone that spoke English but I didn’t have any luck. I just asked if someone could point me to a cheap hotel. This guy in the Information counter just gave me a piece of paper with a name on it and told me “Taxi” and pointed to a queue. So I waited there and I gave the paper to the driver. I tried to talk to him but he didn’t speak any English.
We then arrived to the hotel, it was fancy, not the kind of guesthouses I’m used to, I knew I couldn’t afford it. Once again, I tried to ask the driver to take me somewhere cheaper but he just told me that he took me to the hotel and that I needed to get off. I went inside and they showed me prices, one night was more than my daily budget, they then put the price down to my daily budget but it was still too much for me. I asked if they knew any other places closer to my budget and they didn’t know.
So I went outside with my gigantic backpack and my small one at the front, walking down the road no idea of which way to go, with more than 30 degrees and the sun on my head. I just didn’t know what to do.
While I was walking this girl in a mopped stopped me and told me that she worked in the hotel, that she saw what happened and that she knew of a place that would be more my style.
I didn’t even think twice and jumped on the back of her scooter. She took me to this small hotel, she arrange the price for me and of she went. They offered me this massive room with air con and TV, didn’t really need that but it was ok. At least they had Wi-Fi.
The first thing I did was check where I was. Kupang is in the island of Timor. People come here mainly on business. I went to walk around but I couldn’t find much, just a busy city.
I looked for a place to book my ticket to go to LABUAN BAJO, needed to make sure I said it right this time. So I found a ticket office not far so I just went there and bought it. They didn’t have anything for the next day, just for the day after but I didn’t have much of a choice so I took it.
The thing is, I couldn’t stay another night in that hotel, it was still a bit pricey for me. So I looked online and found another hotel closer to the beach, at least I could go for a walk around or something.
After my first night, in which I couldn’t sleep because the karaoke next door had really loud speakers and they went on all night long. I tried booking a taxi to the new place, but they wanted to charge me a lot of money so I just started walking, it was just 2km away.
Once again, my backpack, the heat, the sun and having no idea which way to go wasn’t helping. Lucky for me people saw me and stopped me and tried to help me. In less than 5 minutes I had 10 people around me and they all tried to help. By the end one of the guys told me “I know where you need to go, I’ll take you”. So I jumped at the back of his mopped. Indonesians are one of the kindest, loveliest people in the world.
He dropped me at the hotel entrance and we said our goodbyes.
The hotel was ok and closer to what I could afford, and it was in front of the beach. It wasn’t the nicest part of the beach but hey I’m not complaining.
I didn’t have much to do so I spent a lot of my time with the lovely receptionist that told me about her life and life in Indonesia and I told her about my travels. Still now we keep in touch through Facebook.
Kupang has more to offer, may be next time I do a bit more research and visit more places.
Even though this was an unexpected stop, I still remember this experience with a lot of love. The kindness of the people warms my heart. There are still people out there that would help you not because they want something from you but just because. That’s what I do, if someone looks lost or needs a hand, I’ll do my best to help I know that I would like someone to do the same is I was in there shoes.
So after all it was a cool diversion.
See you soon 🙂