Adventure From Jakarta to Flores 🇮🇩 (Unreal trip)
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On December 7th 2023, I took a flight from Singapore heading to Jakarta (capital of Indonesia), I arrived early in the morning and it was very hard for me to navigate to the city center with public transport, once I managed to buy a sim card, I bought a train ticket and headed to the city, and that's where the adventure started.
Jakarta
- 40 mins to get from the train station to the hotel (just 3.5 km),
The hotel was full so I decided to go to a hostel instead, where so many backpackers choose, the staff were very helpful, my plan for jakarta was 2 days, but I ended up staying only one, because it's polluted and the streets are not clean, but people are very nice.
Yogyakarta
Learning from the first mistake not to book in advance and go directly to hostel, that city was less crowded and I took grab bike to "Sleepy Raccoon Hostel" which I ended up staying 4 days because the staff were nice and I was invited at night to go to top of the mountain to see the city from above (Thank you Mukhtar 🇾🇪 & Mohammed 🇵🇸) for your hospitality.
the owner helped us with booking the train ticket (because payment is accepted only by local cards or pay at 7/11 store), also suggested us to see sunset in the rice field.
Malang
I arrived to malang and the hostel was full but soon I found another one and it was nice I also could do an early check-in,
I was bit lost looking for restaurant but in the evening I met my friend from Yogyakarta, and we went together and we rented a motorcycle using my passport and her driver license, at 5:00 am we went to see that famous waterfall, and it was amazing, we walked all the way down, It was worth every step, but on our way back to the hostel it was bit rainy and we got wet, then it was sunny and we had to take off the rain coats, we faced so many slow trucks which I told my friend:
"I would never ride a motorcycle again in Indonesia".
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The next day I decided to take trip to mountain bromo (Tour), where I wasn't wearing enough cloths and it was freezing, but as soon as the sun was up, it was warm, and we were able to see the volcano, and the view was amazing,
Banyuwangi
My intention was to go to bali directly, but I had to stop in that town, not just to catch up with my friend, but also so we could cross together to bali.
I woke up the next day, took a walk at 7am in the town, it was really good, and using google maps was helpful to indicate where nearest bakery was,
Bali
Between Banyuwangi and Bali there is a ferry, and it was very crowded, and we were in time, we arrived to Bali island in afternoon time. and I had to take a bus and had help from local to find which bus to take. the bus took 4 hours my friend was dropped in middle. and I had to continue to Canggu where I booked a hostel, the rooms were clean but outside near the pool there were a lot of mosquitoes, I stayed there two nights and I changed decided to spend the rest of my trip in another hostel, next day we rented a motorcycle again and went to Monkey Forest, I decided to spend christmas in Bali in the same hostel, it was worth it.
Nusa Penida
That's best place in indonesia, when it comes to landscapes, you go there from Sanur by ferry, as soon as I arrived I rented a new motorcycle 70k idr per day, a day later my friend joined me again and we saw all what we could see in 3 days, then we had to go back to Bali.
Flores
I took a flight from Bali to Labuan Bajo, then the hostel was pretty near 2km from airport but still booked a grab bike. to get there, in same day I rented a motorcycle there, after we went to near restaurant next to harbor.
I went to waterfall not far away from city (45mins ride) and 1 hour hike in forest. where I met a local couple who had small restaurant, they offered me a seat and coconut,
I was the first one that day to reach the waterfall, and as soon as tourists started to appear I had to leave and go back to the city,
Next day I took a trip to Komodo island it wasn't worth it at all but the pink beach was not bad, and the view from the boat was amazing, I did some hiking once we got to island but as soon as I got back to boat started swimming and water was full of blue jelly fish 🪼, we saw only 3 komodos, and two felt in bad situation, on our way back to flores I asked the crew to stop for swimming and snorkeling.
I arrived to city and changed hostel, and decided to spend new year eve there but unfortunately I spend it sleeping. I spend three more nights and decided it's time to get to Bali.
End of the trip
- Visiting Indonesia was suggested and insisted by little brother Sofiane (opens in a new tab) 🙏🏼.
- Lombok was my last stop, where I had the best time ever, not gonna share that part because I want to keep it for myself ☁️.
Terima kasih for Reading 🙏🏼😇