Travels take 2

12.7- Today was a very early start, getting up  at 3.45am  ready to go to the Kelimutu national park and walk up to see sunrise at the volcanic lakes. We were all hoping for a clear day as all of our days in Flores have had a fair amount of cloud. The 'trek' to the summit was more of a 20 minute amble so we arrived at the summit with plenty of time to spare. We huddled up in the wind and waited as more and more people arrived and finally the sun started to come up at about  5.20am . It was a bit cloudy but still stunning. There are 3 lakes that are all different colours, and they also change colour with depending on what gases are going into them from the volcano.  After sunrise walked to a couple more viewpoints before heading back to our little guesthouse for breakfast.  That day we then drove on towards Maumere but stopped at Koka beach on the way. This deserted beach was definitely one of the most beautiful we have been on.  After a few hours sunbathing it was on to Maumere

8.7- after being dropped at our hotel we tried to go for a little wander in the rain but soon found that there wasn't a whole lot to see. For the first time we were twiddling our thumbs with what to do! We got picked up for dinner and taken back into town, then spent the evening playing cards back in the room.  9.7- After breakfast we left Ruteng for Bajawa. Our first impressions of Flores are that it is very mountainous and beautiful but very rural. We definitely get a lot of stares here due to the lack of tourists! On the way to Bajawa we stopped at an arak processing place. They basically chop fruit that looks like coconuts down from high trees, and then boil the arak multiple times to make it to about 50% alcohol.  We even got to taste some... The 50% was a bit much for me and josh at 10am but of course Lizzie was game. After lunch in Bajawa we went to the small traditional village of Bena.  This was a bit weird as it feels odd wandering around looking at people going about the

5.7 - we had another early start for our boat trip around Komodo national park. We were sorely disappointed when we reached the boat, which was worse than expected. Luckily we had a good group of people, us and another English guy, 2 Aussie guys and a not so great Taiwanese couple. The crew didn't speak a single word of English, and the boat chugged along at what felt like 3mph. However when we eventually arrived at Rinca island, we were lucky to see some pretty big Komodo dragons that were lazing around near the camp. We did a little walk up to a viewpoint before heading back to the boat.  As we chugged on to Komodo island we had lunch of rice, vegetables and fried fish (including the heads, ew.). As it is mating season we were warned that the dragons tend to go off into the jungle, so were unlikely to see them. We did a little trek (complete again with guide with wooden stick) and were lucky to see a couple of small dragons strolling around.  We also saw a very very old, thin one

2.7- we got the very sweaty boat back from Gili T and then got a transfer to Ubud. We had some lunch and then wandered to find accommodation, and we ironically ended up at the same place Harriet and I stayed 3 years ago. Once again not much has changed, so we had swim to cool down and watched the monkeys playing on the roof of the building. We found a cooking class for the next day and spent some time wandering the lovely streets and markets of Ubud. We had a really nice dinner in one of the little restaurants, which felt like a splurge meal at a whole £6 for dinner and a drink! Mine was a delicious beef redang with all sorts of stuff with it.  3.7- we were up quite early to be picked up for the market tour and cooking class. The guide was very good at pointing everything out in the local market and even bought us some local snacks to try.  We then went to his house where he explains all about the Balinese houses and how coconut oil is made. We also got to have a go at making Balinese