This account (to be extended) is compiled from emails sent to friends during my two month journey from Denpasar to the northeast island of Morotai via Lombok, Flores, Sumbawa, Lembata, Alor, West Timor, Ternate, Tidore & Halmahera in the northern Spice Islands.

I only have a rather vague itinerary for this year's trip with the ultimate destination being Halmahera in North Maluku via the islands of Nusa Tenggera.
From reading other traveller's reports it seems that if I can survive independent travel thru Lombok then the rest should be a bit easier, daylight robbery attempted at every turn. Of course there are the notorious long and winding bus journeys thru Flores but if I can limit my journeys to 4 or 5 hours a day it will be easier.

Arriving at Denpasar airport around midnight Sunday August 1st I did my usual trick to avoid the taxi touts and walk outside beyond the gates to the main road to catch a regular cab to the always good Nakula Familiar Inn. Slept late and  decided to stay a second night. Tuesday morning I walked to the Ubung bus terminal and caught the ferry to Lembar on Lombok. Losmen Tidar the only hotel -stayed there one night two years ago - behind the façade it's a dirty mossie trap with none of the good food listed in the lonely Planet. I awoke from pussycat dreams to fined a 'tikus besar hitam' - A BIG BLACK RAT sniffing my hand!! I had been eating peanuts before bed and I guess he was attracted to the smell and he wasn't in a hurry to leave either. There was a big hole in the door allowing him easy access. Next morning I made my way to the far southwest by bemo buses and hitchhiking to the best surfing area of Desert point at Bagko Bangko. The last section over a rough track that I had to walk beside the pickup truck that had picked me up. Stayed the night in one of the surfy hovels and moved on next morning, west via Pelengan and Sekatong intending to hit the south coast at Sepi but learned I may be stuck there and unable to go further east. I got a ride from Doctor Emiel originally from Peru and now working in Barcelona. A keen surfer he spends much of his time fixing broken surfy bodies at Desert Point where the break is pretty rocky. I carried on to Praya and Sengkol via Kadiri where I kicked the ass of an over-friendly thief who had his hand in my pack before I threw him outta the bus! I was shouting 'Pencuri! Pencurie!' (thief, thief) as the locals chased him down the road. Later traveled on what the locals call a 'ben hur' - a horse drawn cart. Made my way down to Kuta lombok on the south coast to a surfers paradise and the last of the 'tourist' areas I would see for a while. Found a very comfortable little hotel with good food near the beach.

Next morning I learned from the internet that one  of my tales won me $500 in a LONELY PLANET competition  - YAHOO!! Good for this budget traveller! It's not really the $500 that's so great but the fact that I pulled this story out of nowhere--out of the hardrive of the mind where it had lain in the dark for more than 40 years only to be woken up by the word 'baksheesh' - the required 'theme' of the story. That story is a part of my ancient history in North Africa as I was hitch-hiking east along the coast from Morocco to Tunisia via Algeria. Anyway, my winnings helped buy the drinks and tip the staff well in this little café/hotel 'Kelapa' (means coconut). I sit in the candlelight eating dinner with a big smile on my gob and the dukebox is playing old country standards that were popular in Ireland in the sixties: 'The Wayward Wind', 'Funny-Face I Love You' (big in Indonesia this year) and 'Sailor Stop Your Roaming' competing with a terrible band across the road blasting out weary renditions of 'Let it Be' and 'Funny-Face I Love You' (again). Me? I'm just mellow--reading my guide notes and studying my Bahasa Indonesian--happy to be on the road again!


There are no facilities in east Lombok - a sure test of this tramp! Travelled back north to Sengkol and east to Mujur and on to Tanjung Luar, a picturesque but incredibly filthy fishing port of ragged and dirty children with their mothers selling big fish. It seemed they had never seen a tourist. No hotels along the coast to the south of Labuhan Lombok except for one at Labuhan Haji - Meliwis Beach Hotel - I had a look and I left even though it was late in the day. 120,000RP (expensive) for a filthy hut with a dog sleeping in it - a mattress on the floor half covered with a rag (unmentionable things stuck to it) and when I asked the man to change it he went and got a bottle of something and started to spray it! Meanwhile he was kicking the used tissues under the mattress when he thought I wasn't looking. I ran out so fast I didn't get the name of the place but found it later. Before reaching Labuhan Haji I travelled in a bemo thru 10km of an endless parade--all heading west and though it was slow and frustrating for the driver it was a real spectacle for me. It seemed to be a lead-up parade or a practice for the annual Indonesia Day marches. There were thousands of children as well as adults in mostly drumming bands and there were literally hundreds of these bands. Now, after leaving the hotel from the heart of darkness I had to make my way back against the parade that was still flowing all the way from Selong about 15km to the east. Many tired children shuffling along, some getting rides in the back of pickup trucks, first aid being rendered to drummers' blisters but everyone happy and dressed in the most incredibly clean and crisp uniforms of every colour and style.  I found accommodation at Selong at dusk in another dirty joint and had a meal at one of the many temporary warungs in the park.


By bus next day to Labuhan Lombok and a 1 1/2 hour, 15km ferry ride to Poto Tano, Sumbawa.  I just managed to leap aboard the departing ship after they'd raised the ramp--I clung to the rail on the deck until some guys pulled me up -everyone laughing. One man offered me a ride and I stood in the back of his pickup as we disembarked. On the way we overtook another little truck, just a pickup, with two horses aboard, travelling very precariously with a head over each side. After a couple of hours I sat in the cab after