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Mark Moxon's Travel Writing

Indonesia: Bajawa

A view of Bajawa
The view from the early morning bus as it leaves still-sleeping Bajawa

Rosy-fingered dawn1 saw me getting up at 6am to catch the bus east from Labuanbajo to Bajawa. This I missed, thanks to some creative timekeeping from the hotel manager ('Oh, the bus leaves at 7.15', he said confidently, when it actually left at 7am). Still, I caught another bus, and instead of a direct journey, I had to change in some backwater where the bus terminal was home to as many squealing pigs as humans.

Bus Hawkers

Scenery on the bus from Bajawa to Moni
The bus from Bajawa to Moni passes through some beautiful scenery

My next mission was to try to find a ticket to Moni for the morning, an impossible task on a Sunday evening, especially when everyone was out revelling in each other's houses. I tracked down the bus office with the help of a local, and found out that tickets weren't available any more, and that I would have to get up early and get to the bus terminal to ensure a lift. This was a bit of a pain: normally the buses in Flores will pick you up from your hotel, but only if you have a ticket, and the bus terminal was a good few kilometres out of town.


1 A quotation from Homer, not a lesbian porno movie. Not to be confused with being up at the crack of dawn, either, which is quite a different experience.