Open Trip - Explore Flores 9 Days

At Ende Airport you will be welcomed by our crew with the agreed time. After all the participants gathered together, they left with the hotel in the Moni area using a private car. After arriving at the hotel, gather to listen the explanation from the Tour Leader regarding the Program while in Flores and all the room sharing. In the evening, a welcoming dinner has been provided at the hotel restaurant as well as introducing others. After dinner the free program and preparation for tomorrow morning visit Mount Kelimutu to watch the Rising Sun above the mountains also see the beauty of the three famous Kelimutu lakes with three colors.

Early morning you will go to Kelimutu (4am), make sure you are dressed warm enough. At the top it is fresh and the sun is not available yet. The car takes you to the parking area and from here you walk in about 45 minutes. over an average ascending path and stairs to the top. It is pitch dark but our local guide will guide you. At the top you look for a place to wait for the sun to rise. Coffee / tea is available at one of the local sellers. Price is of course slightly higher at this height, but still affordable by European standards. Once the sun is up, the 2 lakes become clearly visible to you and give beautiful photos. The third (dark) lake is behind you. Once the colors of the lakes red, white and blue (nowadays more of a hue of blue) contributed to the local belief that the colors of the lakes on Kelimutu are created by the souls of the deceased where the soul comes to the color that matches at the lived life. Walk back at your leisure to the parking space, enjoy the surroundings, wonder about the vendors who display their stalls every day. After breakfast we continue to Riung. A small fishing village on the north coast of Flores. Along the way you experience the overwhelming variety in landscape on Flores and we make a stop at the beach of the blue / green stones. A nice place to stretch your legs and drink coffee. The sea swing offers a great photo opportunity at low tide. In the late afternoon we arrive in Riung where you immediately go to the hotel. In the evening you can eat at the hotel or see if you can find 'Pato' this is right next to the Pondok SVB hotel.

A wonderful day at sea! A guide accompanies you on the boat and you set out to experience the underwater world in the Tujuhbelas National Park (Toejoebelas). Before we go snorkeling we sail along the mangrove where huge amounts of dog bats are still resting after their hunting night. The arrival of the boat often startles them, making them fly up a magical face. After this we sail to a small island where you can enjoy snorkeling and the crew will prepare a delicious freshly caught fish lunch. At the end of the afternoon you return to Riung and we will take you to the hotel.

After breakfast we drive further to Bajawa en route we stop at the beautiful natural spectacle of the town of SOA. The mountain provides wonderfully warm water in very beautiful nature. The rivers below are suitable for swimming and there are also special 'swimming pools'. It is a beautiful place, remember that certainly on the weekend many local people come to enjoy this place and then it is pretty busy. If you have dried up (or your sarong has offered a solution again) we will continue to high altitude Bajawa. A small storage place surrounded by volcanoes. Popular among travelers to make beautiful treks and to experience the traditional villages in the immediate area. Warm clothing is needed as soon as the sun goes down.

The center of the Ngada culture is Bajawa. Ngada is a people who live according to age-old rules in which ancestral worship plays an important role. In this culture, the caste system is also still a life course followed. Together with a local guide you will discover the systems of the traditional villages today and walk the vast green environment in which the villages are sometimes hidden. The car takes you to the starting point of the walk. Here you start a walk (soft hike) of 11 km to a traditional village called Beleragi. The walk is mainly down hill and brings you closer to nature. Along the way you will pass bamboo forests (experience the natural cooling) and agricultural fields. In this area you also see many wild Kemeri nuts and wild sereh. The village consists of two parallel rows of 16 houses and is built uphill; just like the other traditional villages in this area. For the Belaragi population, visitors from abroad are guests, not tourists. That is why guests are traditionally welcomed with a ceremony called ti'Ikaebunusi, it means 'giving food to the ancestors'. A bamboo flute 'suling' concert completes the visit.

You will spend the night in one of the houses as a family guest. The overnight stay is easy these villages do not have hot or running water. The toilet is a squat toilet, with a scoop of water you continue and often you shower in the same room with a water scoop (gayung) from a water basin. It is a special experience drawn by simplicity. Again your sarong will offer a solution, the evenings and nights are fresh at this height, crawl into your sarong and keep it nice and warm.

In a traditional village, the day starts early. You can help your guest house with the daily morning chores or walk around and watch the village wake up and the day begin. Your guide joins you when he is ready. After breakfast you start the day and walk further to the location where the car is parked. You step in and we exchange Bajawa with the Ngada culture for Ruteng where we let you experience how the Manggarai people live. The landscape is still beautifully green, we drive through one of the most fertile parts of Flores. Along the way we stop at a location where pure alcohol is traditionally made from palm fruits. You can taste and buy the local Arak, with varying pecentages of alcohol, although we think honey is a better recommendation. There is also a possibility to stop at Lake Ramanese. A pleasant leg pull moment. Shortly thereafter we reach Ruteng.

This area is also characterized by a special tradition that is deeply rooted in daily life. This is best seen from a high point. You look at Lingko rice fields, the round shape looks like a spider web, hence the name 'spiderweb ricefields' but they have nothing to do with a spider web. The fields are a dimensional representation of the roof of the traditional village house. Every point in such a roof represents a part of the village and every part in a point represents a family. For a resident of Manggarai the hierarchy in the village can be read from these rice fields. We drive on again passing Ruteng at our next stop we meet the local guide who will take you on a walk of about an hour through this beautiful nature. Along the way he explains the principles of the traditions of the Manggarai. The walk ends in a small farming village where you can admire the traditional gabled roofs. You experience the Manggarai culture even more and are welcomed with a welcome dance followed by a traditional Caci (Whip dance). We end the day in Labuan Bajo, try to witness the sunset it is known as one of the most beautiful in the world.

Today is free, Optional. to fill the activity you can together other participants make a tour to the island of Komodo to see rare animals that are only found around the islands of Komodo and Rinca.

Important note. For the price of tickets to enter the islands of Komodo and Rinca it is still unclear how much the price is still under discussion in all elements of government.

Tour Leader and a car will take you to the airport in accordance with the time specified together, to continue the visit to the next place or you will continue the flight back to your country. After arriving at the airport the crew of us requested permission to say goodbye, hopefully you feel satisfied joining us to visit Flores, hopefully we can meet again at another opportunity with different tourist attractions.