Goodbye Flores

We rose at 6.00am to try to catch the sunrise which we missed by about half an hour. We did however stumble upon a colony of rainbow bee eaters, one of my favourite birds who, I only just discovered as we were walking amongst them (oops!), tunnel nests up to s metre long into the ground. I tried in vain to get some decent shots of them but eventually accepted that I just needed to stop and admire them from afar without attempting to get any photographs. 

The view from the hill overlooking our hotel and beach on the left 

On the way to the airport we stopped at the Toko Bintang (supermarket) to grab some more water as we had run out (as had our 'resort'). Hamish eating a "banana boat" paddle pop that they had seen on local TV ads where the banana flavoured icy pole is covered in a gelatinous 'peel' that you peels away and eat! 

We arrived at Jakarta airport at about 5pm. Taxied on the runway for 15mins passing rows of planes at this massive airport. We then caught the free shuttle to our 'Pop' hotel. Jakarta is like Bali on steroids! I had imagined being such s populated city the road infrastructure may be more developed but not so, just more madness. Our hotel is 500m's from the airport but we seemed to go around in circles following the one way streets for more than 30mins before we finally arrived nearly taking out a family on a motorbike who pulled out in front of us with only the father driver wearing a helmet! 

We appear to be the tourist attractions in this city or the 'paparazzi' as Described by Will! The Indonesian women we shared the shuttle with and men and women at the hotel are taking photos of the Dads and boys both on posing for shots with them and others surupticiously. Hilarious! I took David down to accompany me to reception as the lobby is full of a convention of 50 odd Chinese businessmen who appear to be on a conference or something and who collectively stop talking and all turn and stare as we walked back to the lift. Feeling somewhat conspicuous and glad I'm dressed conservatively! 

The crazy 'pop' hotel rooms. David, Hamish and I feel s bit like we're back at RCH! Didn't take Hamish long to take up the familiar position on the bed with iPad on lap and watching TV. Hamish rates this as the best hotel yet (the more reliable wifi and 'pod-like' bathrooms being the attraction).

Off to Kalimantan, Borneo departing the 'pop' at 7am in the morning. 

It's been an interesting cultural mix today. Leaving predominantly Catholic (70%) then Muslim followed by several other religious/ethnic minorities, then transmitting through predominantly Hindu Bali with the incense and floral offerings throughout the airport and now predominantly Muslim Jakarta.