News – April 2007 (Maumere/Flores / Indonesia, April 25, 2007)
- Website statistics: In March, we were able to welcome on our website 30'844 visitors who did 784'599 hits.
- (February = 34'358 visitors – ??? countries* – 1'233'758 hits (= record))
- Record days since 12/17/1998 - the birthday of our website: 2/19/2007, 2'518 visitors and 293'778 hits
- (*= the country counter, which stopped working March 23, 2006, has still not been repaired by the
- ISP Goldnet - frustrating! - usually there were monthly between 100 and 118 different countries!)
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- After an eight hour ferry sailing passing the dragon island of Komodo, we reached the island of Flores, lying in
- Eastern Nusa Tenggara. Contrary to the previous island of Sumbawa, which is inhabited almost exclusively by
- Muslims, 85% of the population of Flores are Christians. Thus it isn't a surprise that – instead of the otherwise
- ubiquitous mosques – churches are becoming prevailingly visible in equal large numbers. It's also eminently
- noticeable that there are less people living in the East. Fortunately, we encounter more and more secondary jungle
- again, and not only buildings and houses alongside the roads.
- Just at the Western edge of Flores there is a world famous attraction: The Komodo-Dragons. In the whole world
- they are found only on the relatively small islands of Komodo and Rinca, which lye between Sumbawa and Flores.
- Luckily, the whole area is a National Park, so that the monitor lizards, which might grow as long as 10ft., are
- protected and have a chance to survive. We visited them after a 2½-hour boat drive to the island of Rinca and
- spotted seven of them. It was very impressive!
- But Flores comes up with another special feature: The volcano of Kelimutu lying between Ende and Maumere. There
- are three differently colored crater lakes on an altitude of 5'300 ft., which obviously change once upon a time their
- colors due to different minerals. Most of the tourists – out of the few, who occasionally end up in this remote region –
- climb up at sunrise. We had however the impression that the views at sunset are brighter and had the additional
- pleasure to be the only visitors during this time of the day, making the experience even more exceptional.
- High passes with strong grades, leading through impressive gorges and valleys, along beautiful shorelines and through
- little towns and traditional mountain villages, make the driving really slow on the somewhat damaged Trans-Flores-
- "Highway". The road distance of about 435 miles from West to East is more or less the double of the actual length of
- the very photogenic island. It's not possible to drive faster than 15 m.p.h., and the numerous picture stops delay the
- rewarding journey even more.
- As expected, we had to apply in Maumere for our 4th and last possible Indonesian visa extension. But because this
- last extension is still valid up to May 16th, we would like to visit before also the island of Sumba, which is situated in
- the South of Flores and said to be a "titbit" too. Afterwards we have to leave somehow the country to apply
- somewhere abroad in an Indonesian Consulate for a new visa – we wonder where this might be!
- Therefore, please check from time to time the progress of our "Indonesia-Trip, Part 4" on our pictured site!
New Reports/Pictures
- SOUTHEASTASIA: mouse over picture shows comments
- click a picture to see details
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| + our Indonesia Trip, 4th part | Sumba, West Timor – April-May 2007 |
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| + our Indonesia Trip, 3rd part | Lombok, Sumabawa, Flores – April 2007 |
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| + our Indonesia Trip, 2nd part | Bali – Jan.-March 2007 |
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| + our Indonesia Trip, 1st part | Sumatra, Java – Dec. 2006 |
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| + our Borneo Trip | Sarawak, Brunei, Sabah, Kalimantan – Sept.-Nov. 2006 |
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| + our LandCruiser on a "Rejuvenation Cure" | in Miri/Sarawak - the East Malaysian province on Borneo June-Aug. 2006 |
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| + added from a earlier visit to the USA: | Las Vegas (Millennium change) |
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| + added from our Arabian Peninsula round trip: | Pictures from Yemen (May-June 1996) |
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| + Flashbacks of our Worldrecordtour: | Pictures from "all the continents" (Oct. 1984 - April 1997) |
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