Idle banter forum

Busylizzy - your response made me laugh because Flores is definitely the king of "hurry up and wait"! Actually all of Nusa Dua is like that, I finally figured out they realize that Westerners want to have an answer when they they ask "what time does the ferry/bus/plane leave and usually Westerners are in a hurry so they just tell them "come at 6 am, it leaves for sure." Then when you have hauled your sweet ass there at the crack of dawn, they look at you slightly bemused and simply wait till enough reasonable people stroll up to fill the ferry/bus/plane. I don't remember which island I was on but this went on for days - we would turn up at the scheduled departure time for a flight and sit around for hours till we were told there was "mechanical difficulty" and to come back tomorrow. Finally enough people had amassed after 3 days of wait and see to fill every seat and we took off. This was for a plane, not a shared tuk tuk!

I am sorry to hear it is in such a state now, Flores was one of my favorite islands with a glorious, absolutely empty beautiful beach.

Hey Momof4,
Don't get me wrong - I loved Flores, even though it was more challenging than travelling in other areas. It was just Maumere that was a bit of a dump. And I really only saw one area, which was near the port, so it may have been that we just picked the wrong side of town.

Your story about waiting for filling up the plane for days made ME laugh. That just might explain why our flight out of Labuanbaju was mysteriously delayed by a couple of days! We filled up the time while waiting at Kanawa Island rather than in Labuanbaju - and it was the most bizarre place I have stayed.

It was like living in an abandoned ghost town. We were the only one there, most of the bungalows had their doors and windows wide open, and I swear there was tumbleweed blowing along the path. There was a lone deer that wandered around. We had a young staff of 3or 4, who pretty much ignored us and they just did their own thing. Which was bugger all. Everything we ordered at the restaurant had run out. It was fried rice or fried rice. We knew we had been there for 4 days because there were 4 empty beer bottles lined up along the wall in the restaurant. My partner drank one each night - and each night they were placed along the wall. Kanawa had some pretty good snorkelling though - which is how the place redeemed itself! Thank goodness we had plenty of reading material because there wasn't much else to do!

The rest of Flores was beautiful - I particularly enjoyed Moni. Not for any touristic reason, but just because of the nice experiences I had meeting the locals.

Sedalia Missouri, USA. Spent the day in jail. I've never went back.

About 40 years ago now. A friend and I were traveling through one night. Both drunk. We were awakened the next morning by the local Police Chief for sleeping in the parking lot of the Holliday Inn. When he asked me how I liked my stay at the local Inn , I told him the pillows suck and the mattress was hard. Needless to say he failed to see the humor in that. When he let us out that evening I told him that next time I would come straight to the jail as he had better mattress's. LOL He told us to never come back. So I thought it was better to take that advice.

There are actually a number of little industrial towns in central China that are the true fly-over provinces. For close to SE Asia - I'd say Manghai in Xishuanbanna is a good example of such.

Mac:

I do understand that. I felt the same way about Viet Nam. Now ... in a week and a half, actually ... I am going for the third time.

Poor Somalia, though. Such dysfunction and tragedy.

DLuek
I'll admit the beaches at Pattaya aren't all that - but it's got some good ***** bars and short time rates!

I would probably work with the Somali government, as I know people now who are members of same. They are looking for trainers for the Somali Army.

Indeed. The place is just a mess. A shame too, as I really like the Somalis. They have a long road ahead of them.

Dulles, JFK... I hate those two airports.

..... Gorakpur, India. Not really the town's fault, I didn't see much of it. But it came after crossing back from Nepal at Sonauli, having a traffic accident that our driver sped away from, taking a massive detour to avoid the main road and angry villagers and then a night in the grottiest room I've ever slept in - no window, blood stains on the walls and sheets, rampant cockroaches and a host of mosquitos. Couldn't wait to get on the train the next day and get out of Dodge!

Phuket.

Why are people down n Phuket? I can understand because it's a major tourist center it's not for everyone. But it still has some nice, out of the way, beaches, some good nightlife and quality restaraunts. I could understand it not being what you like SBE - but worst place you've ever been? Clearly you haven't been to Gode, Ethiopia.