Bus, Bus, Bus

Up at 5:45, packed, went down to reception, paid for my room and caught the bus at 6:15. No time for breakfast.

Flores is very mountainous, the road is very snake-like.

As we went along, we picked up more passengers, and a guy sitting up front invited me to sit up with him, he spoke decent english, and wanted to practise. He told me I could catch a shuttle from Bajawa to Moni, without having to stop in Ende, which will save me some travelling time. I'm the only tourist on the bus, again.

Bus made a toilet stop in a town, and I bought a bunch of bananas for breakfast through the window of the bus for only 1000 rupiah.

We got to Ruteng about 10:45.

Stopped at some restaurant in another small town for lunch about 12:20.

My friend got off at his village before Ende about 3:00PM, and we got to Bajawa shortly after 4:00. Driver asked me which hotel, I told him Hotel Korina, but he dropped me off at a different hotel. I checked it out, 100,000 for a single, but they told me they'd give it to me for 75,000, I bargained down to 60,000. Still a lot ($10CDN), but it's just one night, and it's a nice hotel. Hotel Bintang Wirata is the name.

Booked a bus to Moni for tomorrow morning, 40,000 rupiah. It picks me up at 6:15.

I went for supper at a restaurant, then back to the hotel and asked the staff about an ATM and internet. The pointed me to the ATM, but told me the internet close at 5:00. Went to the ATM, my bank card didn't work in it, as the ATM only supports the Cirrus/Mastercard network, so walked around for a bit, through the bustling night market, then back to the hotel, got my Mastercard and withdrew money from it just fine.

It's been three days with no internet, my mom will think I'm dead!!!

Back to the hotel, read, listened to music (my MP3 player is working fine) and to bed about 9:00.