English version:
Knock knock…Back to business again. I am not done yet with the story 🙂 Only particular sections of the trip finish regularly. Those little endings make me sad, because normally I don’t want to leave any of these wonderful places. Except for one place so far…
But leaving a place also makes me happy and excited too in the meantime because I know a new place is coming, with new people, new friends, new sunsets, new beach dogs to feed 🙂 and other amazing stuff.
From Gili Meno we headed back to Denpasar, what became the main travel hub of the roliegoes trail. After Gili Meno I spent a few lazy days in an awesome homestay in Denpasar, 2 km from to the airport. It was called Airport Deluxe – Fruit Haven and run by a very adorable couple: Vita the Javanese girl and her husband Isaac from Czech Republic. I had a great time there. As usual we cooked Hungarian food together, but they also served me very tasty Czech and Indonesian meals. Airport Deluxe is in Kuta, so I got the chance to discover this part of Bali too. There are nice hotels with sky bars, a plenty of restaurants and beaches. I checked out one beach called the Dreamland Beach which looked pretty nice with big waves and beautiful golden sand however it was full of mainstream tourists and the locals were quite jerks. But Overall, I enjoyed my stay in Kuta thanks to my kind hosts and the nice vibrating atmosphere of South Denpasar.
During my stay here I had couple of days also to sort out my visa extension to an additional 30 days period. I did this in the North of Bali, in Singharaja. Normally you don’t need to go to Singharaja for that, but I started the process back in Amed which was right next to Singharaja. The visa extension is a very simple process. I paid 600k rupies and I had to leave my passport with an immigration agent for a week.
The next day right after my visit on Dreamland Beach my travel buddy – Flori – arrived back from Europe and we took a short domestic flight to Bima on Sumbawa island. The reason I planned Sumbawa in, was an impressive volcano, the Tambora. As a preparation, I hooked up with the guys at visittambora.com to agree on the price of the hike and the logistics. If I am not mistaken, the total amount was around $220. Included 1 night in the guest house with meals, 2 days hike with meals and the pickup from Bima airport and our drop off to Sape harbour. The guys running visittambora.com are super nice and awesome hosts, however the trip itself was quite challenging. This was the only part of my trip what I mentioned in the beginning of this post that I was so more than happy to leave.
Some details about the mountain. Mount Tambora is an active volcano with a 2,600m metres height. Prior its last eruption back in 1815 its highest point was on 4,300 metres. The brutal explosion immediately shaved its size down by 1700m.
Tambora is a real beast among volcanos. Its eruption was the biggest one in recorded history. The sound of the explosion could be heard in Sumatra island which is about 2,000 km away. The eruption immediately killed 12,000 people, but the total number of deaths exceeded 72,000. I didn’t know much about volcanos before I visited Tambora so here I learned that there are different kind of eruptions: some volcanos produce slow lava flows like the one in Hawaii and there are the Tambora-types which cause 200 km/h fast 1000 Celsius degree hot gas winds blasting out from the volcano and burning everything to the ground within a large distance radius. Similar disaster happened in Pompei before. The Tambora erupted in the middle of the night which unfortunately multiplied the number of deaths in the area.
I signed up for the 2 days hike alongside a German couple. This way 4 guests and 4 porters went together. The porters carried our tents, the food and the water. The hike was bitch through the jungle on very rough terrain. The first day was ok, because we only walked 5 hours until the porters had set up our tents. The next day though was hardcore. We woke up at 1am and after breakfast we started our ascent to the summit. It took 5 hours in pitch black with head torches to walk on the very dangerous path through the jungle, up to the top of the volcano. 90% of the hike up was in the rainforest where we faced gigantic nettles, almost vertical climbs up and down and roots everywhere. Never seen such huge leaves on a nettle before.
And 10% of the trip – at the end – was on volcanic ground, sometimes in ankle-deep volcanic sand. This last part felt like walking in the Land of Mordor where the shadows lie. It was a tough one to go up but we made it 🙂
The wind at the summit was very strong and the temperature very cold, so after taking a few pictures and videos from the summit, we started our journey back to the guest house. Not to the tents which were in 5 hours distance, but to the guest house! It took 9 hours to get down, so that day was a 14 hours very dangerous, very tiring and painful hike. Despite the pair of Salomon Speedcross 4 on my feet, my toes hurt big time.
Never ever again!
And we even chose the short hike, because the long one gets you down to the caldera. Hahaha!!! In that hike you have to climb down to the bottom of the caldera which is 1km down from the summit. It takes a day to get down and a day to get back up and then, you can start your 9 hours walk down to the guesthouse 🙂
Never say never. Of course I would do it anytime again for £1 billion.
So I would say if you like running ultra-marathons or hardcore hikes, visit Tambora, but if not just find another volcano or watch it on TV 🙂
Once we arrived back to the guest house, I got a shower and a meal; than took a 3 hours car ride to Sape.
Sape is a harbour village on the East side of Sumbawa. We slept there in a rather forgettable hotel which was supposed to be the best in town and the next morning I wanted to jump on the ferry to Labuan Bajo. First, I was told the ferry departs at 8:00am but in the morning I got the news that the departure time is 3pm. This way we had time to discover Sape which is a quite horrible place. Proper wild west. Some of the locals were nice, they took photos with us but some were not really nice folks. In our hotel even the breakfast was a nightmare. The guy brought us a toast with creamy durian on it 🙂 Durian is the fruit which smells like a long time dead animal.
As I can recall the 3pm departure eventually got pushed to 6pm. We travelled with a few tourists and a lot of locals for 5 hours until Labuan Bajo. The journey was funny, it reminded me of my train trip in Burma from Pyyn Oo Lwin to Hsipaw in December. The locals had a great time here too, some were smoking cigarettes in the cabin, some were sleeping, some were selling their goods.
Eventually after a few rough days and nights in Sumbawa, we finally arrived in Labuan Bajo on Flores island to see the Komodo Dragons…
Magyar verzio:
Kopp kopp. Ujra az eterben. Meg nem vegeztem a tortenet elmeselesevel 🙂 Csak az ut bizonyos szakaszai vegzodnek rendszeresen. Ezek a kis bucsuk elszomoritanak, mert altalaban nem akarom otthagyni ezeket a csodalatos helyeket. Egy kivetelevel… Tovabballni egy helyrol ugyanakkor orommel is tolt el, mert tudom, hogy uj latnivalok jonnek, uj emberekkel, uj baratokkal, uj naplementekkel, uj strand-kutyakkal amiket halalra kell etetni 🙂 es hasonlo josagok.
Gili Meno szigeterol visszatertem Denpasarba, Balira. Denpasar utazasom legfontosabb csomopontjaval valt. Gili Meno utan nehany kellemes es lusta napot toltottem Denpasarban a repter kozeleben, ahol atmeneti lakohelyem az Airport Deluxe – Fruit Haven homestay volt, ami egy nagyon jofej hazaspar tulajdonaban van. Vita javai Indonez, ferje pedig Csehorszagbol erkezett nehany evvel ezelott. Kiraly volt naluk megszallni. Termeszetesen foztunk magyar kajat egyutt, de kaptam indonez es cseh eteleket is. Airport Deluxe Denpasar Kuta nevu keruleteben van, igy ezt a reszt is sikerult felderitenem egy kicsit. Vannak itt kellemes hotelek sky barokkal, sok etterem es jo par strand. A strandok kozul a Dreamland Beach-et valasztottam, ami nagyon jol nezett ki, bazinagy hullamokkal es gyonyoru sarga homokkal. Sajnos Kuta az egyik legnepszerubb turistacelpont Balin, igy ez a strand tele volt mainstream turistakkal, es a helyiek is eleg gazok. Osszessegeben azonban teljsen jo volt a kutai hetem. Elveztem a kerulet vibralasat es Vitaeknal toltott idot.
Amig itt voltam, elinteztem a 30 napos vizumhosszabbitasomat is, amihez felmentem Singharajaba. Amugy nem kellene felmenned olyan messzire erte, de en Amedben inditottam a folyamatot, amihez Singaraja kozelebb volt. Az ugyintezes egyszeru volt, fizettem 600e rupiat es ott kellett hagynom az utlevelem 1 hetre egy bevandorlasi ugynoknel.
A Dreamland Beach-es nap masnapjan Flori – utitarsam – visszatert Europabol es felpattantunk egy rovid belfoldi jaratra Bimara, Sumbawa szigetere. Sumbawa egy igeretes vulkan, a Tambora miatt kerult be az utitervembe. A vulkantura elokeszitese miatt korabban felvettem a kapcsolatot a visittambora.com-os sracokkal es megegyeztunk az arrol es a feltetelekrol. Ha jol emlekszem $220 koruli rupia volt a vegleges ar. Ebben benne volt 1 ejszaka a vendeghazban kajaval, 2 napos vulkan-tura szinten ellatassal plusz eljottek ertem a bimai repterre es a tura utan elvittek Sape-ba. A visittambora.com tulaja es felesege nagyon jo arcok es jo vendeglatok, bar a tura brutal kemenyre sikerult. Ez az egyetlen resze a roliegoes expedicionak, amit alig vartam hogy magam mogott hagyjak.
Nehany adat a heggyel kapcsolatban. A Tambora-hegy egy 2,600 m magas aktiv vulkan. A legutolso kitoreset megelozoen – ami 1815-ben tortent – a legmagasabb pontja 4,300 meteren volt. A robbanas miatt kicsit osszezuhant a hegyecske.
Tambora egy igazi vaddiszno a vulkanok kozott. Kitorese az irott tortenelem legpusztitobbja. A robbanas hangjat a 2,000 km-re levo Szumatra szigeten is lehetett hallanni. A kitores azonnal megolt 12,000 embert, de a halottak vegleges szama rovidesen meghaladta a 72,000-et. A tamborai tura elott nem sokat tudtam a vulkanokrol. Itt tudtam meg, hogy leteznek kulonbozo tipusu kitoresek. Van vulkan, ami lassu lavafolyamot indit lefele a hegyrol es van a Tambora-fele brutal verzio ami 200 km/h 1000 celsius fok forrosagu szelet indit hatalmas sugaru korben a hegy korul. Hasonlo szitu volt Pompeiben is. A Tambora ejszaka tort ki, ami tovabb fokozta a halottak szamat a regioban.
A 2 napos turara iratkoztam fel, ahova egy nemet par is velem tartott. Igy 4 vendeg es 4 porter srac indult utnak. A porterek cipeltek a satrakat es az ellatmanyt. A tura oriasi nagy szivas volt a dzsungelen at vegig nagyon durva terepen. Az elso nap meg ok volt, amikor csak 5 orat gyalogoltunk mielott felallitottak a satrainkat. A kovetkezo nap volt az igazi hardcore. Hajnali 1kor keltunk es reggeli utan megindult a csucstamadas. Ez 5 oran keresztul tartott es majdnem vegig szuroksotetben, fejlampakkal vilagitva a veszelyes csapason. Ennek a szakasznak a 90% az esoerdon at haladt, ahol folyamatos kellemetlensegek leselkedtek rank, ugy mint baszott nagy csalanlevelek, majdnem fuggoleges le es felmaszasok a patak medrekben es gyokerek (latin neven Meszaroslorincek) mindenutt. Soha nem lattam meg ekkora leveleket egy csalanon azelott.
Az ut utolso 10%-a pedig vulkanikus talajon folytatodott, helyenkent bokaig suppedve a vulkanikus homokban. Ez a befejezo szakasz olyan volt, mint ha Mordor ejfekete foldjen, suru arnyak mezejen lofraltunk volna. Brutal kemeny volt, de felertunk 🙂
Fent a csucson nagyon eros es jeges szel fogadott minket, ezert nehany kep es video keszitese utan megkezdtuk utunkat lefele a vendeghazhoz. Nem a satrakhoz, a vendeghazhoz! 9 oraba telt lejutni, igy aznap 14 orat gyalogoltunk durva terepen. Veszelyes, faraszto es fajdalmas 14 ora volt ez. A Salomon Speedcross 4 ellenere a labaim kivoltak, a labujjaimon pedig meg mindig ott figyelnek a veralafutasok.
Soha tobbe!
Es en meg a rovid turara iratkoztam fel. A hosszu verzio levisz a kraterbe. Hahaha!!! Ott szepen lemaszol, ami kb 1 km es 1 napig tart lejutni. Ott toltesz nehany ejszakat aztan 1 nap vissza fel es onnan mar csak 9 orat kell gyalogolnod vissza a vendeghazig 🙂
Soha nem mondd, h soha. Siman megcsinalom ujra 1 milliard angol fonttert.
Szoval azt mondom, ha szereted az ultra-maratonokat vagy a hardcore turakat, akkor gyere el a Tamborahoz, ha viszont nem akkor keress egy masik vulkant vagy nezd meg a TV-ben 🙂
Ahogy visszaerkeztunk a vendeghazba, egy zuhany es egy ebed utan autoba pattantunk es 3 ora alatt Sapeba ertem.
Sape egy kikoto-falu Sumbawa keleti oldalan. Egy felejtheto hotelban toltottuk az ejszakat ami elvileg a legjobb volt a varosban, majd reggel fel akartam ulni a Labuan Bajoba tarto kompra. Eloszor ugy ertesultem, hogy a hajo 8-kor indul aztan aznap reggel kaptam a hirt, hogy delutan 3-kor. Igy volt idonk korulnezni Sapeben, ami egy eleg borzadaly hely. Igazi vad nyugat. Nehany helyi jo arc volt, akik kepeket csinaltak velunk, de a tobbseg gaz volt. A hotelben meg a reggeli is egy remalom volt. Duriankremes toast 🙂 A durian az a gyumolcs, aminek napok ota doglott allat szaga van.
Ha jol emlekszem a 3 oras indulas vegul 6 orara tolodott. Nehany turistaval es tobb helyivel utaztunk 5 oran at az ejszakaban, mire elertuk Labuan Bajot. Ez az ut a burmai vonatutamra emlekeztetett, amikor Pyyn Oo Lwin-bol utaztam Hsipaw-ba. A helyiek nagyon jol ereztek magukat, nehanyan a nagy kozos kabinban dohanyoztak, nehanyan aludtak, nehany arultak valamit.
Vegul nehany nap sumbawa-i szivas utan megerkeztunk Flores szigetere, hogy talalkozzunk a komodoi sarkanyokkal…
Roliegoes.com 