6.5 Week Indonesia Trip. Flores + North and West Sumatra. June/July 2024

[Dale164]

My father and I spent 6.5 weeks in Indonesia in June/July 2024. We spent 14 days in Flores, 10 days in West Sumatra and 20 days and North Sumatra. I have written a few about the Flores section below. I will have some notes about Sumatra to follow:

PART 1 FLORES

My father and I visited Flores for the first time, for 14 days, in June 2024.
We each rented a motorbike for 12 days from Motor Adventure Bali in Labuan Bajo. We had a Honda CB150 and a Honda ADV160 motor scooter. We returned the bikes at their second office in Maumere. We arranged the motorbike rental before leaving home. Their prices are higher than local rentals, but the bikes are kept in good mechanical condition. The staff speak English and you can communicate easily by email. We had a good experience with this company.
They have many different bikes and prices, have a look at their website. All bikes come with a rear luggage rack.


We mainly stayed on the main highway, riding from Labuan Bajo to Larantuka in the far east. Its not really a highway as you may expect. It’s a windy country road in very good condition. Most vehicles travel no faster than 40-50km/hr. There are very few large trucks. There seems to be a lot of small Suzuki trucks carrying freight. It is a fairly safe, easy place to ride a motorcycle. It’s a lot easier if you have google maps on your phone.
My father and I ride a motorbike at home in Australia, and in other countries in Asia. We felt fairly comfortable riding in Flores.


We had fine grey ash falling on us over a distance of 20-30km riding between Maumere and Larantuka, from the nearby Lewatobi Volcano. We were fortunate that our flight from Maumere to Labuan Bajo was still running. That flight seems to be regularly cancelled at the present time due to ash from the volcano.


Flores is a special place. Everything moves more slowly than the frenetic pace in so much of Indonesia. We enjoyed riding our motorbike, great scenery, nice food and meeting and talking to local people every day.


I have made a list of the hotels we stayed in, restaurants and other random notes.
Apart from Labuan Bajo, we did not book any hotels in advance. We found a hotel when we arrived in each town from google maps.


Labuan Bajo
Komodo Lodge – 550,000 inc breakfast. Probably a little bit expensive. Nice room with balcony, Great view from rooftop terrace / breakfast area.
We had a very nice charcoal grilled snapper for dinner one night at the fish stalls at the northern end of town. Probably best to book hotel in advance in LBJ


Ruteng
Sky Flores Hotel – 325,000 inc breakfast. We arrived in the dark and ended up here after checking another place that was full. Basic room but clean and okay for a couple of nights. Nice view from the rooftop terrace / breakfast area.
Had a couple of nice meals at Kopi Mane café nearby.
Nice ride through the countryside / villages to visit the hobbit cave.


Bajawa
Hotel Edelweis 2 – 300,000 inc breakfast. Do not confuse with other similarly named Edelweis hotels. Not a hotel, more like a homestay. Two very friendly, polite young ladies, who speak good English, manage it for their family. Nice clean, sunny room, comfortable bed. Down a quiet lane away from the main road. Had a couple of evening meals at Milonari restaurant nearby.
Nice ride south of the city to visit traditional villages and countryside.


Ende
LCR Hotel – 425,000 inc breakfast. Nice modern hotel. Very clean and good A/C. The security guards were pretty active, don’t park here, don’t park there, park over here ha ha! Not many restaurants nearby. I believe the hotel can serve dinner. Ende is a gritty port town, but a sensible place to stop for the night.
Nice lunch and swim at Blue Stone Beach on the way to Ende.


Moni
Farila Lodge – 300,000 inc breakfast. A small guesthouse with two rooms, on the hill at the top of the village. Amazing view from the balcony. Very nice clean room, comfortable bed and hot shower. Very nice owner Pieter and his wife.
We had meals at Good Moni, Mopi’s Place and Moon Café.
When riding to Moni, stop at Detusoko village for a coffee overlooking the rice paddies. We liked Lepa Lio Café.
Nice visit to Kelimutu National Park, open 6am-12pm, 150,000 entry per person, nice walk (2km) to visit the coloured crater lakes.
Moni is a beautiful small town with cool weather.


Maumere
Pelita Hotel – 350,000 inc breakfast. On the eastern side of the city right on the waterfront. An older hotel but clean rooms, good A/C and good shower. Nice swimming pool also.

Go Hotel – 395,000 inc breakfast. Nice modern hotel, good shower and A/C. Nice swimming pool. Friendly staff. Free transport to airport. Not many restaurants nearby, but hotel restaurant had nice food.


Larantuka
ASA Hotel – 500,000 inc breakfast. Right on the waterfront/beach. Nice room, good shower and A/C. Nice swimming pool.
Resto Bu Ayu – 2km south of the hotel on main road. A very clean, small restaurant with A/C, good menu and fair prices.
Had a nice swim / snorkel one day at Roga Beach, 25km east of Larantuka, over the other side of the peninsula.


*Ruteng, Bajawa and Moni are higher elevation (~1000m), much cooler and hotels generally don’t have A/C, you really don’t need it.

 

[2wheels]

Welcome to Ride Asia Dale and thank you for a very informative report.

 

[2wheels]

And riding Tassie is excellent too!

 

[merantau]

Many thanks for a great report Dale. There's a Canadian rider who's been resident in Surabaya fir 23 years riding in Flores at the moment. Lewotobi is still erupting and he was riding through ash on the north coast road from Maumere to Larantuka. He has a YouTube channel called "Jekyll's Ride" with about 20 episodes up now. It's really well done and worth a look. He's heading to Timor.

Most of those venues you mentioned, apart from Milonari and Mopi's are unfamiliar to me so will definitely check them out on my next trip.

 

[Dale164]

PART 2 WEST SUMATRA

After our motorbike ride in Flores, we flew from Labuan Bajo to Jakarta with Garuda, stayed overnight near Jakarta Airport, then flew to Padang the following day with Citilink.
We travelled from Padang Airport to Bukittinggi (90km) with a car and driver, which cost 550,000 and took 2.5 hrs.
Bukittinggi is a sensible place to be based. It is a small city of 100,000 people at an elevation of 900m and cooler at around 22-25 degrees. There are a range of hotels, guesthouses and restaurants.

It is the third time I have been to West Sumatra. It is an area of great natural beauty, yet it seems to attract very few foreign tourists.

We rented a 125 and 155cc motor scooter for 8 days from our guesthouse in Bukittinggi.
We spent 3 nights in Lake Maninjau, 2 nights in Solok and 2 nights in Payakumbuh.

Lake Maninjau is a large crater lake about 40km ride east of Bukittinggi. You descend down 44 hairpin bends to reach the lakeshore. At the bottom of the hairpin bends is Maninjau town, the biggest settlement on the lake, where you find a small selection of hotels, guesthouses and restaurants. It is about 50km around the perimeter of the lake on a good quality paved road. It is a really relaxing half day ride around the lake passing by small villages, fish ponds, rice paddies, various crops such as coffee, cloves and cinnamon and many floating fish farm cages in the lake.
I have some friends who live at the southern end of the lake. They earn a meagre income from a small roadside restaurant, but supplement their income by also working on surf tour boats out of Padang.

We had a great ride of 110km from Lake Maninjau south to the small city of Solok. About 5km past the centre of Padang Panjang, you can turn right off the main road and follow a small road south through beautiful rice paddies and small villages until you reach the village of Malalo at northern end of Lake Singkarak, another large lake of similar size to Maninjau. It is really nice riding along the western shore of Lake Singkarak, past rice paddies, small villages, palm trees and mosques.

It was quite hot in Solok and we were glad to have A/C in our room. We had a great ride to the twin lakes of Lake Dibawah and Diatas, 45km south of Solok at an elevation of 1450m and much cooler. Solok is a vibrant small city that receives very few foreign tourists. The local people are literally falling off their motorbikes to wave and say hello.

We rode 110km north west from Solok to Payakumbuh, via Taluk. The first 95km was a good quality, windy road, passing rice paddies, vegetable fields, small towns and patches of thick jungle. The last 15km was a badly broken paved road with huge potholes and was very dusty. Payakumbuh feels bigger and busier than Solok, and everything moves faster, but also has less charm than Solok for some reason. We spent one day in the Harau Valley and also visited the Kelok Sembilan “Giant Figure Eight Bridge” on the highway.

Riding 45km from Payakumbuh back to Bukittinggi, we stopped to have our motorbikes washed at Cuci Motor 88 and while waiting had a haircut at Rofiano Barbershop 88 next door. 20,000 for a thorough motorbike wash and 20,000 for a haircut seems to be a common price in Indonesia.

A few notes about hotels and restaurants:

Bukittinggi
Orchid Hotel – 250,000. I have stayed three times at this old backpacker place that has probably been running for 50 years. The rooms are small and the bathrooms are a bit dirty but it is centrally located and is okay for a couple of nights. Hello Guesthouse is another budget place in the same street that is popular with foreigners.

Pical Ayang – My favourite restaurant in all of Indonesia and a 300m walk from the guesthouse. It is open from 6am-2pm. It is enormously popular with Indonesian people. The main dishes are Lontong Pical, Noodle Soup, Bubur Kampium (a delicious sweet dish of mung beans, coconut milk, glutinous rice balls and palm sugar) and Coffee. Everything on the menu costs around 10,000. You can have a great breakfast or lunch for 30,000.
The main street in Bukittinggi, a short walk from the guesthouse, has many food tents that set up each evening, selling fried rice, fried noodles, fried chicken and sate etc.

Lake Maninjau
Hotel Tan Dirih – 300,000 inc breakfast. More like a homestay with 4-5 rooms, in a great location right on the waterfront. Run by a friendly couple who speak English. They serve a nice banana pancake and Kopi Susu for breakfast each morning on the balcony overlooking the lake. The daytime temp was around 25 degrees and you did not need A/C in your room.
We had a couple of evening meals next door at Zalino Restaurant – for a treat try the sweet and sour wild crayfish from the lake.

Solok
Solok Premier Hotel – 450,000 inc breakfast. We checked a couple of cheaper places that were both a bit dodgy and felt this large modern hotel was a better option. Friendly English speaking staff and secure motorbike parking at the rear.
We had a couple of nice evening meals at Este Corner Café. The owner Mr Putra speaks English and is a friendly guy.

Payakumbuh
Annisa Hotel – 450,000 inc breakfast. A modern small hotel on a busy main road in the centre of the city. Staff speak very little English, but can communicate with translate app.
We had one nice evening meal at Petto Resto and Café. There are many small restaurants along the main road.

Jakarta Airport
Zest Airport Hotel – 450-500,000 inc breakfast. I have stayed here a few times over the years. A reliable budget option if you need to stay overnight near the airport in between flights. Clean room and good A/C. Several budget restaurants and warungs nearby.
They have a free shuttle bus to the airport every hour. I have never worked out how to catch the shuttle from the airport, so I catch a bluebird taxi that costs around 55,000.
Bluebird seems to be the only taxi company at the airport that is honest doesn’t try to rip you off.