Sumbawa & Moyo Island

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SUMBAWA & MOYO ISLAND

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11th - 13th April 2019

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11/04/19 - Day 13

We arrived in Sumbawa after a very interesting ferry journey. We had people selling all sorts of things from children’s toys to rice that had been out in the sun for god knows how long, as well as people randomly singing... a rather hectic start to the journey haha!

But after a 2 hour ferry journey where we all ended up back in the bus where there was air conditioning (haha) and another 2 hour bus ride, we arrived at our hotel in Sumbawa.

I absolutely loved the hotel! It was so rustic and quirky, sitting right on the beach where there were monkeys walking around!

Due to the long day of travelling, the rest of the evening we chilled and enjoyed swimming in the sea before a busy day off to Moyo Island the next day!

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12/04/19 - Day 14

Moyo Island day, woo! This was such a fun day!

We caught a very loud, very basic boat for a 2 1/2 hour journey from Sumbawa to Moyo Island. The whole time the boat vibrated which is not very therapeutic I will say! We had some great weather though and the water was unbelievably still so we were lucky the boat wasn’t rocky which would top it all off!

Some people were a little bit sleepy and had a nap on the boat (not sure how with all the vibrating)...

When we arrived to Moyo Island, we discovered we would be on the back of motorbikes in order to get to the waterfalls we would be seeing. So we hopped on the back of bikes driven by some particularly young men, and began our journey. There was one guy who literally looked 10 years old, and everyone was avoiding going on the back of his motorbike because he looked too young to be driving it, haha. But apparently they begin riding them at 7 years old which is crazy for us to think about!

The track to the first waterfall on the bikes was barely a track at all. It had tree roots sticking up everywhere, deep mud, broken slabs of concrete at weird angles, stones everywhere... basically a deathtrap! However, they somehow managed to navigate their way through, not smoothly I will add, it was a very, very bumpy ride. Especially if you’ve only got the back of the bike to hold onto! I think my hands actually went numb due to holding onto the motorbike so tightly! As you can see from the photo above, I was also well protected with my cycling helmet, haha!

But when we made it to the waterfall, Mata Jitu Waterfall, it was well worth it! It was honestly one of the most beautiful things I have seen in my entire life...

Almost too beautiful to be true! Apparently there may have been the parasite that goes up your urethra into your bladder if you wee in the water... safe to say I wasn’t taking any chances so made 100% sure I didn’t! Couldn’t miss the opportunity to swim in such a beautiful piece of water though! We had a lot of fun climbing up rocks, swimming and taking photos...

After we enjoyed as much of the waterfall as we could, we headed back on the bikes for lunch and then straight out to another waterfall called Dwai Mbai waterfall. Luckily the second bike ride was much less rough and about half the time of the first!

This waterfall was really cool as we got to watch all the locals swing and jump off into the water. Some let go really late swinging back towards the rocks, I think they did it on purpose to panic us all, haha!

What a cool day!

On the way back at a nearby restaurant at the port, we found the cutest kitten called Mango. Needless to say I had to give it a little cuddle (don’t worry I looked out for fleas and to make sure it wouldn’t bite me - it was owned by a French man that owned the quirky seafront restaurant where we had eaten lunch).

After the 2 hour boat ride back to Sumbawa, we chilled out on the beach and enjoyed our final night on land before the next excitement of the liveaboard boat! The hotel in Sumbawa also had some interesting sculptures!

And introducing my favourite food of all time in Indonesia.... banana fritters with honey....

Yum yum yum yum yum!

We really enjoyed our few nights in Sumbawa, especially going over to Moyo Island which is one of the highlights of the trip so far! The waterfalls honestly blew me away!

Next stop: Liveaboard boat to Komodo

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- A