The entrance to the town is deceptively picturesque, like something out of a Hemingway story.
This road goes more or less straight but then makes a hard left. Everything I needed as a tourist was on the far end of town so from my room it took about 30 minutes to get to anything. I don't mind walking, but the walk was pretty unpleasant.
Once around the corner the town becomes a dirty, dull and lifeless. Red and white are the colors of the Indonesian flag, and the only real colors in this photo.
There are a few tourist restaurants, dive shops and travel agents, but mostly it's just a series of non-descript shops. The owner of my hotel and my friend in Labuan Bajo both used the crappy celphone reception as an excuse as to why they weren't easier to reach.I tried to make calls that didn't go through, but I was able to talk to a travel agent a half-dozen times on the phone. That the locals insist it's impossible to make a celphone call there is hilarious considering that every fourth shop in town sells phones or SIM cards.
I've traveled for months in Southeast Asia, but on the mainland. The people on Flores are not ethnically related to the people in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. They are Muslim or Catholic, not Buddhist. Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised at how different it was.
The Southeast Asians I'd encountered until then were unfailingly friendly, even those who work in the sun for 16 hours a day and live in abject poverty. Here the people ignored me or simply stared at me as I walked by. I rarely got any response if I said hello in Indonesian or English.
I had recently been in Cambodia, where the people are incredibly industrious, and Vietnam, where the work ethic is positively maniacal. It was a shock, then, to see so many people sitting around doing nothing. I would have expected all the menfolk to be out on the water fishing, but there were large groups of teenage boys loitering in front of storefronts.
It reminded me of some of the rough neighborhoods in Baltimore. It also called to mind some of the bleak, dusty whistle stops on the chicken bus routes in Central America. There local buses go through one-road towns which aren't destinations, but rather places you pass through on the way to someplace else. Labuan Bajo has that "stop on the way" feel even though it is a major tourist destination. Very strange.
If I had to compare to anywhere it would be Livingston, Guatemala, which is one of the worst places I've ever visited. That's another tourist gateway populated by indolent youths. There was the same vague sense of menace in the air. In Livingston I wouldn't leave my hotel at night because I didn't feel safe.
I spent months in Southeast Asia and I never, literally never, felt scared. I was scared walking through the dark streets of Labuan Bajo at night. I'd pass groups of boys drinking beer who would yell at me in the local language. I don't know what they were saying but I would just laugh as if I was in on the joke and keep moving.
The young boys who don't simply stand around staring at tourists all day drive or ride shotgun on bemos. Labuan Bajo has one circular one-way road. Bemos are taxis that ride around the circle. They're mini-vans that have been modified in the most ridiculous ways.
I needed to get to the one ATM in town, which of course is at the furthest corner from my room. I hopped in a bemo, told them where I needed to go. I always ask locals what to pay for taxi rides so I knew it would be 5,000 rupiahs, or about 50 cents. I asked the guy how much it would cost. He said 5,000. No problem so far. As I got out I handed him a 50,000 note. He handed me a wad of change. I hopped out. As he pulled away I looked at the money. He gave me 5,000 in change. I paid nine times what I should have.As a tourist I'm accustomed to paying more than locals. I know when I go to the market I will pay more than I probably should. But I'd never had anyone in Southeast Asia just blatantly rob me until then.
On that first afternoon, after visiting all the travel agents and airline offices and discovering that it was going to be difficult and expensive to get back, I decided I needed to decompress a little. I'd find a restaurant on the water, have some food and a beer and watch the sun go down.
The view was great.
The waitress was a young girl, very sweet. I ordered one dish. She came back and said "So sorry. Finish." I picked again. She came back again. "So sorry. Finish." And again. It was about 5 p.m., I was sitting at a restaurant on the water in sight of dozens of fishing boats, and yet they were out of seafood! I went down the menu line by line until we came to a dish they actually had.Tuna in Indonesian sauce with chips (fries). Sure. I love tuna.
It was perhaps the worst meal I've ever had, and I promise I am not exaggerating to make a point. I don't know what Indonesian sauce is supposed to be. I think it was inspired somehow by the nation's islands and beaches because it was the color and consistency of wet sand. But when I tasted it -- actually, it tasted like wet sand, too.
Knowing that people would think I was being unfairly harsh, I took a picture. Consider yourself warned. It's not pretty.
I tried to pick the fish out of the wet sand. See the bones on the top left? It's not even tuna! The one thing they said they had they didn't. I was famished when I walked in but I could not gag this down. I have eaten bugs, bird's nests and congealed pig blood, but I could not eat this fish.
Two nights later, having not learned my lesson, I ordered a tuna dish at another restaurant. It was supposed to be a tuna filet and vegetables on a sizzling skillet. What it was was a few chunks of fish, probably not tuna, swimming in oil with a couple slices of onion and jalapeno.
I traveled for nearly one year in 15 countries on four continents. I did not limit my eating at all. I tried anything I wanted. I didn't get sick once until I got to Labuan Bajo. It took three weeks for my system to recover from the oily fish chunks. I a cache of antibiotics I had carried for over a year and never needed is now gone.
If you go to Labuan Bajo, don't eat the fish!
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