Flores to Bali, Surface Travel (not to be recommended)

We arrive in Flores' Labuan Bajo at dusk and set off to find somewhere to stay. It's a scruffy but characterful little port town, all fishy smells and bumpy roads, but lots of smiley faces. But a distinct lack of places to stay. We stay at the Hotel Gardena, in a clean bamboo family room, for $20 per night. Exhausted, we eat at their restaurant where the kids get very over excited about spaghetti and rosti (oh the little things). Chewie and Katie are going on a dive trip tomorrow. Apparently some of the best in the world. We ask the dive master if we can join the trip as snorkellers and he says of course, they are great snorkel sites too. Unfortunately, this means a 7am start. We needn't have worried about oversleeping though as the call to prayer starts at 4.30am!

I'm not going to bore you with the whole day trip but suffice to say that this was a really different experience for us. These sites are much further from the coast, just off the north of Komodo. The first drop at Crystal rock, we saw a 2 metre white tip shark that just cruised about for 5 or 10 minutes underneath us. The reef is very deep but lots to see for snorkellers too. The second drop was at Castle Rock. Another deep site and this time the reef was a good 10 metres below. We saw a couple of baby white tips but the cross currents were strong, so after a 20 minute hard swim, we gave up and let the current sweep us back to the boat. After a wonderful lunch, we snorkelled about in the bay. Chewie and I tried to follow a green turtle, much more timid than their hawksbill cousins. Lee borrowed the dive masters depth watch and practised his free diving. We reckon he's down to 18 metres now. Next stop was a strong drift dive between two islands. Really excellent marine life and good coral away from the shore. I saw a huge feather tailed blue spotted sting ray and stunning shoals of bright purple and red fish (I've forgotten the name just now). In the main drift, we swam along side giant trevellis, bigger than Tevo and Roisin, which was amazing.

We were all so tired that night. But managed to stay up for a drink with Martin and Laura, and Chewie and Katie. We gave M & L our Malarone treatment doses for malaria, as they are off to Cambodia and Laos. We have decided to head back to Bali with Chewie and Katie on the overland trip. All the seats are booked up for a week or so from here back to Denpensar. I am getting weaker and weaker, and the prospect of travelling overland further east to visit the volcano lakes at Kelimantan, is just too overwhelming. The roads are rough here and it takes two days to reach Moni, the nearest town. I'm just not strong enough to make the journey. Although the prospect of this return overland journey is a bit scary. Starting at 8am, we leave on ferry, 7 hrs to Sumbawa, then a 2 hr bemo ride to a big air con bus, then 12 hours to the west port. Another ferry, 2 hrs, to Lombok. Then 3 hrs across Lombok, then another ferry, 4-5 hrs to Bali's Padangbai, then another 2 hrs to Denpensar. Against my better judgement, I decide I have no choice but to take loperimide, a stopper. My gut pays me back ten fold some time later but at least it means I didn't poop all over the bus!

The actual journey took 37 hours. It was mostly ok aside from the horrible people on the Sumbawan bemo leg. Wherever we go in Asia, locals always make room for the children on buses. The only exception in our experience, was in Tamil Nadu in India. We can now add Sumbawa to the list. They made fun of us when Roisin was upset (charming) and even suggested that they sit on the roof! Not one person would look me in the eye when I begged them to make room, and the two german tourists were just as bad. Lee, Chewie and Katie went on the roof. I perched on a wooden block in the aisle and the kids finally squeezed into two seats that came free. When we reached the air con coach, we grabbed our numbered seats and when someone tried to move Tevo, Lee finally lost his temper and swore at them. Once they realised we weren't to be messed with, they left us alone.

We left Katie and Chewie in Mataram, Lombok where they were meant to get picked up to go to north Bali. When we didn't see them on the boat, we suspected they'd been left in the lurch. We reached Kuta at about 9pm, and after calling round over 20 hotels and guesthouses, we found one place that had one room for one night only. Gorgeous room though. Poppies Cottages are totally lush and Lee even nipped out for curry take away as a treat.

We had breakfast in bed and the hotel let the kids hang out by the pool while I went in search of a room. After 2 hours, I found us rooms at Puri Tanah Lot near Legian. Fairly clean and recently refurbished, so we stay for 2 nights. I spend most of this time at the local hospital as I need to get checked out before I travel home. It's not a good situation to be in. They want to admit me as I am badly dehydrated, anaemic and my spleen is enlarged (but they don't know why). I have an inflamed gut, maybe gastritis or ulcerative colitis after all the infections. I spend the day on a saline drip while they do lots of tests. I need an endoscopy but all I want to do is get home. Bloody insurance company want me to get treated here. They would rather I have $1500 diagnostics here than pay £400 for us to change our flights. Idiots that they are! So we manage to get one last night of luxury at Poppies Cottages before we fly to Kl tomorrow. I'll pay for it myself and then kick their arses when I get home.