Friday October 18

Boys at the Market

Tobacco vendor at Market

            We left at 8:30 AM to take a public 12 seat minibus to Ruteng, a small town described as charmless in the Lonely Planet guidebook but also as being set in lovely surroundings. The trip was 3 ½ hours long over several mountain  passes with many hairpin turns. The scenery was amazing but, of course, we could not stop for pictures. We had not been able to reach any hotels by phone to prebook but the bus company said no problem, the driver will bring us to hotels until we found a room. The bus stopped first at a hotel for us and we took a room as we did not want to make the other 9 passengers drive all over while we selected a hotel. BIG MISTAKE! The rooms were cheap but awful – no shower, no hot water, mouldy walls, no toilet paper. An old red blanket took the place of a top sheet.  We were dismayed by our choice of room but also by the lack of places to visit. We did take a motorcycle ride to a village that had a few traditional thatched houses. Barb really enjoyed being on a bike, as did Tim of course, but I was less enthused.

Joan with children

                                                                                                                     

 We decided that the next day, we would return to Labuan Bajo. Even though we were not happy with being in Ruteng, the people were as friendly as ever-so many hellos and smiles.  It warmed our teacher’s hearts that a few of them really wanted to try to converse

in English.