Riung to Gili Islands

We stopped at a small fishing town on the island of Flores called Riung. Many of the houses were built right next to the water on stilts and at high tide, the water would lap at the bamboo poles that supported their home. We anchored amongst the fishing boats and watched the fisherman repair their nets during the day then leave at dusk to fish during the night.
Next, we spent a couple days at Labuan Bajo on the west end of Flores which is the first place we have visited that caters to tourists and therefore has lots of restaurants. A typical meal costs about 20,000 Rupia which is about $2.50 Canadian. Throw in a Bintang (Indonesian Beer) and the two of us had a delicious meal for less than $10.00. We could tell how precious meat was by how small the servings were. A meal would have lots of noodles or rice but a piece of chicken would be 3 - 4 ounces at most.
After our fill of good food, we headed off to Rinca Island in Komodo National Park. This is the one place in the world where Komodo Dragons exist. The dragons are actually huge monitor lizards (up to 9 feet long) which are believed to have inspired the mythical Chinese dragon thousands of years ago. We had to hire a park ranger to walk the island with us because the dragons can be quite vicious when threatened and a couple of tourists were attacked in the past. The island was also home to many animals that the lizards feed on including deer, wild boars, macaques (monkeys) and water buffalo.
Our next stop was the Gili Islands off the north west coast of Lombok. These three islands have white sandy beaches and clear blue water teeming with colorful fish. The islands are very popular with scuba divers, snorkelers and surfers. There are no roads on the island, only one cobblestone path through the middle and an elaborate network of foot paths. The only means of transportation was bicycle or cidomo (horse-drawn wagon) or by foot.
All the restaurants along the beach had pavilions made of bamboo raised above the sand where we would eat at a short table in the shade of the thatch roof. The Lonely Planet travel book mentioned how slow the service was and we found out why. The first restaurant we visited made it all clear to us. First of all, we woke up the two staff who were sleeping on a mat behind the counter (at 11:30 am) when we arrived. Then, one girl went off to get water which she returned with in a bowl on her head. Next thing we knew, an older woman arrived on a bicycle and delivered a few vegetables which she had in her basket. Then the other girl left on a bike and returned with a very small bag of what we decided was chicken. Then the girl who had brought the water left and returned with a package of noodles. Once our food was served, which was delicious, the older woman lied back down on the mat behind the counter and went to sleep. I don’t blame her, cooking in this heat is exhausting.