After another busy year, it's time to leave for my annual trip to Asia, which starts to become an habit. This year destination is Indonesia, the only uncertainty is due to the volcano that is active in Bali where I am supposed to land. Apparently, it's quiet at the time of departure, finger crossed, hope it will last. Anyway I was not planning on staying in Bali, I was just hopping that air traffic wouldn't be disturbed. After a quiet flight, I landed in Bali and I crashed in Seminyak for one night, I took my margin because of the volcanic activity. I spent a quiet evening to recover from the flight and then the next day, I was flying to Labuan Bajo in Flores. This was the starting point for most of liveaboard to Komodo National Park but I was only leaving a few days later. I allowed myself a day in this small coastal town, it was hot and humid but the atmosphere was nice. I visited Uber Scuba to drop my dive bag and be able to travel light to Bajawa inland flores.
The next day i had a big bus day, after a little organisationnal drawback at the start of the day I was on a later bus, nothing serious. The day was long, the road was winding but the scenary was nice. Small stop in the middle of the day to have lunch and then 4 more hours to Bajawa.
I arrived in Bajawa, headed for the Bajawa Roo Guesthouse, I meet the owner who used to live a year in Adelaide and was working for an Australian NGO that was funding local schools. He offered me to join him to visit a school near the rice fields the next day and show me around for scenary and traditional villages, excellent idea. The next day we leaft for the bespoked school, we arrived at the time of village's council to which he had to participate. I went for a walk in the rice fields during their council. Then we went to see the school, the children wanted to shake my hand, then we went to visit traditional villages with some photo stops on the way. We enjoyed a local Arak tasting at one his friend place in front of the traditional bamboo distillation plant. It was pretty strong but overall tasty. We kept on visiting several traditional villages including a last one who invited us to the village celewbration in honor of the refection went of a traditional house for the next day. We went back to Bajawa and headed into town to have a bite in the evening. The next day was the village celebration, I was considered an honored guest apparently. I was the only westerner but not many could speak English unfortunately. I had brought soccer balls for the kids and after a natural shy reaction they start playing with it. It's nice a lot of people wanted to talk to me but they only spoke a few words of english. Then I showed my mobile pictures from back home to the children, they all gathered around me. The day was long because I wasn't speaking the local language but the experience was very nice.
The next day I took a taxi to the airport which was about 45 minutes drive and after a small flight of 30 minutes I was back in Bajo. The only problem was that I had started to be a little sick since 2 days and then it was getting worse. I went for a massage but I was burning with fever and the masseuse also noticed.
I went to Uber scuba to ask them if it's worth seeing a doc, they advised me to stock up on panadol and ibuprofen at the pharmacy rather than loose my time with the local doc. I followed their advice and I took massive doses to try to kill the virus. After a long night of sleep I woke up feeling better but very tired. The fever had been falling during the night, it should work out for a dive at least, or so I was hopping. I arrived at the appointment and they asked me how I was feeling, I told them much better and enquired if I could dive with the medics. They confirmed I could, providing I was handling well that kind of medication and that I would keep well hydrated.
Let's try it, we'll see.
Finally, I even managed to dive the 3, even the night one. We got to know each other on the boat and the athmosphere was very good. There was Ross, an English guy who was living in Bali, Paige an Australian doing a sabbatical, Marely and Camilo a Colombian-Mexican couple living in Amsterdam and Anna a slightly older South American girl. Our DMs were Astrid from Denmark and Sergio from Spain who were very friendly as well. The next day we went for 3 dives as well, and except that I was freezing cold on the last one everything was going well. Sergio the DM confirmed to me that the water would be warmer in the south. I thought I was cold because of my little cold. We arrived in the south pasrt of the marin park and we made a small sunset hike. The week was going well, the atmosphere between all guest was very good, 
the dives were great and the food was delicious, overall I would recommend Uber Scuba. Finally I managed to do all dives against all odds. We arrived in Bajo after 6 days and we arranged to meet up for beers in the evening with the guests and the DM. Finally Anna and Ross weren't able to join us but we had a pleasant evening with the others. The next day we all have different flights. I shared a cab with Paige who was flying at the same time as me. I was heading for Senggigi in Lombok. The flight from Bali to Lombok was delayed so I arrived quite late at night. The next day, I was leaving for Senaru in the late afternoon, which was the starting point for the 3-day trek to Mt Rinjiani. At the hotel I met Nina and Jochom who were Dutch couple joining me on the trek. The next day after a quick breakfast, the departure was slightly delayed because of the rain. We met the other two who were joining us, there was Jin a Chinese guy who was living in Jakarta and Zoe that I had met in Bajo and who had asked me the details of my trek. First day from Sembalun to base camp, we started at 1200m and arrived at 2600m which meant a 7h hike. It was a long day with a mixed weather of rain and sunshine.
I arrived at the base camp a little before the others, apparently we were 2 hiking a little faster than the rest. The porters set up the tents in a an area sheltered from the wind and made the evening meal, a tasty curry. The next day, merry christmas, at 2:30am, we woke up and we started the hike up with the headtorch up to the summit. We were in the last to leave base camp, the Dutch were slower and the guide told us to keep going at our pace, he would remain at the back with the slowest. Zoe and I reached the summit in 3 hours, it's really hard, it's 2 steps forward for one backward because of the slippery terrain. It was a huge effort but we were rewarded at the top with a stunning scenary. We overtook a lot of people on the way up and saw a lot of poeple give up. We waited for 40 minutes at the top and Jin arrived, well done, then we started to walk down and we met Jochum who told us that Nina stopped and would be waiting for us on the way with cookies,he was nearly at the top, well done too mate. He was just be able to admire the view before the weather would turn completely. 
2h of descent then a breakfast and a break before continuing. We are told that many groups were heading back to sembalun, the porters were claiming that they had heard a landslide teh night before and were saying that the track might be unpassable. Our guide told us that it was a classic scam when it was raining, they were just trying to shorten the trek, we trusted him and kept going. 3h descent to arrive at 2000m at the "crater lake" and "hot springs". We had a dip in the hot springs at 38 degrees while the porter were cooking lunch. Then we went up to reach our camp for the evening at 2400m. Zoe and I arrived in 2 hours instead of 3 and the others followed one hour later to reach camp before nightfall thankfully. We camped and woke up under a tropical rain, it wasn't very motivating but it was the last day. We headed down to Senaru at 600m, we all had pretty sore legs and the tropical rain that kept going was making the track very slippery. We arrived in Senaru soacked wet, luckily I was able to save some dry clothes. We were then transferred to Senggigi. I spent the next 2 days between massage, swimming pool and some reading ... I had still very sore leggs, but my knees were Ok which was rather suprising. Then I left for a last night in Seminyak, I was out to have a bite and drink and found some live music bar. Surprisingly it was deserted at 1am, with many bars already closed. The volcano had really slowed down tourism this year. I spend the next day doing a bit of souvenir shopping a last massage and then left for the airport to catch my return flight home to snowy Switzerland.
Komodo video