Off On Our Next Adventure

Rest and Recovery

The day after our Komodo trip was a quiet, restful one at our accommodation. We had bought a few supplies for breakfast the night before, so we had a lazy morning.

Around lunchtime, we went for a walk around town to find a place called ‘Happy Banana’ Japanese restaurant (yes, that’s really its name), which I’d read about in a travel blog about Labuan Bajo. It was a healthy, sushi place that served a lot of vegan food as well as omnivores’ options. We were not disappointed…the food was incredible! I ordered a tuna poke bowl, Shaun and Leo had sushi, and Anna had pork gyoza.

After our very satisfying lunch, we bought some groceries and snacks so we could eat noodles at home that evening and have breakfast the next morning. On our way back, we stopped for gelato at a gorgeous little ice cream shop called Maison Belmont. It’s owned by a French couple who visited Labuan Bajo back in 2018 and noticed it was missing an ice cream shop. They returned to France, learned how to make artisan ice cream, and came back, opening their shop towards the end of 2020. It’s now very successful, and they have partnerships with hotels and hostels in the town, so you can order it for dessert in quite a few places.

Back at our accommodation, I spoke to Arlina, the lovely receptionist, about a local tour the next day. She gave me contact details for a driver, Yono, and we booked him in to take us to the Mirror Cave, Sylvia Hill lookout, and Wae Cecu beach. We then had a quiet evening in and enjoyed a family movie.

The Mirror Cave by Leo

We started off by walking down a brick path and saw a lot of bamboo growing, with thorny vines coming off it. Our guide said they had snakes and monkeys in the forest. We stopped halfway and saw a rock called the Umbrella Rock. It was called the Umbrella Rock because it had two rocks stacked on top of each other to create the silhouette of an umbrella.

We kept walking and saw hundreds of butterflies and even a black and white bumblebee! When we got there, we saw a lizard, after that we walked into the cave.

When we got in, we saw all the rocks made up of fossilized coral. The place was underwater 50 million years ago and still had remains of the coral.

We put hard hats on and went in the cave. We saw many stalactites and some stalagmites as well!

We saw a turtle fossil in the cave and got some photos of it.

We then went to the end of the cave which lights up and has a mirror illusion when the sun is aligned with the hole in the roof, but sadly we weren’t there to see it because there wasn’t any direct sunlight.

On the way out we saw not one but two massive cave spiders on the rocks!

And when we walked out, we got stuck in a big line of people walking in the cave…it was crazy how many people were coming in without waiting for people to come out.
When we got out, we climbed up the rocks and saw a beautiful ravine.

We were meant to see a fish fossil but we ended up seeing a Sea Cucumber fossil.

After that we walked back to the car and as soon as we got there the driver pointed at Anna and said “If the baby needs to go toilet, it’s over there”. We have all started calling Anna “the baby”, because in Asia everyone calls her that.

Sylvia Hill

After the cave visit, Yono drove us to Sylvia Hill, where we were able to take in the panorama at “Amelia Sea View” named after the woman who owns the land.

Upon our arrival, a couple of locals asked to get a photo with Anna and I. This happens a lot on our travels…people are fascinated by Anna’s porcelain skin! They gently pat her cheeks (especially older women) and she is most obliging, smiling brightly at them.

The view was lovely and it was nice to see the ocean without many boats in sight, unlike the harbour at Labuan Bajo, which is full of boats! At night, massive ships’ horns go off leading up to their 11pm or midnight departures. This can be rather startling if you happen to be nodding off to sleep at that moment!

Waecicu Beach

Feeling hungry and rather hot by this point in the day, Yono drove us to Waecicu Beach, where we ordered some fries and squid for lunch, and had a wee swim off the beach.

I had read mixed reviews of this beach online from other travellers, and I must agree that there was a bit of rubbish along the beach and some in the water. The area is also a bit of a liveaboard boat graveyard. We picked a spot to swim where there wasn’t much trash, but the kids were under strict instructions to not put their heads under. It constantly confounds us how people on Indonesian islands can accept this level of pollution in the water surrounding them, especially given it’s the main source of their livelihood. Many people would be quick to blame the constant influx of tourists, but if you’re going to build up an industry around your natural resources, surely everyone would feel obligated to look after them? Not so, from our observations anyway, and we’ve come to the conclusion that it must be a lot to do with levels of education.

Seaesta Pool & Restaurant

When we returned, we got changed and made our way up the hill to Seaesta Hostel (it’s a pretty fancy hostel), which has a rooftop pool and restaurant you can visit. You are welcome to use the pool if you buy food and drinks there.

Leo was not very happy about the walk up the steep hill, so Anna gave him a helping hand, and he cheered up once he saw the view that we had earned from our walking.

We got a great little table to view the sunset from and all ordered mocktails.

We all enjoyed having a relaxing dip in the beautiful pool there before our dinner arrived, just as the sun was setting. The food was delicious and very well received by all of us!

By the time that we finished our dinner and drinks, it was dark. We walked back to our hotel for our last night’s sleep before our flight back to Bali the next day.

Budget Airlines

There are loads of options for cheap flights and we do a lot of our bookings using the AirAsia app. This is pretty easy to use, and you can get some bargains. However, these cheaper flights are almost always delayed. This was the case for our flight to Labuan Bajo and returning to Bali. But you get what you pay for, so we’ve just come to accept it as part of the package.