Flores in Brief
We stayed in Flores at Labuhanbajo for a few days. The local mosque was audible from the hotel, but as there is no real choice on where to stay, we went with it. 'Breakfast' was slightly stale sweetened bread with honey on it.
Flores was considerably hotter than the rest of Indonesia we've visited, which meant we spent much of our days and evenings in the comfort of The Lounge using free internet and eating snacks. They also had two little kittens which provided entertainment to watch. On our final day there (having camped out for most of the time) the manager gave us some free chocolate cake. It was excellent.
Labuhanbajo is basically one street, with a very nice fishing dock, but the kind of sea you can't go in as its dirty, and a 'beach' covered in rubbish, that again you can't go on. The ATM is a hellish walk from the hotel in blistering heat and past women drying fish out in the sun, so the smell is choice. (Nik did not enjoy the walk 'as it is too hot and nobody speaks English' - obv why we went to Asia then…)
As is standard in Indo, all children treat you like a superstar and want to talk which remains endearing. However, bats, rats and mosquitoes everywhere are less so.
We went to the one place in Labuhanbajo that is apparently notable, the Paradise Bar, which is in the hillside and offers views over the bay. We went for sunset which was picturesque, however, we made the mistake of ordering their cocktails, which for $3.50 each tasted like nail polish remover and were actually undrinkable - full on Arak Attack (it made Nik convinced he had malaria).
We booked the plane out, which is on a blacklisted airline but is the only feasible way to get back to Bali. It was not a Fokker 50 so it was actually ok. Although our Bemo did get confused and took us to the boat port not the airport first time around. And when I say airport, it was a room, with a broken baggage scanner.
In conclusion, Flores is potentially a nice place but the roads are too hellish to travel about on and its too hot to sit on a bus. Also we were worried as it is malarial there and we had a few big bites and no malaria medicine so going back to civilisation in Bali was a far better option - we're rubbish travellers!