None of us had ever heard of Labuan Bajo before, so we were a little surprised to find it a hub of backpacker travel activity. Dozens and dozens of big liveaboard dive boats anchored in the bay, as well as plenty more day tripper fast boats. For us, it was a pitstop for groceries, cash, diesel, and dinners out.
I mention cash because Indo is very much a cash society, and yet they don’t make accessing it all that easy. Actually, they make it easy enough as far as putting ATMs all over the place, but what they make difficult is getting any meaningful amount of cash out. We’d find ourselves rejoicing if we found an ATM with a 1,250,000 Rupiah maximum. To put that in perspective, that is about $80 US. Taking multiple withdrawals is playing with fire, too. About the worst thing that can happen to us out here is to have our bank suddenly determine that someone is fraudulently using our card, and then cut it off. It’d be weeks/months before we could score a replacement. Let’s just say we’ve been walking a fine line here, switching between both our banks (you gotta have at least two) and nabbing an extra withdrawal now and then when we’re feeling lucky.
This was a nice mid-range restaurant with a beautiful view over the bay, cold drinks, and a dart board for the kids. We’d end up here a couple of times. $1 = 15k
The dinghy ride back to the boat in the dark. This boat was a fairly typical liveaboard dive boat.
Around Labuan Bajo.
The bags of chips aisle looks similar to back in the States, but it’s impossible to know what you’re actually getting until you’ve bought a bag and cracked it open. This was more of a reconnaissance trip to the store. Buy a bunch of different things, try them, and decide if anything is worth buying more of.
Living the luxurious cruising lifestyle. This is the dinghy dock. And yes, that is the ladder we’d climb up and down to access it. And no, I don’t think anyone actually comes and picks up that pile of garbage underneath it.
Ali spotted this taco place online and we couldn’t resist. The chef was a young Mexican guy, and those tortillas were hand pressed right before he tossed them on the griddle. The shot glasses weren’t tequila, though, they were sugar water so we could sweeten our tea to our liking (who knew sweet iced tea was so popular in Indonesia?). This was our last meal before heading back out to sea, and we actually stuck around town until noon just waiting for the place to open. Glad we did.
6 Comments on “Labuan Bajo”
I call my bank to tell them where I’ll be ahead of time. I’ve never had a problem getting cash.
Yeah, in year’s past we would do this and they appreciated it. Said they’d make a note of it. Now they don’t seem to care when I tell them. Maybe because there are no more humans making the decisions.
Did the Mexican guy get to speak Spanish with the dual citizen “homies” from the mother country? Not many chances to use Spanish out there I would think. I bet if so that guy will remember you guys for a long time.
Have you tried the avocado shakes they offer at several places in Labuan Bajo? They are so delicious!
So many changes and improvements since I went through in 1993. Good food and stores! We had to drink boiled water in Flores… I can still see the soot floating in my Nalgene ugh.. Sounds like they are all cash still. Maybe you have already used – but we used the Wise App in Singapore Thailand and Cambodia this past June. Works fantastic for any shop that takes touch pay. Its country by country and the systems didn’t accept it in Vietnam. Super convenient and saves you exchange and credit card fees. When you move on to the next country you just exchange into the next currency. Maybe this would work when you get in from the boonies.
Watching your Indonesia trip closely for our next family trip. Fantastic. As one of your other commenters a week ago said, sounds like Bali is overrun with the young Instagram crowd- but Indonesia is so vast – lots of places off the path. Sulawesi …. Lake Toba. Glad to see they are not all overrun.
Those $3 plates of food look amazing!