Page 55 - ELITE PLUS MAGAZINE VOL9

FLORES – BEACHES, VOLCANOES AND HIGHLAND VILLAGESThe large, unique island east of Bali is less well known but just as fascinating to visitThe Indonesian archipelago has the most islands in the world – 18,307, enough to take many of them for granted. Yet Flores has maintained a unique, diverse nature and culture. Sharing the waters with the country’s toptourist destination, Bali, an hour and a half away by air, Flores offers at least as great a variety of reasons to visit.The island, meaning flowers in Portuguese, is in East Nusa Tenggara province, part of the Lesser Sunda Islands east of Java. Colonized by Portugal, it belonged to the Dutch until it was packaged into Indonesia when the country gained independence in 1945. The Flores population of 1.8 million is predom- inantly Roman Catholic. Many are fishermen and subsistence farmers growing rice, maize, sweet potato and cassava for their own needs, or coffee, cloves, cocoa, vanilla or cashew nuts for sale. A few have found their fortune in tourism, serving the growing number of visitors.What’s special about it? Let’s call it “the five reasons to visit Flores”.1) The landscapes alone are enough to fill up your camera’s memory cards. Quiet beaches come in an array of colours – stony, soft sandy black, white, even pink – and are plentiful enough to watch the sunset or sunrise from without having to share the view with anyone but local fishermen. From the beaches you can travel uphill on snaky roads and be on a pine-fringed mountain in an hour. The rice terraces are dramatic. The colours of the crater lakes are surreal. Forests come in many shades of green, through mangrove, bamboo and rainforest. And then there is the lunar terrain of the volcanoes, great for adventure-seekers and trekkers. Numerous uninhabited islands lie off the coast of the fishing town of Labuan Bajo.Elite+ 53