Day 9 of #rflorestravelog

 Day 9 of #rflorestravelog

We departed at around 3 AM from Moni Village -the closest village from Kelimutu- to try to catch the sunrise.
Thankfully, it was cloudless.

(3/3) Sunrise at Kelimutu

(2/3) Sunrise at Kelimutu

(1/3) Sunrise at Kelimutu

Kelimutu Volcano (1,639m above sea level) contains three striking summit crater lakes of varying colors.

Tiwu Ata Bupu (Lake of Old People) is usually black-ish and is the westernmost of the three lakes. .

Perhaps ppl not very often taking the pic of this side of crater lake, since the view is less compelling compared to the other two.

And, taking pic in the early morning was also challenging since the lighting wasn't optimal yet.

Tiwu Nuwa Muri Koo Fai (lake of young people’s souls); and Tiwu Ata Polo (lake of evil spirits) - on the top right- are situated close together. .

I always wondered how Kelimutu looked like from the visitor's view. I mean, would we stand in the very narrow edge of the crater like in Bromo?

Apparently I think this is a very nice one. Ample space for the visitors, where they could look around and see 3 mystical crater lakes. To reach here, we only need 30 minutes walk from the parking lot in a neat pavement, accompanied by sound of birds singing and chill (or cold) breeze.

Many informative signboards are positioned everywhere. I'm actually surprised, since this national park is very well-managed although its location is far from the capital city.

I always love the moment when the sun and the moon are at the same sky (you know what I mean). While the sun gradually rises and smiles on the east, the moon slowly falls asleep on the west.

Skew to the right - actually I've no idea that the guys in front of me were coincidentally form the similar pose with the trees. And I'm just aware of that when I want to upload this pic, lol.

This is otw to the parking area. And it's already quite warm. On 4AM, I bet it's below 10 degree celsius, freezin!

From Kelimutu, we initially a bit willing to go to Koka Beach. However, quite few people said that it'd be anticlimax since what we'd seen so far were better than that object. Plus, all of us were already running out of batteries, so we headed to Ende.

In Ende, we tried to find souvenirs at the market. I actually don't know the name of the market and randomly picked that offered name to be put on IG :p

Similar with Larantuka, many shops in Ende also have their own unique working hours. Usually they are open from morning til 1 PM, then close until around 4-5 PM, then reopen until 8-9 PM.

Soekarno Contemplation Park.
In this park, stands a big breadfruit tree where under it, Soekarno often sat, working on political ideas to lead Indonesia to independence.

Okay, it seems I took a wrong tree as the object, since apparently it's not a breadfruit tree. Lol.

A statue of Soekarno. Story says that in the very spot, he often sat and contemplate, looking at the sea and also the sunset. I bet the view was gorgeous back then years ago. But not today.

The soothing ambience might become his inspiration to invent ideas that contributed to the opening of Pancasila concept, which is now the state philosophy of Indonesia.

I tried to do the same pose but invented nothing. Maybe I should not have smiled.