Flores trip: Day 7

We left the hotel around 6am, our flight was at 7am and there was already quite a long queue when we arrived at the airport. We queued up for check in and somehow it was a bit chaotic. After a while we just realized that everything's done manually (including the manual weight meter for our luggage). They wanted to issue a new ticket for us (did not really get it at that time why we had to get a new one). There were three persons behind the desks busy writing the new tickets and the boarding passes. Basically we showed the officer our tickets and his colleague weighed our luggage and gave them tags. Then we had to wait until he called our names and gave us our new tickets and the boarding passes. At that time we realized that we got a bonus transit to Kupang, in west Timor which is actually in the opposite direction to Denpasar. They said that was because the flight to Kupang the previous day was canceled. I was still thinking positive about it, giving me another island to step on..that's quite a bonus :-P... though a bit worried for Runi since she had her connecting flight at noon to Balikpapan.


Everything's okay, we landed at El Tari airport in Kupang and I thought that we only dropped the people that originally wanted to fly to Kupang. But they asked us to leave the plane. I was still excited, yee another island for this trip. When we reached the arrival area, I saw there were several officers surrounded by some passengers. There I heard that our flight to Denpasar would be at 3pm, which was like more than six hours transit time in Kupang. After making sure what I heard (yeah 3pm) I also knew that actually the plane that brought us from Maumere still continued the flight to Surabaya (or Jakarta) via Denpasar. I did not really get that actually, what I knew was they still flew to Denpasar but not with us (the people who just flew from Maumere). Runi was a bit panicked and she decided if she could get a ticket to Jakarta, she would fly there to get another connecting flight to Balikpapan since there are more options to fly from Jakarta than Denpasar. Ole and I just waited for Runi to get the solution for her problem (the one that I regret later on since I should have fought for the flight ticket to Denpasar that morning), we still confused what to do for the next six hours stranded in Kupang. When finally we met Runi, she got the ticket to Denpasar that would depart immediately without having to pay anything. That was the time when I felt that we did a mistake to just given up flying to Denpasar with the morning flight, we should have made up a connecting flight that we had to catch...but anyway, the idea was too late, all the seat were taken already.

So to make the story shorter, we decided to enjoy Kupang a bit. Getting the info from Lonely Planet, we decided to visit the museum. The airport is a quite far away from the city center and the taxi costs us 60K rupiahs...we decided to use angkot, a typical public transportation in Indonesia in the form of a small minibus. It has been quite a while for me to use angkot... when was the last time... I could not remember it anymore :-P


The museum visit was quite great , glad that we decided to do it. We had a guide who explained almost all the things that were displayed in the museum. It displays some traditional clothes from different areas in East Nusa Tenggara (Kupang is the capital of East Nusa Tenggara), which is very interesting. I learnt several types of traditional sarongs and recognized the differences among them (songket, ikat, sutis, the three types of the traditional sarongs in East Nusa Tenggara). We also saw the skull of the famous Flores hobbit there. Somehow the museum visit made our Flores trip complete..

We returned back to the airport using angkot and ojek (a motorbike taxi), then finally we left Kupang for Denpasar, ending our Flores trip from the capital city of its province. It was really a nice experience, Flores is beautiful with its people, culture and nature (miss the long winding road with White lion's and Bon Jovi's songs as soundtrack :-P) . We have not visited all the interesting places there...so there's always a reason to visit it again :-)

Note: thanks to Ole for the pics on this post.

Flores trip: Day 6

Our itineraries for Flores all have been fulfilled and we stayed in Maumere only for our flight to Denpasar. Initially we planned to leave Flores that morning but we could not get the ticket for all of us, only one ticket (that we gave to Desy since she had to go back to work the next day), the other three tickets were for the next day (even it was not that easy to get them). That means we had one more day in Maumere. I said good bye to Desy when she left us around 6am, then did some expenses calculation with Runi (thanks Run, you're the best..:-)) and had a walk a bit at the beach.


The beach at our hotel was not that interesting, so we planned to go a bit farther from the city to Ahuwair (around 24 kms), hoping to get another beach day. But when we arrived it was low tide, so the beach was full of rocks. The sea area around Maumere used to be regarded as one of the finest dive site in Asia before the earthquake and tsunami in 1992 destroyed its beautiful reefs (but now they said they are in recovery mode). We planned to take a boat to Babi island or Pangabaton island to have another snorkeling session. But because of the low tide, we could not take the boat from Ahuwair, we had to go to Nangahale, which is about 8 kms from Ahuwair. The boat rent that was offered was also quite pricey so we decided to forget the snorkeling idea.

We did not have any more ideas what to do in Maumere :-P Donatus suggested visiting Watublapi, a village close to Maumere to see dance performance but we suppose to reserve it first so they could prepare the dance performance when we arrived there. Unfortunately none has the contact number of the people in Watublapi. But we decided to give it a try to go there directly. And as what we're afraid, they could not do that without reservation at least half day before but they offered us to see Ikat weaving process demonstration. At first a bit pessimistic actually (too comercial for me because we had to pay for that, they're quite professional with the tourists) but it was still around noon and we did not have any idea what to do the next half day.

It turned out it was a nice demonstration on how to make Ikat, they showed us how they did the dyeing process using natural materials, like from mengkudu fruit (is that for red color, forgot already hehe). Then the spinning process from cotton and the ikat weaving itself...interesting... and now I could imagine why the price of one cloth of Ikat is expensive :-P We bought some Ikat at the end of the demo, but only some small pieces, the price is expensive as they use natural dye for their Ikat.


We dropped by at Ohe, a point close to Watublapi where we can see both coasts (north and south coasts) of Flores. Then we returned to Wailiti around 4pm, was a bit raining (or wasn't it :-P), I only remember we decided to chat until dinner hehe.. Oh before that, we said good bye to Donatus since it was the last day we rented the car. He is a nice guy, got a lot of info about Flores from him.

Note: thanks to Ole for the pics on this post.

Flores trip: Day 5

We woke up at 4am to get ready to leave 30 mins later to catch the sunrise at Kelimutu. I was a bit worried actually... after unsuccessful trip to a foggy and rainy Bromo (and foggy Tangkuban Perahu for Ole) somehow it was concluded that Ole did not have a good history visiting mountain's craters :-P And after hundreds kilometers of winding road ...it would be too disappointing to see a foggy Kelimutu...

It was still dark and nobody was around when we reached the parking area, we only met three other people when we were almost at the crater of the two first lakes. Kelimutu is a volcano with its famous three colored crater lakes. The lakes are changing their color throughout the time which can be scientifically explained (will not try to explain it here :-P). But somehow the local people believe that the color changes of the lakes means something special will happen (in Indonesia generally). These lakes are also a sacred place for them, they believe that the soul of the dead people will go to one of these lakes. The first two lakes that we approached are Tiwu Nuwa Muri Koo Fai (Lake of Young Men and Maidens - the turquoise lake) and Tiwu Ata Polo (Bewitched or Enchanted Lake - the dark red lake). They are separated by a wall which in the past could be passed by people, but not anymore now, the crater wall is quite thin. I could not stop watching the turquoise lake with its 'unreal' color. Going a bit farther, there is a staircase to the Inspiration point to see all the three lakes, the third lake is Tiwu Ata Mbupu (Lake of Old People - dark blue/black lake), located a bit separated from the two lakes. We spent some time at the Inspiration point, taking lots of pics, watching (and enjoying) the sunrise and the beautiful view, chatting with a Norway couple that we met there. Yes, finally I had a nice sunrise experience at the crater (that's even very true for Ole)!!


Leaving Kelimutu, we returned to Moni and dropped by at the small waterfall close to the village. After having breakfast, taking shower, and packing our stuff, we visited Moni's traditional market. There were some nice ikat woven clothes, but it's still a bit overwhelming for me to buy one of them. We met some school girls who adored Desy so much :-) and had an interesting time with them.


We also visited a Lio traditional house across the traditional market before left Moni around 1pm. We stopped by to Jopu village in Nggela region which is famous with its Ikat clothes. Initially we wanted to see the weaving process but that day we only found one girl doing it. I finally bought my first Ikat shawl here.


We then continued our journey to Maumere and managed to visit Sikka village, a coastal village with a pretty Portuguese style church and the home of Sikkanese weaving. It was a bit quiet when we arrived at the village and we decided to visit the church directly. But when we went out, there were quite a lot of women offering their Ikat in a house close to the church (since we wanted to see their Ikat clothes). I bought myself an Ikat sarong, I did not intentionally want to buy a sarong, only found a nice Ikat sarong and then gave the woman the price I would like. I did not think she would give me, but she followed me and after some bargaining process, I was still 'tough' to not display my interest, but when she said that she wanted the money to buy rice for Christmas... I was not that strong anymore and decided to pay the price she wanted...that's how I bought my first Ikat sarong.

We confirmed our Merpati flight tickets right away after arriving in Maumere. After that, our usual activity to find accommodation made us touring Maumere. We finally decided to stay in Wailiti hotel, kind of resort hotel by the beach (indeed we increased our accommodation budget every day :-P).

Flores trip: Day 4

We started around 8:30am to go to our first destination, Bena village. Bena is a scenic Ngada village on the foot of mount Inerie. There are some other Ngada villages around Bajawa, but Donatus recommended Bena since according to him the others are not that traditional anymore (some modern buildings around). Bena indeed is a pretty village with two lines of traditional houses facing each other. On the space between them, there are a megalithic tomb structure for the sacrifice ritual and nine-pair Ngadhu and Bagha to represent each of the sub-tribe that lives in the village. Ngadhu is a kind of totem pole dedicated for male ancestors while Bhaga is the one for female ancestors (but not really a pole, is more like a small house). We had a guide to whom we could ask a lot of questions about Ngada's beliefs and customs which are still strictly followed. Thomas, our guide (I am not sure his name anymore actually, keep on mixing the name of our guides throughout this trip :-P, but I am quite sure it's Thomas), told us that the wood of the pole is a special wood that should be acquired from a certain place. So when a pole is damaged they will perform a kind of ritual to decide where they can get the wood material and it could be anywhere in Flores. They have to bring that wood material to Bena with a special ritual ceremony too, he told us they could spend 40 million rupiahs just for replacing a damaged pole! They believe they have to do it to avoid something bad happens to their family or sub-tribe. It was amazing to learn the beliefs and customs of the tribes during our trip even for me as an Indonesian.

We spent the morning in Bena and then we decided to have another visit to Boawae village, a traditional Nage-Keo village. Nage-Keo is another tribe in central Flores (besides the Ngada), what I remember about the Nage-Keo's custom is that a man required to give ten of everything (like 10 buffaloes, 10 cows, etc) to propose a woman to get married to.

After that we drove to the direction of Moni to visit Kelimutu lakes. We stopped by at Blue stone beach on the main road to Ende which is indeed full of blue stones (and also other colored stones too actually, oh and dark black sands which made someone regretted the fact that she did not take some of the sands as souvenirs :-P). We brought some nice stones with us too (like 10 big bags of them...just kidding).


We then passed through Ende, passing the house where our first president Sukarno had lived during his exiled time there (it is a museum now, but it was closed already when we passed it). We reached Moni around 6am, almost dark and we struggled to find accommodation there. I think we visited all the places that offer accommodation in Moni. At the end we decided to stay at Hidayah which is the nicest one compared to all of them (and the most expensive rate, but we managed to bargain the price, thanks to Desy :-P).

Flores trip: Day 3

We left the hotel around 8am after breakfast, dropped by for a while (sure, photo sessions) to a complex of traditional houses in the center of Ruteng, and also managed to send some postcards at the local post office. We headed to Golo Curu (means a hill used as a meeting point - according to Donatus) in north of Ruteng. It is a pilgrimage area where you can find a shrine with a statue of Virgin Mary at the top of the hill. We got a beautiful view of terasiring rice fields from the top and also met a hyperactive cow that wanted to follow us (or was it only Ole, I did not remember exactly :-P) in a 'scary' way.


Leaving Golo Curu, we continued our exploration to Compang Ruteng, a Manggarai traditional village. We visited one of the two traditional houses in the village with a guide to show us around.


After spent some time in Compang Ruteng, we started our journey to Bajawa with a stop by at Ranamese lake which is located right next to the main road Ruteng-Bajawa (surrounded by a wall, made it kind of a hidden lake :-P) and a palm wine refinery.


We reached Bajawa around 3pm and decided to stay at Edelweiss hotel with a nice view of Mount Inerie. After taking a rest a bit at the hotel, we went to Mangaruda hot spring at Soa, about one hour from Bajawa. The water is quite hot at the main pool so we moved to the side pool which has some jacuzzi effects (ask Ole for that :-P). We left the hot spring before dark and returned to the hotel afterward.

Flores trip: Day 2

We had a 'wake up call' at 5am because the boat started to leave Rinca for Komodo island. It was dawn already. The sea was calm and the islands that we passed through was so beautiful creating a such tranquil image. Almost forgot that I woke up too early that day :-P


We reached Loh Liang in Komodo island around 7am and after registered at the PHKA office (we still can use the entrance ticket that we bought at Rinca), we joined a free 1-hr trekking around Komodo island. We did not see so many komodos in Komodo island, we only saw some of them around the PHKA office, but there are some special birds and we found a small poisonous green snake (scary!) , and saw some deers too. We did not spend a long time there since we had to reach Pink beach early before the current came.


We stopped around Pink beach area, still a bit far away from the beach... we could see the colorful fish, blue starfish and beautiful corals through the clear green water. It was beautiful even for me who could not do snorkeling at that time. It must have been more beautiful to see them under the water.


After spending some time snorkeling and watching people snorkeling (that's me :-P), we left Komodo island for Kanawa island on the way back to Labuan Bajo. Kanawa is about one hour from Labuan Bajo and it was mentioned that it has a bungalow resort. But when we arrived, the island was so quiet we even thought that it was only us there. It looked like a deserted island, there were some bungalows indeed but nobody's there. The beach was beautiful with a crystal clear water so that we can see the swarm of fish swimming. We walked along the beach and had some (jump) photo sessions. It was really sunny and warm on the beach but we could not help spending some time there, so much for darker skin (that I regretted later on) :-P


We reached Labuan Bajo around 3pm. The car that we have rented through Pak Tasri has been waited for us with Donatus, our driver for the next five days. We started directly our road trip to Ruteng, a four-hour winding road from Labuan Bajo.

It was a bit raining (and dark and we were all tired) when we arrived in Ruteng around 7pm, so we decided to take a big room for all of us in Rima hotel, the first hotel that we found in Ruteng based on Lonely Planet's recommendation.