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).
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).
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