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.

Day 8 of #rflorestravelog

 Day 8 of #rflorestravelog 

After the very chill Bajawa, the heat was back in the game. Yes, we went to Riung, a national park that rich of marine life ecosystem. .

Since it's a national park, you should pay a certain amount of fee for entrance ticket.

Crystal clear water of Riung National Park

Could you see the little dots above the trees? Do you know what they are?

Flying foxes of Ontoloe Island

Thousands of flying foxes were forced to wake up, and I feel very bad. Sorry bats.

 

You know what? I just realized that the coral reefs even could be seen from the surface. Yes, we did snorkel here. Corals on some of the spots unfortunately were already bleached. But overall, it's still good.

and God is The Greatest. .

After snorkeling, we went to an uninhabited island called Rutong Island. Basically, in this island, you could see "nothing", but perhaps that what makes it beautiful. You still can get phone signal though, which was only a dream in most of islands in komodo national park.

(3/3) Rutong Island

(2/3) Rutong Island

(1/3) Rutong Island

In Rutong Island, there's a hill where we could climb up to get aerial view of the surrounding. Can you see a silhouette of a guy on top of the hill?

Me in red shirt
📷: #goprohero4

Lunch @ Rutong Island

Actually we were given option to choose the tour package: with vs without lunch, and we picked the lunch-included one.

The taste of the fishes was just awesome! So yes, take the lunch package.

However, if you want to explore Rutong in more than a day, you could just choose the no-lunch package and bring your own food. It'd be cheaper.

Off from Riung to Ende. Since we still had some other destinations in our itinerary (yes, this #rtravelog still goes on 😜), so we couldn't spend our full day in Riung. After lunch, we then continued the journey.

I fell in love with the landscape along the road trip. Near Ende, there was an area where we could easily find blue-ish stones.

Had a short stop at Ende, and I found this eatery named KQ5. I should say that for Flores scale (except Labuan Bajo maybe), this spot is quite chic.

Day 7 of #rflorestravelog

Day 7 of #rflorestravelog 

Our room was on the second floor, and this was the view from the porch. Happy with the luscious green everywhere and mini yellow flowers embellished the garden. .

Foggy nature of the area made me wonder (and worry) whether it's possible to get a photo with clear sky.

When you wanna replace the previous photo with another photo (that you think would be a better one). But ...

We had our breakfast --- among the clouds. .

The place also had a nice yard with thin trees (I don't know the name) standing tall.

This colorful pavement leads to our room on the second floor. The host named this path lovers lane. #terusbaper

(3/3) Filler photo - because dihapus sayang (bahasa inggrisnya apa ya? 😅). Mount Inerie as the background.

(2/3) Filler photo - because dihapus sayang (bahasa inggrisnya apa ya? 😅). Mount Inerie as the background.

(1/3) Filler photo - because dihapus sayang (bahasa inggrisnya apa ya? 😅). Mount Inerie as the background.

Bena, a village that was built 1200 years ago, is situated about 16km from Bajawa at the foot of Mount Inerie. It is the most famous and also most visited village in the Ngada district. .

A quiet village

There are 45 traditional houses in Bena, six belonging to each of the nine clans that live there. (I know it doesn't add up, I just copy it from somewhere and too lazy to find other sources, sorry)

The houses are made of wooden walls, reed roofs and bamboo floors.

Among dozens of standing stones lies a large dolmen which resembles a dining table.

This is where the name Bajawa comes from: it means ‘plate from Java’.

If you look closer at the houses in Bena, you often find them decorated with skulls and horns of water buffaloes and pig jaws which were sacrificed at different ceremonies. .

Suddenly I hazily heard the voice of kids came from afar. I thought that there was some kind of ritual being held in the village, so I walked to find the source of the voice.

Apparently, it came from kids walking back home from their school. They marched in such a high-spirited fashion, love it! It's very interesting, I guess the same thing doesn't happen in Jakarta, perhaps like, ever?

Soa Hot Spring

From Bena Village, we went to the next destination: Riung. This object actually wasn't in our initial itinerary. However, we had quite ample time and decided to visit this spot. .

Green-ish Mangeruda Hot Spring. 

Mangeruda Hot Spring. .

From Mengeruda Hot Spring, we continued the journey to Riung. It's around 2 hour journey with very bad road. From 6 days of land trip, the road condition was definitely the worst.

In our room in Riung, there's a mosquito net hanging above the bed. It's interesting, since in LabuanBajo (and East Flores), the hotels didn't provide that stuff.

Some locations in Flores is mosquito-borne disease endemic area. Although it's been getting better nowadays, preventive actions like using mosquito repellent and mosquito net are suggested.

N.b. I like how they folded the towel into boat-like shape as depicted in the bottom part of the pic. (Yes, it's towel, and toilet paper)

Day 6 of #rflorestravelog

 Day 6 of #rflorestravelog 

Since the village is located among hills, sunshine comes a tad late to this place.

Lookin thru Mbaru Niang's window.

That day was August 17th, Indonesia Independence Day. Several flags had been placed. The committee seemed busy preparing for the event.

Busy preparing Indonesia Independence Day ceremony. I was so excited! .

Choir Rehearsal

The kids usually stay in Denge since they have to go to school, and there's no school in Wae Rebo. It's plainly unfeasible if they walk 4 hours x 2 everyday. Hence, usually they only get back home on weekend. But that day (which is weekday) was different, since they would do the ceremony in their home-village.

Ceremony Rehearsal

It's been a century since the last time I participated in independence day ceremony. Experiencing it in an exotic place like Wae Rebo made it even more memorable. Since in the middle of nowhere, people are still nurturing their nationalism. .

 

Still a lot of pics/videos from Wae Rebo, but let's call it a wrap for now :p

Actually, they held a Caci Dance session (like a duel dance with shield and weapon) after the ceremony. But we had to leave since a long journey was waiting.

On the way back to Denge (yes, that 2 hour trekking), we met Wae Rebo folks carrying a large water tank to be installed at their village.

Another filler video -

Riding motorcab from pitstop #1 to Denge.

(3/3) Cancar - Spider Web Rice Field

(2/3) Cancar - Spider Web Rice Field

(1/3) Cancar - Spider Web Rice Field

Long before wet-rice cultivation, the ancestors of the Manggaraian people grew dry rice, corn, and tubers in the lingko fields. Every village used to own several fields. During planting and harvesting time, ceremonies and ritual offerings were held at the lodok, the ritual center of the lingko.

Tl;dr

From the magnificent spider-web rice field, we still had a long journey to our next destination: Bajawa. I booked two rooms at Manulalu B&B which got raving reviews everywhere. .

However, our driver had no idea where the hotel was. We arrived in Bajawa area around midnight, and it's difficult to find someone to ask on how to get there. So we made a phone call to the host and she gave the route guidance.

Perhaps our driver was already tired, so he couldn't grasp what the host was saying, and we got lost even more. Fortunately, we found someone to ask and he showed the right direction.

Apparently, the street down the road was very "intimidating". Forest in left and right, no street light (what do you expect), no other cars. I just hoped that the Google Maps didn't betray us.

Alhamdulillah it's mostly accurate and we could reach the accommodation! We arrived at around 1230, and the security guy was even already asleep, and we had to wake him up to open the door.

Couldn't see it clearly at night, but I got a feeling that the hotel was gonna be awesome.