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.

Day 5 of #rflorestravelog

 Day 5 of #rflorestravelog.

A long road.

After a lazy day 4, we began the flores inland trip. Our first destination was Wae Rebo village. We departed from Labuan Bajo at 8 AM. Around 2 hours later, we passed thru the town of Lembor - the last place where we got proper cellphone signal that day.

Another 2 hours passed by, and yet, we hadn't arrived at our destination. The dark blue line in the background was Sabu Sea. This photo doesn't do justice of depicting the beauty of the place..

I had no clue, we aimed to visit Wae Rebo, located in mountainous area. But, why we went to shore -again- after passing thru highland. I wondered whether the driver forgot the route and we got actually lost.

After 6 hours of car ride, from shore to highland to shore and back to highland, we finally arrived at Denge Village. This is the nearest village from Wae Rebo where we can park our car. Nearest means 9.8 km from Wae Rebo or around 4 hours walk.

We transit at Denge Homestay, owned by Pak Blasius. He himself came from Wae Rebo, and then moved to Denge and working as a teacher.

Denge Village has not connected with grid electricity. Telco signal is close to none. Pak Blasius should put his cellphone on the roof in order to catch the signal.

We had lunch there, with omelette, veggies, and indomie as the menu. - and we guess the menu is the same through out the day and year.

We departed from the homestay at around 3 PM. It'd been few months since an extended road had been built, so we didn't need to walk for 9.8 km. Half of the distance could be got pasted by riding motorcab (IDR30k/pax), and we're saving 2 hours of our time and energy 😁.

There were 3 known pitstops on the way to Wae Rebo. The first one was located only around 10 mins walk from the motorcab stop. Good for us.

This photo shows the Pitstop #1: #waelomba river. Some kiddos carried barrels of vegetable oil - that would be delivered to Wae Rebo village.

A filler video - only to shows how the trekking looks like. For me, it's kinda similar with any regular outbound trek in Java. The challenge was more on the distance, not the steep level.

Pitstop #2 to Wae Rebo: Pocoroko
After constantly walking under the trees and only seeing trees, finally we could enjoy some view - blue sky and even sea (my phone cam couldnt catch it). 1 hour away from the village

Pitstop #3 to Wae Rebo aka the final pitstop.
Only 20 mins away from the village if I'm not mistaken. Not much to see in this pitstop.
Anyway, gonna do posting spree today, otherwise it'll take forever to finish this travelog 😅

We're getting closer to the village. So exciting! We had to go across a bamboo bridge to reach the other side.

Rumah Kasih Ibu -
located few hundred meters from the village, and we're able to see Wae Rebo from this structure. We should visit this place prior coming to the village in order to perform one special task.

The task at Rumah Kasih Ibu near Wae Rebo: sound the kentongan. This is mandatory, so the ppl on the village know that there will be visitors coming, and they will be prepared to welcome the guests

Wae Rebo village from afar. This was the last time we were allowed to take the pic of the village. Should wait until the special ceremony is performed.
.
I actually kinda reluctant to use the tilt shift feature. But, whatever.

Inside Rumah Gendang - after Waelu'u Traditional Ceremony

Upon our arrival, we're guided to enter Rumah Gendang - their largest traditional house which also acts as their main house - to see Waelu'u Traditional Ceremony. This ceremony was led by the head of Wae Rebo tribe to welcome the guests. .

The head spoke in the local language, then his assistant translated it into Bahasa Indonesia. Basically, the ceremony was a prayer wishing the guests for good health and safety during their visit in the village, and no bad things occur until they get back home. It's a really kind prayer. The head also thanked us for our willingness to come to their village from very far away places.

So yes, after maybe 3 minutes talk, the ceremony was completed, and we're allowed to take photos and videos. Don't expect any festive or unique ritual.

After Waelu'u Ceremony, normally the guests would have been guided to a house that was specifically allocated for visitors. However, that day the village was extraordinarily packed. .
Almost 200 ppl came to celebrate Indonesia Independence Day on the day after. Hence, the village management needed to provide additional space and resources to accommodate all the visitors' need.

Afternoon (5.30 pm) at Wae Rebo village (1,200 m above sea level). The weather was so cool and nice. I put no background music to show how the atmosphere really looked like. I bet it doesn't look like this on normal day, much less crowded.

Finally after 6 hours car drive, 15 mins ojek drive, and 2 hours trekking, we could enjoy the view of this traditional village. The panorama and atmosphere were so unique and soothing. It's really worth the effort.

The local guys in front of Mbaru Niang.

Overcame 42 candidates from 11 countries in Asia Pacific, Mbaru Niang, the traditional house of Wae Rebo successfully achieved Awards of Excellence from UNESCO in 2012 for its achievement in preserving their cultural heritage. .

(3/3) Dusk at Wae Rebo Village

(2/3) Dusk at Wae Rebo Village.
Actually it was kinda expected that the village would be crowded near the independence day. Some of the wae rebo open trips said that they would hold a ceremony in the exotic village. We tried to move our sched, since if it's too crowded, it'd be less convenient for everyone. However, it seemed that the initial sched would work better. .

(1/3) Dusk at Wae Rebo Village.
It's such a great feeling experiencing the atmosphere in this village. This location had no telecommunication signal whatsoever, forced us to really feel our surroundings. .
The children played cheerfully with each others. The adults were looking at them with gleaming eyes and wide smile.

No iPad, No Cellphone, No Pokemon Go, No Problem. And then I wonder, in developed countries, does a play like this still exist? How about in Jakarta?

Welcome drink session for each of the guest was held on a dedicated house for visitors - called Tirta Gena Maro. Unlike regular houses, Gena Maro has another smaller conical house attached to the building as a separate kitchen.

We and the other guests were served with coffee and tea. The coffee is planted by Wae Rebo villagers themselves, as their main jobs are coffee farmers.

Around 8 pm, we were invited to have dinner on one of the non-guest-house houses. Usually, all guests would have dinner and sleep in Gena Maro, but this time they made an exception. Since too many guests coming, so some of them were placed in the regular houses - including my group. The impact, some of the residents should be temporarily moved to their relatives' houses.

The dinner menu: chicken and veggies, and rice.

Sorry for the bad quality of the video. It didn't really work on bad lighting condition.