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.
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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.

Day 4 of #rflorestravelog

 Day 4 of #rflorestravelog.

Less than 10 mins walk from our hotel, there's a spot named Amelia Sea View where we could see sunrise.
Trying to take timelapse, but coulda been better if there was a tripod.

Actually, for me, waiting for sunrise is kinda ......

Sorry, another filler photo... #rflorestravelog

(3/3) I wonder whether the locals could be bored with this kind of view

(2/3) In Flores, it's ridiculously easy to get a majestic view - that many other places could only dream of.

(1/3) Still, golden sunrise with sea view.

While one of us went to dive, the rest of us decided to do basically nothing that day #uzur. That's the first time for me doing no activity while having vacation somewhere. .

La Dolce Far Niente
terus baru sadar kalo pohon di background bentuknya mirip hati.

Didn't expect that I would find a mosque this nice in Labuan Bajo. Apparently, Bajo is a name of race from South Celebes who came to this location. They usually live a seaborne lifestyle, and use small wooden sailing vessels such as the perahu

It was a real peak season in Labuan Bajo. Finding accommodation was very difficult. So, we moved to another hotel, and got this one. No scenic pool and beach like Sylvia had, but it's good and clean. We could catch a glimpse of sea from the window as well.

Day 3 of #rflorestravelog

 Day 3 floress

Day 3 of #rflorestravelog -
We spent the night at Gili Lawa - still on the boat.
I was too lazy to wake up early to catch the sunset. Correction: I woke up early, but didn't have much desire to hike up in the dark to see the sunset from the summit.
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Since the tide was low, so we should use a bed boat (no, it's not Taylor's song) to get to the shore.

Late riser

We almost decided to not climb up. Thankfully, we concluded to go. It's still in the morning, so the temperature was still nice.

It's indeed a right decision to do the trekking. Although some say that the view is similar with Padar, but this is such a picturesque scenery.

(3/3) Gili Lawa. We spent the night in one of those boats.

(2/3) Gili Lawa

(1/3) Gili Lawa

We picked an alternative route on the way down back to the shore. It's longer, but less steep. .
*it's almost 2 weeks since this #rflorestravelog started, but I'm still on the first part of day 3 :�

This photo actually is only a filler. From Gili Lawa, we went to Manta Point but unfortunately couldn't find the beautiful fishes. Hence we continued to sail to the next destination. .

Next destination is Kanawa Island

(3/3) Kanawa Island.
If you want your boat to harbor in the jetty, the cost would be 50k per pax. So we decided to swim/snorkel from our boat to the beach.

(2/3) Kanawa Island.
You could easily find starfishes, corals, and fishes while snorkeling in this beach. It's such a great experience. We found some litters floating, sustainability might become an issue if it's not managed properly.

(1/3) Kanawa Island is a small beautiful tropical island, fully surrounded by white sandy beaches and coral reefs. The area of the coral reefs surrounding the island is very wide. It's indeed astonishing that you could easily snorkel right away from the beach.

Kanawa Island was our last destination on the LOB trip. Then we headed to our accommodation. On the way, I saw several boats were lining up. It's quite a view for me who doesn't see it everyday (ya iya lah..)

Getting closer to our accommodation's jetty. Kinda sad to leave the national park with countless breathtaking views. But seeing this, okay, perhaps it's not so bad. Plus, couldn't wait to take proper shower after 3 days. Lol.

Taken from "amigos" food market. Still a pretty sky though.

#rflorestravelog Day 2

Day 2 floress♥♥♥

 

The gate was opened at 7 am, and that's the time when we started trekking. Each group was accompanied by a ranger.
Then we bought tickets for us at the ticketing office. Ticket for Sunday is more expensive, that's why we tried to go to this island on non-Sunday day.
Rinca Island

We were welcomed by the dragon itself. Ok, the photobomb is kinda distracting :p

A ranger was explaining that there were 3 types of trekking route that could be chosen: short, medium, and long. We took the medium one (around 1 hour of walk)

The trekking path was started with the green forest area. It's good for you who don't like walking under direct sunlight

Komodo's mating season usually happens during June-July. During this period, female komodos dig holes and then laid their eggs inside. They not only dig one hole, but two, although the eggs only laid in one of them.
The another hole was made as a "trap" for other komodos (or even herself), wishing that they fail to find the correct hole and hence not eat the eggs

Still from Rinca Island, after green forest, welcome to savanna. For me, the landscape was so mesmerizing. Alhamdulillah, the sky was very clear that morning. Guaranteed that the weather would be sizzling hot at noon

We were at the peak of the hill, and couldn't find any other komodos. More than 1000 komodos are living in this island.

Just after we thought that we wouldn't find that rare animal anymore in the island, on the way down from the hill, we spotted a #komododragon, actively moving on that very hill. From its swift move, it seemed that he was actively hunting for food.

I think it was looking for me 😅

It's quite common to find birds of prey hunting for fishes in this national park

Let's move to the next island: Padar. Wiki said that in the past, komodos also lived in Padar, but already extinct now. .
We almost failed to go to this island, since the weather was kinda unexpected in the past few days. But luckily it turned out to good. Look at the cloudless sky.

Trekking @ Padar Island

Believe me, it was a sizzlin hot day. Couldn't complaint though. When trekking, I prefer this than a rainy one.

From the top of Padar Island

How could I not adore the view? God is the greatest

It was such a hot and shiny day. There were few minutes when I became dizzy because of sunlight (not the heat, but the ray of light), and decided to wear my shades on. So long, Padar!

Moving forward to the next destination: Pink Beach. I was so excited to visit this place, basically just to compare with another pink beach that I had visited previously in Lombok.

Left side: sand @ Lombok Pink Beach
Right side: sand @ Komodo Pink Beach

(3/3) so-called Pink Beach

(2/3) so-called Pink Beach

(1/3) so-called Pink Beach

When we look closer, we could see the pink-ish sand quite clearly. Esp the part that got "washed" by the sea water.

Pink Beach, Komodo. #nofilter

Sunset - with sun right on the valley. Too lazy to edit the photo.

(3/3) Purple-ish sky at dusk, Gili Lawa, Komodo

(2/3) Purple-ish sky at dusk, Gili Lawa, Komodo

(1/3) Purple-ish sky at dusk, Gili Lawa, Komodo

Sunset @ Gili Lawa

My very first ever of time-lapse shot. Noob mistake: focusing on the grass instead of the sun.