I never made it to Sumba. Ferry didn’t leave. High seas. Rainy Season. Waves too big. Maybe tomorrow, maybe not. Maybe the next day, maybe not. Unpredictable. I didn’t have time to wait it out. So instead I focused on Sumbawa. With me still was Bilan. Sumbawa is different. Apart from a few surfer enclaves on the south coast, no tourists come to Sumbawa. Most skip it, preferring to take a three day boat journey from Lombok to Flores, just seeing the coast from afar and stopping at off-shore islands for snorkeling and swimming. Sumbawa is also staunchly Muslim. Conservative to the bone. You arrive in Sape from Labuanbajo on Flores and you feel you have arrived in a different world completely. Sape is beautifully decrepit stilt houses, men crafting wooden boats under the blazing sun,
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