Advertisement
Published: January 23rd 2008
Are Guling
Rice, one of the locals in a good spot.I've rejoined mainstream backpackers for the time being. The mountain bike and the surfboard are waiting for me half way across Sumbawa Island; in Empang at Pak Am's house. My left knee couldn't continue. Very very frustrated, but with no choice I continued by bus to Bima. I ended up hanging out in that "town" for 3 days on the misinformation that a boat was going to leave for Kupang, Timor. I started to get very grouchy as I had to deal again with bemos, ojeks, tiny buses and all other indecent forms of transportation in a country that started to seem to me to be designed to be inconvenient. ... bus stations are always far from the center, cheap bemos turn into expensive taxis when tourists show up and everyone can tell you when the very leaves but no one really knows.
Eventually I got to Flores where I teamed up with a Swedish chef. We made a day trip with some others to Rinca Island to see the famous Komodo Dragons. Awesome. I couldn't belive how close we got! There we were only 15 ft away from a 7ft lizard that could snap your leg in the blink
Are Guling
walking through the sea weed farm out to the break during sunrise. of the eye. We also strolled right passed wild water buffalo, deer and macaques.
From there we took a 15 hour bus ride through some of the most beatiful scenery I've seen in Indo. It's what I'd always imagined a bus ride would be like. rice paddies, volcanoes, giant ferns, banana trees all varieties of palms, enormously tall bamboo groves. And everything glowing green! Add to that the sounds of the whole bus rattling to the bass of a distored sound system blasting everything from country western to rap and the smell of vomit.
After the 17 hour ferry ride from Ende, Flores to Kupang, Timor we checked into our little hotel and then the Swedish chef, Peter, and I took another bemo to check out the market. Bemos here are wild. All have enormous sound systems and are pimped out. pink windshielf wipers, rear windowns decorated with stickers of jesus or girls, etc. We started a wild goose chase following people's indications in search of rambutans when we met Soloman. He was standing in front of his house and asked us where we were going. He didn't know where the rambutans were but we got to chatting
Are Guling
my extended family and soon invited us to sit down and have some juice. Before we knew it fresh fish was served, then sopi, a local liquor of distilled palm sap then Somoman's cousin showed up with a guitar and started singing anything and everything, then beer and eventually inevitably, yes, even dog meat, a local delicacy which doesn't taste like chicken but more like beef...cooked with lemon grass, ginger, pepper, chili and many other spices; yum yum. (6 hours)Later that night we were generously driven home by our host, both of us smiling with teeth and tongues stainted red from the betel nut.
I'm still regreting that I can't bike across Timor and especially Sumba (my planned route of return to Sumbawa) but that's the way it is, and it's been pretty good so far here in Timor. I am anxious to get back to surfing. Hopefully when I get back to Sumbawa I'll be fully recuperated and can continue my plans of exploring the south coast of that island by bike.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.077s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 11; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0437s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
