HELLO YELLO! Welcome back in another travel post, this time I'm traveling to the east part of Indonesia with my mum and my little sister - West Sumba and East Sumba. Hope this will be useful since I haven't found lots of information about this destination because it is quite unexplored.
Since I was about to start my work life in a month, we were planning to do a holiday before it. At first we wanted to go to Hongkong during this long weekend (holiday on Thursday), but the flight ticket was very expensive even though we already searched for it since 3 months before. Then we forgot about our plan for about 2 months, then we suddenly remembered and searched for trip options. I personally wanted to go to Sumba, but the trips that we found at first usually took 5 days, when my mom was only available for 4 days. Then we searched and contacted more travel options, and luckily we found this open trip for 4 days, and the places visited were complete and popular. So I contacted the travel, and yes they still had 3 available slots.
We booked the travel, paid for the initial payment (50% of total), and looked for the flight. The travel's price itself was quite affordable, but the flight ticket was quite expensive!?!? There is no direct flight to Sumba so we needed to transit at Bali or Kupang first. Maybe it is because I booked it only 1 month before so it was quite expensive, so if you are planning to travel to Sumba, it will be better if you book the flight at least 3 months before. Long story short we got the flight, and we were ready to enjoy our trip.
Day #1
Our flight was at 06.00 on Thursday, but we got up late, and we left the house at 04.50. At that time we were not panic (yeah weird) because we thought we still had some time, we already did the web check in too. Then we arrived at the airport at 05.20, queued for baggage drop in, but there were lots of other people and apparently the queue was wrong, we couldn't drop a baggage (there was a sign above the counter that said baggage drop in and many people behind us also got this wrong). So we had to queue in the next counter, and we couldn't check in our baggage because it was already 30 mins to boarding time. So then.... we dragged our luggages (we bought 1 big luggage & 1 small luggage), while we think how do get pass the security check since we carried shampoo, cleanser, perfume, and other big liquids in our luggage. But thank God we passed it, maybe because it was a domestic flight so the security didn't fuss it too much. We walked to the gate and finally inside the plane - after carrying the heavy luggage through every security pass, the stairs, the plane's stairs, and finally inside the cabin (with some help from the stewardess because it's heavy).
We made a transit at Bali, we thought we could check in the luggage but no, so I had to carry it all around once again :""") The transit was about 1,5 hour, we chilled down at Goods Coffee for a while, then hopped on to another flight. The plane was small, smaller then the usual plane. The plane's stairs were extremely small, short, and narrow so it was hella difficult to carry the luggage. And after I went inside the plane, the stewardess told me that the luggage was too heavy to be put in cabin, so they will have to put it into the baggage - after I struggled through those evil steps and she just told me then. Finallyyyyyy we arrived at Tambaloka - Waikabubak, or known as West Sumba. The open trip was joined by 8 people including us, all female, and we met them at the airport, greeted by our drivers there. We introduced ourself, there were 3 of us as a family, 2 of them as friends, and the rest 3 of them were solo travelers.
We went to the hotel first to prepared ourself. The hotel looked like a villa, I was in 1 room with my little sister and my mom was in 1 room with another solo traveler called Sarah. We put our luggage, cleaned ourself, prayed Zuhur & Ashar, then ate our lunch there. The restaurant opened for 24 hours! They provided a complete set, a rice, 2 main dishes (chicken/fish/beef), 1 vegetable, 1 other dish (usually bihun), 1 soup, 1 fruit, and kerupuk. After that we headed to our first destination: Kampung Adat Ratenggaro. It was the famous local houses with high triangle roof, and still lived by local people there. There were many little kids and local people there, that stared at us once we arrived there, which was quite uncomfortable hahahaha. The kids kept approaching us asking for money, they said to buy books and to go to school. There was also a man approached me, asking me to give me a handshake, and asked me to come near the houses, where lots of people were sitting and watching us from distance, it was creepy, but our driver accompanied us all the time so it was okay. The kids were cute actually, they would love if you gave them chocolate or candies or other sweets. So if you'd like to interact and play with them, bring and give them some sweets because they love it. But despite of it, the houses were sooo beautiful with all the famous triangle roof.
After that we went to Ratenggaro Beach, which was located beside the Kampung Adat, only 5 minutes away by car. It was very quiet, there was no other people beside our group. The sand was very white and the ambiance was very calm. There were also some rocks at the beach for us to sit down. Then we went to Pero Beach to watch the sunset. We arrived at around 4.30 PM so we had plenty of time until the sunset. The beach looked like the famous Iceland's spot, with those separated land above the water. We sat by the beach waiting for sunset. This beach was more crowded than the previous one, lots of kids and people were sitting above the rocks or water while they looked for clam/scallop, and also collected the seaweed. They sat, searched, and put it inside their bucket. My sister and I also tried to search for the clam, and it's true there were lots of it inside the water, hidden by the plants.
Then the sunset came, it was very beautiful, the sky turned orange and brighten the whole beach. Thankfully it was not cloudy so we get to see it. Then we went back to the hotel, it took about 2 hours. We had our dinner first before we went to the room, because the restaurant was located at the front part of the hotel and our room was located much further inside. We were very hungry and the food was delicious and warm. After that we took a bath (there was no warm water here), then went straight to bed.
Day #2
We woke up at 5.30 AM, prepared our stuff, had our breakfast, and left our hotel. Our first stop was Mandorak Beach. It was a private beach owned by French but we could enter it if they were not around (weird but OK). And it was extremely beautiful...... this was nothing like other beaches that I saw before, I haven't seen any beach like this. The left side of the beach was cliffs above the ocean, covered by big amazing rocks. There was this water fountain at the corner of the cliff, same as the one as Devil's Tears in Nusa Lembongan. The cliff was very wide, long, and big. And at the right side of the beach was actually the beach, where we could play with the ocean and the sand. It was very white and clean, we could also lay down and sat by the beach. And further right, we could saw another cliffs like the one on the left part. So the beach was basically surrounded by cliffs in the left and right part. It was very beautiful we went from one spot to another spot and another spot. But the weather was hot because it was near midday. You need to prepare sunglasses and high-SPF sunblocks here.
After that we went to Weekuri Lagoon, but once we arrived there it was quite crowded. And we were still going to Bawana Beach, so if we went here first we would get wet and won't be comfortable while going there. So we switch the destinations, we went to Bawana Beach first. FYI this was not effective because they were located quite far from one to another. Based on the rundown of the tour the Weekuri Lagoon was supposed to visited last, but based on the driver it will be faster if we visit the lagoon first. You needed to make sure the rundown is the same as discussed, or you should discuss any changes earlier with the driver first, so you don't have to waste any time because it took about 1.5 - 2 hr from one spot to another.
So we went to Bawana Beach first. The beach was very close to the ocean, so you couldn't go here in the morning, usually the water went down at around 1 PM, and we arrived there just in time. The beach itself was very undiscovered, we even couldn't see the beach from above the hill, because it was hidden very below. We had to go down the rocks quite far, and it was hard, it was similar with the path that you took while you hike a mountain. I was concerned with my mother at first, but thankfully we wore comfy shoes. So the three of us bought matching mountain slippers before we went here, because we watched Andien vlog and she said it will be very useful. AND IT WAS VERY USEFUL. You should totally buy a mountain slippers, nowadays there were many of it with modern designs, so not only the formal or serious ones. Mine was in tosca, my mum's was in orange, and my sister's was in blue. After some struggles and a bit scary, finally we reached the beach!
The beach was very beautiful, it was like an undiscovered beach, no else was there. The beach was very close to the ocean itself, so when we arrived the wave were still quite strong it even reached our point at the beach. There was this iconic big hole in a rock so we took some photos, then we moved to the other side beyond the hole where laid even wider space of the beach. We sat there and enjoyed our lunch, literally by the beach. It was very peaceful and calming because no one else was there. You also need to bring a Balinese cloth to cover the sand if you want to sit on the sand. The beach was very big and wide we could literally run from on one side to another.
After enjoying our lunch, took lots of pictures there, we climbed up the hill to get to our car. It was less scary than going down the hill but it took more efforts because the rocks were quite high, we sweated a lot once we arrived up. After that we went to Weekuri Lagoon, it took about 1.5 hr to get there. We arrived there at around 4.00 PM and thankfully it was less crowded. We changed our clothes first - There was this proper bathroom where you could change your clothes! I was quite afraid we needed to change in the car. You needed to pay it though for 2IDR per person here. Then we went to the top of the rock first to see the lagoon from above. It was verrrryyy beautiful and luxurious. The water itself was not so blue, more to light green. The lagoon was surrounded by rocks & stones on top of it. So we went to one side of it that was covered in sharp rocks, that again better walked in mountain slippers because if not it will hurt your feet. Took some awesome pictures there because we get to see the whole lagoon.
Next we went down to swim in the lagoon. There were some spots where we could go down the lagoon. There was this high board where you got to jump from it way below to the water, there was actually a ladder beside it but it was quite scary with no safety protection and all. So instead we went through the normal steps, where we could directly touch the water. Near the steps there were local people selling coconut and drink, we put our belongings there, guarded by our driver. Then we swam in, took lots of instagram-able pictures while enjoying the water. It was less crowded back then in the evening, but the water was not so blue and the sun started to go down it turned dark. But despite that it was very peaceful and calming, surrounded by those trees and rocks while swimming in the cold, refreshing lagoon.
Some of the tour members don't wear swim suit but we wore it because we were planning to literally swim here. I personally would recommend you to wear proper swim suit here because the water was soooo tempting and nice to resist swimming here! Plus it will look prettier for your instagram-able picture. Bring only one device to the lagoon for taking pictures because you will swim here and your device will get wet if you were not careful. At around 5.15 PM we went back to our cars, changed to dry clothes, and went back to the hotel. It took around 2hour til we arrived there, but thankfully they already served our dinner - perfect timing since we all were starving. They served warm rice with some dishes and veggies. After dinner, we went to our rooms to take a bath and rest.
Day #3
The next day, we were leaving West Sumba and heading to the East Sumba. We already packed our stuff the night before, so in the morning we brought our luggages to the restaurant. During the journey, we passed many interesting landmarks including the morning market, which was held only every Saturday in West Sumba. It was very crowded because everyone from Sumba, including from the East who lived way in the forest and far far far from the city center. They brought their harvest and crop from their homes, and sold it here at the market. Corns, vegetables, coconuts, fruits, and other foods were sold here. We passed the middle part of Sumba, which was quite different with the ones where we stayed before at West Sumba. The middle part had better homes, more crowded surroundings, more cars and transportations, well generally wealthier than the west part. The road trip was long, it took about 4 hours from west to the east, but we stopped somewhere in between to visit the waterfall.
The road itself was quite scary... through quite narrow roads, passed by truck and bulldozers who were working on the construction, hills and forests, and miles of rough roads. But the scenery itself was very beautiful I felt like I was in Switzerland :") Mountains, rice fields, hills, clear blue skies, and the cities from above was very beautiful. After quite the journey, we finally arrived at Lapopu Waterfall at around 10AM. We brought our bag and changed our clothes - we already wore our swim suit beneath our clothes so we didn't need to change here, but the toilet was clean you don't have to worry about it. FYI, we only brought 1 swim suit here and we wore it yesterday at the lagoon, so our swim suit was quite wet this morning. We already hung it in the bathroom from the night before, hairdryer it in the morning, but still quite wet. So when we wore it inside our clothes and went through a 2.5 hour trip to the waterfall, it felt quite cold but that's OK. After that we walked down the hills to reach the waterfall, and again it was quite hard because it was slippery! More and more reason to buy mountain slippers :") We walked at the small path with river flowing right next to us, so it was very slippery, added by moss above it and some small stones which made it hard to step on. Walked for about 1KM until we could see the waterfall.
We also needed to cross some bridge made of bamboo which seemed quite weak it could only took 2 people at a time. After crossing the river, we walked a little bit more and then arrived at the waterfall. It was very calming, located in the middle of a small forest, you could literally hear the birds chirping, the sound of the current flows, and the air was so fresh! Again, mountain slippers are very useful here, even better than sneakers or other sport shoes because you can wear it when you goes into the water. The road was very slippery, so I suggest you to bring a backpack here for all your stuffs including fresh clothes, so that you could carry it easily. We put all of our stuffs in one bag and I was the one who carried it, but frankly we didn't bring a backpack, so it was kinda uncomfortable to bring it during the tracking part.
At the waterfall, we took lots of pictures, and swam there. The current was not so heavy but still could bring you to the other side of the river if you didn't hold on to your feet. The water was quite cold because it is still quite early in the morning, but the good thing it wasn't hot bcs the sun hasn't risen up that high already. After finished taking a bath and taking lots of good pictures (the most important thing though!), we went back up, tracking to our starting point. Again here, wear your proper swimsuit!1st bcs it looks nicer in pictures, and 2nd you must really soak in the water bcs it is really calming. We changed our clothes in the bathroom, and continued our trip to the Eastern part of Sumba.
On our way to the next destination, we ate our lunch box right beside the road, which was covered by forest in the left side, some kind like picnic. It was fun! And the scenery was cool, just like those roads that you could find overseas. After about 3hrs or so, we reached our next destination, which is Bukit Wairinding, which is located right beside the main road. We went up the hill and met many local children there. They were quiet and shy at first, but after we asked to take picture with them, they are willing to play & chat with us. And the kids here were different with the ones in Ratenggaro - there, maybe they are told to ask for money/snack/other things while they see a tourist came in, which was quite annoying for me. But here, they just wanted to get along & play with us - very heartwarming indeed :"
My guide said that there are lotsssss of this kinda hill all around East Sumba, but this one is the most beautiful one because you got to see the most hills here. We took lots of pictures here, walking from one side of the hill to the other side of it. We stayed here for almost 1 hour, then we continued our trip. Oh and the toilet here was dirty, always bring a wet & dry tissue with you, because unfortunately it is hard to find water here. We are supposed to visit Puru Kambera Savannah based on our initial itinerary, but it is located far far far from here, and we are going to catch the sunset at the beach. So we skipped that but somewhere in between the road trip we stopped by some small savannah located just beside the road. There were many horses here, like 20 of them, just running freely in this small savannah it actually felt like in Africa. But when I tried to get closer to take pictures, they immediately ran away. But more or less that was very awesome to see those horses just running freely here.
Our next stop is Walakiri Beach, where we are going to catch the sunset there. We arrived there at 5PM, which is just an hour to sunset. The most iconic thing about this beach, are the silhouette of those skinny trees when the sunset came. It is located in the middle of the beach, the water was down so that we could see those starfish & coral reefs right below our feet. We could even touch and hold the starfish, they are so cute. Here we took some pictures with the tree's silhouettes, while waiting for the sun set down. It was very beautiful, the sky turned orange purple-ish, combined with the silhouettes. There were also some little boats in the middle of it, so we could sat down there while watching for the sunset.
After that we went back to the hotel, our body was sooo sticky because the weather was hot and the road trip was quite long, but it was all worth it. On our way to the hotel, we also stopped by a souvenir's shop to buy some local food such as beans and nuts. We were so hungry we decided to buy a martabak right in front of the shop hahaha. Then we went to the hotel - the hotel here was better than our previous one in West Sumba, there are hot water, the food were also much better, and the rooms are also more modern. We were so exhausted, we took a bath first then ate dinner together. It tasted very delicioussss, maybe because we were so hungry that time. The martabak that we bought were quite different with the usual martabak in Jakarta, especially the cheese & the butter - but we finished it anyway since we were starving hahahaha.
After that we went back to the hotel, our body was sooo sticky because the weather was hot and the road trip was quite long, but it was all worth it. On our way to the hotel, we also stopped by a souvenir's shop to buy some local food such as beans and nuts. We were so hungry we decided to buy a martabak right in front of the shop hahaha. Then we went to the hotel - the hotel here was better than our previous one in West Sumba, there are hot water, the food were also much better, and the rooms are also more modern. We were so exhausted, we took a bath first then ate dinner together. It tasted very delicioussss, maybe because we were so hungry that time. The martabak that we bought were quite different with the usual martabak in Jakarta, especially the cheese & the butter - but we finished it anyway since we were starving hahahaha.
Day #4
Our last day here! Quite sad but well we were exhausted enough due to our full itinerary for the last 3 days. This day was mainly about Sumba's famous cloth (kain), we went to the famous local village who weave it on their own. They even produced it for the famous Sejauh Mata Memandang brand! There, we were told about the weaving process from A to Z - how do they make each colors, how do they draw or design the pattern, what is the story behind each of the cloth. It turns out that each pattern are originated from different kind of story. There are various sizes that they offer, from the big ones that you could hung up on your house wall, or wear it as a skirt/pants, up to a short small scarf.
I was actually very amazed by the whole cloth variations, they said some of it even took 1 year to make?!?!?! Which is insane. And honestly, it is very beautiful. No wonder they sold it for such a high price, since they made it by their own hand, from the design up to the production. One example is the one on this right --> every single details of the cloth explain a traditional Sumba story, that they created and transformed it into a cloth, so beautiful. Beside cloth, they also sold other goods such as necklace and other jewelries.
After that we went to Bukit Mau Hau, or they called it a friendship hill, because it represent two hills that stood side by side. It was very beautiful, made me feel like I was in Switzerland. The grass were green, the sky was crystal clear blue filled with white cotton candy clouds. You could also see a bunch of horses running around the hills. They are very hard to be reached, when we are only a step away, they immediately ran away. We also found a foal (young horse) that was still wild, it ran and ran and ran aggresively around the hills. We thought that it want to protect it's mother, because we were trying to get closer to its mother. As soon as we moved closer, it ran and protected it's mother, as you can see in the picture, they stayed closely all the time. So cute right :""""
After that, we went to another cloth's center, located in front of Sumba's traditional house. The quality of the cloth is actually better in the previous ones that we visited. We already bought 2 cloths there, so here we only bought 1 small scarf. We also went in the house to see the interior of it, it was quite big with 2 levels. The foundation was strong, even though it was made mainly from bamboo. Next, we went straight to the airport because we had nowhere else to go hahaha. We were starving because we didn't have time to stop by at a restaurant, so we ate popmie at the airport. The airport was small, there was only 1 big waiting room for all flights. But it was quite new, modern, and clean, so that's okay.
Overall, I was so in love with Sumba. Those iconic places that we visited, we haven't seen it before in other part of Indonesia, or even the world. Unlike Bali or Lombok or other beaches, these ones were different. Mainly unexplored, located at the deeper part of the forest or hills. My favourite place is Weekuri Lagoon - wow I even couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it, 100000x times more beautiful than you ever saw through pictures or photos. Will I go here again? Absolutely yes.
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