Macs with Packs: West Timor Wanderings 1

Salamat Malam!

We are well into our West Timor tour and it's been amazing!

From Rote, we returned to Kupang, the capital of West Timor but this time we stayed in a backpacker-type place as our driver operates out of here. It's been a long time since we stayed in a budget backpackers. The place was actually ok - we had a great view of the sea from our window - but it was on the main road and it was so noisy! We enjoyed going out for tea though. We went to the local fish market where you choose your fish and they bbq it for you. John loved it. I had a vegetable-filled pancake thing called a martabak which we bought from a guy with his little trolley on the street. Yum!

Our driver, Aka, turned up to pick us up the next morning. The plan is to spend five days exploring Timorese traditional villages and other sights, then finish up near the Timor-Leste border.

First stop was to pick up our Timor-Leste visas that we had applied for before we went to Rote. The people here were such fun! When we were here the previous week we had ended up getting photos taken with the lovely girl who served us, so this time we took photos!

To enter the place we have to sign in. We walked in again a week after our first visit and greeted the lovely security guard who got out the sign-in book. When we got to the part where we had to write our passport numbers in, I went to get our passports out. The security guard motioned not to worry about it. He just went back in the book to the week before, found where I'd written the passport numbers in last time, and put them in again. Now that mightn't sound so amazing, but he didn't see the names I wrote! He remembered us from the previous week, even though there were 20 or 30 other people since then!

We headed off on our road trip and our first stop was where we learned how they make palm sugar. We bought some - it had been caramelised and was like eating fudge. Yum!

Next stop was seeing a traditional musical instrument played. The instrument, and the family that makes them, are from Rote. Strangely, we saw very little culture in Rote, and certainly didn't see this. The instrument has 20 strings around a central pole and is played a lot like a harp.

Here's a bit of a demo for you. The guy is wearing a traditional Rotenese hat. Sorry that the video is sideways!

We stopped briefly at a war memorial for both Aussie and Timorese soldiers that fought together in WW2.

We would our way through lush greenery and past villages and towns. The views were sometimes incredible.

Next stop was a waterfall. It was beautiful! The only downside was that there was rubbish in places.

The setting was just as lovely as the waterfall. The roots on some of the trees were amazing - so twisted and gnarled.

These look like they're striaght out of Lord of the Rings.

The roads were sometimes incredibly rough and/or steep. I didn't get a good pic of the really rough bits (I was being thrown around in the car too much!) but it was very slow going. At one point Aka said we had 6kms to go and it would take about 25 minutes. I thought he was joking. He wasn't.

We stopped at one stage and John noticed a bit of a problem with one of our tyres. Check it out!

This has got to be the worst tyre I've ever seen. We had a little talk to Aka and agreed that it could stay that way til the next town the next day. The roads we were on were all really rough so I figured the lack of rubber in patches actually gave us extra grip. If it was raining or we were travelling fast we would have made him change it on the spot.

The good thing about these rough roads is that they were leading us out into more isolated regions. We soon started passing traditional thatch-roofed houses.

With us being in Timor proper, surely the horses here are Timor ponies?

We finally arrived at our first day's destination, a village in the mountains called Fatumnasi. With an altitude of 1200 metres, it was quite cold. We would be staying at a homestay run by a guy whose passion is maintaining the traditions of his village. The homestay consisted of a cluster of buildings, most of which were the traditional thatch-roofed round houses. I have such mixed feelings about this place - you'll soon see why.

First we went for a walk around the town and had all the usuall rock star treatment. We ended up singing songs with a bunch of kids. Just picture us standing on a dirt track singing YMCA to a bunch of kids! It was very funny!

Back at the homestay, Mr Mattheus, the owner, put his traditional clothes on for us. He was the sweetest man you would ever want to meet.

We learned how the houses are set up. Families live in these one-roomed homes. The floors are dirt. In the centre of this one was a totem pole dedicated to the family's ancestors. The corn hanging above it is being dried to be used as seeds for the next crop. In the ceiling above them is stored the bulk of the corn crop. The smoke from the cooking fires keeps insects out of it.

The thatched houses looked so cute from the outside.

Unfortunately we found a pet monkey that was chained up with only 2 feet of chain. It was rocking back and forth. This sort of thing upsets me and really put a dampener on the experience.

Later, back in the main house, they were cooking dinner. Fires are lit directly on the floor and food is cooked there. At night, everyone sleeps around the fire to keep warm. The problem with all this is that there is no outlet for the smoke. To keep the bugs out of the corn, the smoke is needed. This causes many health problems. Later in the evening I wanted to watch the cooking but I couldn't stand being in the room for more than 30 seconds. My eyes were streaming! It must be awful to live with this every day and night. We sat outisde in a cold building rather than in the warm, smokey room.

We thought we should set up our room while there was still light. It was, ummmm, interesting! This is our house:

Inside were three beds. One of the beds had an old kapok mattress which was as hard as rocks. The other two had foam mattresses - still wrapped in plastic! All three had clammy nylon-type bottom sheets, an old pillow and one blanket. We knew we were in for a rough night. With Aka translating, we were able to get extra sheets and blankets, thank goodness.

The floor was dirt but the amazing thing was that we had power!

We ate a delicious dinner then reluctantly headed to bed. A cold wind had sprung up and it was misty and damp. Everything inside our house got damp as the mist seeped in through the cracks in the walls. Those nylon sheets on top of the plastic-wrapped mattress were definitely unappealing! We knew we just had to deal with it so we did. We made the beds up as best we could and I went to bed with all my clothes on - partly to keep warm and partly to keep as many layers as possible between me and the damp blankets. A cool wind filtered through a large crack near my head so I had no choice but to pull the damp sheet over my head as well.

For me, it turned out not as bad as I thought it would be. I was woken many times by dogs barking, then roosters crowing well before daylight, but I went back to sleep ok. John didn't fare as well, staying awake for hours.

The next morning there was no problem about us being up early as the whole town seemed to be up by 5am. A house down the road had country music playing loudly by 5.30. Nothing like a bit of Dolly Parton to clear the cobwebs! Breakfast was boiled sweet potatoes. Again, it was interesting!

We were rght next to a national park so we set off for a walk. Three local kids joined us to show us the way. They were lovely kids and we were soon singing song and mucking around.

Remarkably, one of them was called Jan Michael. Jan is Dutch for John. This part of Indonesia was a Dutch colony for a long time. The two John Michaels....

We walked until we came to a place that Aka had referred to as the bonsai. We had no idea what this was supposed to be but when the kids pointed out the trees we realised what he meant. They were all stunted, twisted and gnarled - like large bonsai!

Back in the village, large rocky outcops towered overhead in places.

The creative way to fix a leaning power pole.

Kids often play with toys made from whatever is around. We see tyre-rolling a lot. It reminds me of old English stories that I read when I was a kid and I could never understand why they were rolling tyres around.