Time for Timor

Boxing Day 2009

I have contempated a lot about this journey - a solo trek to the unknown...the unexplored! It's exciting...it's scary! But it's time to explore new places and meet new faces!

After two nights in Bali I managed to get a ticket to Kupang - West Timor. 
A new day...a new adventure in a new city, a new island. I left Bali at 9.15am and arrived in Kupang at about 11am so there was still lots of time to explore! I hired a car and a local driver - Pak Niko - he was from Soe, so I said lets go to Soe. I didn't actually realise how far it was from Kupang to Soe but it was on my list to visit.

We drove through small villages - Oebelo, Oesan, Camplung and finally reached Soe...up in the mountains. Nice driving through the forest, although the road was endlessly winding and rough. Passed all the traditional villages, although it was difficult to take many photos as it was pouring rain.

 One thing I did notice was that there were a lot of new houses built and then directly behind them there were traditional houses (ume kebubu or lopo), which were bee-hive shaped. Lopo are small and smoky, with no windows and only a 1 metre high doorway. Apparently authorities instituted a program to replace the traditional houses with newly built more modern looking houses, however the local people were unhappy with their new houses, they believe that they are unhealthy as they are cold, so they built new lopo directly behind the government houses. It's strange looking at these new and traditional houses side by side.

By the time we got to Soe, it was flooded! Time for hot tea and rest for a while at a warung. Although it wasn't the most enjoyable journey because of the bad weather...I had managed to make it to 'almost' the centre of West Timor...on crazy flooded roads...and that was an experience just in itself.