Kupang

Through the pass and our first view of Kupang, West Timor!!!! Yahoo!! This many officials showed up to welcome us and to do our paperwork for entry. We were supposed to let only four on board at a time, but they just didn’t seem to get it, so we played host to all with most sitting in the cockpit patiently while we took one group below at a time; Customs, Immigration, Health, and Agriculture…..a whole slew!!! Our first tour in Indonesia was with a guy named Don, who wore an official tag that said Joseph!! What was supposed to be a private van for the group of us turned out to be a big bus. Great we thought until……
…..we started picking up passengers, including a pig and several chickens!!! It was worth the experience, and the bus was fairly comfortable. Of course that meant we didn’t get to stop and take pictures of the spectacular scenery, but I did manage to capture a few shots that didn’t blur through the window. How would you like to hit this road construction area in the dark? Those 55 gallon drums were filled with rocks!!
We passed some very unusual thatched roofs as we sped along. At the local market we were herded into a Bemo…or should I say crammed into a Bemo for the next three hours of our supposedly five hour tour!!! We just had to keep laughing to keep the pain away!! This is a gas station here. Fuel is sold in water bottles along the side of the road by local families.
When the truck broke down….in the middle of nowhere….we all got off…..and then moved far, far away. The problem was a leak in the fuel line and the guy lying under the van had a cigarette in his mouth!!! Fixed we continued but this was the start of having to get out and walk up the hills since the van also had NO first gear!! Keep laughing!!! We arrived at Boti Traditional Village with no offering for the chief since apparently our “fake” guide didn’t know we were supposed to have brought one. Instead we ended up putting money in their donation box. We spent more than an hour sitting on this veranda without a clue as to what was going to happen or what we were suppose to do. The people of Boti live in traditional houses in the old way…..except they have turned it into a commercial enterprise. Before we were allowed to explore they fed us wonderful banana fritters and fruit. That was what the hold up was, they weren’t prepared for us to be there and had to fix the food.
This village is famous for their weaving and there were looms set up everywhere in the shade. A traditional house with two very proud villagers. When we went back to the veranda each of the men was presented with a hand woven Ikat; prayer shawl. When I asked the chief’s daughter said it takes about a month to make one. How special is that?
The boys with the chief’s daughter show off their gifts. At the community center, where they sell their weavings, they had a group demonstrating the steps needed to make a finished product. This young man is spinning yarn. Many of the workers were very young. When I asked whether they went to school or not the answer was very ambiguous, so I still don’t know!! Can you imagine sitting like this on a stone floor for hours and hours? But this young lady was very proud of her work and showed us some of her completed pieces. Of course we didn’t buy any…ha!!
We arrived back in Kupang, twelve hours later, just in time for a cultural show they were putting on for the rally. Information was scarce as to what was going to happen here so it was hard to make sure we got to the big events. This time we lucked out!!! We got there just in time for the opening parade. The dancers provided their own percussion by wearing these woven boxes with raw rice inside to make noise as they danced. They are very proud of their warrior heritage and showed it with some of their dances.
The women’s dances were graceful and demonstrated aspects of their everyday lives by imitating, planting, gathering, cooking, or caring for their families as well as the spiritual side of their beliefs. Even the youngsters enthusiastically got into the dances, especially the boys with their wooden swords and shields. The graceful dances were accented by the amazing use of the women’s hands as they danced. Even when there was a line of them their hands were always in sync.
And this is the band!!! These brass bells/drums accompanied all of the dancers. The costumes were incredible. Not just the dancers were being watched. Crowds of people like this one gathered to watch us every time there was an event. But they LOVED having their pictures taken and if I pointed the camera toward one group the group next to them would vie for the next shot!! It was actually a relief to go back out to the boat sometimes; being a celebrity is tough sometimes!!
Berthi (Beer-ta) and Jurgen great friends from Denmark on the boat Circe. Marge and Vic, friends from England on the boat Ice Maiden. Gathering at Teddy’s Bar on the beach to get off our rocky-rolly boats for a few more hours. The anchorage here was terrible….a portent of things to come!! We tried to ignore the fact that Teddy ran the local mafia and controlled the beach front with an iron hand.
A little lady selling bananas. They carry everything this way!! I bought my large woven blankets from this gentleman. Downtown Kupang. Looks pretty good as long as you don’t look too close, or breathe too deeply!!
Buildings age quickly here!! Motorcycles provide transportation for probably 95% of the folks that own their own vehicles here. And those without use the public Bemos to get around. We saw very few privately owned cars. Shops down an alleyway. Unless we went outside of town to the one or two shopping centers most business is conducted this way.
The dinghy beach. Sometimes there were more than a hundred dinghies lined up here. Teddy had boys down on the beach to wade into the surf and drag us in and then pick up the dinghies and carry them up high beyond the tide line. When we returned the process was reversed!!! It was great!!! I captured this shot as we sailed out of Kupang. The buildings just seem to hang on the rocks.