It all has so much to do with atmosphere. After the gorgeous motor up the fjord bracketed by the mountains and the quaint-looking villages along the shore, weaving around the village fishing structures built in the middle of the channel and waving at the stream of ferry boats packed with people, we pulled into the head of the bay off the city and thought, "Oh, no, here we go again."
Kalabahi was a city, albeit definitely smaller than Kupang, but there was a large commercial wharf area with big freighters and even a small cruise ship; the clamor of waterfront work, more motorbikes, and the call of competing mosques; the air was laden with smoke, and, damn if the anchorage wasn't deep!
Quantum Leap was the first arrival, and a official runabout darted out upon sighting us to set small marker buoys to to keep us clear of the cruise ship's turning radius. The shoreline in our designated anchorage area was crammed with a jumble of very poor looking houses and a riot of children and their shrill babble. Tom hunted for a spot to drop the anchor in less than 70 feet, but we didn't like how close the boat set back toward the shore, so we bit the bullet and moved out into the deeper water. This made our hosts a bit anxious, especially in the afternoon's suddenly stiff breeze. But it turned out to be a good move as later one rally boat, pushing to be in shallower water actually got caught aground over the shelf as the tide went out and heeled onto its side. (They managed to get off on the midnight high tide which was very fortunate since they went aground on the new moon tide! If they hadn't, they might have been stuck there for weeks!)
Fortunately, the holding proved good, and none of the rally boats had any other anchoring issues other than getting a bit close to one another during the periods of slack breeze and tide. Over the following day or two about 35 of the total 108 boats in the rally fleet assembled in Alor.
Our feelings about Kalabahi began to improve after a good night's slept in dead calm conditions, a beautiful morning, and chorus of charming overtures by children paddling around us in their rustic outrigger canoes. Ashore, the good feeling consolidated when we found that the Alor-based organizers for Sail Indonesia were truly working at it. They had constructed a dinghy dock off the wharf with a ramp. While it didn't prove to be quite big enough when the whole fleet was in at one time (let alone the 100 boats they had hoped to lure!), it sure was a valiant effort. Plus there were always helpers on hand to assist you on the somewhat wobbly platform and to help you up and down the "ramp" which also could have used a bit more engineering to work with the tide. Still, it all worked and the attention was great.
On the dock was a tent with our chief guide Ahmad, and three English-speaking assistants, two of whom - Nettie and Mila -- were students and one -- Yani -- was a lecturer at the local university. Ahmad had the flair of a consummate car dealer/public relations man, quick to exercise his repertoire of jokes. His assistants were eager and charming, tickled to speak English with us all and hopeful of being helpful.
On our first day we wandered around finding the Internet cafe and a warren of wharf-side shops and markets, and the local ball field with basketball, volleyball, soccer and the like in full afternoon use. The Internet cafe became an important spot since Bette Lee and Tom were keen to locate and order a replacement car for the Lewmar traveler. Unfortunately, our new cellular modems did not prove to work well in Alor, despite being surrounded by cell towers. Bette Lee was occasionally able to connect enough to send and receive Sailmail via Telnet, but my IPad was hobbled, the only thing getting through being headlines from the NY Times! At the internet cafe I figured out how to collect our emails from www.mail2web.com, but, since you can't hook the IPad up to ethernet, I had no way to get out the 26 emails, Blog posts, and photos I had (and still have) backed up in my Outbox! (What I needed was a hotspot, and although one showed up on the connect screen, I couldn't determine its source or how to get connected to it!)
We also found a warung/restaurant for a nice Indonesian lunch with Richard and Michelle of Thor We were a bit worried that the start of Ramadan -- during which time (a full month) Muslims fast during daylight hours as an exercise of faith and discipline -- might curb our taking advantage of Indonesia's very cheap eateries, but in Nusa Tenggara at least, the majority of the population is Catholic, so daily services (mostly) go on unabated.
A small restaurant like this has a very short menu, about 6-8 items, centered on lots of rice, a small bit of protein and a heap of very spicy chili sauce. Richard got a big gulp of hot sauce and turned a frightening shade of red, coughing and hiccuping for a good five minutes....then jumped right back on it...more carefully! Later we also tried out some of the rustic open-air warungs of the beachside night market. We got surprisingly good food and even fairly cold Bintang beers..but we never figured out the purpose of the two deer (looking a lot like reindeer!) tethered out front. Hmmmm...?
Scuba with Alor Dive
The next day we went diving with Alor Dive, run by German PADI instructor Thomas Schreiber (www.alor-dive.com). He picked up nine of us from Quantum Leap with his Indonesian-style dive boat, and took us for a lovely ride back out the fjord and north up the strait to two very nice dive sites. You would think cruisers would be champing at the bit during a leisurely boat ride, but to the contrary, we all truly enjoyed the close-up look at the shore and the so-pleasant chance to sit and talk on the deck with someone else at the helm.
The boat was very well set up for diving, equipped to accommodate 14 divers and with very easy entry and exit to and from the water. The equipment provided was all up to date and in good condition, and Thomas's briefing (in English and German) was to the point and not fussy.
It had been three whole years since Don and I were last in the water, and I worried we might be a little rusty, but this trip was the perfect reentry. It felt like we'd been diving just yesterday!
The dives themselves, just two of the 43 publicized sites in the marine park, featured gorgeous hard and soft corals and really impressive sponges. We didn't see any big pelagics (but the group who went the next day did), but the colorful reef fish were plentiful. (Thomas caught big eating fish the day before and the day after our trip!) The first dive was a wall with encrusted undercut ledges, wire and black corals, crinoids, tunicates and huge vase and barrel sponges. The second was a drift dive along a bank of mixed hard and soft corals and anemones. Here we saw a huge schools of black or Indian triggerfish (looking much like the Caribbean's black durgons), sennet and fusiliers. A highlight for me was a school of ten coral shrimpfish swimming in tight formation head down, something I don't remember previously seeing!
Welcoming Ceremonies
The next day brought a full agenda of welcoming ceremonies. The day started with a ceremony where a troupe of costumed warriors went out in a traditional boat to bring the cruisers ashore. Most of us were already ashore (especially those of us who didn't keep the radio on and missed the announcement to wait!), but our friends Richard and Michelle of Thor and Tom and Barbara of Gosi were collected officially by the warriors.
Next we walked to a well-organized event at the head of the soccer field. After a traditional lego-lego dance -- a circular tribal-style dance of union (very reminiscent of Vanuatu) in which the cruisers joined in arm-in-arm with the dance troupe -- we ascended to three pavilions that had been set up for cruisers, officials, and invited locals (with comfortable chairs and boxed snacks) around a stage. Here, after welcoming speeches, a troupe of beautifully-costumed (and beautiful) dancers performed a dance telling the story of cooperation between clans when a house has to be rebuilt, representing both male jobs and female jobs. (If I had to guess, this might be a modernized, pro-social interpretation of traditional dances which traditionally countered the women's roles with men hunting and fighting! But, understand, that is just my guess!)
In the afternoon we watched a cultural dance competition with four troupes, including the one that had performed for us earlier. As before, the troops were all attired in traditional ikat, the colorfully woven sarongs and sashes draped and pinned to make gorgeous "dresses" suggestive of Japanese kimonos. Their hair is coiffed and bedecked with beaded ornaments, or feathers in the men's case. Each troupe wears different ikat and ornament, presumably representing their tribe and clan.
Finally, in the evening was the official welcoming dinner at the Governor's "white house"! Here we were treated to a very interesting buffet and more dance, including a troupe of talented elementary schoolers playing traditional bamboo and drum combinations.
But the highlight of this evening for the cruisers was that five cruising couples had been invited to participate in the performance by modeling five different clans' traditional dress. Our own Tom & Bette Lee plus friends Richard and Michelle of Thor, Tom & Barbara of Gosi, plus Frenchmen Pierre & Ellen of the Amel Lady Annabel and Scots Will & Margaret of the Formosa 51 Atlantia were those selected. (OK, I admit it; I was a little envious!) Given that all the men were individually twice the size of a local person, there was some concern the costumes could be made to fit, but, wow, did they all look fantastic. Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly, they were not allowed to keep the outfits! But they, and everyone, was once again gifted with ikat scarfs.
What really distinguished this whole day was that the Alor dignitaries were in full attendance at all functions. Don and I were personally introduced with Tom and Bette Lee to the Governor and First Lady at the morning function, and at the dinner, the officials shook hands with each and every one of us. The whole thing felt very personal.
Island Tour
On Friday, Ahmad offered an island tour. We were impressed that they could muster three (intact) busses and that the three busses were filled full.
Our first stop was the Museum of 1000 Moko. Completed in 2004, the museum's aim is to collect and preserve artifacts of the Alor Archipelago's multi-cultural legacy in the face of all the modern change. Although small, the museum's three buildings present a nice collection. In the first building are the moko drums, bronze drums that are not only used as instruments in custom ceremonies but are important as dowry items. Interestingly, the drums came to the islands through trade with Vietnam! There is also a nice display of traditional fishing equipment and techniques, including the fancy floating platforms that we dodged while coming up the inlet and the woven bamboo fish traps we saw diving on the reef. Across the aisle was a display of traditional head-hunting weapons in use in inter-tribal warfare as recently as a few generations ago!
The second building displayed samples of ikat weaving from different Alor clans, and between royalty and commoners. According the museum guide, despite individual variations, the people of Alor can distinguish members of one tribe from another by their ikat!
After the museum, the busses conducted us out of Kalabahi and into the rugged countryside along the north coast. We passed lots of banana plantations growing thickly in the rocky soil. The front yards of many houses are cultivated as vegetable gardens. Everywhere are piles of rock collected manually to smooth the dirt around the houses and to be picked up for building materials. Most houses have foundations of rock and cement, but are topped with by walls of brick and mortar (they use a lot more mortar to brick than we are used to!) Windows are sometimes inset with the pretty wood and glass frames we'd seen in Kupang, but sometime unglazed with wood shutters thrown open. Along the beach, we were surprised to see round wells; it seems mighty close to the tidal line!
Our destination was Takpala, a traditional village of the Abui tribe. It is way up a mountainside, at the end of a dramatically steep and stoney road. Children from the lower village raced after the bus to hop onto the back fender for a free ride, terrifying foreign grandparents inside the bus.
From the road we climbed a path to the village proper. Pretty quickly we realized that Takpala is actually a "museum village"and that the crowd of "residents" in traditional dress awaiting us don't actually live there, but below in the (only somewhat) more contemporary housing with electricity. (Which explains how Ahmad could so assertively proclaim how we wouldn't find a television anywhere here!) The performance ground was framed by several traditional style houses, open-sided on the main level, with storage "attics" under the steep thatched roofs. There were also two smaller guesthouses, traditionally reserved for the families negotiating for wives.
There followed a lego-lego circular chant dance by about ten women and two men clad in traditional ikat adorned with traditional baskets for betel nuts for the women and traditional weapons for the men. Like the Ambrym dances in Vanuatu, you can see how the arm-in-arm circle, hypnotic chant and the repetitive-patterned stamping, would strengthen a sense of community loyalty and interdependence. The connection to Vanuatu was augmented by the fact that the Abui clan population were clearly of a more Melanesian ethnicity than the folks we'd been seeing perform in town who appear more Asian or Malaysian. Also like Vanuatu, the women dancing were older. One wonders if the younger generations are learning the traditions. At least in Takpala, unlike Ambrym, performing does not not require dancing nude! After the lego-lego, the older and younger male warriors enacted a battle. They were armed with wicked looking bow-and-arrows, daggers and swords!
After the dance we had a chance to buy local crafts. Which most of us did. I bought some beaded necklaces and Don bought a dagger.
WE survived the downhill trek, backtracked through the city and drove out to the west end of the island, stopping for a box lunch and a snorkel right where we had happened to do our second dive! Unfortunately, the current was running strongly in the strait and we were advised to stay close to the beach to avoid being caught and swept away. Also unfortunately, the strong current reduced visibility markedly! Still, any opportunity to float with my face in the water is wonderful and refreshing.
And so went our stay in Alor. The wonderful smiles of the local folk, from the children who started our every morning with their cheerful and hopefully shrill "Good morning mister, good morning Missus" (We gave out over a dozen of our baggies containing a school notebook, two pencils, erasers and silly bands the first morning, necessitating our cutting back on following mornings or else we would have none left for future stops
!), to the eager efforts of the local Sail Indonesia committee, to the surprised pleasure on local faces at our feeble attempts at Indonesian can't help but warm the heart. The clutter and clamor of the waterfront receded in the face of the area's beauty, the charm of all the welcoming efforts, ceremonies, and delightful dance performances, and the friendly people.
And so we leave with that sad tug that insists one could happily spend some more time here. It ended up being a great place to be on a boat.
Gwen Hamlin
Cafe Getaway
Sent from my iPad
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