Sumba: Waingapu -> Wakabubak -> Pero -> Waingapu -> Secret Surf Spot...

Once we got to Sumba we stayed a few days in the town of Waingapu where we had internet and some decent food. We scheduled our ticket to Bali and set out to Western Sumba. The Wild West. This area is known for its traditional beliefs and tribal practices. Megalithic burial is still extremely common here as well as in the rest of Sumba. When there is a death of a King or member of the royal family, there are hundreds of buffalo chickens and goats sacrificed, and the servant of the King is always buried with him. So if he hadn't died yet, he would before the ceremony. We took a five hour bus ride from Waingapu to Wakabubak with a nice Swedish girl named Ida who we met on the Ferry ride.

Wakabubak was a special town, slightly smaller than Waingapu. The treat of visiting Wakabubak is being able to explore the villages on the hills called Kampungs. (shown in the last slide show) They are comprised of traditional style homes built out of colossal bamboo for the walls and floors and have thatched roofs with a tall center. The middle originally had an area where the men could exit the roof and fight for there homes and families if under attack. Also being built on stilts and on a hill, the homes within these kampungs have the advantage of height to ward off invaders. There are giant tomb monoliths on the outside of most peoples homes, made out of cement or stone slabs, with carvings of bulls lining the sides. While eating dinner in Wakabubak, we met a really nice Indonesian named Ringo from Jakarta. We later found out that he is a high ranking police officer assigned to help in Sumba for two years, away from his family in Jakarta. We made plans to all travel together the next day to Pero.

Pero is full of born warriors and is constantly at odds with the surrounding villages. As soon as we drove in, we found out that two people had died that day as a result of a conflict between the villages. Just walking down the street you can sense a difference in the people and the streets compared to peaceful Rote.

That night we enjoyed a bonfire on the beach, underneath a sky full of stars. Four Austrian guys and Ida joined Jesse Ringo and I. We had a really nice evening. The next morning Jesse, Ringo, and I hired some local boys to take us out on their boat a little ways up the river to do some fishing. There were no fish, but the scenery of mangroves surrounding the river were enough for us to enjoy. On a whim Jess and I decided to leave that day with Ringo, back to Wakabubak, and then to Waingapu. We'd had enough of the area. and were glad to have at least seen it. We went back to Waingapu and spent the night before heading out to Tarimbang.

The ride from Waingapu to Tarembang was insane. (shaking head) How do I describe this....well, to start, we were told by several different sources where to wait for the 6:00am bus. We showed up at 5:30 to find that they were all wrong. Luckily we found the bus and got on before they left town. Actually, we got on then stopped and didn't leave town for another two hours while they gathered supplies to take. The bus is not a bus at all. It is a giant truck with five rows of wooden slab seats for people to sit on five across. It is loaded to the brim with rice bags spare tires, boxes, cartons of oil and food supplies. There are two giant speakers on either side (probably made in the 80's) blasting fuzzy Indonesian pop songs. Jesse and I layed out a blow up sleep mattress across and up the back of our seat, then popped in some earplugs and dramamine in effort to make the trip endurable. Every seat was full and there were three guys who would rotate between the roof the side of the truck and a small crawl space inside to flirt with the girls. Within two hours of our trip we blew out a tire. That delayed us an extra hour or two. The last bit of the road, was a one lane goat path across the mountainous ridges leading to the ocean. The truck swayed from side to side and chugged up the steep potholed hills. Aside from being scary, this last part was very beautiful. There were hills as far as my eyes could see, covered with fresh grassy growth and crisscrossed by buffalo walkways and covered with the shadows of heavy gray bottomed cumulonimbus clouds. Eventually we made our way down through some dense jungle where I saw monkeys sitting in the crutch of several trees. There were vines falling across branches connecting one tree with another. Finally we made it to Tarimbang, haggled our way back down to a fair price from the overly inflated one the driver suggested, and settled into our hut at Marthens. The only thing I could think of was how excited I was to eat oatmeal in the mornings as it had been said we would.


Earlier today our friend from California, Micheal, gave me a chunk of milk chocolate with almonds from Trader Joe's and I teared up. I never knew how much a piece of chocolate could affect my emotional status. There are many joys from home that we miss. Jess and I have to be careful not to talk about these things too much we don't want to taint our experience here with pointless thoughts.

It has been five months since we flew out of SFO, and we have three months before we will return. The brightest thing in the next month to happen will be the visit from my brother Daniel. Having home come to me is more than I could ask for.

Jess and I have been in Sumba for around two weeks now. The beach is a short walk away with white sand and blue water, nestled between two towering cliffs. The beach is such a long stretch around. At high tide the water hits the rocks on the cliffs and at low tide you can walk across the hard packed sand comfortably. There are hardly any people around. I walk down to the shore in the afternoon and am the only one there.

There are five individual huts and two four bedroom shared structures, as well as a common area in the center where all of the guests share meals and spend the day. Right now this place is packed with people .This is the busiest Marthen's Homestay has ever been. There are actually two mattresses being used by some Aussies in the family's home. Jesse and I have our own hut, then three other southern Californians and an Austrian have huts, there are seven Kiwis, three Australians, a Swede, two French, and an Indonesian staying in the other rooms.

It is basic here. I really mean basic. The family has help around because they are building a home. So on top of the extra guests there are construction help staying on the property and there is only one bathroom. It is the worst bathroom I have ever seen (except for the one on the boat to Sumba). A small room with a raised area that the squat toilet sits on, it is built poorly and angles down aginst the wall so there is a constant puddle of accumulated water that has been spilled or splashes out of the toilet onto it. Half of the time this toilet is clogged up anyways. Most of the people at the camp go number two in the woods or down by the beach. Where it is much cleaner. Around four days it has rained here. I was talking to the French guys who had a leaking roof, and pigs sleeping direclty benieth one of their rooms. Apparently when there is nobody sleeping in that room, the dogs use it as a bed. One said the stench was terrrible and it was difficult to sleep at night because the dogs were scratching on the door for hours after he barred them out with his surfboard bag. Later he lifted up his besheet and found dog "poo" on the matress!!! This poor guy. He was so nice and so ufortunate.

When asked what Sumban people like to eat more, and given the choices of chicken, pork, beef, fish, or dog. They agreed that they much prefer dog over the other choices. They said that the meat was better......wow. This is culture shock. Every night we had a plate of mystery meat on the table. This is one thing I didn't touch. Most of the people here are really nice. The family rom San Diego, I have adopted as my temporary family structure. They have been wondereful to have around. There are plenty of Kiwis and Aussies. We've made some nice friends.

Four days later.... We have finally had a bug swell come through! This made T-bang, a huge success for Jesse and everyone had a great time surfing. The waves were awesome and big. I hiked up one of the cliffs directly in front of the wave around 6am with Coreen (SD) and Joeanne ( OZ) and took photos of the waves all morning. It was so beautiful and we had the best view possible. Jesse got so many epic waves. After a few hours the tide shifted and one set of waves came out of nowhere (which is expected to happen eventually). It was a bomb set! Joe and I stood up and were drop-jawed.. We yelled, "wooooohhhh heyyyy outsidddde!!!!" and watched thee luckily guys make it over the top and the others get worked by these solid 25 foot set waves. Jesse took two on the head, but Joe's partner got hit by the first one and had his board broken right away. One other guys leash broke. fortunately a charter yacht was parked in the bay and they used their dingy to retrieve the guys and there boards then take them to shore.

At the end of the day Joe and I put up slide shows of the photos that we took and everyone was stoked on the day, nobody was hurt, just happy. Jesse loved it. He surfed some of the biggest waves of his life and had so much adrenaline and fun. I will put up the pics. :O)

Next we go to Bali. We are looking forward to the food! We hope that everyone is doing well at home and enjoying the beginning of Fall!