2020.02.13 – Manila (Php) – Denpasar (Indonesia) – Thankfully our hotel served only a light breakfast as our stomachs were still full from last night’s hot pot and buffet restaurant meal. Late morning we wandered over to the closest cafe which was nearby the airport Terminal 1. Later we had our lunch at KFC. Back at the hotel, we opted to take the free airport shuttle an hour earlier than initially scheduled. At the Air Asia check-in counter, the agents were taking the temperature of each passenger before issuing boarding passes. Jenny felt relieved by the temperature control process as she was always a bit nervous on previous flights when she heard someone coughing. We had another long wait at the airport for our 6:35pm flight to Bali. We spent over 45 mins on the tarmac before the takeoff clearance. The flight was uneventful. After our arrival at the modern airport in Denpasar (Bali), we had to complete a few forms for health and custom before queuing for an hour at immigration. Although we had a hotel shuttle van waiting for us, we took the time before leaving the airport arrival area to purchase hectically two SIM cards and data plans for our phones. The shuttle van brought us to our nearby hotel and we checked in our room at 00:30 for a short night rest.

2020.02.14 – Denpasar – Kupang (Indonesia) – Our sleep was not overly restful. After our courtesy buffet breakfast at the hotel, we ventured out in search of an ATM. While on our short walk, we clearly came to the realization that our stay in Indonesia would not be as struggle-free as our stay in the Philippines. After Jenny and I withdrew 2,500,000 and 2,000,000 rupiahs respectively, we had barely $500cdn between the two of us. We managed to install Grab on our phone, a Uber like service popular in South East Asia. We had noticed at our last hotel in Manila, the reception desk had ordered, using Grab, a ride for us to the Mall of Asia. Hence, we managed to order with GrabCar by ourselves to the airport where we arrived previous night. At the airport security screening, our carry-on bag was flagged as holding some liquid in excess of 100ml. We had forgotten to move our sunscreen to our checked-in luggage. Jenny convinced the security agent to dump the half empty sunscreen container content into a zip bag which he accepted. We flew to Kupang over 2 hours on a Boeing aircraft with Lion Air. The same airline that had one of their new Boeing 737 MAX crashed in 2018. Thankfully our flight was uneventful. After recovering our luggage at carousel 1 (of 1), we checked our Grab app for a taxi to our hotel. We opted for a fixed price airport taxi as the GrabCar option showed up as a more expensive ride. We checked into our nice modern hotel where featured an infinity pool. Late afternoon, we walked two kms to have our meal at another hotel’s restaurant. Unfortunately, we showed up too early as the restaurant did not open for another hour. As we were hungry, we ate at their bistro before walking back to our hotel. We were clearly tired due to our previous night’s limited sleep.

2020.02.15 – Kupang – Kupang (Indonesia) – We both had a very restful night sleep. After our courtesy buffet breakfast, we requested a ride via our Grab app to visit the city’s shopping mall. We managed to find and purchase a small supply of expensive sunscreen. We also took advantage of the large grocery store to buy some fruits, snacks and beer. We took another GrabCar to a Telkomcel office to seek clarifications about our SIM cards and data plan we had purchased in Bali. Our concerns were confirmed by the agent. Although we had bought a 30-day 18Gb data plan, we learned that 4Gb was for use on social media only, 4Gb on Chat and 9Gb for “local” internet only within Bali area. Hence, we were left with roughly 1Gb of internet access across the rest of Indonesia. We took another GrabCar back at our hotel, we rested in our room and went for a swim late afternoon. For our evening meal, we took another GrabCar to reach a highly rated restaurant, unfortunately the establishment was closed. We settled on local restaurant recommended by our GrabCar driver.

2020.02.16 – Kupang – Kupang (Indonesia) – We spent most of the day relaxing in our room and around the pool. Thanks to Eastern China refund policy under Covid-19, we managed to cancel our flight tickets to Shanghai, China without any penalty. We took a GrabCar to the Chinese restaurant we had hoped to visit on our first night in Kupang.

2020.02.17 – Kupang – Waingapu[Sumba Island] (Indonesia) – We had our last breakfast at the hotel at 6am. We took a GrabCar to the airport for our 8:45am flight to Waingapu on the Island of Sumba. The flight was less than 1 hour. Once in Waingapu, we had checked into our homestay by 10am. We were a bit surprised that no one spoke any English at the homestay. Shortly after, we contacted a local English speaking guide for an excursion to a waterfall. After meeting our guide, we agreed on the cost of the car rental, fuel and guide services. Although the off-the-beaten track waterfall was only 55kms away, we discovered the last 20kms took over an hour as the rough road would have required a 4WD vehicle. After leaving the waterfall’s car park, we walked 30 mins to reach the actual waterfall. All the efforts were rewarded as we got to the waterfall site. The waterfall merged into another river and the surrounding rock formation made for some awesome views (and pictures). We noticed that school children had to take the same trail as us to reach their village even further upstream the river. During the two-hour drive back to town, we kept on expecting a rainfall but nothing came. Back at our homestay, we briefly exchanged a few words in English with a pastor from the island. Later, we visited a local restaurant for our evening meal. We were very thankful that the restaurant had a special version of their Indonesia menu which included an English translation. We took pictures of the menu to facilitate our food ordering in the future. Before returning to our homestay, we visited the local market to buy some betel (fruits) and areca (nut) and lime powder gifts. The chewing of this fruit and nut mixture appeared widespread across South East Asia as we noticed it all over the Philippines also.

2020.02.18 – Waingapu – Waikabubak[Sumba Island] (Indonesia) – Our first order of business for the day was to drop by the old bus station nearby in order to buy bus tickets for our next town – Waikabubak. Thankfully, we chatted with the pastor before leaving for the bus station. He gratefully offered to drive us to buy our tickets for a shuttle van service to Waikabubak. Without his help we would have never found the building where sold the tickets for the shuttle service. With our tickets in hand, the pastor drove us back to our homestay. After our modest courtesy breakfast, the shuttle van picked us up at our homestay at 8:30am. The shuttle van picked up a few more people before we left Waingapu for Waikabubak. The local scenery along the way was very enjoyable. At a lunch stop, I bought some banana chips which cost 10,000 rupiah, and by mistake I handed over a 100,000 bill and stepped away. Later, the young girl who helped her grand mother sell the banana chips came to see me to hand over the change. Once in Waikabubak, the shuttle van dropped us at our hotel. We felt a bit reassured by the fact that some hotel staff spoke some English. After our check-in, we had a late lunch at the hotel’s restaurant. It rained heavily for a few hours late afternoon. As the rain stopped, we walked two kms to a pleasant restaurant for our evening meal.

2020.02.19 – Waikabubak – Tambolaka[Sumba Island] (Indonesia) – Yesterday’s afternoon rain hindered our plan to visit some traditional villages near the town’s center. Since our shuttle van service to Tambolaka would only pick us up at lunch time, we decided to venture out to visit the villages after our early breakfast. In order to reach the town center faster than walking, we opted to try, for the first time, the popular mode of transportation in Indonesia – the ojek. The motorcycle taxi ride was fun and efficient – although a bit scary at times. We made our way into a village and walked around for 30-45 minutes. Based on our reading of Sumba village etiquette, we kept on expecting to be asked to sign a visitor guestbook [including a donation] and offer some betle/areca gifts to our host(s). For whatever reasons, we did not experience any of the expected customs. After the short visit, Jenny felt exhausted by the presence of many dogs in the village. We returned to our hotel by ojek again. We waited until 1:00pm for our shuttle van to pick us up. The local scenery along the road to Tambolaka was enjoyable. Upon our arrival in Tambolaka, we were dropped off at our hotel. After our check-in, we had a light lunch at a cafe shop across the street from our hotel. In late afternoon, it rained again for a few hours. From our room, we reached out to a local tour company in an attempt to hire an English speaking driver for all day excursion tomorrow. After a few WhapApps message exchanges, we managed to secure a driver. The tour company reminded us that all guides on the island were fully engaged with guests who were attending the Pasola – a hugely popular traditional and top event that took place in different villages at different days over the month of Feb. and March. The Pasola dates scheduling reminded us of Groundhog day as these were determined by local animal’s behavior.

2020.02.20 – Tambolaka – Tambolaka[Sumba Island] (Indonesia) – Shortly after breakfast at the hotel, our driver, Ino, introduced himself to us. After briefly reviewing with him our proposed itinerary, we got him to drive us to an ATM for funds, to a local market for fruits and some extra betle/areca. We learned so much from Ino about the various Sumba customs and life on the island in general. We visited two traditional villages and experienced meeting the locals including signing the guestbook and offering our betle/areca gifts. Although it rained lightly after our second traditional village visit, nonetheless we finished our tour with a visit to a beautiful laguna. A popular activity at the laguna involved renting a tube and floating around. After one hour rest at the lugana, we drove another hour back to town where Ino dropped us off at our hotel shortly after 3pm. We were somehow inspired by our latest tour as it provided us with much insights about the uniqueness of the island of Sumba. Sadly, we also learned that much of the land was being bought by foreign interests. We had our evening meal at the cafe shop across the street.