I was lucky enough to finally visit this beautiful island of Sumba in East Nusa Tenggara. I was there for a rather short work trip. I spent 6 days there in the mid of October. So basically this post is not going to highlight incredible places in Sumba but rather sharing my personal story on how I see the beauty of Sumba during my limited time there.
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I remember it very vividly, I took a very early flight at 2 AM and went straight to the airport from the office. And as per usual, I could not sleep during the flight. I had 4 hours layover in Kupang and because I managed to squeeze 0 sleep so I tried to sleep at the the transit area instead (it was successful), and then I spent my birthday on the plane back home— 3 transits and long long hours of flight. What a sweet sweet way to spend birthday!
Anyways, here’s the highlight of my short trip in Sumba.
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a) Disconnect to Connect
I have been told by my client that there was barely any connection there. So I bought Telkomsel sim card in Waingapu city thinking that it will sort of work in the village. Long story short, it did not work at all haha! I literally couldn’t do anything with my phone except for taking pictures or videos. But I finally got the hang of it and somehow learned the beauty of disconnecting from the noisy world.
I had a lot of time observing, engaging in a great and meaningful conversation with people around me, and that was the best early birthday present.
I also made a friend who is also a fellow researcher from the US and he literally had to go to Tanarara which is 3 hours away from our basecamp just to reply emails and take exams (yes take exams duh lol).
On my last day in Sumba, when bidding goodbye to the people on the basecamp, all I thought was that I hated the idea of being reconnected. I kept putting my phone on airplane mode delaying the inevitable. All I knew at that time was that being disconnected for a while is somewhat a luxury.
b) Visited 3 different villages in East Sumba
I stayed in a basecamp located in Ngonggi, and I got to meet people from other villages in Tawui, Lailunggi and Praiwitu South. However, one of the challenges was the distance between one village to another, and the road condition. It took us more than an hour from our basecamp to Tawui and other villages. It was so remote and the road was utterly bad and damaged.
There was this particular spot where my driver had to concentrate even more or else we would fall down in to the ravine haha. We would go there very early in the morning and went back to our base camp quite late at night.
c) The Beautiful Tanarara
We were on our way to the basecamp from the airport and never in my mind would I think that we would pass this beautiful road in Tanarara and the timing was just perfect! It was around 5pm and the sun was about to set! The scenery was the only thing that could make me stay awake that day as I only had 2 hours of sleep that day.
d) Beautiful Night Sky!
I was blown away by the beautiful night sky in Sumba. You could see so many stars so clearly due to very minimum light pollution. I spent my last night in Ngonggi to literally look up to the sky and tried to capture it on my camera.
I put my head out of the car window and the breeze hit my face and all I could remember is that I could not stop smiling. Ah man it was so exhilarating.
P.s: The picture didn’t do it justice
e) Insane Scenery
I had actually planned to travel around Sumba alone to celebrate my birthday but I had a change of heart after weighing on so many aspects. Sumba is extremely beautiful but I don’t think it’s suitable for a solo traveler like me as the distance from one attraction to another can take hours, and not to mention it was during dry season and it was so hot.
On my last day, my driver was kind enough to take me around. He took me to Waimarang Waterfall and the famous Walakiri beach. It took us an hour or so to reach Waimarang Waterfall from Waingapu. The access to go there wasn’t so hard either.
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There’s no entrance fee there, we just had to pay for the parking fee that cost around IDR 20,000. To go to the waterfall you have to hike down for about 45 minutes (not to mention the weather was so hot) and be really careful to step down all the sketchy bamboo stairs.
But worry not, it will all be paid off once you lay your eyes on the clear water of Waimarang waterfall. The water was so cold and clear! At the time, it was really packed but it didn’t really lessen the beauty it has to offer. We only spent 1.5hr there as we had to head to Walakiri beach to catch sunset.
𓇼 Walakiri Beach 𓇼
Walakiri beach is well known for its iconic ‘dancing’ Mangrove tree. Luckily, we managed to get there in time to chill, sip our coconut and wait for the sun to set.
As what many people come to Walakiri for, we took pictures with the iconic tree during the sunset and the results were insane.
I will definitely come back, Tana Humba. Rambu rindu
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