Day 10 - Kupang, East Timor

This photo was taken at 5.30 this morning as we approached the West coast of Timor after sailing overnight from Lamalera in Lambata. We disembarked at the old harbour where Captain Bligh landed in 1789 after the mutiny on the bounty, right out the front of Teddy's Bar. 

We were accompanied by local guide, Tony, for the day. Our first stop for the day was to visit the King of Amorosi.....

We were greeted by the children, some of whom were the King's grandchildren, who took our hands and guided us to the ceremonial welcome by elders, then onwards to the King's house ( I am not sure if that is called a palace in Amorosi)....

Again we were taken through the dyeing and weaving processes. To make  a dark black dye, the women dye firstly with indigo, then Morinda and then lumpur which is a mud, I guess iron-rich. They produce a purple from jati leaves and yellow comes from saffron or the skin of pomegranates and the bark.

These are balls of candlenut mixed with daun uta runa and water ready for pre-mordanting for Morinda dyeing.

This is the Morinda root alongside Loba bark.

Preparing the Morinda and indigo dyestuffs.

After watching the fabric dyeing we went to the papermaking studio where the King's 3rd daughter makes handmade paper from plants. There are 27 plants on the property she can use, but today she demonstrated making paper with the skin of the banana trunk and rumput gaja, a type of elephant grass.

The King of Amorosi, Bapak Robert Koroh, is a well-known printmaker who has had exhibitions at Nomad Gallery and whose work is in the collection of the NGA.

Before returning to the Ombak Putih for lunch we went to the  Museum which was fairly modern and veiwed their collection of textiles on display, again behind glass, so photography was difficult. They also had a lovely collection of baskets and jewellery, tools and ceramics.

This is a detail of an Amarasi weaving using natural dyes ( Morinda and indigo). The decorative motif in this design is called the "Bao naki", often worn by aristocracy.

In the afternoon we had another natural dyeing demonstration which was excellent, and we learnt a bit more about pre-mordanting with the nitas tree, using the skin of the fruits and the leaves, as well as a few other plants.

It was also the first time I saw them adding an alkaline water to the Morinda dye to effect the red colouring.

However some of the most charming things about going into a village is meeting the locals and I have just fallen in love with the young children who are so happy to connect with you, they are so cheeky and adorable!

The weaving was also beautiful and many of us were laden with purchases, wondering how we are going to get them home !

And of course the day ended with another beautiful sunset as we sailed towards Suva, our next destination.

Day 8 Alor Island - Kalabaki Harbour

This morning was another glorious sunrise and after breakfast on the boat we went for an excursion to the Tapkala Village of the Abui Tribe. We were taken most of the way by bus but about half a kilometer or so we had to stop, get out and walk the rest of the way because it was difficult for the bus to negotiate.

The people of Tapkala gave us a ceremonial greeting with warriors brandishing spears, and feathered headdresses, and the women wearing heavy ankle bracelets. These people are physically similar to Papuans and in fact recent recearch has identified 14 separate indigenous languages, most of which are Papuan or Austronesian.

They invited us into their village and performed a once-sacred dance called the lego-lego , performed by joining hands in a circle, accompanied by very slow yet emotive singing. We were then invited to join in because it was a dance about friendship. 

This tribe place a lot of value on the moko drums which are used as bridewealth. Their houses further down the mountain were also decorated with painted or woven geometric motifs.

After that we were taken to a local market to browse amongst the vendors, mostly fruit and vegetables and western-style clothing, but there were a few stalls selling some handmade textiles. 

This was one of the delicious treats on offer - it is called kueh jipang and is made from rice flour, coconut and brown sugar, kind of like a coloured rice vermicelli, but sweet.

We then visited the local Museum which held a small assortment of commissioned textiles from different regions. These had been recently made and many of the exhibits were behind filthy tinted glass so photography was not that easy to do.

After lunch on the boat we went ashore again to visit the Monbang Hamlet in the Kopidil District, home to the Abui tribe. These people have revived the art of barkcloth making, because the use of bast fibres was banned in 1971 by the Indonesian government for being too primitive.

We caught the bus most of the way up the mountain but needed to walk the last 300m or so because

of a dispute between two tribes hence the bus was not allowed to go any further.

Our representative this time was Alfred from Taiwan and he was dressed ceremonially in the warrior's tapa cloth skirt and headdress. The Abui took him into the forest to "find" the tree that the tapa is made from, and he was carried seated on bamboo poles like a king to the central meeting space.

Another version of lego-lego was performed and then the demonstration of tapa making began. The tree they collected was thin, probably because they had a certain amount of time for demonstration as it is hard work. Firstly the outer bark was shaved off with a large knife. The peeled log is placed over another log for balance and then beaten carefully with another piece of wood. This bruised the outer layer of the tree so that it separated from the layers below. Once the whole circmference had been beaten the bark was peeled off then slit up the centre to form a squarish piece of tapa which could then be joined to other pieces to form larger cloth. Unfortunately I took videos of this process on the ipad, not photos, so I cant add any photos in until I return home.

In the evening we set sail for the island of Lamalera.

Day 7 - Alor Island

Another early rise this morning but this time I joined one of our other travellers, John, who conducts a yoga class each morning. It is slowly growing in size and there were about 6 of us all on the top deck while the sun rose in front of us as the boat set sail for Lembata.

This photo shows the Ile Api with its plume of smoke as the sun rose behind it. While we were doing yoga, a large pod of dolphins swam very close to the boat, unfortunately I couldn't take a photo because I was in warrior pose 1....!

Our first stop after breakfast was the village of Mawa on the island of Lembata. This was a lovely village  that grows and spins it's own cotton and the predominant patterns are stripes in dark indigo/black with Morinda citrifolia.

The quality of the weaving was good, and there were many pattern variations so shopping was a hard task!

This photo shows Ibu Martine showing how they collect the cotton from the plant and then process it. These are some of the beautiful cloths they weave, all handspun and naturally dyed.

I bought a few scarves from Ibu Fatima. During one of our nightly lectures by David and Sue, we learnt about the marriage system on this island, about dowrys and counter prestations from the grooms family to the bride. Many of these alliances are asymetrical. An interesting fact was about the  status of these gifts and the value placed on them. In this village there are two sisters who have a cloth that is so valuable that no-one can afford the counter prestation..... This means in effect that they cannot marry and are destined to live with this cloth for the rest of their lives, as the cloth does not just belong to them but the whole village. These are the two Ibu with their cloth below.

After lunch on the boat and a rest from the midday heat, we headed over to another village called Jontana. This seemed completely different in feel, and I didn't think the weaving was of the high standard we had seen previously. However they had produced the most intense black yarn I have seen during the trip and from their answers to our questions they said it was just indigo but it had taken two years to produce. It certainly smelt like a rich indigo, however I am not sure things may have got lost in translation.

David and Sue organised a trip up to the ceremonial village, halfway up Ile Api, which is only used once a year during the Bean Festival. There are some very sacred objects up there in one of the four chief houses, including some large elephant tusks. Only six of us took up this adventurous opportunity because the road is extremely rough and unpredictable. Our open bus in fact could not make it all the way to the village so we had a short uphill walk to get there.

It was certainly berluantan kita besar - our big adventure - and I thank them for ensuring my core muscles were put to good use. It was dark by the time we descended the volcano, took the dinghy back to the ship and sat down with a well deserved icy cold Bintang.

Day 3 - Kelimutu - Maumere

We had a very early start this morning before breakfast, driving up into the Kelimutu National Park to view the three-coloured crater lakes, known as Tip (Tiwu Ata Polo), Tin ( Tiwu Nua Moori Koohi Fah), and Tam (Tiwu Atu Mbupu). These three lakes differ in colour according to the water composition. Tap is an acid saline crater whose colour changes according to the state of water oxygenation; Tip is a cool  acid brine lake which contains minerals and chemicals such as sulphur; and Tam is an acid sulfate crater lake.

The view from the top was breathtaking but you could only take a photo of all three lakes if you were high above in a helicopter as Tam is on the other side from Tip and Tin.

On our way back to the Ecolodge to have breakfast and pack our bags we noticed all the small villages on the way busily cleaning the roadside, slashing grass, sweeping and burning off rubbish, and tying colourful garlands onto makeshift fences along the road.  This was all in preparation for the 'Tour de Flores' which was due to start today from  Maumere.

After a little traffic congestion due to TdeF followers, we finally made it to the harbour and had our first glimpse of the Ombak Putih, or White Wave.

Here we are getting into the first dinghy to get to the boat in the background. Once on board we were shown to our cabins and sat down to a delicious lunch.

View of my cute cabin - all cabins have their own ensuite and are air conditioned. It was threatening to rain when we arrived but miraculously passed us, leaving a wonderful omen for the days to come.

After finding our cabins we had a few hours to unpack, relax and unwind before we got back into the dinghys to head ashore for a short trip to visit the nearby village of Wuring which is home to the local Bugis and Bajao sea gypsies.

They are mostly Muslim, and many of the men were volunteering their time and money to build a new masjid at the end of their village on stilts.

Many of the parents  wanted you to take photos of their babies or toddlers, as did the small children who were were totally charming and cheeky. So while we didn't see more textiles, we did have the opportunity to have a short glimpse of what life was like for these sea-village families.

On board the Ombak Putih we had an informative lecture by David about the history and textiles produced by the Sikka people (the region we are now in) followed by a delicious dinner of nasi campur which included beef rendang, fish, mixed vegetables and salad folowed by fresh fruit.

We were all pretty exhausted so looking forward to our first night sleeping onboard the boat.