Wednesday, August 30, 2006



Dear Friends:
How are you all? Time is going by and feel like went fast hey? In the past of couple of weeks, I’ve been through so many things in Indonesia. Family, friends and work related friends in Indonesia are around my life lately. From Yogyakarta with earthquake and preliminary research for my job in Flores till now I am in a small town called Bajawa in Flores Island. Today is my third days after I came to Bajawa. Bajawa is a capital city (or I can called it town) of Ngada regency in Flores Island. Most of people are from this area, but there are some migrants from other island in Indonesia such as Java, Sulawesi and other east part of Indonesia. Bajawa has a quite good amenities as a small town; there several ‘losmen’ and hotel, few ‘tourist’ restaurants, and one internet ‘cafe’ –with one computer only.
I flew from Yogyakarta on Monday, August 28 in early morning flight and transit in Bali for couple hours, then connected to Ende. It took around one hour from Yogyakarta to Bali and it almost the same from Bali to Ende, but the differences was the price of the flight. The second one was more expensive, because there is only one flight to Ende from Bali; which is Merpati airline. Arrived in Ende, other CUSO cooperant (his name is Romi) and one person from Dinas Pariwisata (Tourism department from Ngada regency) picked me up, then we drove to Bajawa. The road from Ende to Bajawa remains me the sea to sky highway between Vancouver and Whistler. The difference is – off course the road condition and quality, but other than that it is beautiful scenery and landscape of Flores Island (only little part of it). Mountainous and beaches are dominant views a long the way. Luckily we had lunch in Ende – since I didn’t have breakfast at all; because of the winding road made my tummy was ‘screaming’; also the fantastic views was help me to stay awake too – since I did not have enough sleep in the last couple of days in Yogyakarta. It took around 4 hours from Ende to Bajawa by car without stop, but of course it would take more than that by public bus.
I am staying with former cuso cooperant for couple of days and we will move to new house not too far from his place. Just remember that Bajawa is not a big at all. You can walk around the town for an hour. We will move to new house-officially is cuso rented for me- but Romi and his family will staying with me for a few months while his wife organizing her relocation process. Romi’s work is finish by the end of this month with CUSO. He helps me a lot in orientation of the area and culture here. Since I arrived (two days!), he took me to several places that are related with the CUSO project here in Ngada district. Yesterday we went to Lekolodo village, where CUSO has an “Ecotourism” project, and we talked to the leader of the community group. Then we went to Bena village, a “megalithic” village where my brain was spinning around to think about how people have an interesting perspective about visitor from different ethnic or even a race. I’ve got this impression directly from them or indirectly from our conversation. Or might be this is just my ‘sallow’ observation though. That the second days after I arrived. In the first day, we went to Dinas Pariwisata and introduce myself there informally and discuss a little with several of my ‘co-worker’- will be. It was interesting informal introduction though. Then we went to walk around the town, and we did ‘price’ survey for my settlement proposal to cuso. In general, price of stuff here are more expensive then in Java of course; but several items, such as fish I think it is a little cheaper here. If you like fish, this is the place, even though it is not really fresh, because it comes from the north or south beach.
Bajawa is in highland area and it can be cold during the night, during the day the temperature is around 25/26; and it comes down to 16/17 during the night. It is dry weather though. I am looking forward to see you here in the ‘trap of paradise’ of Bajawa-Flores-Indonesia……..
If you want to take a look at some of my photos, please check http://photos.yahoo.com/murdawa
Looking forward to hear from you,
salam,
sigit

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