The second half of our Alor trip was an exploration of some of the traditional tribal villages in Alor’s interior. Alor is a odd shaped volcanic island with fantastic bays and lagoons backed by white and black sand beaches strewn with coral on the coast. Mountains rise precipitously immediately behind the coast line. In these mountains there remain a few traditional villages where the people live in thatch houses constructed as they have been for centuries.

Alor has one “city”, Kalabahi, Most of the people that live on Alor are in Kalabahi. the vast majority of the rest are in “new” villages along the coast. But a small few still live in the mountains in traditional villages. These were the places we wanted to see.

It’s interesting how in a place where you’re one of the only foreigners in town (or on the island) what you want or need often seems to find you (along with a bit of what you don’t want). Kalabahi was no exception. Our original plan was to rent a motorbike for a couple of days and travel up to two or three villages. The problem was that there did not seem to be a road map of Alor. We figured we could just bumble around and prolly find where we wanted to go by asking directions and piecing together the typical, vague, Indonesia directions that we’d undoubtedly get. But, then he found us. Ahmad, Alor’s tour guide extraordinare. Ahmad is a kind, well meaning forty-something and he spoke decent English. This was a nice plus as our rudimentary Bahasa was only getting us so far, even in Kalabahi. Plus although the Alorese generally can speak Bahasa Indonesia, most prefer Alor Malay, a similar (but not that similar) language.

Off we went to Ahmad’s house. We met his wife and children and had tea. Ahmad went on about his professionalism and the possibilities for our journey. We finally settled on a plan. The next morning we’d be off into the mountains.

Ahmad showed up on a motorbike with two other drivers. It seemed we’d be joined by an Austrian man. We had tea and the most delicious doughnuts at Ahmad’s house, the Austrian arrived and we were off. We first traveled to Bumpa Lola. Alor has a main road that partially rings the island and is pretty good. There are also a few roads that snake into the mountains. These are not good. The road to Bumpa Lola was rocky and rutted but most of all, it was steep. I mean get off the bike and walk no less then five times steep. after bouncing (and hiking) up this road for about forty five minutes we reached the village.

A huge pack of kids were there to greet us. “Hello Mister, Hello Misses” was heard everywhere. Bumpa Lola is actually two villages. The “new”village is at the end of the road. The “old” traditional village is about a half hour hike from the new village. We hiked following a steep and rocky trail for some time. It soon became clear the the traditional village of Bumpa Lola was on a promontory, a bulge that jetted out of the mountains surrounded by deep canyons.

The setting was spectacular and the village and villagers lovely. We were kindly greeted by the residents of Bumpa Lola who were building a new thatch house. We all sat in a bale and chewed betelnut (not so great) and drank tea. They told us stories about their village and showed us their Moko drums. The Moko is the prized possession on Alor. The Alorese have found thousands buried on the island and believe that these brass drums were given to them by god. Most likely the drums were brought by the Indians or Chinese around the 13th or 14th century, but perhaps as early as 700 BC. In any case, if a man wants to marry he must “buy” his bride from her family with Moko drums.

After a couple hours of spitting, chatting, eating lunch and hanging out with the people from Bumpa Lola it was time for us to go. Our little pack of children followed us back up the trail to the motorbikes and we were off to one more village.

Takpala is on the opposite side of the island from Bumpa Lola. The village is situated in the mountains with a commanding view of the sea. The place is quite striking and once again the people very kind. More tea was had, betelnut chewed as we learned about Takpala’s subsistence farming of kasava, maize and tobacco. The Takpala people also hunt pigs in the mountains sometimes catching them alive as was seem from their collection of adorable little walking pork chops.

After some time the sun was setting and it was time to return to Kalabahi. Our journey to the traditional villages on Alor was fascinating and meeting the people of Bumpa Lola and Takpala wonderful. They are kind and generous and live lives that are rarely lived anymore.