Tag Archives: Hubert

Day 114 – The Leberwurst Connection

It was almost a sin not to have taken a photo of our marvelous breakfast. Then again, some things should be enjoyed uninterrupted. We decided to go all in with the level of the accommodation and have breakfast there. It was excellent: Freshly toasted home made bread, local made jams, fresh fruit salad, scrambled egg and fresh juice. It was so delicious! We even had briefly considered staying another night, but after that breakfast we were thoroughly luxuried out.

View back north where we came from

We took our time and were back on the road by 11 am. By chance of our starting position, our GPS chose a beautiful back road back up the mountain towards our first goal. The three lakes looked cool on the map and as expected delivered on beautiful roads and moderate amounts of tourists.

We briefly dipped down to the lakes themselves, but found little to hold us for longer. The first one was the most touristy and after realizing that we stopped in front of another temple. Half way out of our gear we did a 180° and were back on the road in no time. The second lake was quieter and had the first campground we found in Indonesia on its shores. It was too early to think of camping and the warung had no food – so after a quick drink with lake view we headed for the ridge road over the last two lakes.

at lunch, great spot

Coming in we saw that the ridge road had plenty of eateries with a view, so that is where we were heading for. The road held true with all levels of eateries. We ended up stopping at a top end warung run by a french expat. He had the trees on the lake side cleared and put up tables across the street so that guest could eat with a view. I had a chat with the owner, who it turned out had been travelling quite a bit in his day.

I still did not make it all the way back to our table after that. As happened in New Zealand, a couple on vacation from Germany noticed the German licence plate on Rocinante and we got talking some more. Alexandra and Patrick seemed definitively to be on the nicer end of tourists we encounter. Just earlier that day we had another weird run in with Germans that re-affirmed our dislike for “touristy” areas. We got asked the same disinterested questions and then got ignored while answering because they had to purchase ridiculously overpriced rubbish from hawkers. Anyway, we gave a business card to Alexandra and Patrick when they left and soon after headed out ourselves.

german welcome for a german bike

The last itinerary for the day before finding a place to stay. Back in Dili, we got an address from fellow German traveller Hubert – go and say hi to Richard at his place in Lovina. Aptly named “Deutsches Eck” (German corner) we were in for a rough culture shock. Richard has build himself a good life here, with a family and a good little hotel. As we were ready to head out again to find a place to stay (the rooms here are a bit too pricey for us) Richard offered us to stay on the bale bengong (A 3x3m raised platform with a roof for shade that is out front most houses for chilling during the day). We got a mosquito net and there were even blinds, all for an unbeatable fee for the night. When he threw in the promise of “Leberwurst” and sour dough bread, we could not refuse, could we?

So we stuck around for the night, chatted to Richard’s sons, other guests and German expats that came by and gathered further contacts along what we dubbed the “Leberwurst Connection” – a row of German expats along our further path through Indonesia. Speaking German again and even seeing German dishes on the menu was cool and supremely weird at the same time. Definitively something we will need to process a bit once back on the road.

: View back north where we came from

: Nice road down to the lake with views

: looks sad, but we loved the clouds. The ridge in the back is where the road goes

: at lunch, great spot

: hmm … green

: Still no rail – boo el niño

: german welcome for a german bike

: The pool was even refreshing

: our “room” for the night. great sleep!

Day 92 – Surprise at Koka Beach

We took our time this morning. The original plan was to stay two days at Lena house to get a bit of a rest from the ferry but since we had arrived here yesterday at 8am and didn’t do anything except for resting and eating, we felt good enough to travel on. The idea still was to have a short day though.

Getting ready to leave. She Ye took a picture of us because we just have so few with both of us

Breakfast with pancake and fruit salad was very yummy. She Ye also had breakfast so we had lovely company. Talking to other travelers is always good fun. Matt appeared quite a while later. Both of them warmly recommended Koka Beach where they had just been. So we put it on the agenda to check it out, at least.

It was warm, very warm at 11.30am when we left. And almost lunch time again. The next bigger city was Maumere so we planned to have lunch there. When we got there, nothing really took our fancy while I remembered a recommendation for a restaurant in Paga. According to the GPS, Paga was a mere 20km onwards so we decided to give Restaurant Laryss a try. It was astonishingly hard to find, in the end. We passed it on the first try, met a bunch of schoolkids ad had troubled turning around but found it on the second try. The sign had fallen down and nothing was advertising it as anything else but a regular looking place anymore…

Lunch at Restaurant Laryss

The owner spoke English and a bit of German which Flo used to get a recommendation for food. Thus, he ended up with squid (very yummy according to him).

From Paga, it was only a short ride to Koka Beach. Off the main road, you take a small track down to the beach, maybe two kilometres. We were greeted by a guy with a machete at his side and a twelve year old shadowing him. He spoke English quite well and let us know that he is volunteering as “beach keeper” for Koka Beach: He gets a dollar from every visitor but for that money, he looks after the beach, clears it of rubbish and has a strike rule that no motorbikes are allowed right on the beach. He wasn’t kidding. The beach looked amazing! Funny story at the side: Our motorbike and our trip reminded him of another traveller who had stayed at Koka Beach. Turns out that Hubert, the German traveller we met in Dili, had stayed here for a couple of days.

A local named Blasius runs a little warung, shop and ‘guest house’ for Koka Beach. Right at the beach, a couple of tiny huts have been built out of bamboo which can be rented for $3 dollars a night so you can either stay in one of those or camp with your own tent. Some shaded benches and deck chairs for day visitors or use at the beach complete the set. All of them are also made out of bamboo.

Surprise attack during the selfie shot =P

We decided to stay for a night in a lovely hut. Since we didn’t have a mosquito net, we used just our inner tent in the hut. It was almost like living in a hobbit hole right at the beach. =P

Dinner was prepared by Blasius’ wife for 6 o’clock. It was lovely, delicious and way too much food. Two grilled fish were dished up for Flo while I got egg fritters, spinach and a delicious tomato-chili-salad that was just a notch too hot for me but which I ate anyway. Blasius joined us for dinner, well at least our dinner conversation, and we talked in English, a bit of Bahasa and a lot of gestures. Afterwards, we were treated to tea and coffee (local coffee, brewed like Greek ones) and an invitation to visit Blasius’ parents in the morning after breakfast.

It was dark early so we listened to an audiobook and took some photos in the dark before actually going to sleep.

: Getting ready to leave. She Ye took a picture of us because we just have so few with both of us

: Standing in line, well-behaved, waiting for a turn at the gas station

: Refilling 17 liters takes its time

: View onto the mountains and a bit of the road on the other side

: The windy road is in an excellent condition here

: Lunch at Restaurant Laryss

: The reason why we didn’t find the restaurant on the first try

: Lovely beach…two more day visitors and then the fishermen and us shared this…

: Like a hobbit hole

: Our tent in one of the huts…as we were lacking a mosquito net

: Flo cooled his feet in the shallow water

: Only got prettier when the sun was low

: No one around but us

: Surprise attack during the selfie shot =P

Day 78 – Communities

Musings

“Hi, the ship has arrived, can you come in for the paperwork tomorrow?” that was last night– by 7:50 am today I found myself walking through the bed of the Comoro River. ANL open at 8 am, at least on paper. I am not desperate at all …

The dwellings on the bank do not appear to be strictly “legal”

But back to the river: There is only one road bridge over the Comoro River, about 2 km north of where we live, a suburb under the unofficial name Delta. ANL is about as far away from the bridge again, so all in all a 5 km drive. On the other hand, it is maybe 1 km west from here as the crow flies. Luckily for me, it is still the dry season, so there currently is no Comoro River, just a free for all gravel pit buzzing with lorries, diggers and sorting sieves. That is how a gold rush must look like …

8:06 am, I am at the office, the staff is not yet in full strength. I apologize in Tetum for being so impolitely on time. Once the staff arrived, it was all a matter of maybe 5 minutes and another $50 US and all that is left is for the container to arrive and for me to pick up the bike sometime in the next 2 days. As quick as that I was out in the dust again, finding my way through the illegal buildings hugging the riverbanks and back on my way. Continue reading →

Day 77 – Chilling at Barry’s place

Originally, we had planned to take the water taxi back to Dili at 9.30am. However, yesterday night Barry told us that the water taxi is booked for a diving trip and thus will only make a trip at 3pm. Since we had nothing planned except for waiting for the bike, it didn’t bother us too much. Almost another full day on Ataúro with time to read and chill sounds promising.

The aforementioned “platforms” – great chill out.

Breakfast was lovely again, this time with pancakes. The usual eating room was booked for a full day workshop so we sat outside in the shade, having a lovely conversation with two German travellers, Lüder and Renate.

Afterwards, we occupied one of the “platforms” to read and write to our heart’s content. We watched as one of the huts at the beach got a new roof in the traditional manner and a veranda was added to the hut. Since not a lot happened, I’ll use the space to describe Barry’s place some more.

Heading over to Ataúro, Flo and I were almost certain that we would have no reception and no power so we left the laptop in Dili. As soon as we were in Beloi, it turned out that ‘no reception’ is a first world problem. Even in Adara, on the other side of the island, Flo’s mobile phone had a full signal. I am unsure about the power situation but Barry’s place at least had solar panels so we could have charged the phone or our laptop if we had brought either with us.

Ladle, pot, some soap. It was clean and just right for us

There is no sewer system on Ataúro so a long drop served as that. It must be quite good and efficient version, as despite a temperature of 30 degrees, the smell was minimal. I particularly liked the shower: A generous room with a basin full of water and two ladles to fill water into a pot with tiny holes above you and have it rain down on you. It is particularly nice if you have someone there who refills the pot constantly while you have a nice long shower. 🙂

Since we had to stay till 3pm, we had a last lunch on the island. Barry gave us the lunch for free, which was very lovely. Having fresh salad is always a treat but especially if it is prepared for you. Makes it feel more like a holiday.

At 3pm Tony’s water taxi and the dive crew arrived. They then had to unload all the air bottles so that we set out at 3.30pm. The taxi was rather small for crossing 35km of open sea and (at least in my humble opinion) the ride was rough. It was all I could do to hold on to the handrails and stare at the horizon…otherwise I’d probably been seasick. Flo enjoyed the ride way more than I did, looking out for flying fish (apparently there were many) and later for the Darwin trader. The ANL Darwin trader is the ship on which Rocinante is supposed to come over to Dili. It was scheduled to arrive at 9am this morning so Flo had his fingers crossed that he might see it in the harbour or, if we are lucky, already docked.

Oh what a joyous sight!

We were lucky: The Darwin trader was docked in the wharf and looked as if it was half empty already. Flo just stopped short of jumping for joy. 😉

Having land back under your feet is an amazing feeling, I can tell you. The ride over had taken 1 ½ hours so it started to get late in Dili. I will never really get used to the fact that near the equator, the sun simply sets at 6.30pm, no matter if it is summer or winter. It really cuts your daylight time quite short.

Hubert and Alex hard at work at the infamous Timor Backpacker

We had one last thing to do today: Walk past the backpacker in Dili and see if we can find any more motorcycle travellers. Chantal had told us about two more guys riding BMWs who are supposed to be staying there. It didn’t take us long to find them as they were out in the yard taking their bikes apart to clean them for the Australian biosecurity check. Hubert, a German traveller, and Alex, an Italian guy, took their work pretty seriously. There was even some scrubbing of a tire with a toothbrush. We had a chat and decided to have a drink together tomorrow night, once Chantal is back from Ataúro island as well.