There was no access road to the beach, so I had to park my motorcycle at the side of the main road and explore by foot. Crossing the bushes, I encountered a lonely shelter made from dry grass standing on a slope far away from any other settlements. Around it, a family of three were collecting dry wood from the ground. I realized how incredibly simple the life of these people is compared to the average modern city-dweller. We are all the same species, but our lives can be so vastly different that it can be beyond understanding.
The Story – What truly untouristy really means
In my own personal definition, there are several degrees of ‘untouristiness’. E. g. when you come from Bali, Lombok seems quite less touristy, and Java even less so. But then you have places where foreign tourists simply do not come, as there is zero marketing, zero tourist infrastructure, zero pretense and zero greed. In those places, you most likely do not meet another tourist and it is very hard to even find anyone speaking the same language as you. There, you experience the true sense of what exploration is about, and how many wonders of nature are still thankfully left for you to discover.
So it was out of pure desire for exploration that I set to the island of Adonara. It lies in the east of the island of Flores, which is already degrees away from the mass tourism of Bali, Phuket or other South-East Asian tourist hubs. Very few foreigners make it beyond Labuan Bajo, the entry point for Komodo islands. Eastern Flores was very untouristy, but there was still some infrastructure to make your stay comfortable – homestays with restaurants, dive shops, even some resorts. Tourists also go the the island of Alor in the west of Adonara, because of its world-class diving.
Play with the map below to get an idea about Adonara. Even Google maps plays short here, showing just a few roads and no real village names. Nevertheless, the island is accessible and truly gorgeous with a big volcano in the east and deep jungles in the middle.
On my travels, I reached the eastern Flores town of Maumere and booked my ship to Makassar. As I still had a week before its departure (slow travel can be very different from regular travel), I decided to go a bit further. First, I visited the island of Lembata, where I experienced a lot of great adventures that will be told elsewhere. Afterwards, I headed to Adonara, which was recommended to me one rainy afternoon by a French woman who lives in a beach hut close to Maumere. Transport between the islands is carried out by old ferries, which get loaded full of people and motorcycles and go from island to island.
https://youtu.be/XG85OgaNXC8
After Lembata, I was prepared for very little tourist infrastructure, but Adonara exceeded my expectations 🙂 I got off the boat in the local port village of Waiwerang, getting many surprised looks and cheerful ‘Hi Mister’ shouts from the villagers. First things first, so I immediately went to look for a place to sleep and put down my backpack. There are only two places to stay and I choose the one further from the port, knowing that ports everywhere in the world attract rats. It turned out I was lucky, as the ‘homestay’ I chose was relatively nice and clean, and even had an AC. I later learned that the other place is supposedly quite horrible.
As I came to Adonara to explore it, the next thing I needed was a motorcycle, and that is when the fun started. In the end, the hunt for motorcycle brought me to a very cool local Muslim party, but let me explain it step by step.
I thought renting a scooter on Adonara would be as simple as anywhere else in Indonesia, but I was mistaken. As this island gets virtually zero tourists, the locals were too suspicious to rent their motorcycle to a strange stranded backpacker. All they offered was an ojek (motorcycle taxi), but I insisted on rental as I wanted my own freedom to explore where I want.
After I spent two hours going around asking locals to rent me their scooters in my bad Indonesian, a local shop owner who spoke English offered to help me. His name was Arman, he was around 50 years old and he spoke very good English, as he was an enthusiastic fan of Guns’n’Roses and Metallica 🙂 He said he may consider renting me his scooter if I show him my passport and explain where I want to go. After I explained I like to check different parts of the island and that I can indeed drive a scooter, he said I can have it and offered a good price. He has also shown me his mixed goods shop and introduced me to his lovely wife.
However, before giving me the keys, he wanted to take me for a small round trip to his village, which was basically the Muslim part of Waiwerang called Lamahala. Roughly half of Adonara population is Muslim and half is Christian, with Muslims mostly living by the sea and Christians in the mountains, as usual in South East Asia. In Lamahala, Arman stopped several times to show all his friends he has a new bule (foreigner in Indonesian) friend. After the amusing ride, we returned back to his shop and he let me use the scooter.
Before that, however, he said he would be very happy if join him and his friend for a small Muslim party in the evening. You cannot refuse such a warm invitation, so we agreed the time when he will pick me up in my homestay.
White, Red and Chocolate
I immediately set-off to explore the island, choosing the southern coast, where I was told lies a very beautiful beach with white sand and black rocks. The roads on the island were largely empty, so the motorcycle ride was very pleasant. I passed a few small villages, where the locals were very surprised to see a foreigner buying bananas at a roadside shop. The white sand beach was called Watotena, and it offered a really beautiful view of contrasting colors – white sand, black rocks and turquoise water.
Dark storm clouds were changing with fierce sun, which made the pictures even more dramatic. The beach was ‘made’ of two little bays divided by a large black reef that went out to the sea. Except for me, it was completely empty. Usually, the locals do not come to the beach to swim or sunbath, but only occasionally to picnic or take a few pictures. This beach was actually built-up – it was equipped with concrete seating places with wooden umbrellas. It would be much nicer without the development in my opinion..
The sceneries in this part of the world are simply unbelievable. I can never get enough of the dramatic views of perfect beaches, turquoise sea, green jungles, all with a backdrop of a towering volcano or two. You can only imagine the violent birth of such a beautiful landscape and cannot help but feel some kind of awe and humility in front of such raw beauty.
Unfortunately, it was not all postcard perfect. This beach was obviously a popular place for the locals to hold parties. I felt my anger growing when I saw plastic cup after plastic cup lying on the beautiful sand. One could see that this was not the plastic washed here from the sea, because it was mostly spread around the seating areas.
This part of the world is inhabited by very sincere and cordial people, who are nevertheless absolutely uneducated about how to behave towards their beautiful natural world. This scene has repeated itself all around Indonesia and it always seemed so sad. How can you not feel that the plastic trash just does not belong in those beautiful views? Look at the contrast.
Indonesia is one of the biggest polluters of the sea in the world when it comes to plastic. In my opinion, the only way to deal with the plastic problem here is to ban its use for consumer products completely. Several decades ago, these people have been able to live plastic free – wrapping their foods in banana leaves or at least paper bags. Nowadays they have embraced the plastic life even more than their Western ‘plastic tutors’.
Quite angry, I went back to Arman’s scooter and rode towards the next beach, this time with brown sand. The locals have poetically named it the Chocolate Beach (pantai chocolate).
However, there was one more special beach to see on Adonara. While I was passing around its coast on the ferry, I saw a cove in the distance with sand of fiercely orange color. I asked about the beach in the village and the locals call it the Red Beach (pantai merah). However, I could not find any road leading to this one. Determined to see it, I opened Google Earth a literally just looked for the fiercely orange stretch of sand. If you play with the Google Maps image above, you may be able to find it. It is called Pantai Wera Mean on the map, although I never heard this name from the locals. Then I rode the motorcycle and in the place where it looked the closest, I parked it on the side of the road and decided to reach it on foot.
This was a very interesting idea as there was no walking path to the beach. Therefore, I was just walking across the bushes led only by a satellite image on my phone. The walk turned out to be an interesting exploration not only of the surrounding landscape, but also into the lives of locals that are vastly different from ours.
After walking a few hundred meters from the road, I found a lonely hut made from straws. Next to it was a small wooden table with six or seven local men sitting around it playing cards. I asked them for directions and they were very amused to see a foreign tourist wandering around. These were obviously Christians as they were sharing a bottle of local home made alcohol. They insisted I have to drink one shot with them, which I did despite the many warnings you read in guide books about home made alcohol in Indonesia. What you will not do for good relations. Luckily, I did not get blind and could continue my search for the Red Beach. Before however, I took a picture of their cute baby goats being fed by a mom goat 🙂
The next cultural and anthropological experience I unfortunately do not have photographically documented. Nevertheless, it left a very strong impression on me. Getting close to the Red Beach, far away from the road or any other settlements, I found a very simple straw shelter. Around it, a family of three have been picking up dry wood on a rocky slope, cutting it with machetes. They looked at me as if they have never seen a white person before. When I said hello in Indonesian standing close to them, the mother of the family got so startled she almost looked like she is going to use the machete on me 🙂
I imagined how these people are living in the straw shelter away from all others their whole lives. Picking dry wood for a living, exchanging it on the local market for some simple food once in a while. The simplicity of their lives is impossible to understand, as it is so completely different from the life in the developed world.
Too bad I did not take a picture there, but I did not want to risk the machete. In the end, I finally reached my exploration goal for the day. The Red Beach was indeed incredibly beautiful and the short cultural trek was definitely worth it. I probably liked it more than the white beach, maybe because it was so remote and wild.
It really makes one wonder what kind of natural forces were in play here, when the island got sand of three very different colors so close to each other. Another proof the geological history of this archipelago must be very exciting.
Also, what immense tourist potential does this island have with such richness of experiences. Fortunately, it has not yet been discovered by mass tourism, and I do not see it happening anytime soon. To imagine the calmness of the place, check the video.
https://youtu.be/DhfgxRNFKEc
The cultural documentary was not going to end so soon on this island though. On the same day, I had the opportunity to look into two other lifestyles so different from the Western one. The next day, I went with the scooter to the very end of the road, to a village without electricity or mobile signal, to see a jaw-dropping natural wonder. On the way back, I crossed the interior of the island with vast palm forests. However, to keep the post of readable length, you can read the continuation in Part 2 🙂
