Sumba Travel Video Guide

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Sumba has a genuine reputation in Indonesia for the excesses of its funerals, the wealth of its ikat fabrics and the thrill of the pasola , an annual ritual war fought on horseback. One of the main reasons to visit Sumba is to experience first-hand the extraordinary agrarian animist cultures in the villages. These villages comprise huge clan houses set on fortified hills, centred around megalithic graves and topped by a totem made from a petrified tree. The most important part of life for the Sumbanese is death, when the mortal soul makes the journey into the spirit world. Sumbanese funerals can be extremely impressive spectacles, particularly if the deceased is a person with prestige, inspiring several days' worth of slaughter and feasting, the corpse wrapped in hundreds of exquisite ikat cloths.

The difficulty for Western visitors to Sumba is that traditions and taboos in Sumbanese village life are still very powerful and sit ill at ease with the demands of modern tourism. A visitor to a Sumbanese village must first take the time to share cirih pinang ( betel nut ) with both the kepala desa (village headman) and his hosts. Betelnut is a sign of peace and of unity; Sumbanese ritual culture sets great store by returning blood to the earth, and the bright-red gobs of saliva produced by chewing cirih represent this. Many villages that are on the regular trail for group tours have supplanted the tradition of sharing betel with a simple request for money, but if you come with gifts you will be far more welcome.

The east of the island is rocky, parched and fairly mountainous; the west is contrastingly fertile and green, with rolling hills and a long rainy season. Waingapu is well-known for producing the finest ikat in the whole of Indonesia. A little further out at Rende and Melolo are stone tombs with bizarre carvings, and other villages right out on the east coast offer the chance to see quality weaving and traditional structures near some deserted beaches. On the south

coast, Tarimbang is an up-and-coming surfers' Mecca with a few waterfalls inland. The main town in the west is Waikabubak , where characteristic houses with thatched roofs soar to an apex over 15m above the ground.

Acess to Sumba is either by ferry from Ende in Flores to Waingapu or by air to either Waingapu or Tambolaka. If you're planning on flying out of Sumba, do it from Waingapu rather than Tambolaka, which has an appalling record for cancellations.

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Your Tips For Sumba

sumba

dave says "I went to sumba island in 2005 on an adventure cause no one had ever heard of it. so this is dated but some info better than none. heres what I found in 2005 -this is a place far far removed from the tourist path, there are a few basic but good hotels in the center of waikabubak, ATM, shops etc, but you are pretty much on your own. ask at hotels for travel info etc.
about a hour flight from bali. taxi from the tiny airport into town. local colorfull buses go around and across the island. slow but intersting and cheap. You can hire private taxis to see the island--bargain!. best to go to a downtown hotel and make arrangements from there. there are some good reefs on the NE coast, no dive operators as of 2005, good empty beaches on the south coast, not much in the way of places to stay. there is a surfing 'resort' Mr Davids, look up East Sumba resort.com. and be patient, may take a while to get a response. I stayed there 2 weeks and found it to be very very basic but david (aussie)was a good host, cook and tall tale teller -it had that robinson crusoe vibe to it. but you kindve need to get there on your own, no shuttle bus!!On the west coast there are a few true resort hotels Nihuwatu resort the best of them but very very pricey. the west coast is very tropical and largely a muslim population, where the east is dryer, desert like in places and more christian dominated. both still practice animism, which is a strange combination. Sumba is best known for the Pasola-look it up on the web, and for its Ikat rugs, very cool! it has great surf but much of the coast is totally inaccesable by land. be very aware of propery rights, tresspassing ect here-ask permission or dont enter! sumba is very traditional and they are protective of their land. there is a mountain range cutting the island in to east and west, and the difference is noticible in many ways. the south coast has very few roads, thats why east sumba resort may be your only choice on the south coast. this is the land that time forgot in many places, the total opposite of kuta beach. it has some intersting history. might be a good stop on the way to timor. I hope to return one day as I enjoyed my time there"

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