Alor
A Mountainous Island East Of Flores With Cold Water Upwellings And Fierce Currents Offshore, And Abui Villages In The Highlands Where Bronze Drums Of Unknown Origin Are Still Held As Heirlooms · Kalabahi, East Nusa Tenggara
Alor sits east of Flores where the Banda and Savu seas meet, and THE WATER BETWEEN ITS ISLANDS MOVES HARD - cold upwellings, fierce currents, and as a result some of the most demanding and most rewarding diving in Indonesia, with mola mola in the cold months, mandarin fish at dusk and reefs that almost nobody is on. IT IS NOT BEGINNER WATER. INLAND, IN THE MOUNTAINS, ARE THE ABUI, whose villages at TAKPALA and elsewhere keep traditional pyramid-roofed houses and the lego-lego circle dance. AND ACROSS THE ISLAND PEOPLE STILL HOLD MOKO - BRONZE KETTLEDRUMS, almost certainly traded from mainland Asia centuries ago, whose origin nobody here claims to know, used as bride price, buried with their owners and still dug out of the ground. They are wealth, not decoration, and asking to photograph one is asking something real of the family that owns it, and should be done through a guide rather than a camera raised at a doorway.
Alor Archipelago, East Nusa Tenggara, Kalabahi, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia
KALABAHI, THE MAIN TOWN, HAS FLIGHTS from KUPANG on Timor, which itself connects to Bali and Jakarta; there is also a FERRY FROM KUPANG AND FROM LARANTUKA on Flores, taking many hours. SCHEDULES ARE LIMITED - build spare days. THERE IS NO GATE AND NO ADMISSION; dive operators and guesthouses cluster around Kalabahi and the nearby coast and ARRANGE EVERYTHING, including village visits. THE ABUI VILLAGES RECEIVE VISITORS and a contribution is expected; dances are arranged in advance rather than performed on a schedule. DIVING IS OPERATOR-LED and several sites are advanced-only because of current. THE COLD-WATER SEASON, roughly July to October, brings mola mola and genuinely chilly water. Bring cash; banking outside Kalabahi is minimal.