5Eating
Rumah Makan GloriaINDONESIAN$
( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; %0387-21140; Jl Bhayangkara 46; meals 15,000-50,000Rp; h8am-10pm)
Cute and cheerful, with chequered tablecloths, silk flowers and colourful handwritten menus offering an array of Indonesian classics. Consider just three: soto ayam is uber-turmericy, truly excellent; ikan kuah assam; and, if you specially order it, ayam kafir, a Sumba-style fire-roasted chicken, salted and served with a sublime, super-spicy sambal.
Rumah Makan FannyINDONESIAN$
( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; %0387-21389; Jl Bhayangkara 55; mains 15,000-50,000Rp; h8am-9pm)
A pint-sized Waikabubak staple, favoured for flavourful but crazy-spicy ikan kuah assam – one is enough to feed two. It also has assorted Chinese-Indo seafood dishes and a house special fried chicken.
oD' Sumba AteINTERNATIONAL$$
( GOOGLE MAP ; %0857 3775 6606; Jl Ahmad Yani 148; mains 20,000-70,000Rp; h10am-10pm)
A very welcome addition to the West Sumba food scene, this excellent restaurant cooks up wood-fired pizzas, pasta, burgers and the usual Indo suspects. There's a cool open-air bamboo vibe and a competent bar, plus Sumba's cleanest toilets!
7Shopping
Traders gather at hotels with ikat from East Sumba, locally made bone, wood, horn and stone carvings, and jewellery. Tarung is known for beaded jewellery, which you can easily find on a walk through the village.
A Hamid Algadi Art ShopHANDICRAFTS
( MAP GOOGLE MAP ; %0387-21170; Jl Ahmad Yani 99; h9am-6pm Mon-Sat)
Fantastic stone carvings in the front yard, plus wooden antiques, some cool old stone grinders and bronze jewellery indoors. Not to mention its all-natural ikat. Your Sumbanese treasure hunt starts here.
8Information
BNI BankBANK
( GOOGLE MAP ; Jl Ahmad Yani; h8am-3.30pm Mon-Fri)
Has an ATM and offers fair exchange rates.
Tourist OfficeTOURIST INFORMATION
( GOOGLE MAP ; %0387-21240; Jl Teratai 1; h8am-3pm Mon-Sat)
The staff here have info about forthcoming funerals and cultural events. It's on the eastern outskirts of town.
8Getting There & Away
Tambolaka, 42km northwest of Waikabubak, is the closest airport. A bus to the Waitabula (an older town being swallowed by Tambolaka) terminal and a bemo or ojek from there is the cheapest way, but most people get a taxi from Waitabula or charter a bemo (around 100,000Rp) from Waikabubak.
Bemos, trucks and minibuses service most other towns and villages in West Sumba. Generally, it’s best to leave early in the day, when they tend to fill up and depart quickest. There are several daily buses to Waingapu (50,000Rp, five hours).
Waikabubak is the place to rent a motorbike for exploring West Sumba. Expect to pay 80,000Rp a day. Hotels can set you up with car rental (700,000Rp with driver).
West Sumba
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If you’re hungry for traditional Sumba culture, head west into the golden rice fields that crawl up blue mountains, carved by rivers and sprouting with bamboo and coconut palms. Kampung of high-roofed houses are still clustered on their hilltops (a place of defence in times past), surrounding the large stone tombs of their ancestors. Rituals and ceremonies for events such as house building and marriage often involve animal sacrifices and can take place at any time. Outsiders are welcome at these events, but be sure to make a donation – your guide will know how much (usually 20,000Rp to 50,000Rp).
Even though kampung seem accustomed to visiting foreigners, gifts of betel nut help warm the waters with the older crowd and are a sign of respect.
Give yourself a few days around West Sumba. Once you have learned some basic manners as a guest arriving in a village – hopefully armed with some Bahasa Indonesia – it’s possible to do it without a guide, though it always helps to have one.
8Getting Around
If you have limited time and want to explore remote villages and the wild coast without having to worry about transport schedules or language barriers, call Sumba Adventure (%0387-21727, 0813 3710 7845; www.sumbarentcar.com; Tambolaka). The team of drivers (most of whom speak English) have good cars, are trustworthy and know Sumba well. An SUV with driver and guide per day is 1,000,000Rp for up to four people.
For a much cheaper drive around the west, you can hire an ojek for the day (100,000Rp).
Tambolaka & Around
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Located 42km northwest of Waikabubak, this once sleepy market town has become West Sumba's main transport hub – it's booming and it's got a whole new name, at least in tourism brochures and other government literature. We've followed suit, even if many locals of a certain age still refer to it as Waitabula. While still in the early stages of growth, Tambolaka is easily accessible from Bali, and is the gateway to the island's sensational western half.
Future visitor growth seems inevitable; beachfront 'for sale' signs are common and a new school to train locals in tourism is opening east of the airport.
1Sights
Tambolaka's big market day is Saturday.
oLembaga Studi & Pelestarian Budaya SumbaMUSEUM
(%0813 3936 2164; www.sumbaculture.org; museum by donation; h8am-4pm Mon-Sat)
Just 3km outside of town, this Catholic-run NGO is in a working coconut plantation and has an excellent cultural museum. It was developed by Fr Robert Ramone, who noticed how, once they are baptised, Sumbanese frequently break clean from their old culture and develop negative associations with the marapu and other totems. In addition to displays of old photographs, money and pottery, there is an ongoing project showing how tombs are carved. The website is a brilliant cultural resource.
The complex also has five basic rooms for rent (300,000Rp to 600,000Rp). Sit on one of the private porches and let the quiet envelop you.
TTours
Sumba Adventure Tours & TravelTOUR
(%0813 3710 7845; [email protected]; Desa Kalena Wanno, Tambolaka; guiding services per day 250,000Rp, per day with car & driver 850,000Rp)
With an office close to the airport, experienced guide Philip Renggi is one of the best in West Sumba. He and his team of guides lead trips into seldom-explored villages, including his native Manuakalada and Waiwarungu, where there are several sacred marapu houses that only shaman can enter. He can arrange itineraries, set you up for Pasola, rent cars etc.
4Sleeping & Eating
Penginapan MelatiGUESTHOUSE$
(%0813 5396 6066, 0387-24055; Jl Waitabula; r with fan/air-con 150,000/250,000Rp; aW)
Shaded by a huge tree, the 15 rooms here are simple but immaculate with fresh paint and tile throughout. They even have rain shower heads in the mandi. There's a simple Padang-style restaurant right next door.
oOro Beach Houses & RestaurantBUNGALOW$$
(%0813 3911 0068, 0813 5378 9946; www.oro-beachbungalows.com; r US$45-60)
Think: three wild beachfront acres owned by a special family (she used to run an NGO, he’s an architect with a disaster relief background), where you can nest in a circular thatched bungalow blessed with a canopied driftwood bed and outdoor bath. They offer excellent meals, mountain biking and snorkelling just off their stunning 200m long beach.
Low-lying bluffs, lilac dawns, smouldering sunsets and starry night skies are just some of the highlights, and you can enjoy them from the new open-air beachside bar. It's all placidly low-key.
The airport is 20 minutes by potholed road.
Hotel Sinar TambolakaHOTEL$$
(%0387-253 4088; Jl Tambolaka; r 200,000-450,000Rp; aW)
Set on a sunken plateau below Jl Tambolaka, perched on the edge of a green valley, is this 80-room hotel. Standard rooms are cramped, fan-cooled and have twin beds, but VIP rooms have views and numerous luxuries. It also has a restaurant (mains 15,000Rp to 35,000, open 9am to 10pm) recommended by locals, and lovely views. Guests get free airport transfers.
oWarung Gula GaramINTERNATIONAL$
(%0387-252 4019; Bandara Udara; mains 12,000-100,000
Rp; h10am-11pm; W)
'They have a wood-burning pizza oven!' exclaimed more than one expat as they enthused about this stylish new cafe in an open-air pavilion near the airport. Elsewhere, a full coffee and juice bar, plus a menu of organic salads, pastas and burgers would raise nary an eyebrow, but here it's revolutionary.
WarungkuINDONESIAN$
(%0812 5250 5000; Jl Ranggaroko; mains 20,000-45,000Rp; h9am-10pm)
Set back from the main road in a walled compound, this open-air restaurant has excellent versions of Indo classics. It's a pretty garden setting, and you can while away a few hours grazing the menu and enjoying cold beverages.
8Information
BNI BankBANK
(Jl El Tari; h8am-5pm Mon-Thu, 7.30am-4pm Fri)
Has an ATM and exchanges money.
8Getting There & Away
Air
Tambolaka's airport terminal is shiny and modern. There are daily flights to Bali and Kupang (West Timor) by Garuda and Wings Air. Note that on some websites it is listed as 'Waikabubak'.
Boat
Waikelo, a small and predominantly Muslim town north of Tambolaka, has a small picturesque harbour that is the main port for West Sumba and offers ferry service to Sape (Sumbawa) twice a week (65,000Rp, eight hours).
Bus
Buses leave throughout the day for Waikabubak (10,000Rp to 15,000Rp, one hour), departing from the centre of town.
Anakalang Villages
Set in a fertile valley carpeted in rice fields, the Anakalang district (east of Waikabubak) has some exceptional stone megaliths that are worth seeing. Historically the seat of West Sumbanese power (though geographically it is in the island's centre), Anakalang royals ruled for centuries. During colonisation only royal children were educated, so when government bureaucracies took hold the royals still ruled thanks to wealth and educational access bias. Eventually educational access evened out, and the government diversified.
Right beside the main road to Waingapu, 22km east of Waikabubak, Kampung Pasunga boasts one of Sumba’s most impressive tombs. The grave of particular interest consists of an upright stone slab carved with images of a chief and his wife with their hands on their hips. This monument dates from 1926 and took six months to carve; 150 buffalo were sacrificed for the funeral ceremony. It is visible from the road. Pasunga’s kepala desa, whose house has racks of buffalo horns, is friendly if you share some sirih or cigarettes with him. He will ask you to sign the visitors’ book and leave a donation.
At Gallubakul, 2.5km down the road from the modernising village of Kabonduk (as elsewhere, metal roofs predominate), tombs are largely crafted from concrete and cheesy tile, but it’s also home to Sumba’s heaviest tomb, weighing in at 70 tonnes. It is said that 6000 workers took three years to chisel the Umbu Sawola tomb out of a hillside and drag it 3km to town. The tomb is a single piece of carved stone, about 5m long, 4m wide and nearly 1m thick. At its eastern end is a separate upright slab with carvings of the raja and queen who are buried here, as well as buffalo and cockerel motifs. The raja’s son lives right by the tomb with his wife and can tell its story. He’ll also ask you to sign in and make a donation.
Regular minibuses run between Waikabubak and Anakalang (fewer after 1pm). Buses to Waingapu can drop you off on the highway.
North of Waikabubak
Head north from the Anakalang villages along the mostly paved road and you will traverse mountains sprouting with bamboo, palms and wild fruit trees, over a pass and down into a river valley home to a number of rarely visited kampung. Memboro, set right on the river, is one of the largest. It used to be a huddle of field houses – places the farmers slept during the planting and harvest seasons – but lately it's grown into a somewhat modern place where people live full time because of its wide blue river and abundant water supply. Manuakalada is a traditional thatched village nearby, but most of the residents have abandoned it in favour of Memboro. The entire area is verdant green during the rainy season, November to May.
Waiwarungu, accessible by a decent road from Memboro, is a proper traditional village – and one that is very remote and quite poor. There are over 20 thatched houses, one marapu house and nearly three dozen slab tombs, all within view of the sea. Pigs rut under the houses, and puppies and children run and play everywhere. Still, it's hard, unforgiving country, especially in the parched dry season.
There's at least one daily bus from Waikabubak to Memboro (20,000Rp, one hour), but to get to Waiwarungu you'll need wheels and a guide.
Along the busy (by Sumba standards) road between Waikabubak and Tambolaka, Waimangura is the site of one of Sumba's markets. Every Saturday scores of people gather to haggle over fruits, vegetables, ikat fabric, horses and much more. Even in the mobile-phone era, this is still the primary place where people meet up and share stories and gossip.
South of Waikabubak
The Wanokaka district south of Waikabubak has stunning mountain and coastal scenery and several very traditional kampung. It’s a gorgeous drive from Waikabubak, taking a sealed but narrow road that splits at Padede Weri junction 6km from town. This is where golden, white-headed eagles soar over mountains, which tumble to the azure sea. Turn left at the junction, and the road passes through the riverside settlement of Taramanu, 4km further on. About 2km further downhill you'll meet a good road that leads to Waigalli, a huddle of about 30 thatched peak roof houses around a fabulous stone grave site on a promontory above the sea. You'll see slabs blanketed with corn kernels drying in the sun, women weaving or children pounding rice in the old timber grinder, and a marvellous view of the rice fields in the valley below. A few families have traded the thatched roof for tin. You'll be asked to make a donation (20,000Rp per person will suffice) and sign the guest book.
You’ll find the nearly 200-year-old Watu Kajiwa tomb in the deeply traditional and isolated, though sprawling, village of Praigoli, notched in the dusty, leafy hills above Sumba's southwest coast. From here it's just a short drive further on to lovely Pantai Wanakoka, where there’s a crescent of sand, craggy palm-dotted cliffs and massive bluffs to the south, a bay bobbing with fishing boats, and a beachfront Pasola site. In the rocky coves west of the beach, the water becomes clearer and rolls into decent, if inconsistent, surf. But the wind is consistent, which makes for interesting kitesurf possibilities. Most of the action gathers around the concrete public fishers house, where you can see their catch in the morning and watch them mend their nets in late afternoon. Nearby is the traditional village of Wangli, with views of rice fields, a river, the sea and coastal mountains, and another stone tomb with a 2.5m-tall fleur-de-lis.
Rua, the next in a series of luscious south Sumba beaches, is 5km southwest of the Padede Weri junction. It's yet another tumbledown rustic fishing village with a failed jetty bisecting its wide bay. At one time the Bima ferry docked here but a big storm trashed the jetty and the new dock was situated in Waikelo. Expect more lovely pale golden sand, turquoise water, and great waves when the swell hits between June and September. There looks to be a point break in the south and stiff onshore wind in the afternoon. There’s only one very basic lodging option.
Heading west again, the road passes through the village of Lemboya, with its gorgeous rice fields scalloped into the inland side of the rugged coastal mountains. Lemboya boasts one of Sumba's greatest Pasola fields. Set on a rolling grassland it's big and wide and attracts thousands of people in February. From here there’s yet another turn-off south to the idyllic white sands of Pantai Marosi, 32km from Waikabubak. Set on a ridge above the coast is the sweet Sumba Nautil resort. Nearby is Pantai Etreat, a secluded, powdery gem that stands out even amongst some tough competition, and the glassy seas of Pantai Tarikaha. Offshore is Magic Mountain, a coral-draped underwater volcano that is Sumba’s best dive site. Just before Sumba Nautil, the road forks. If you take the right fork you’ll reach kampung Litikaha, where there is now a graded gravel road to Tokahale, Kahale and Malisu, three hilltop villages with spectacular panoramas. It's a 15-minut
e 4WD drive to the villages, or you can park on the road and walk to all three in about two hours.
The world-class surf spot known as Occy’s Left, featured in the film The Green Iguana, is on Pantai Nihiwatu, east of Marosi on another absolutely stunning stretch of sand buffered by a limestone headland. Unfortunately, only Nihiwatu Resort's paying guests are allowed onto this beach and the number of surfers is capped at 10. At slow times nonguest surfers can ask the manager for permission to ride the break. Thankfully, there are a few more lefts and rights scattered within a 30-minute boat ride of both Marosi and Nihiwatu.
4Sleeping
Ama HomestayHOMESTAY$
(%0821 4716 2012; Rua; per person incl all meals 300,000Rp)
Just five basic, tiled rooms in a sweet guesthouse made from breeze blocks and woven bamboo. Rooms are just big enough for a double bed and mosquito net. Sheltered by palms and lots of potted plants, this is a perfect surfer crash pad. The drawbacks: electricity is cut at midnight, and all rooms share just one mandi.
The beach is only 100m away. You can hire a boat to haul you to the best breaks (250,000Rp per two hours).
oSumba NautilRESORT$$$
(%0813 3747 1670, 0387-21806; www.sumbanautilresort.com; cottages from US$136, r without/with bathroom 450,000/650,000Rp; as)
One of the best-situated resorts in all of Nusa Tenggara, Sumba Nautil sits on the rugged coastal hills with panoramic views of Pantai Marosi and the bluffs that roll north in a series of jutting headlands. Stay in a plush brick cottage with outrageous sea views or a more affordable villa room. A car will shuttle you to beaches and breaks.
Lonely Planet Indonesia Page 78