Wae Rebo: Remote Traditional Village in Flores
Conical Houses of Wae Rebo
In the mountains of Flores lies the remote traditional village, Wae Rebo, on top of a picturesque mountain 1,100 meters above sea level. In 2012, the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Award for Cultural Heritage Conservation honoured the village with an Award of Excellence for its efforts to preserve its traditions and culture. Wae Rebo is home to the traditional cone-shaped Mbaru Niang homes which are typical of Manggarai tribes. These unique homes are constructed entirely without the use of nails, consisting of a wooden structure which is covered with layers of palm leaves, giving it a massive roof and distinct cone shape. Unlike other traditional villages, Wae Rebo is home to one single clan whose ancestor, Empu Maro, established the village 100 years ago. Today the 18th generation of his descendants have strived to keep alive Manggarai traditions. Visiting Wae Rebo is to step back in time, there is no cell phone reception, no wi-fi, and the only electricity is provided by a small solar panel.
Village elder watches the morning activity in Wae Rebo
Traditional conical houses of Wae Rebo
Five Levels
The houses consist of five levels with each serving a separate purpose. Level 1, lutur or tent, is the living area for families. The second level, lobo or attic, is for food storage. The third level, lentar, to store seeds. The fourth level, lempa rae, is reserved for food stocks in case of drought and the fifth level, hekang kode, and most sacred is kept for offerings to the ancestors.
A young boy peeking out of a window of a Mbaru Niang home in Wae Rebo
Getting to Wae Rebo
Wae Rebo is located near the town of Ruteng though most people choose to stay in a homestay in a small village called Denge located at the starting point of a 9 km hike uphill to Wae Rebo. We decided to go Denge from Labuan Bajo by private car hire via a 7 hour scenic, but tumultuous drive and hike to Wae Rebo to stay overnight there. May decided to stay in the Denge village while I hiked to the top. It was an arduous trip, mainly due to the poorly maintained one-lane very windy road that leads to Denge. We enjoyed the beautiful scenery and excited children along the way yelling “bule (boo-lay),” which means foreigner. They seemed so excited to see tourists and a group of kids showed off for us when we stopped for a rest along the road.
Group of kids on the way to Wae Rebo
Rice field on the way to Wae Rebo
The only way reach the village is to hike 9km up a mountainous trail which was a bit of a challenge during the mid-day heat. It was well worth the hike and I was not the only one on the trail. Doing the hike on a Sunday, the trail was crowded with villagers bringing sacks of coffee beans down from the village and hauling supplies up to the village. Sunday and Monday are the two days of the week that they resupply the village by selling coffee beans at the market in Ruteng and purchasing supplies. After meeting many villagers on the way to the village during my many rest breaks, I finally reached the part of the trail that would descend down to the village. Before entering the village, I had to signal my arrival by ringing a bell located in a stand just above the village. Once I reached the village I greeted the chief and gave my offering to him, 20,000 IDR in the drum house. The structure of the village includes the traditional houses, a drum house which is the symbol of the unity of the clan and a communal building and an altar. In front of the drum house is the compang, a stone altar where the souls of the ancestors are believed to stay. Wae Rebo is the only village in the Manggari district that has the complete village structure.
Sun rays bathing Wae Rebo during sunrise
Morning in Wae Rebo
Staying overnight in the village was a great experience and highly recommended. I woke up early for sunrise, hiking up to the “kids house” for a good vantage point. Sitting in the silence of the morning, I thought about how lucky I was to be able to visit this village. Surrounded by the mountains and taking in all the wonderful scenery as the sun slowly rose above the mountains was a wonderful experience.
Morning in Wae Rebo
My guide enjoying a morning smoke in Wae Rebo
Laying Out Coffee
After watching the sunrise, it was time for breakfast so I headed back to the guest conical house. There was very little activity in the village aside from some villagers pounding maize, one of the staples of the villagers diet. Once I arrived back at the guest conical house, breakfast was waiting. It was a tasty traditional meal, a good way to start the day off before I would have to hike back down to Denge village. Once breakfast time was over, the village came to life as the villagers began to lay out the coffee beans they had harvested for drying under the sun. Watching everyone move around, laying down tarps and then spreading bags of coffee beans on them was interesting. They would rake the beans so that they were evenly spread out and would then sort through them. Once everyone had laid out their coffee beans, the village became quiet again except for the children that were out playing. This signaled it was time for me to start my hike, at least it was downhill this time.
Sorting Coffee
Spreading coffee
Flores island in Indonesia is only a 90-minute flight from Bali but feels like it is a whole other country. Not long ago it was a remote backwater on the Indonesian tourist trail but is gaining more visitors each year. Of the four islands we visited during our time exploring Indonesia, Flores rewarded us with diverse culture and traditions, warm residents, and stunning natural beauty. One highlight of the two weeks we spent on Flores was visiting the remote mountain village of Wae Rebo.
Seminyak – Visiting Temples and Feeling like a kid again
Surf, Sun, and Temple Fun
Sunset at Uluwatu Temple
Having spent some time exploring Ubud we decided to head down to Kerobokan and then Seminyak to get a taste of the side of Bali while we waited for our visa extension. We would need to go to the immigration office near the airport to get our photo taken and fingerprints scanned. With May needing some rest to recover from her strep throat, we booked a room at Pandawa All Suites Hotel in Kerobokan. It was little more secluded than we imagined, but it gave us some peace and quiet. Maybe it was little too much peace and quiet; we couldn’t wait to get to the beach after a week of isolation in Kerobokan. Having gotten all of the relaxing we needed, and with her throat feeling better we decided it was time to head for the beach and have some fun. So we got a hotel room down the street from Double-Six beach in Seminyak. Time to enjoy some sun and fun, playing in the surf, and check out a couple of temples.
Seminyak and Double-Six Beach
This ended up being our favorite place in Bali, not as crowded and without as many touts as Kuta Beach, so we could just relax and play in the surf. It was so much fun to jump in the ocean, dive into the waves and feel like a kid again, not having a care in the world. After playing in the ocean, we lounged in the cabana area provided by our hotel, Hotel Horison, eating some delicious food and soaking the sun. At night, the restaurants at the beach set out beanbag chairs and set up stages for live music, which we really enjoyed. Sitting down, enjoying a cold beer while listening to music, we reflected on how lucky we were to be there, enjoying life. We were just beginning our second month on the road and it still didn’t seem real. Looking at the stars, absorbing the vibrations of the music, and feeling the energy of the ocean truly made Double-Six beach a special place for us. Watching people light lanterns and letting them drift up to the sky was an enjoyable experience. As they floated farther away, becoming a little light moving across the night sky, and finally resembling star as the last flicker of light faded away was a great sight to take in. Making the beach all the more fun. Having taken in the beach, we decided it was time to go temple visiting.
Tanah Lot
Stars start to shine after sunset at Tanah Lot Temple
Tanah Lot temple, built on a rock just offshore, is an important directional temple on Bali and one of seven sea temples on Bali. In Balinese, the name Tanah Lot means “Land (in the) Sea.” The temple is built to honor Dewa Baruna, a sea god in the Hindu religion. The ocean tide continuously shapes the rock and is only accessible during low tide. Due to erosion, the temple underwent a restoration in the 1990’s with one-third on the “rock” being very cleverly disguised artificial rock. Sunset is when it is at it’s most beautiful. We hopped in a cab, negotiating with him to take us there and back; we headed to Tanah Lot to see the sunset. Once you enter the temple grounds you have to walk through a maze of souvenir stalls before you actually get to the temple. It was a little more touristy than I prefer, the stalls selling the standard tourist items found in the markets around Bali. After walking through the stalls, we made our way down towards the temple.
It was low tide so we were able to wander down to the beach and over to the rock that the temple sat on. Unable to enter the temple grounds since it wasn’t open yet, so we walked around and scouted for a good location to view the sunset. At first we headed back up to the cliff that overlooked the temple but thought that the beach would give us a better vantage point, so we made our way back down to the beach. Finally finding a spot, setting up my tripod, we waited for the sunset to begin setting when we noticed people going up to the temple. A rush of disappointment set in, we had missed our chance to explore the temple, but we had found a good place to view what we hoped would be a beautiful sunset. We were not disappointed.
Getting ready for sunset pictures
Standing in the surf for the sunset was very fun. The tide slowly began to rise, the waves hitting my legs at a steadily rising rate as the sun steadily descended towards the horizon, the sky ablaze with an orange glow. As the ocean got higher I had to keep moving closer to shore until I found safe ground, darkness was beginning to set in, the sky became brilliant blue and purple, bringing joy to our eyes. At the end of the shoot, walking along the shore with our headlamps guiding us, we both felt happy to have seen such a pretty sunset.
Tanah Lot Temple Sunset
Tanah Lot is located about a 40-minute drive from Seminyak. There is not much transportation there so most visitors are part of a tour or hire a taxi or motorbike. Make sure you have some return transportation arranged or may get stuck there or pay a high price to get back to your lodging.
Uluwatu Temple
Uluwatu Temple Sitting on the Cliff Edge
After going North for sunset at Tanah Lot, we decided to head South to other main Hindu temple on Bali, Uluwatu. Uluwatu, located 70 meters above the sea on a cliff is another great place to sit and enjoy the sunset. It, along with Tanah Lot, is one of the six temples believed to be spiritual pillars of Bali and an important directional temple. These temples are believed to protect against evil. Not only can you get spectacular views of the ocean from the cliff it sits on, it also hosts a nightly Kecak dance. Not being satisfied with just seeing the sunset, we decided to take in the Kecak fire dance. Since its location is on the Bukit peninsula, the most Southern part of Bali, we hired a driver to take us there and back.
Beautiful Sunset at Uluwatu Temple
Sitting on the edge of a cliff, it gives way to beautiful views of the ocean and the waves crashing below. Pura Luhur Uluwatu in Balinese means “something of divine origin (at the) lands end rock.” We walked along the cliff edge trail to different vantage points, taking the beauty of the area and stopping to look at a Chinese couple getting their wedding pictures taken. Our driver accompanied us, making sure we didn’t have any trouble with monkeys that live at the temple. They are known for taking things such as sunglasses from tourists. As the sun began to descend towards the horizon, we made our way towards the stands that surround the stage where we would watch the Kecak fire dance. We picked our seats and had enough time before the dance started to enjoy the beautiful sunset.
Wedding Couple
Uluwatu Temple Sitting on the Cliff Edge
Would You Drink Cat Poo Coffee or Kopi Luwak, a Local Coffee Delicacy in Bali?
Balinese are crazy about coffee, especially Kopi Luwak or what I call, cat-poo-cino, a local and highly sought after delicacy made from Arabica coffee beans produced from cat poo! Kopi means coffee in Indonesian and Luwak is a local name of the Asian Palm Civet, a cat-like creature originally from Sumatra.
A golden civet or luwak enjoying some bananas at the Uluwatu Temple market
What is Kopi Luwak?
The civets select the best coffee cherries to consume, in this case, Arabica coffee beans mostly for the fruity fleshy pulp. Their digestive mechanisms are stated to improve the flavor profile for the coffee beans because they ferment these partially digested coffee beans. These coffee beans are later excreted and collected by farmers and processed by washing, roasting, and finely grinding to prepare kopi luwak. Kopi luwak is known more for the novelty of the process than for its taste and it is called “one of the most expensive coffees in the world with retail prices reaching US $700 per kilogram” or around $80 for a cup. Kopi Luwak is currently the second most expensive coffee since the most expensive coffee is the Black Ivory Coffee, a local Northern Thailand delicacy made from poop by elephants consuming the same type of Arabica coffee beans. These can be fetched for “US $1,100 per kilogram” and only sold in luxury hotels and cafes.
Kopi luwak is produced mainly on the islands of Sumatra, Java, Bali and Sulawesi in Indonesia. It is also produced in the islands of the Philippines, East Timor, and Vietnam, but all have different names and prices associated with it. There has been some debate on the ethical methods on how kopi luwak is produced. PETA and other animal rights activists claim the production of kopi luwak is unethical because farmers would lock up civets in battery cages and would force-feed them. Caging civets prohibits them from roaming wild to enjoy their natural habitat and by having limited mobility, they ultimately become stressed, which reduce the quality of the coffee beans.
Here’s a little snippet from the movie “The Bucket List” about what kopi luwak is all about.
How Kopi Luwak is Produced
Step 1. Civets consume the cherry beans. It takes 24 hours to fully digest in their stomachs before they are excreted along with other byproducts like seeds, nuts, and coffee beans.
Civets are nocturnal creatures that feast on coffee cherries and defecate the coffee beans which create kopi luwak.
Coffee cherries the civet consumes, but cannot fully digest.
Step 2. Feces from civets are collected, dried, then separated to individual beans and washed. A considerable amount of weight is reduced here as nuts, seeds, and bad beans are separated out.
The excreted feces with coffee beans that cannot be digested by the civet
Top left, luwak poop in a clump, bottom separated into individual coffee beans. Middle right, vanilla beans.
Step 3. Once the coffee beans have been washed, they are left to dry in the sun for a few days so the papery parchment around the coffee been can be easily removed. It is washed and dried again.
The outer parchment is removed from the coffee beans shown here.
Step 4. The coffee beans are then roasted over the fire on a cast iron wok for an hour or more, constantly stirring to get a deep dark color and to extract strong bitter flavors. The coffee beans reduce in size through this process.
Woman roasting the coffee beans.
Step 5. Once the coffee beans are done roasting, they are placed in a pestle and mortar and are grounded up coarsely. It is then sifted out for impurities and grounded more finely.
Different phases the luwak coffee has been processed. In the far back, the coffee is roasted, on the right, the coffee is coarsely grounded, and bottom, coffee is finely grounded.
Step 6. The final product yields a finely grounded kopi luwak and packaged in a container for sale. One is by Satria Agrowisata, where we did our free coffee and tea tasting (details below) at and the other from a small shop at the Uluwatu Temple marketplace.
Finely ground kopi luwak in the Satria Agrowisata packaging.
Bali Civet Coffee sold at the market at Uluwatu Temple
Tasting Special Teas and Coffees of Bali
Our driver, Rama spent an entire day with us showing us some sites in the Ubud region of Bali and he surprised us with a stop at Satria Agrowisata, a tea and coffee plantation for a free tour of the premises including looking at the flora produced on-site (lemongrass, cocoa, cloves, cinnamon, coffee beans, and so many other plants used to produce the tea and coffee sold here). We also got a quick tour of the traditional kopi luwak roasting process and enjoyed a free coffee and tea tasting before being led to the shop where we purchased a few of our favorite teas to consume during our trip and to send some unique ones home for our family to try.
The free tasting included Ginseng Coffee, Coconut Coffee, Moccacino Coffee, Vanilla Coffee, Hot Cocoa, Saffron Tea, Mangosteen Tea, Bali Coffee, Lemon Grass Tea (Organic), Rose Tea (Organic), Ginger Tea, and Roselle Tea (Organic). We were led down some steep stairs to a shaded seating area under a hut overlooking the beautiful valley and plantation and enjoyed tasting everything here. Our guide informed us that some of these herbal teas had medicinal healing properties. Saffron for overall health, immunity and to aid digestion, Roselle (or hibiscus) to lower blood pressure, promote weight-loss, cure coughs, and Mangosteen for its anti-cancer properties, to lower blood pressure and cholesterol, and to reduce inflammation. There’s no pressure to purchase anything, so if you want to just enjoy the plantation and sample the tea/coffees, that would be fine.
After sampling the 12 different coffee and teas with Mangosteen, Roselle, and Saffron being our favorites tastewise and for their healing properties, I asked about the kopi luwak tasting. The kopi luwak tasting costed extra. Fortunately, it didn’t cost $80 a cup, but at 50,000 IDR or around $3.50 USD for a small cup.
Joshua outright opted out of drinking cat poo coffee or any kind of coffee because he doesn’t like the bitter taste of coffee. And since I have a knack to try new and unique things, I, of course, tried it. I’ve been wanting to try it since we first saw the civets napping at the market at Uluwatu Temple but was a little apprehensive about drinking it and getting food poisoning from the deadly E. Coli bacteria from something that is predominately made from poop. After watching how kopi luwak was produced, I felt reassured I would not get food poisoning. I paid for the cup, with coffee in hand, Joshua intently stared at me with a grossed out look on his face as I took a sip of kopi luwak, black. I felt an immediate jolt of adrenaline rush throughout my body and my taste buds were hit with a strong, sharp bitterness and grittiness from the coffee and grinds. I promptly added cream and sugar to make it less bitter so I could finish the cup of kopi luwak. Coffee connoisseurs say kopi luwak is mostly consumed for novelty since there is no distinguishable taste, one even said it tasted like Folgers.
Would You Drink Cat Poo Coffee
So kopi luwak is safe to drink, but the question is, would you want to try it for the taste or for the novelty? And the next thought is, can you get over the fact it came from the bowels of a cat? I knew I gave into the gimmick and tried it mostly for the novelty and so I can say I drank the second most expensive cup of coffee in the world and it’s made from cat poop!