Sumba Story Gathering Project And #TravelInTheTimeOfCorona - Part 3

Enough with the work talk, this post will have photos on East Sumba.

Before the pandemic, I would be irritated if things did not go as planned. Now that the whole world are well into the ninth month of the pandemic, I have learned to improvise, prepare several back-up plans and accept if things could not go as the initial plans.

I must admit that this latest trip to Sumba has given me a lot of last-minute surprises. I've told you about the quick process of the project. But that was just the beginning of many surprises. Another surprises was the videographer could not make it to check in to the airplane on the departure date *insert horror music*.

When I turned on my cellphone in Ngurah Rai Airport, Denpasar during the transit, waves of messages were barging in to the inbox. The most shocking one was:"Mbak, I could not check in to the flight." I did not need to check the sender to figure out who sent it. I quickly replied with a short sentence:"Wait a minute, I need to go to a restroom now."

It was a 4.30 am flight. I left home at 1.30 am, arrived at SHIA at 3 am and had to catch my breath to run to the departure gate. And all my videographer could say was that ambiguous apology? This is unacceptable. I was angry, but also, I needed to think carefully on how to approach this problem. After all, we still had to work for a week in Sumba.

So I sat down at a cafe, sipping a very strong black coffee and laying out my backup plan. I contacted the people in Sumba to delay the schedule by one day, asked the driver to find a hotel (although, I would not worry about this part, because all hotels would be vacant in this pandemic) and decided that I would go to the beach in the afternoon.

 

This is in Walakiri Beach

It was the first time I ever went to all the tourism sites in East Sumba. I just realized that had it not for the videographer's mishap, we might be going straight to the villages, and I would not be able to go to the beach.

 

In Walakiri Beach, a stargirl will find herself surrounded by the stars

 

The driver, Jack, kindly asked me where I'd like to go. I said,"Jack, this is my fourth visit to East Sumba, and I have never been anywhere touristy. You can just take me to any place and I would bet that it would be my first time going there." Jack just stared in disbelief,"But what did you do on your previous visits?" I raised my eyebrows,"I worked, obviously." He just sighed and said,"Ok."

Fortunately, Jack likes photography and he offers to take my pictures. I have a driver and a personal photographer. It's like hitting two birds with a stone or one paddling that takes you past two or three islands (do I even get the last proverb correctly translated? LOL). 

 

This is in Hiliwuku Hill. Sumba has several spots of such hills, with Wairinding as the most famous (you can borrow a piece of Sumba weave fabric as photo prop or ride a horse there).  

As we waited for the videographer to land, Jack had unconventional ideas on places to take photos. The following is an example :D.

 

This would be the first and last time I ever pose on an asphalt road in the middle of the day in Sumba. It was scorching hot, and I believed a part of my butts (if not all) got toasted. Man, being a model is tough.

 

 

Sumba is known for its savanna, so seeing the lush paddy field like this is also a surprise. This might look like a regular view in Java island. But if you notice the house on the background, that is not a Javanese traditional house. Also, the picture does not show, but there are sandalwood horses behind me, just outside of the frame.

 

A closer view of the traditional roof in Kampung Raja Prailiu.

 

 This one is too close, though :D 

 

The videographer and I had different flight schedules as he would leave one day before I did. I asked Ridkey about this, because I thought it would be useless for me to go to field when the videographer had left Sumba and it was Sunday, the day when everyone go to church and had family time. My photography skill is also below the acceptable, and I don't think it's fair to ask Jack to take the photos/videos. He should be hired professionally by the institution. 

 

At first, I thought of leaving on the same day as the videographer. But then, the cost to change the schedule was more expensive than one-day car rental and one-night hotel room, so I stuck to the schedule, but Ridkey allowed me to have day off. Yay!

I decided to go to Waimarang waterfall on that last day.

 

It was not the smoothest journey, especially with the pandemic situation still running at full steam here. Nevertheless, it was a memorable one.