A close friend thay has just returned to France after almost 3 years in Sumba, Alor, and other parts of NTT.
He is a bit mad
http://web.mac.com/graffounet
Excellent, thank you dp. Nothing like a madman to get a feel for a place. I have also been described the same way by a few good people, which I take as a compliment.
If you do go to the back country be prepared for hardship. There will be no restaraunt or loseman (hotel) People eat termites and dogs - really. On some islands you will not be well recieved.
I don't doubt any of it. I was very intrigued by the maps I've seen of Sumba-few roads or towns large enough to appear on a map, maybe a bit more like the rest of Eastern Indonesia was 30 years ago. And all that coast on the Southern Ocean with nothing until Antarctica..!
Do you speak Indonesian? Consider bringing a mosqito net. For me tents are too hot and I sleep in the open.
No, I don't speak much bahasa, yet. I said "Trema kasi" to a woman in the Kupang airport who helped me with something and who then chastised me for using a bahasa expression, saying "We don't speak that here". It got me wondering if bahasa always functions the same positive way in Eastern Indo as pidgin/english does in PNG. I will be traveling through East Nusa with a Jakartan friend of mine next summer and plan to learn some bahasa in advance and get more pointers from him. Is speaking bahasa in rural ENT frowned on?
I have only dove from the shore in East Timor. There are no offshore reefs that I am aware of and it quickly gets to a depth of 6000 meters between Atauro and the main island.
Good stuff. Close proximity to deep water increases the chances of good diving and an intact food chain. I definitely plan to spend some time on Atauro when I go to ET.
assuming that you are diving with rebreather you will of course have to bring all supplies with you as you likely did in Alor and Komodo
Yes indeed, pain in the ass and routine, I always have to bring everything I need. Luckily, I can fit everything I need for a months worth of diving into 2 checked bags and a carry-on. Anywhere that has a hospital, I can get some O2 and in business. It's always worth it, more so in places where logistics are hardest and people fewest, which is always amusing. No bubbles means I blend in better with the fishes who then either ignore me altogether, or become extra curious and territorial, especially the bigger animals. Not many better thrills than diving with a rebreather in remote places.
In Dili East Timor lodging is no problem but a tad pricy for what you get. The workers on the UN gravy train tend to jack up prices. Diving on Atauro is usually based at Berry's place - Nema's Lodge
Thanks for the specifics. I had wondered why the prices were so much higher in ET than Indo. I only hope that the benefits to the local economy from the UN gravy offset the loss of thrifty tourists, who are always the first to sing the praises of a new destination.
If you want to try some exploratory diving hook up with Wayne and try the channel between Jaco and the main island. Take everything you will need including water and camp on the main island. The tunas and dolphins run through there in droves. The local fishermen get tunas with head shots. Plan on at least 5 days (two days to get there and back, 3 days for diving)
Again, thanks very much for the specifics. "exploratory diving"...the words alone get my heart beating faster. There is no exploratory diving in heaven, which is why we do that and drink beer here on the earth.
Two new divers that I know tried it but were too inexperienced to do it right and claimed that it was no good but I can assure that it is indeed very very good but it will take planning.
Sounds a lot like all the recent posts I read about Alor before going there. Somebody from a liveaboard once described Kal's Dream as a barren rock with strong down currents on what obviously must have been a very bad day+their own weird criteria for a barren rock. I did 2 dives there and can't imagine it being so described in any conceivable conditions. Obviously Thomas's local knowledge is better after 2 years than some might have led me to believe if he put me on the site twice for 2 fantastic dives, not to mention all the other great sites he has intimate knowledge of...
Thanks again dp, you are the goods! -Andy