Going Wild in Tengku Lese Waterfall
Most of the activities that the travelers do in Flores Island categorized as adventure tourism. It is reasonable due to the place is very mountainous, vary culture, and it needs more physical activities to reach the tourism destinations.
According to the Adventure
Travel Trade Association, adventure tourism is a tourist activity that includes
a physical activity, a cultural exchange, or activities in nature.
Adventure tourism is
about connecting with a new culture or a new landscape and being physically active
at the same time. It is not about being risky or pushing your boundaries. In
fact, it is especially important to know and respect your limits while you are
in an unfamiliar area.
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| Tengku Lese Waterfall (source) |
During 10 days stay on
Flores, Roel and Maaike (Dutch) chose to explore Flores for 4 days. The idea
was simply to experience the real life of Indonesia. The tour was started from
Labuan Bajo where they have ended up snorkeling and trekking to Komodo Island.
One of the places we
visited was Tengku Lese waterfall located in Nanu Village, Manggarai-Flores
which can be reached from Ruteng with travel time of an hour or from Labuan
Bajo for 4 hours drive.
The first 3 hours, we
were driving along the trans Flores which the road is so well-constructed. During our
drive, we were accompanied by great view of green mountains and a gorgeous
landscape of large rice field in Lembor combined with a worth stop to spider web rice field in Cancar.
The last hour of the
drive, we were driving on some skinny and bumpy roads. We also had to stop in
some points as we were attracted by the view of rice terraces that have been
planted 2 months before, green and perfectly nice for the picture.
Roel said that “this is
exactly what I expected to see, rare, so quiet, and less tourists”. He also
added this will be a great tourist attraction in the future but agreed it
should last as it is.
As we also saw some cows
and buffaloes on the paddy fields, Maaike and Roel were reminded to the story
how unique the culture of Flores which they had heard from a ranger in Komodo. Besides
for helping to plow on the rice field, buffalo is taken care for a dowry to
woman who is ready to be a wife. Like in Manggarai, a man who marries a woman
has to present amounts of money, chickens, goats, pigs, cows, and buffalo as
dowry. They function to express how much man loves the woman and makes her one
for a lifetime.
By listening to the story of this marriage system in Manggarai, Maaike found it as an advantage and was hoping that Roel would do the same if he marries her. They both just laughed and felt very funny about it. This made our tour full of humors and did not feel if we had made a long drive.
Roel and Maaike cannot
hide the fact that they have made great decision to go on 4WD car that can
tackle the bumpy road easily and timely efficient. "It would take much time if
we took minivan and way very hard for it to drive on this type of road, no
wonder not many tourist coming this area", Roel said to convince Maaike.
The feeling of reaching
Nanu village was an exception. The rain that poured heavily in the village and
surroundings did not make us feel annoyed as the spectacular view of the
waterfall welcomed us incredibly warmed.
By far sight, the
waterfall with 2 levels are seen pouring strongly between huge rocks. Mountains
and rice terraces surround it with some small shelters made it become
extraordinarily wonderful. Even though it was still rainy, we still dropped off
the car to make some pictures. Roel made sure he did not miss any details by
making videos through his gopro.
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The rice field around Tengku Lese waterfall. (photo by
Roel)
The tiring, excitement,
and starving paid off once we arrived in Nanu village. We were welcomed by Bapa
and Mama Jeni who served us their traditional foods and cups of coffee added
with cooked cassava. Rice, chicken soup mixed with squash, bean, rice, and was
our lunch dish.
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| Four of us enjoying local foods in Nanu |
While enjoying lunch, we shared a lot of story about European and Manggaraian culture. Bapa Jeni who hosted us said: “for us guest is a king or queen that needs to be welcomed”. It is a tradition to host a guest the best we have like firstly with coffee and cooked cassava or taro.
Meanwhile Roel said if he was feeling so welcomed and proud to have such a wonderful vvillage. He said "imagine when waking up in the morning and open the door and find such amazing view of waterfall on the backyard, it is just wonderful". Bapa Jeni was also surprised when Roel added one more cup of coffee as he loved it so much and Roel said if he drinks coffee at home 5 to 7 times a day. He also knew it before that Manggaraian coffee is one of the best in the world that is why he loved trying as much as he can.
As the lunch finished, we
began walking on the new path built by locals accompanied by local kids aged 13
to 14 years old. With the new energy added with some entertainment of kids
singing, the walk seemed to be easy until we reached the rocky spot. We had to
climb the bamboo ladder in some points and the tiny walks with some drop-offs
made it even more adventurous.
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| left to right: I, Roel, Maaike, and Ino It
was so complete when got back to Bapa Jeni’s house, he has prepared young coconut
for us to enjoy. It was just perfect day. So sweet to remember the family of Bapa Jeni and the way they treated us like
his family members. |
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Roel and Maaike would not miss this beautiful moment of their adventure. For people who would love
to visit Tengkulese waterfall, make sure to see our suggestions below:
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