Garuda Indonesia Colours Magazine February 2015 | Page 122

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Travel | Alor

The charmingly stripped-back
accommodation on offer in
and around Alor lets you
connect directly with the
sun, surf and sand.

“Alor is indeed beautiful, so
long as we enjoy it with care.”
These are the wise words of
the former regent of Alor, Ir.
Ans Takalapeta. They stick in
my mind and I try to decipher
what he might have meant as
we touch down at Mali
Airport on Alor Island.

Alor Island. On our runway approach I can
see verdant, rugged, undulating landscapes
and jagged peaks. The island is of volcanic
origin and it shows in its challenging interior
terrain. It’s fringed, however, with some very
inviting-looking white-sand beaches that
I can’t wait to dig my toes into.
From the airport it’s about a half-hour drive
to the small town of Kalabahi, where I rest
for the night in a humble little hotel called
Pelangi Indah, or ‘Beautiful Rainbow’.
I wake up the next morning at 4am to enjoy
the sunrise from nearby Mali Beach. Local
fishermen are already on the docks prepping
traps and setting out for the day; traders are
setting up their stalls with displays of fresh
fruit and seafood. I sip a long black coffee as
the sky changes colour before my eyes, from
blazing red with bluish hues to orange-yellow
with a tinge of pink – an inspiring way to
start the day of discovery that lies ahead.
Before heading inland, I take time to visit
Museum Seribu Moko – just across the street
from the Pelangi Indah Hotel and open at
7am – so called for its collection of some
1,000 moko (ceremonial bronze drums).

These ornately decorated drums are
hundreds of years old and make the humble
museum an essential visit – admission is
around US$1 per person. Mokos are
traditionally used as engagement dowries
or for other ceremonial uses depending on
the inscribed motif. You can spend a good
amount of time inspecting the different
patterns, the fine hand-woven textiles (ikat)
and assorted tribal artefacts, including
traditional instruments, swords and fine
ceramics, on display.
Alor Island is the main island of the Alor
Archipelago located on the eastern edge
of the Lesser Sunda Islands. It forms its own
regency divided into 17 sub-districts with
158 villages from over 100 tribes speaking
8 languages and 52 dialects, making this small
chain of just 20 islands one of the most
culturally diverse regions in the country.
Until recently, the 185,000 inhabitants
of these islands had been isolated from each
other and the outside world for centuries
due to the lack of roads and infrastructure.
Despite the fact that the Dutch installed
local rajas (village kings) along the coastal
regions of the archipelago, they had little