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AhPek Biker - Riding Adventures
Indonesia Bali-Sumba Discovery 2023
Day 4: Kintamani (Bali) to Tambolaka (Sumba)
- Hello Sumba!
Bali & Sumba, Indonesia : Thursday, 1st June 2023
Kintamani>Kuta (Bali)>Bali Ngurah Rai International Airport>Lion Wings Air>Tambolaka Airport (Sumba)>Tambolaka.
Time : 8:15 am to 8:00 pm
Time Taken : 11 hrs. 45 mins. (including 2-hour road-trip from Kintamani to Bali International Airport, 1-1/2 hr. flight from Bali to Sumba, flight checking in, airport lunch, dinner, and many photo opps).
This is page 4 of a 8-page blog, Click Here To Go To Title Page.
< D3: Kintamani | Go to Other Days | D5: Waingapu >
< D3: Kintamani | Go to Other Days | D5: Waingapu >
1. Traffic Directions!
Traffic in Indonesia, is right-hand drive, so drive/cycle on the left. Same thing applies when crossing the road, take note of the direction in which traffic is approaching from!
2. Getting to Bali & Sumba and Packing Light.
Bali is a favourite tourist destination and many airlines fly direct to it's international Ngurah Rai Airport. We flew Air Asia from Kuala Lumpur to Bali, buying our tickets 2-3 months earlier and paid between MYR700-800 (approx. USD200) per pax for a basic return fare, without checked in luggage and other frills.
From Bali to Sumba we flew Lion Wings Air, departing from Ngurah Rai Airport and arriving at Tambolaka's Lede Kalumbang Airport. We stayed a night at Tambolaka before going by local hired vans to get to Waingapu and the surrounding area. The basic return air-fare from Denpasar to Tambolaka was around IDR2,300,000 (MYR710 or USD155) per pax without checked in luggage. Online bookings can be done via the Lion Air Website.
There are direct flights from Denpasar to Waingapu, but oddly the fares are more expensive, almost double. So it did make sense that for a big group like ours, the first option of flight-vans was cheaper.
All of us did not have any checked in luggage for most of the flights and learnt to pack light, maintaining our luggage weight to the allowable 7 kg cabin luggage per pax. It was a good exercise for me as I learnt to pack light and figure out what basic clothing is required (ie one set being worn and 2-sets packed in). It's lighter to bring direct plug-in USB chargers suitable for Indonesia power points than using heavier International plug-socket multi-adapters, etc. Most power plugs and sockets in Indonesia are type C and F, a 2 pin design which is the standard European plug. Click here for details.
3. Covid-19 & Customs Requirments
We applied for Covid-19 clearance through the e-forms submitted to the SatuSehat mobile app, which required uploading of vaccination details & PDF copies of vaccination certificates, and got on-line approval. Upon arrival at Bali Airport, there was a small counter for SatuSehat, but it was not manned, so perhaps this is not required for Bali.
Submission for customs e-clearance is advised for getting past the airport customs without a fuss. E-submission can be done prior to leaving for Indonesia, Click here for to access and fill up the Indonesian E-CD (Electronic Customs Declaration) forms for approval. Upon successful application, a QR Code is given, save this to your phone and show it to the customs officer upon arrival. With a quick scan, and one is cleared to enjoy one's holiday.
4. Clearing Immigration for Senior Citizens and families with infants, etc.
Prior to the pandemic, there were special counters at the Malaysian & Indonesian immigration exit points for senior citizens above 60 years old, but these are not there anymore. No worries though, if there are long queues, just asked any helpful officer for help for senior citizens, and one will be directed to a fast-track counter.
5. Route & Traffic Conditions
This past few years, Kuta, Ubud and the surrounding regions have developed tremendously and traffic along most roads can be quite busy. Drive with care and do take note that there are many motorcyclists around. As one goes further north towards Kintamani, the traffic gets lighter, but at hilly areas some stretches can be steep with winding roads.
At Sumba, traffic is slightly heavy at the urban areas of Tambolaka and Waingapu, but there were not much jams. Roads are narrower but still pleasant to drive on. At some stretches leading to the waterfalls, some hiking was required (more details on this at the day to day blogs).
From Kintamani we headed south to Kuta; the drive will take us 2-1/2 to 3 hours as we would be stopping by at Zia Kuta Hotel to drop part of our luggage so that we will be travelling lighter to Sumba. The flight to will take about 1-1/2 hours. Upon arrival at Sumba, if all goes smoothly we will visit the Weekuri Lagoon before checking into our hotel.
6. Weather
Weather at Bali differs a lot between the lowland and highlands. In June, the average day temperature at Kuta was 28°C, while night ones averaged 24°C. Up in Kintamani, and Bedugul (where we stayed) it was 22°C, and 15°C respectively.
The best time to visit Bali & Sumba is April-June and September, just before and just after high season. It's still dry season, it's slightly less humid, and room prices and villa rentals can be 30-50% cheaper than during high season. It's a cooler season.
Useful weather forecast sites for the Indonesia is AccuWeather. For more detailed weather, including cloud cover and wind speed, use Weatherspark and Ventusky.
7. Communicating with Each Other
When travelling in a group it's important to be able to communicate with each other, especially if one got lost from the rest. Compared to the our previous trip 5-years ago, this time round it was more difficult to get the Indonesian pre-paid phone sim card. For security reasons, there is a need to register ones's passport and phone's IMEI #1 and IMEI #2. One cannot just go to any local shops to buy the sim card as they are reluctant or not equiped to provide such a service. As such, most local phone shops sells only to locals.
It is EASIEST to get the sim cards at the airport. There are booth selling these just after getting past customs and into the arrival hall of Bali (Ngurah Rai) Airport, the local staff there are at hand to help register one's passport and IMEIs. We opted for Telkomsel's as it provides the best coverage at Bali, and even at some of the remote areas of Sumba, and got their Tourist prepaid simcard with 16+8 GB of data valid for 30 days at IRD250K (MYR77 or USD17). 3G internet is available in the more populated areas but can drop to the slower GPRS or even Edge in remote areas. Failing to get a sim card at the airport one can try to get it at some of the Telkomsel's shop, click here for Bali shops locations and click here for Sumba shop locations.
It is possible to get these Tourist prepaid simcard on-line, but registration of passport & IMEIs are still required and one will have to select an official pick-up point, which are only available in the Bali and Mandalika Lombok areas.
Most hotels, motels, home-stays, restaurants, and airports have free Wifi; but do note that public free wifi may not be secure and registration could be required. But one can safe on one's mobile data by using these especially for uploading or downloading videos.
8. Communicating with Locals
As Bali, is a favorite tourist destinations, many locals speak fairly good English. At the smaller towns, locals speak some rudimentary English. The older generation speak very little English, so knowing some basic Bahasa Indonesia (or even better - Balinese language) will come in handy and also warm one up to the locals.
At Sumba, except at hotels and up-market restaurant, very few locals speak English, so some basic Bahasa Indonesia will come in handy. The older Sumbese speak Sumba languages which are a subgroup of the Austronesian language family, that is closely related to the Hawu–Dhao languages.
9. Getting Around
We were on a recce tour group and paid MYR1,700 per pax for ground arrangements that include hotels, breakfast and van transportation, other meals & tips for guide and drivers were not include - all in cost came to around MYR4,000 including some minimum shopping. They were 13 of us including the two tour guides. At Bali, a large 15-seater van with driver took us around. In Sumba, 3 smaller Toyota Avanza took us from Tambolaka to Waingapu and around these cities.
Those interested in joining the guided tour can contact Nik at +6017-4881917. Those who are keen in having their own free and easy tour, contact Bali van driver Made at +6281-5580-02922 or Sumba van drivers Rian Djara at +6281-2387-26367 & Lih Man at +62 82-3398-64280 Sumba Driver.
In Sumba 3-4 star hotels can be found at around MYR150 (USD35) per room per night even for those beach hotels ;click here for range of hotels in Sumba.
8. Places & Things of Interests
There were many scenic and interesting places of interest; but one should not miss the following (Note: click on the GPS coordinates for directional map to the respective places):
- The Garuda Wisnu Kencana statue (Website Link) (GPS: -8.81042, 115.16759) at the GWK Cultural Park in Bali.
- Satria Gatotkaca Statue at the Satria Gatotkaca Park (GPS: -8.74438, 115.17886) situated at the road exit of Bali (Ngurah Rai) Airport.
- Baruna (Varuna) Statue (GPS: -8.73719, 115.16727) at south Kuta.
- Sumba Ikat Weaving - a manually weaved cotton fabric Sumbanese textile art form using natural dyes.
9. Food
Breakfast: Inclusive in home-stay: omelet, fried rice and Kintamani Coffee at Manik Tirta Cabins (GPS: -8.24931, 115.39682) in Kintamani.
Lunch: Bakso Ayam, mie Kuah Ayam, gado-gado, & Bintang Beer at Made’s Warung (Website Link) (GPS: -8.74472, 115.1623) in Bali Domestic Terminal.
Dinner: Miehoon Goreng Seafood, Spaghetti carbonara, & Jeruk air kelapa with selasih (basil seed) at Sirkey Cafe (GPS: -9.42971, 119.23834) in Tambolaka City, Sumba.
10. Accommodations
Our stay for the night was at Hotel Sinar Tambolaka (GPS: -9.43056, 119.23861) in Tambolaka City, Sumba. We upgraded from a Superior Room to a Deluxe Room for an additional IDR 100K.
Alternative accommodations can be found at Villa Sinar Tambolaka (GPS: -9.4318, 119.24007) OR at Hotel Ella Tambolaka (GPS: -9.42995, 119.23858), both in Tambolaka City, Sumba.
11. Navigation
I used MapMyRide to track our routes and stops. Geo-tagging of places of interest was via FaceBook or Google Maps.
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PRELUDE
A day before was a fruitful day, (literally as we had some pretty good strawberry juice). We traveled south from Sambangan to have freshly grilled seafood at beach-side Sangsit, and then headed north to Kintamani. It's my first time staying at Kintamani, and was pleasantly surprised that the home-stay we stayed in had it's own jacuzzi pool, a large one fed by the natural hot springs of from the mountains of this area.
Today, we start off on the next leg of our journey, one that was the reason for our recce trip - WE HEAD FOR SUMBA! The place sounds a bit mystical as it's an island 1-1/2 hours by flight east of Bali, and it's off the radar of most tourists to Indonesia. So we fly there with some curious expectations of what we will find and experience.
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THE TRIP
From Kintamani we headed south to Kuta; the drive will take us 2-1/2 to 3 hours as we would be stopping by at Zia Kuta Hotel to drop part of our luggage so that we will be travelling lighter to Sumba. The flight to will take about 1-1/2 hours. Upon arrival at Sumba, if all goes smoothly we will visit the Weekuri Lagoon before checking into our hotel.
We have read much about Sumba and how diversified sceneries that the island has and were eager to see for ourselves with our own eyes!
(Click here for D4: Kintamani (Bali)-Tambolaka (Sumba) Direction Map)
It's called Gomphocarpus physocarpus, but more commonly know as Hairy Balls 😂! It's sometimes also called Bishop's Balls, but I can't attest to why it's called that as I have never seen any Bishop's balls before 😲!
Anyways, the plant is native to southeast Africa, but it has been widely naturalized. It is often used as an ornamental plant. The owner of Manik Tirta Cabins is an avid gardener and must have got his hands on them somehow!
At Kuta, we made a short detour to Zia Kuta Hotel to drop off part our luggage so that we would be travelling lighter to Sumba and would not have to check in luggage. Here in Kuta, I always admire the many statues that can be seen at strategically locations, like the one above -- Baruna (Varuna) Statue at south Kuta and the Satria Gatotkaca Statue at the Satria Gatotkaca Park at the road leading to the Bali (Ngurah Rai) Airport.
Too bad for me this lovely lass was there to welcome other guests and not me, sigh!
Concerned about large crowds we had arrived at the airport early, and had spare time after checking in to admire some Balinese artwork seen at the Domestic Departure Hall.
The above is a mural and sculpture of Barong - he is the king of the spirits, good spirit, that took the form of an animal as the guardian of forest.
The above is a mural and sculpture of Barong - he is the king of the spirits, good spirit, that took the form of an animal as the guardian of forest.
We had earlier booked flights through NAM Air, but these didn't pan out as there were several postponements of their flights, and we re-booked flights with Wings Air.
Wings Air is a subsidiary of Lion Air and flights can be booked via the Lion Air Website.
Unfortunately, our 2:15pm flight was delayed by about 45 minutes, hopefully this won't affect our plans.
Unfortunately, our 2:15pm flight was delayed by about 45 minutes, hopefully this won't affect our plans.
The above photo from from Authentic Indonesia website by Bisnis Wisata, shows what a beautiful place that we missed.
We were booked into the hotel's Superior rooms but found it not so suitable and paid an extra IRS100,000 to upgrade to a Deluxe room. Alternatively, one can book a chalet in their sister hotel the Villa Sinar Tambolaka.
Soon we were out and about, taking a walk to explore the neighbourhood. Although the city is the capital Sumba, the immediate vicinity looks rather rural. But West Sumba attracts many surfers with beaches nearby for surfing. But we were not here for surfing, and was recce-ing the island for future tours.
Nearby, Tambolaka Market, with it's zinc-roofed timber shops seen above, reminded me of those of my childhood days.
A close-up view of one of the stalls selling local groceries.
Food was pretty good, we had Mie Goreng Seafood and Spaghetti carbonara.
"Selamat Malam!
Today was a teaser, tomorrow our Sumba adventure begins!
This is page 4 of a 8-page blog, Click Here To Go To Title Page.
< D3: Kintamani | Go to Other Days | D5: Waingapu >
< D3: Kintamani | Go to Other Days | D5: Waingapu >
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Your road-trip recce tour of Bali and Sumba is quite an adventure! The detailed information on routes, travel tips, weather, and local customs is extremely helpful for anyone planning a similar journey. It's evident that you've put a lot of thought and effort into ensuring a smooth and enjoyable experience, from traffic directions to communication and accommodation recommendations. Exploring less touristy places like Sumba is an exciting opportunity to discover hidden gems. Your insights into places of interest, food, and accommodations make this travelogue a valuable resource for future travelers. Wishing you safe and memorable travels on this unique expedition!
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