Kimberley Trip, Day 8: Kupang, Western Timor

Thursday, May 30, 2024

We got to sleep in a bit longer today, which was a welcome change. The plan for after breakfast was to go to a nearby beach for snorkeling, kayaking, and stand-up paddle boarding. We were delayed a bit to let the tide come in, but then we still couldn’t go snorkeling because the water was too shallow. But we happily paddled around in one of the kayaks and tried the paddleboards. Although this was our first try, we both were on our knees on the paddleboards. It seemed like every time I even thought of standing up, the board became a little unstable. In any case, it was fun to try.

During lunch, the Orion was repositioned for us to disembark at Kupang, the regional capital of Western Timor. A welcoming ceremony was held for us; then we took a bus ride (less festively decorated, but air-conditioned) with police escort (!) east across town to a food market. Many open-air stalls had various vegetables, fruits, and dry goods like rice, spices, etc. When visiting a new country, we always like to see a typical food market, and this was our opportunity. The vendors were very accommodating even though we weren’t buying anything.

We then continued a few miles east to an area where several performing groups representing different areas and islands had gathered. Each was dressed in the traditional attire of their home area and performed music and dance for us. At the end of the performance, we were invited to join them in dancing, which we did. It was fun, joyous, and a nice way to connect more with the people. Many pictures and selfies were taken to commemorate the occasion.

Returning to the Orion (again under police escort), we cleaned up and had our usual debrief over cocktails, followed by dinner. We were told that our clocks were being adjusted to Darwin time, 1 hour 30 minutes ahead of Indonesian time, to give us time to adapt. The following day would be a sea day, our first of the trip.

This article is part of a series about our recent trip to Indonesia and Australia. To see the introductory article in the series, click here.