Travelling & Adventure Series:
Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT), Indonesia
There are many unexplored, or rather lesser known destinations in Indonesia, chiefly in Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT).
Before we move further on, let's get to know it better and thus have some translation into this sharing too, done to make it easy for you guys to grasp the nuances of the places or names mentioned here.
The language and terms used thus would be better off understood to give you a richer appreciation of the geographical location and cultural heritage of the place(s).
Getting to Know NTT
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Nusa Tenggara (NT) is divided into two separate provincial governance:
• the western half forms Nusa Tenggara Barat or acronymed as NTB (the geographical of NTB denotes by the word 'Barat' which means 'West' thus the western half)
• whilst the eastern half thus forms Nusa Tenggara Timur - NTT (thus 'Timur' referred to 'East').
The islands comprises in NTB includes the renowned Bali (a province by itself in the larger province of NTB), Lombok and Sumbawa whilst NTT biggest islands are Sumba, Flores and Timor - Timor itself is divided into two:
• the western half as Timor Barat (or simply Timor) under Indonesian territories;
• whilst the eastern part forms Timor Timur or better known as Timor Leste, the 10th and newest South-East Asian nation state that got its independence from Indonesia on 20th May 2002.
Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) is therefore the southernmost province in Indonesia to the eastern border of the territories and this is encapsulated in its name: Nusa Tenggara Timur - 'Nusa' denotes 'island(s)' whilst 'Tenggara' means 'South-East' and 'Timur' is 'East'.
The full context of the translation thus is: 'Eastern part of Islands of the South-East' - or NTT: Nusa Tenggara Timur.
NTT is made up of 500 islands scattered around the archipelagos, and the largest amongst them as mentioned earlier are Sumba, Flores and Timor Barat.
NTT comprises 21 regencies with Kupang in Timor - the largest city, serving as it's regencial and provincial capital city for both Timor and NTT respectively.
Therefore if you are exploring NTT or the eastern borders of Indonesia, as far off Papua too, it's worth to note that Kupang then becomes a natural selection as your base camp/base city in the eastern garrison since it majors in several international flights and many domestic flights too, to around Indonesia.
Being the provincial capital city too, you could imagine Kupang having the amount of amenities, administrative and bureaucratic means available to aid you, should you need assistance there.
(If you are in Nusa Tenggara Barat, NTB on the other hand, the natural choice of base camp/base city would be the provincial city of Mataram in Lombok - or if you preferred - Bali - as alternative; since both Bali and Mataram are large enough to hold several international flights and have many access & flights within the domestic territories too).
From Kupang:
Where Can You Go?
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Once you reached Kupang, you could connect yourselves for domestic flights to several other nearby islands or provinces or regencies. For instance, you could fly to Sumba, Alor, Wetar, Lembata, to Maluku or even Jayapura in Papua.
By land, you could have an overland adventure trip in Timor Barat (West Timor) and the eastern frontier too, into Timor Leste as well via Atambua.
Or connect by sea to Savu (Sabu or Sawu - several spelling variation) and Rote (or at times spelled as Roti too), the southernmost islands of the Indonesian territories renowned as one of the surfing paradise in the world!!
In Timor Barat itself, if you are hikers, you may be interested to climb Gunung Mutis as part of your itinerary there. It holds such charm as you could see from the youtube video included in the link below.
Or if you choose to diversified yourselves around NTT, several other mountains are available to explore in NTT such as:
• Gunung Ile Ape - also known as Gunung Lewotolo standing at 1243 metres high in Lembata;
• Gunung Wanggameti (1225 m) in Sumba;
• Gunung Egon in Flores at 1703 metres;
• Gunung Kelimutu with its tri-coloured lakes;
......and many more mountains and trails in Flores itself to hike from (you could even sign up for the 07 summits adventure hike, if you desired so, and if your adrenaline is really overflowing to be released & let go, when you are there while in Flores) in Nusa Tenggara Timur.
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Apart from hiking and those overland trips, it is also worthy to explore NTT for its immense, rich and diversified cultures too. NTT holds a wide spectrum of ethnicities and tribes within its territories with various diversity of dialects, languages, cultures, traditions, and ways of life.
It is indeed interesting to explore this cultural dimension as well so that your stay in NTT would indeed be an enriching one, fondly held in your mind and heart, forever yearning you - for a return there!"
- musafir,
The Wandering Moose
🤗🤗💙💙🖤🖤😊😊
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