Traditional Villages and A Wedding Party in BAJAWA, Flores [S2-E11]

Wow, look at the village. It´s looking so cool. Welcome to Kirstian Homestay in Bajawa on the island of Flores. So, our today´s plan is we wanna go around this area. We wanna check out some traditional villages, then we wanna go to coffee roastery and we also wanna go to some hotsprings. Are you ready, Baby? > Yeah. I am. Lets go! Today, we are going to explore Bajawa, in the region of Ngada in Flores island.

We are going to check out some traditional villages, and we are also going to hot springs. And to close the day, we are going to visit a statue of Virgin Mary and have some coffee that is produced in this land. And I forgot to put my gloves. I don´t see any proper gas station on the map. Remember last time, the guy came from down up and said the gas station was closed.

And then he said go up here somewhere. To the right side, there? > He showed to the right side, yeah. But, I don´t know what he meant, really. > I will ask. We supposed to make a left anyways. I´ll ask the bus guy. Bro, where is the gas station? > Gas station, where are you heading to? We are heading to Bena Village. > You can to towards it´s direction.

Cool, thank you. > Okay, take care. Down? > Yeah. Okay, I had to ask to the minibus guy. Where the gas station is, cus i figured that he knows where a gas station could`ve been. You know. Because, I´m sure he´s filling up his gas at the gas station because its cheaper.

Are we going left or right? > Left. Where are you? > Yeah, I had to wait. There she is. By the way, during the day it´s really hot here. But as soon as the sun is gone it´s really really freezing cold. > Yeah. I think last night, we were at 10 degrees centigrade. > Really crazy difference here in the mountain.

There are 2 traditional villages we want to check out today, the 1st one is Bena like i mentioned before And the next one gonna be Gurusina. They are not far from each other. Like literally you could walk over if you want to. But I think we´re gonna ride over. Look at that Inerie, really massive looking, huh? Amazing looking. > Beautiful. Yeah, you could see how steep that thing is. > It´s scary at the same time, too. We are only 12 minutes away from Bena Village, now. > Okay.

Don´t wanna speed, I want to enjoy this beautiful sceneries here. > Ya, me too. We are getting closer to Inerie. Wow, sharp turn. Wow the mountain is amazing. We gonna go to the right side, cus this is not the entrance.

We gonna walk towards here but this is not the parking. I remember I watched it. Wow, look at the village. Looking so cool I think the parking is somewhere in the front here. Then we have to walk. Oh there maybe. We can walk there.

Ya, this is the parking, here. We made it here. Hello Sir, morning. Our bikes are parked in the village, what is the name, Ryan? It´s Bena Village, that´s what on google map or on google when you search for it. But, the local called this Tiworiwu Village. Tiwowiru, riwu. Tiwowiru, I think. It´s not easy to pronounce it.

Now we can walk to Bena Village. It´s an easy walk, probably like 200 meters. Look at this huge bamboo.

Welcome to Bena Village, or Tiworiwu. I think I said it right. And that´s the garments there. They made it here. Hand made. > Ah yeah. Every house has it.

That looks really special. She´s making it. I think we have to go there 1st. > Get tickets. Amazing huh.

That´s the umbrella shape, it supposed to be the ancestors. So if you count how many umbrellas, it means that how many clans in here. Hello, good morning. Do we need to register 1st? > Yes, your informations.

Which one do you like, Nati? > This one. It´s pretty yeah. > Shall I get it? This lady. What´s your name ma´am? My name is Mrs. Eri. Mrs. Eri made this bracelet. It´s really pretty.

Okay, I´ll buy one. > You want one? This is Cherry, and he´s giving us now a tour around The Bena Village. He is interning here He goes to school in Bajawa, where we were.

You got it sir? He´s originally from Bajawa. He´s doing work, like interning in this area for tourism. So he´s studying the history? > Ya, he´s studying for tourism. Good. We have to go through the center. > Okay So this is like the gate to get in. Go ahead, babe.

Owh, this is the symbol of the male ancestors of the village here. Ah, that´s the female. There are 45 houses here. 9 tribes or clans. 9 Ngadu, or 9 of this.

And 9 Baga, that´s the female ancestors. So many clans, then. Every clan represented by 1 Ngadu and 1 Baga. So it´s the male and female ancestors of the clan in here. The warrior shape on the roof, it´s named Sakalobo.

There. Okay. It represented the leader of the tradition here. By putting that on top of their house. And you see like a house shape, it´s called Sakapu´u. And it symbolized the female leader of the tradition. And it has 9, so representing every clan. Ow the stones here, they are the graves of the ancestors.

It´s almost a thousand years. A lot of history in this place. This is the oldest village in Ngada, which is the region in this area. So this is the offering table for Reba Event. It´s an offering that take place every year to say thank you. To the ancestors. Liver from chicken or from the bulls or buffaloes that´s what they offered to the ancestors.

Sir, how much are those cost. This one or the other one, how much are they. So the small ones here is 80000 and the big one is 250000 and it´s made by the ladies of the family. And it´s using natural organic coloring. The colors are from the flowers? The colors are from the woods. From the skin of the woods. It´s a lot of ingredients to make the colors.

So this is where they put all of the heart and the liver before they offered it to the offering table. Woah, look at the view, Ryan. The view. > Yeah, so beautiful. Lets check out this view. Wow..

I can waterfall. So, the history of this village is amazing. It´s around 2000 years old.

And... we wanna go to the next village now, to check it out. And... we´ll see what is the difference. What is next story we gonna hear. Lets go! So that was Bena village, and now we are heading to Gurusina Gurusina village supposed to be really near. Maybe only some minutes away. We´ll see!

Welcome at Gurusina village. Hello Mr. What is your name? > My name is Casemirus.

Nice to meet you. My job is to maintain the village. He is the one that is taking care of the village.

So, they have basically jobs for everybody in the village, to take care the village and he is the leader of it. So, they have 11 families, here. 25 guys.. There are 2 areas, here. RT is Rukun Tetangga, means that means that the smaller region. That is held by the government, as the smallest region and this is number 1. And they have 2 villages here, I mean 2 RT And this RT has 55 people in it, 25 guys and 30 girls Male and female, I´m sorry.

There are 3 clans here. You can see from the ancestors buildings, the guys and girls there. At the top of the houses, not like we want to compare. On top of the house, it has a symbol for male and female. Is it the same with here? Here is the same, as well. The tradition between Bena and Gurusina is the same.

Only the positions and placements of the houses are a bit different. Oh, I get it. The difference between the houses in Gurusina village and Bena village is that the buildings are more opened because they are in the lower elevation. At Bena village is more closed because at night it gets colder Unlike in here, because we are not far from the ocean. There are 3 clans here. Kabi, Agoazi, Agokae. The 3 clans that are occupying the area. So, back in 1930s. Before 1930s, Gurusina people used to live up in that hill behind these houses here.

So, the reason (why they relocated) was because 1 is for the water source and the 2nd reason is for the church. Catholic church. It´s closer instead of needing to go up. So 1930s they moved down here. And up there, there are still some stones like you could see it in front of us. Megalith stones, theýre still up there. Only no body live there anymore. Back in august, 13th 2018. There are some fire happened in here.

27 houses were burn to the ground. Included the male and female ancestors house. There are always 2 dragons in every house. Once you enter the home. One is male dragon and the other one is female dragon The tale is that it´s protecting the house. Sleeping room? Ah, kitchen! There´s a kitchen, so this is the house, the home. So, the reason why the door is smaller, is because it´s to respect the house owner. When you wanna walk in, you have to bow. So, it´s similar with the house in North Sumatra.

Batak houses also like this You have to bow before you go in. And on the top is the ancestors You see, in the back. The carving in the back, the black one. That´s the ancestors. Thank you very much. Bye! So, there is an urban legend in Flores. That Inerie was a beautiful lady. And then, there is another mountain. It´s called Ebulobo. Ebulobo was madly in love with Inerie. And then he proposed to Inerie, but then Inerie at the time already has a lover.

And his name is Manulalu. Because of that, Ebulobo got angry. That´s why Ebulobo is the most active volcano in Flores. When they were fighting for Inerie, Ebulobo had a fight with Manulalu, and Manulalu won. Eventho at the beginning Ebulobo was winning.

But he got cocky. And then at the end, Manulalu had the chance to stab Ebulobo. Hence, the blood is spilling out. Thats why the volcano, the most active volcano with smoke and everything coming out. That´s the urban legend of the mountains in this area. It´s a tale that they tell to their kids or something I would say. It´s really nice story, you know. Like a disney tale for Floresian people. So, those are 2 villages. Like we said we wanted to 2 villages today.

Bena village and also Gurusina. A lot of amazing stories behind it, a lot of histories on both villages. And good to know that they do have a really really good relationship.

Between 1 village to the other. We were thinking to go to the hot springs, but it´s getting too warm down there. And then, we haven´t had any lunch. And then, now is 3 o´clock. And then we still want to go to 2 more place. But 1st, we gonna get some lunch, because Natalie needs to eat something. She has a low blood pressure.

I don´t want her to get dizzy when she´s driving motorcycle because that´s gonna be dangerous. And after that, we gonna head up to our next location and after that we gonna get back. Here? > No. The other way? > No, this way, yeah. The owner Stefania invited us to her cousin´s wedding.

So, today we are going to attend the wedding. Maria, the guest house, I mean the homestay host. Her and her husband are actually invited. But, unfortunately the husband is out to Labuan Bajo That´s why he couldn´t go. So now, the 3 of us are going up. We are going to Bewali village. It´s gonna be a Bajawa wedding. > Yeah, I´m excited. It´s a wedding between Langa clan, Langa clan is the Male, the husband.

And Bepeso clan is the wife. We are looking forward for this. Yeah, its gonna be really really amazing experience for us. We´re looking forward of what we gonna see, right Nati? > Yeah! Let´s enjoy the party, Bajawa style- I´m wearing my best clothes. Yeah, we don´t have any formal clothes, unfortunately because we were not planned to be invited into a wedding. Hopefully our outfits would not offend the newly wed. That´s the god mother.

Oh, that´s the statue. The virgin mary. Woah, it´s not cold huh? Ugh, watched out yeah. We have to walk up. > Okay. It´s really cloudy here. Okay, next walk. Kendaraan dilarang masuk, what does it mean? Vehicles are not allowed to enter. > Owh okay.

Really really cloudy down there. Almost sunset time already. We were busy the whole day. It´s a hike. We have to earn it. > It´s really steep.

Who´s that, the one that loves Inerie, on the left? I forgot I can not think. I´m running out of breath. Okay, that was amazing place And has been an amazing day. And welcome back to Kristian homestay. That was an amazing time here in Bajawa We have seen so many things, and there is still much more to discover.

Like the hotsprings, I would love to go there but it was literally too hot when we wanted to go there. Was amazing, but now is gonna be the time to move on, tomorrow we will go to Ende. The next historical place here in Flores. I really hope you like our video, if you did, then give us a big like and subscribe down below.

See you in the next video.

2022-09-28 10:48

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