Arifin has big curiosity on Teluk Saleh. He’s the one who really want to be there. As seen at GPS, it didn’t give any idea of how long will it be from Pototano Harbor to Teluk Saleh. So we kept going and asked for advice from the locals. The answer of our question about Teluk Saleh mostly: What? Teluk Saleh? It’s so far away. You guys have to hurry if you want to be there. Its 3.30 pm and there was heavy rain which made us stop. We then feed our empty tummy with Bakso (meatballs). Arifin tried to find bathroom so we can shower and change clothes. Thank God, we met a Flores guy who invited us to use his bathroom.
After showered, we decided to go to Sumbawa Besar. It’s about 1.5-2 hours from Alas Regency. We passed approximately 4 regencies until we reached Sumbawa Besar. The view along the way was so beautiful. You could find big groups of buffaloes; cows, horses and goats were busy crossing the street, chewing the grass, breastfeeding their kids, lying on the ground and even soaking in the rice fields. In my opinion, the numbers of those animals are larger than the local. I felt like I was enjoying a safari!
Beside those cool animals, another interesting attraction was the traditional houses. The traditional house is like Bugis house “stilted houses, sometimes three meters (9 ft) or more off the ground, with plank walls and floors-Wikipedia.”
Arrived at Sumbawa Besar, we only stopped for filling the gasoline. We wanted to catch the time so we could reach East Sumbawa before sun down. It’s quite danger to ride on the night. There were no streetlight; more over there were some scheduled power outage in some regency we passed. The only lamp we could rely on is the Vespa’s lamp and it only helped to see a few meter before us. We slowed down to avoid danger which could come from the crossing animals, sharp turns, street’s hole, or whatever you could name it. The time passing and its 10pm. We need to stop and rest. We asked the local where the nearest and safe place to stay. They recommended us to stay at Empang Regency in the homestay called Bala Kumar.
Bala Kumar provided two types of room, a fan room and an AC room. We picked an AC room and it cost IDR 150.000, - included breakfast.
I just fell asleep once I touched the bed. My back was sore because of too much sitting on the bike.
Earlier in the morning, we packed and decided to go back to west side of Sumbawa to find Teluk Saleh. It was night when we passed it. After having nasi goreng as breakfast, we ride back to Teluk Saleh. The sky was full with clouds and sometime drizzly came just to say hi. Approximately after 2 hour of driving we arrived at Teluk Saleh. It’s only by the street. Mt Tambora stood amazingly as the background. We met a family who is having their early lunch while enjoying the panorama of Teluk Saleh. The view of Teluk Saleh made me a bit disappointed because at first time I heard about Teluk Saleh, they said it looked like the view of Raja Ampat (Papua). Maybe I was on the wrong spot to enjoy Teluk Saleh. We spent 20 minutes at Teluk Saleh, took pictures, walking by the sea, and enjoying the panorama of Mt Tambora.
(continue to the next post)