Nestled in the central highlands of Flores, Bajawa is home of the famous coffee and tourism destinations. Continued the journey from Rana Mese Lake, Doris, Angel and I arrived in Bajawa at lunch time. We had our mini lunch; kompiang and banana chips in the car. Our first stop was Bena Village, which is located in the foothill of Mt Inerie. This village is well known as an Ancient Megalith Village. This village is consisted of 45 houses built in the different ground levels.
The Story of Bena Village is easily found inside the information hut. The informative posters will drag you deeply in the history of Bena. The posters explained about the philosopy of the traditional houses, traditional weaving, the social life and traditional ceremony of Bena People. There’s no entrance fee, but if you want to donate for the maintenance of the village, there’s a box beside the guest book that you could find in the reception hut.
Each house had plenty of buffalo’s horns hanging in the front of the house. You will also find graves of local’s late families/ancestors in the yard at the central of the village. During our visit, the locals were busy preparing a traditional ceremony. I forgot what the name of the ceremony was. Some men were building tent and some of them were discussing. The rest of the locals were found in their terrace. Old ladies were weaving, chit chat with their kids and the others were playing games called Kelereng (In Bahasa we called Congklak).
At the top of the village we found the magnificent view where the lush of green valley bounded by the mountains met the blue sky as the background. It’s so peaceful and calm. In the right side, the great Mt Inerie stood like the guardian of the village. We took our time to enjoy the great view. I found Doris was so happy to chat with a local old man in Dutch. It was her first time ever in Indonesia to talk with local people in her language.
As the sun was about to set, we continued the journey to Mengeruda Natural Hot Spring. Located approx. 1 hours driving from Bena, Mengeruda Natural Hot Spring has become the must visit place in Bajawa. We paid for the entrance fee and enjoyed the crystal clear hot spring inside the natural pool. About 20 meters from the natural pool, there’s small waterfall from the hot spring itself. I never saw something like this before in any other hot spring I visited.
At first time, we couldn’t stand the temperature. After 5 minutes of plunged in and out finally we got used to it. But, after 15 minutes, we got out of the pool. We felt so exhausted; maybe the hot temperature burned out our energy. So we put our cloths on and left. The best time to visit Mengeruda Hot Spring is during the day time. You could also do picnic because this place has spacious free space for visitors to relax and gather with friends/families. So, why wait? Visit Bajawa and keep wandering guys!