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RUTENG : PLACE TO VISIT
TODO VILLAGE
About an hour before Ruteng, but off the main road towards the
south, is the village of Todo. It’s a traditional village where a
traditional house can be seen. If you are lucky, the old village men
will give you some explanation about the old Manggarai traditions.
CANCAR
Half an hour before Ruteng, near a pleasant village in a beautiful
valley, you’ll find spider web-shaped rice fields. Their shape is
related to traditions and the way the Manggarai people used to
divide land among family members.
Pongkor
45 kilometers southwest of Ruteng and
reachable over an unpaved road is one of the remaining traditional
villages of the district. It was the residence of the former raja of
Manggarai. Among the holy heirlooms which are kept here is a special
drum, of which the skin used to be made of the skin of the belly of
a Bimanese female slave. You can take pictures of the drum, but a
water buffalo has to be sacrificed before you are allowed to play on
it. Pongkor and the nearby Tobo, about two hours from Ruteng, can be
reached by public transport.
The trad itional
village of Lambaleda, northwest of Ruteng in the environment of
Benteng Jawa, is seen as the best traditional center of weavings in
Manggarai. Here, songke (songket in Indonesian) are
made. The fabric is woven with an addition. Hand-made threat is used
and sometimes natural dye. A songke-sarong can be obtained
for a reasonable price. Lambaleda is more than 50 kilometers from
Ruteng and can be reached by public transport via Benteng Jawa. The
trip takes you over a bad road and takes about five hours.
Climbing volcanoes
Sportive
 climbers
can climb Gunung Ranaka (2400 meters). It's besides the little
higher Gunung Namparnos, crowned with a red and white communications
tower. In the crater of the Ranaka there was a little activity in
1989, and in 1990 smoke still came out. You can almost reach the
summit by jeep. An alternative is traveling by public transport to
Robo, the starting point of the steep, nine kilometer ascend to the
summit.
Another popular target for a daytrip is the one hectare Ranamese
(Big Lake). It's surrounded by slopes with trees and contains a lot
of fish. It's located 24 kilometers southeast of Ruteng, 100 meters
from the main road to Bajawa.
Trip to Reo
The little town
 of
Reo is located north of Ruteng, just inland from the northern coast.
Trucks and buses make a frequent connection between both places over
a paved, but bad road (two hours). About five kilometers out Ruteng
the nice panoramic views start to appear. They last until the
village of Pagal, 21 kilometers from Ruteng. The area around Pagal,
the sub district Cibal, is known because of its weavers. In the
villages east of Pagal, people weave from May until October, in the
west from October to March.
From the
place Golongorong, a few kilometers outside Pagal, an unpaved road
runs to the west. The road follows a small mountain range and offers
very nice views over the northern coast and a valley. After a few
kilometers you reach the village of Compang. An open spot at one
side of this little visited village is overruled by a stone 'altar
for the ancestors'. After marriages, whip fights are held here.
After Golongorong the road Ruteng-Reo descends for 37 kilometers to
the coast. The picturesque harbor village Kendindi lays five
kilometers west of Reo; a nice walk. From here, coffee is shipped to
Antwerp (Antwerpen, Belgium) and water buffalo's to Surabaya. |
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