After exploring the traditional villages around Bajawa, we continued moving west across Flores. Our next stop was the town of Ruteng, a perfect base for visiting the famed Hobbit Cave and the stunning spider web rice fields. Before you get there, though, there are plenty of places worth stopping at along the way.
Beautiful Scenery
Awesome scenery on the way.
As mentioned in previous Flores posts, hiring a private driver to traverse the island is definitely the way to go. Our drive from Bajawa to Ruteng is another prime example of why it’s definitely worth it to pay the extra Rupiah and have a car. What would have been a miserable bus ride turned into a great day. We stopped to relax on an empty beach, visited an arak factory, found a beautiful lake hidden behind a concrete wall, and stopped to snap photos of a winding river cutting through the stunning countryside. Much better than hanging on for dear life as a rickety old bus careens around the sharp turns of the island’s one major road.
The Hobbit Cave
Here be Hobbits.
Most people visit the town of Ruteng to see the nearby “Hobbit Cave.” The name is actually Liang Bua in Indonesian; the nickname comes from a 2003 discovery of fossils from an ancient species of tiny humanoid that has been named Homo floresiensis. The bones range from about 100,000 to 60,000 years old. Standing at just about 1 meter tall, the nickname seems rather appropriate. The “hobbit” also made simple stone tools and had a brain about 1/3 the size of modern humans.
Exploring the cave.
The cave is quite far from town, so you’ll need your own wheels or a driver. Based on the status of the road when we visited, I’d highly recommend just hiring someone to take you there. The roads were brutal, cell service was spotty at best, and it would have been very difficult to find on our own. Much better to sit back and let someone else navigate! Upon your arrival, locals will eagerly open the locked gate to the cave for you (for a small fee, of course). It’s a beautiful cave, so take your time, snap a few photos, and check out the excavation site where the fossils were found.
Check out the museum while you’re there.
There’s a small museum on site where you can learn more about the hobbit and even see part of the skeleton that was discovered here. You’ll also see a photo of a man holding a giant rat, which persist on the island to this very day. All in all, it takes about an hour to get out there from Ruteng and an hour or so to visit the museum and the cave.
Spider Web Rice Fields
Just like a spider web!
One of the most spectacular sights in Flores is without a doubt the “spider web” rice fields. Known as lingko in Indonesian, this unique method of rice cultivation sees the field split up as if it were a pie chart. The various pieces of the pie are split amongst local families; the bigger the family, the bigger the piece.
Views of the surrounding area.
It’s not very clear where the spider web fields are from the road as you have to get up higher to really see them, so this is another instance where having a driver helps. Our guy took us to someone’s backyard, where we made a small donation to access their hiking path. The views of the surrounding villages were great, which we shared with a lone cow.
Close ups of the fields.
At planting and harvesting time, there’s a ceremony that takes place in the center of the field. A wooden pole and a rock are used in this ceremony – the pole representing the male and the rock representing the female. We didn’t see this on our visit, but we did see plenty of people out working the fields. It’s an incredible sight how they’ve managed to design the fields in such a way, and you can really only appreciate it from high up.
Travel Details
Our guesthouse for the night.
There are quite a few guesthouses in the town, which is where you’ll end up if you take the bus in. Our driver told us the places in town were overpriced, so he took us out of town a few miles to a huge place that was totally empty. They set up a triple room for us, gave us a ride into town for dinner, and fed us a simple breakfast in the morning. Since there’s not much going on in the town anyways, we were totally fine with staying out there.
Mmmm.. comfort food.
Having grown tired from eating nasi campur at just about every meal, we were stoked to find a restaurant in town serving up some comfort food. At Agape, we enjoyed chicken wings, sizzling beef steaks with fries, and ice cold beers – a nice break from rice.
On the road again.
We spent most of the day on the road from Bajawa to Ruteng taking in the scenery, so we didn’t get to town until a bit later on. The next morning we headed to the Hobbit Cave first and then checked out the rice fields on the way out of town. One night here is definitely enough to see both of the major sights, but you can linger an extra day if you want to explore the area a bit more. The last stop on our Flores trip is up next – Labuan Bajo with a 2-day boat trip to see the Komodo dragons!
