Have you ever been to East Indonesia? I believe most of people havent been there even the local Indonesian like me haha. Yes, it was my first time to touch East Indonesia and I start it from Kupang, the capital of Nusa Tenggara Timur Province.
It such a 冷門景點 unpopular destination and why I start here is because its not my destination for this trip, my destination is Sumba but there is no direct flight from Jakarta, the only one I found is Jakarta - Kupang - Sumba or Jakarta - Bali - Sumba, so of course I choose through Kupang as I haven't been there hehe. No rugi rugi club haha.
Btw you know this time I decide to go to Sumba because at the beginning the original plan was Laos and back thru Bangkok then suddenly the flight become so expensive and found a voluntrip that always on my bucket list years ago. Then I see the news Bangkok earthquake and here I am coming to east Indonesia.
I have my (not really) 3 days in Kupang OMG its because the flight to Sumba reschedule to the next day so I need to stay in Kupang one more night oke lah, sometimes God gives another way because you can’t see the future but He can, cieeee, so I guess my Kupang stay would be awesome.
Searching for open trip or walking tour here is totally unable to found. Seems Kupang is a transit city and less people will have city tour, I ask few trip provider all only have private trip or suggest me to rent car with driver. Mostly if people join the trip they will go to Rote Island.
Touch down El Tari International Airport you can feel the different ambience, less people, bright sun and even the queue for taxi ride is empty haha. You can use grab from the airport but anyway it same with directly take the taxi because the airport taxi operate by Koperasi and they are the only who can take grab order from airport but when they send passenger out of airport they cant take another passanger go to airport or other places, they need to come back to the aiport.
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| El Tari is the name of NTT governor back then in 1926 - 1978 |
So basically after my research, what to do in Kupang is : chill, eat pork, enjoy the beach.
When you find for an accomodation in Kupang here is my suggestion :
- With breakfast : Not really easy to find some breakfast, there are pork noodle for breakfast but its not that easy unless near your hotel have the resto
- Near the sea : You can choose sea view room or the hotel directly on the beach
- Mostly they
This time I stay in 2 hotel : Neo Hotel Kupang & Swiss-Bellcourt Kupang. The reason was Neo Hotel is near the airport and I got IDR 3xxK for balcony sea view room and they let me early check in but at first the ready one is block by wall then what’s the purpose of having sea view so I ask to change to other room. Overall it’s just nice with the view and balcony like very worth the price and have drinking water dispenser but for the cleanliness so so or even a bit dirty. For breakfast I do think so so.
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| I got the room on the right at the first, so pls make sure you got the room with real sea view |
Swiss-Bellcourt Kupang is very nice with the location directly on the beach and have semi outdoor lobby & resto. The only reason I choose this hotel just because I want to have sunset but lazy to have it in the beach so the answer is to have a hotel by the sea then you can have sunset directly. Breakfast is a bit downgrade since this is Swiss-Bell. Cleanliness also not really clean, it just a place where you can buy sunset seat.
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| not color editing, the original sunset in Kupang that time is this pinky |
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| Storm before & after the sunset |
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| Cant stop even blink so fast because the sunset is so adorable |
Grab is very common here complete from grab car, grab bike, grabfood it’s easy to get in Kupang but the fare is not that cheap compare to other county in Java, the fare is more similar to Jakarta.
Grab car here mostly dont use AC and have timor style music haha. But they all kind, at least all grab driver I met all very nice even we can have small talk. One of it was the crew in Neo Hotel and asking my review about it so they can improve, another one is Javanese and move to Kupang because his wife, and other interesting story.
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| Tirosa Statue (Timor Rote Sabu) |
Kupang do have mall, I visit Lippo Plaza Kupang.
Nah come to the part that I love about Kupang other than sunset is the food woohoo!!!!!
Se’i is the must eat in Kupang, there are pork & beef se’i of course I repeat the pork se’i. The famous one is Se’i Babi Baun, the first se’i in Kupang and it taste more smokey.
I do try se’i babi Hoki but as you can see even there are 3 se’i babi in a row so if you are really hungry just try one to another haha.
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| green beans with pork bone soup, papaya flower & sweet potato leaves, fried noodle |
Babi Bakar & Rumpu Rampe so this is grilled pork & kinda leaves mix together (daun pepaya, daun singkong, jantung pisang, daun kelor).
La Moringa is one of the interesting place in Kupang, Originally come from Kupang they sell various food, gelato, snack, drink all ingredients with moringa (daun kelor). And guess what I got treat by La Moringa what a day! The drink is very fresh feeling & the moringa gelato is very unique taste, love it.
They also sell some snack like sorghum, flour from east Indonesia to substitute with rice.
Before heading back to airport, luckily I found Casa Italia Kupang, OMG so so good. They sell thin crust pizza and have pork topping. Don’t forget to try the fresh orange juice with yakult and condensed milk. I really can sit long time here in outdoor area very chill.
So overall how I rate Kupang? Worth to visit once a lifetime, a place for pork lover, very hot, suitable for introvert and quiet but have the convenience of big city.
Thank Kupang and I’m heading to Sumba.
