Indonesia | Apr 29-30 2023 |
Setting out from Ruteng, Liang Bua or the "Hobbit Cave" is a 45-minute ride along some incredible viewpoints of rice terraces, the town on the side of the mountain, etc. The Hobbit Cave is well worth the ride, an easy-to-access world-class historical site. I was using Google Maps and was stunned when I suddenly pulled up right beside the cave, along the road. It's accessible 24 hours a day and has a nominal fee of about $1.50 - if anyone is there to collect it. The Hobbit Cave is the primary source of fossils of a recently discovered human ancestor Homo floriensis that lived until about 40,000 years ago, exclusively on Flores. And believe me: Flores is just the kind of place you can envision something "wild" like this. The cave itself is amazing, and I am not big on caves (temples, waterfalls). It has an aura about it, the kind of place you can picture cavemen being right at home. There is also an excellent little museum 100m away that explains the paleontological (whew) record and background story of the discovery (there was no staff there, I let myself in). I wonder what the future holds for the cave as a tourist destination- it's probably only a matter of time before, say, an enterprising 'shroom vendor from GiliT departs that saturated market and sets up shop at the Hobbit Cave. The place definitely has the right ambiance for thrill-seeking backpackers and billionaire adventure tourists seeking the next big "thing".
I left the Hobbit Cave and rolled on to Mborong, about 90 minutes away. Definitely not a tourist town. But I did get some great hospitality from the always friendly local staff, who had probably not seen many (any?) Western tourists checking in there.
Ride: 3 hrs
Stay: ? $15 / 3/5
