Pulau Pantar east side

Pulau Pantar – the east side

A church on Pulau Pantar uses the casing from an old WW2 mine as a bell and some of the old men speak a little Japanese. Times were very hard during the second world war here.

A few motorbikes follow the coastal road but I did not see any 4 wheeled vehicles.

The coral is a ways from the shore and the current is strong but the snorkeling is good.

A dive shop operates there but I don’t have any information about it other than it is French owned. It looks like a nice enough place to stay with several traditional cottages.

For all the diving in this area it is a must to make prior arrangements because a good deal of the time no one is at the shops except for the caretakers.

I also stopped at both Alor Dive in Kalabahi on Alor and L’Petite Kepa, another French run dive shop, on Pulau Kepa or Kepa Kecil. There were caretakers at both dive shops but the owners don’t hang around waiting for the occasional tourist to come through. It costs quite a bit more to dive in Alor than elsewhere but it is supposed to be very good. I stayed on Kepa overnight and would have liked to dive but the owners were in France. There are not many tourists in NTT and when rainy season starts there are even less.

We bought some firewood and coconuts and one of the guys bought a dog to roast for the holidays. The people on Pantar are self sufficient and grow most of what they need and catch fish from the ocean. It is a tough life for the people and the animals.

We reached the east coast Pantar by chartered boat but there are plenty of public boats from Kalabahi that makes regular trips to Baranusa on the other side of the island.

Pulau Pantar east side

Indonesia