Lavalon guesthouse - Kupang

Lavalon Guesthouse - Kupang The Lavalon guesthouse is located near the Danamon bank on Jalan Sumatera, a quiet residential side street. Ony Meda, the manager, is a helpful man and speaks good English. He is able to assist or guide visitors on tours to Roti and West Timor or even Alor and Flores. He is a good hearted guy and honest. Rooms are 30,000 - 40,000 rupiah a nite. Rooms 2 and 3 seem to be the nicest. Room 4 has roosters in cages just outside the window that start crowing around 3AM. There is tea or coffee and bread in the morning. There doesn't seem to always be someone around so I have just selected a room, put in my bag, took the key and checked with Ony later. He has to run errands and the like to earn additional money to support his family as the guesthouse is not busy enough to be a sole means of support. It's a short walk to the Lavalon bar and Bank Danamon. I have been able to change USD to rupiah at Danamon and they have a atm there as well. Another bank is just down the street, I think it is a BNI. If the banks are not changing money or they have a problem with the serial number or date on your notes you can try changing it at Pitoby Travel, Kuanino, Jl-Jend-Sudirman. They give you a crap rate but if you are in a bind it might be an option. If you are headed to East Timor the people there don't care what condition the money is in so if you have US currency that is pretty rough condition that will be a good place to bring it. The only problem is that when you are spending USD as in East Timor your money seems to go a lot quicker. You can also buy or sell dollars at the border. The East Timor visa has to be paid for in US dollars, it is the national currency for now. Kupang itself is rather spread out and you will need to organize transport to the docks and airport as they are 15 to 20 minutes away. There are 2 different boat docks depending on where you are going and what boat. The fast boat and the slow boat to Rote for example leave from different ports. The ojek, or motorbike drivers, are pretty reasonable if you are not carrying a lot of bags but if you have surf boards or large backpacks you can get a taxi easy enough. There are not any rumah makan near the guesthouse but when the sun has gone down and it is not too hot it is an easy walk to the bemo center. There are heaps of food vendors there with really good fresh food for 5000 rupiah. There is also a variety of really good restaraunts with really good food spread out throughout the city. It really helps to have wheels to get around. Ony rents out the motorbike and I was fortunate enough to borrow on from one of the guys at the Lavalon. There is also a pretty intensive network of bemos but that takes a few days to figure out. Timor Travel runs shuttle buses from Dili to Kupang and will pick you up from your place in the morning. At the time of this writing the border is closed. Lavalon is a good place to meet ramblers from all over the place. Two Swiss on a motorbike just wheeled in from Pakistan last time I was there. (The short guy in the photo is Ony.) www.geocities.com/lavalon_edwin Kupang - West Timor - Indonesia 2006  www.dutchpickle.com

 

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