All the people in Bajawa belong to a tribe. They are close knit units and a person remains a member of their tribe all their life. When a man marries he goes to live in the tribe of the wife, but returns with his wife and family on holidays to his own tribe and family. 

The motorbike taxi man that took me on a tour of the village tribes the next day turned out to be a good guide with good English skills . There's no wifi here and I learn Bajawa is the coldest place in Flores, because of the elevation. 

We visited the small tribe called Luba. There are only 70 that live in the village and they don't have any electricity. I walked around the village and looked at the bamboo and grass huts the people lived in. Some women were weaving scarfs and things in beautiful colors. The dyes all come from plants in the jungle. They mix and match the colors to create other colors. There are no men or boys in the village today, they are in the forest or working crops. Only small children and women are in either village I visit today.

There are no tables set up to sell the goods, but the guide says I can buy anything from any of the women if I want something. They take their goods into Bajawa, which is the official trading post for the tribes, to sell what they make.

There are tombstones in the center of the village, surrounded by the huts . I asked my guide where all the other tribe people were buried when they died as there were not near enough graves here for all the dead to have been buried over the years. He said only the leaders or someone very respected were buried in the village. The common folks were buried outside the village in another cemetery.

Our next stop was to soak in the natural hot springs. We rode the bike through the forest and came upon some kids with a huge gecko. It was the largest I have ever seen. The driver talked to them in Indonesian and they gave it to my guide. The gecko had a cut on it and the driver wanted to doctor it and release it when it was healed.

The hot springs were unusual in that from one direction the hot water came from volcanic rock. From the other direction cold water from the mountains spring met up with the hot spring water and they both emptied into the pool in the stream where we sat. You could move one direction or the other to adjust the water to the temperature you liked, just like in a tub or shower .

Later in the day we visited the Bana Tribe. It is much larger than the Luba Tribe we visited earlier. The Bana Tribe has had electricity for a few years now. There are 300 people in this village. I saw the small grass and bamboo places similar to a gazebo that were in honor of the dead. One type of place was for the dead men and the other for the dead women of the tribe. The one for the men is very difficult to build because it has to be from a certain tree wood that is very rare. 

95% of the population here is Catholic, because at one time Portugal controlled the area. But, the tribes still have their superstitions and spiritual tribal beliefs. 

My guide is from a village also. he says everyone in Bajawa is a member of a tribe. They may live in the town during the week to work, but on weekends return to their villages. The families and tribes are very close knit .

Kids of the tribe play some type of game in the courtyard, kicking a ball around. The roofs of the village huts, made of dried palm leaves, will last for 25 years, my guide tells me.
The majority of the people on the island of Flores are Christian, 95% Catholic. But, the people still seem to mix some tribal beliefs in with their Christian beliefs.

The next day I boarded a minivan to continue the remainder of my trip to Labaunbajo. I was picked up around 7 a.m. and should have arrived in Labaunbajo around 5 p.m., but I got there closer to 9 p.m. It was the worse trip I have done yet, and the only one I really would not want to do again. The smoke and the cargo and the live animals and the crowded seating made for a terrible journey.

Back in Laubanbajo, I made plans to catch the plane that would take me to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and then Siem Reap, Cambodia.

NEXT: THE UGLINESS OF WAR!