Island Hopping through Nusa Tenggara
Part Five: West Timor - Kupang
This chapter is really here just to round the trip off, for the sake of completeness. I can't think of a reason to go to Kupang other than to catch a plane, which of course is why we were there. On the now defunct Spice Island Cruise routes, one could either fly back from Kupang to Bali, or remain onboard the catamaran for another four days or so to make the journey along the southern flank of the Lesser Sunda islands back to Bali.
Having said this about Kupang, we were given a little tour of the place. There was a reasonably interesting artisans' centre, where one could observe baskets and other objects being made from lontar palm leaves, the usual ikat weaving demonstration, and one or two other crafts that now escape me. None of these were anything we hadn't seen elsewhere on our journey, but we appreciated the effort.
So, without further ceremony, but with unbelievable airport chaos, we left this furthest reach of our journey and returned speedily by jet back to Denpasar, watching the miles and miles of island-studded sea we had covered over a week pass below us as we flew.