This intro might be cliché. I am a non native english speaker, trying to tell my experience. So, i hope you can understand what i write despite my grammars and my odd choice of sentences or phrases.
That was the end of 2014. I worked as an internet cafe server in a small town called Kefamenanu in Timor island, near the border of Indonesia and Timor Leste. But Kefa (as the locals called their beloved town) is in the Indonesia territory. I just stayed there for only 5 months at that moment, never going anywhere outside the town yet.
Being a server, i met a lot kind of people. I made friend with some locals and few newcomers from another province or another country. My closest friends was Joe; the journalist from Australia, and Rudy; a young soldier from Indonesian Army who served to guard the borders. We have something in common that made us closer; newcomers from another place.
So, it was December, near the Christmas holiday. We were not decided what we going to do with our short time of vacation yet, it’s not quite enough time to go back to our home to see our family. Joe came with an idea to visit one of beach in Timor island near Kefa, called Wini. Decision was made, it will be fun we think, despite we never go there before. Just overheard from locals that Wini beach is a magical place.
We prepared all our needs for 3 days stay. Camping gears, foods, and some gifts for the villagers there. Rudy bring his boss’s personal vehicle for our ride, its a 4WD modified Jeep-like car, suited for wilderness and off track trip. We heard from locals that our journey will be through some broken pavement roads with pot holes everywhere. Joe preparing for his photography hobby too, including his underwater camera and all other expensive gears, and he demanded to be there at 4 pm on sunset to capture the golden hour or whatever he meant.
Our car went from Kefa downtown at 10 am, estimated trip will be 5 hours. Rudy was on the steering wheel, i took seat beside him. Joe on the passenger seat behind me, occasionally cursing when the road go bumpy, while holding his expensive gears briefcase. Our eyes spoiled with beautiful view; limestone hillside with green trees, and sometimes we stop our car for a moment to let the wild boar’s family crossing the road.
I spotted an awesome place, i asked Rudy to pull over. We stopped on the side of the road that has big old sandal wood tree, or we Indonesian often called it with Cendana. The scenery is stunning, Joe did not miss the chance to snap a lot of pictures there. We stop for about 20 minutes to take some rest. We are close to our destination, just few more kilometers away. The blue horizontal ocean line was seen from this spot.
The trip is continued, for about 15 Km away from our stop earlier, we stumbled upon a crossroad. Rudy stopped again, he asked us which turn heading to the beach. As i recall, the locals never mentioned there is any crossroad near the beach, there is no sign too. They said just go north, its only one pavement road to the beach. Then Rudy turn on the built in GPS-set on the car dashboard, military style display, i dont understand how to read that. He told us, the left turn is heading to the village, because it’s read as wide flat terrrain on GPS. Right turn is closer to the shore.
We dicided to take the right turn.
As we went to the right turn, we changed our plan. Who knows, we can found surprising amazing spot like earlier. Beside, It’s already 4 pm, Joe set his camera ready to capture the sunset. The sound of the ocean waves was heard closer and closer.
There was something off though, time seems like fly away. We only drive for couple minutes from the crossroad, but the sky getting darker quickly. We barely see the pavement road ahead. All of sudden Rudy hit brake, me and Joe cursed on him almost at the same time. As Rudy turn on head lamp, we saw a fallen tree in front of us, blocking our way. It was like the tree popped up from nowhere, and we just realized that pavement road was gone, changed with dirt road.
The fallen tree wasn’t a big deal, we took care of it. We continued with caution. Sky is getting darker, there goes the golden hour said Joe disappointed. As we drive slowly, we saw an elderly man standing on left side of the road. He wearing traditional tribe headband, white goatee beard, topless, with black cotton long pants, and barefoot. There is a bunch of fire woods on his shoulder, he hold it with his left hand. He seems didn’t notice us. I greet him as polite as possible, but he didn’t reply. His vision was empty, like seeing in the distance. We were a little creeped out.
We passed that creepy man meters away, when i feel something is wrong. Like paranoia, feeling someone or something watching us, it was sickening in my stomach. I asked Joe and Rudy, they feel pretty much the same. Without any further thought, Rudy already took a hard turn around. We need to go back. As we heading the opposite direction, we are shocked. The road was gone! Like we stranded in the middle of nowhere, the sound of ocean was gone too. There were only small trees, scrubs, and bushes. We stunned for about some seconds. My voice crack the silent, i asked Rudy what we going to do. Rudy grunting and hit the gas pedal, he don’t care, he just drive straight ahead. We were all in silence, only the roaring engine was heard.
After struggling on off road track, we finally reached the village’s gate, “Selamat Datang di Pantai Wini” bold letter painted on it like that. I feel relieved, a civilization, mean we going to meet real people. We were still in silence, i took a glimpse of Rudy’s face, he is sweating a lot, skin ran pale, his eyes is watering, he gripped the steering wheel strongly like he going to break it. I checked Joe from rearview mirror, his face burried on his both palm, i slightly hear a whimpering. And me, i still feel my stomach like being punched.
It was 8 pm already. Rudy parked the car near the dock. We sat down in a Lopo, 3 by 3 meters bungalow without walls, with coconut logs cut in half as long chair. Still in silence… For about an hour we lost in our own thought, trying to make a sense what just happened minutes ago. I think it happened so fast. But in actual time, we were lost almost 2-3 hours or so.
Our dead silence broke when someone greeted us, that was some young villagers passing by. They offered us to stay and get some rest at village head’s (Chief) guest house. We try to hide our terrified face and trembling body, until one of the villagers find out that something wrong happened to us. He just smile, like mocking us. Then he lead us to meet the Chief. The villagers were friendly, their Chief is a middle aged man with deep voice with broken Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia). It seems he knew what we have been through. Rudy stayed at guest house with the Chief, while me and Joe went to nearest mechanic workshop to fix the car, the front bumper is almost fell off becuse we hit the small trees, it need to be welded.
Joe and me back to the guest house. Rudy accompanied by Chief and two elderly men, their conversation seems serious. We greeted them, Rudy was a little startled. I asked what is going on, he said he gonna tell us in the morning. After have some dinner and clean up, we get some rest. Rudy took his place on the sofa, Joe set his sleeping bag at the terrace on the floor, and i sat on rocking chair near Joe. We can’t sleep.
In the morning, we have some black coffee and fried sweet potato as breakfast. While watching villagers docking their fishing boat ashore, they came from night fishing, and the beach look alive in that time.
Rudy began to tell us something he talked about with Chief last night; Rudy was interogated, he told all what happened to Chief. It turns out, we met the black magic shaman. It is rare for visitors to experienced thing like that. The shaman was a common villagers like the rest, but somehow he practicing black magic and being banned from village. Then he went to the woods lived as a hermit. More shocked thing, that incident was happened couple of decade ago, when Chief was a little kid. Its like the shaman never aged. Thats why the other two elderly men was called by Chief, to give us a blessing as protection. Then Rudy give us 2 talismans, a wristband made from roots. Rudy already wear one. Chief said that one of us was tagged as victim, once the shaman get us, he will sacrifice our souls for ritual. But Chief can’t address who is the target, it could be me, Joe, or Rudy.
So, it can be said that our vacation is messed up. We cancelled all our plan. Chief suggested we must go back to the town immediately. Our car was ready, all fixed. We attended some little rituals held by Chief himself, for our safety. After saying thank’s for the villagers hospitality and handed some gifts to them, we heading to the town. Along the way home, we still got the goosebumps. Especially when we pass through the first road turn. There was no cross road! Just common road turn. We just drove in silent, not a single converation is made. When suddenly Joe shouted out,
“Bloody hell!”
While he look back. There was the shaman, standing beside the big tree we stopped yesterday. Grinning.
Now i lived in Java, in my own hometown. That was my weirdest experience in my life. I still keep in touch with Rudy and Joe. If one of us recall about that story, we try not to bring it in our conversation. Joe said, that was his terrifying Christmas gift ever.
PS. Joe, Rudy. If you guys find this story here. Give me a call, it’s been awhile.