It was almost midday, in the middle of a mountain trail and we were still about two-and-a-half hours away from our destination when we realized that we had run out of drinking water. Not to fret, our friendly local guide said, and within minutes, we arrived at a corner where fresh mountain water trickled down.

Being the “leader” of the group I stepped forward courageously (after being nudged by the others) to be the one to test this “mountain water.” To my surprise, it was very cold, and as I drank it, it reminded me of iced cold water from the water dispenser at home. I smiled from ear to ear and told my friends — that it was super good and that they should all drink! And drink they did.

A couple of hours later we finally reached our destination. And yes, shivers still run through my veins as I write this and recall the view that awaited us. The fatigue that had accumulated over four hours of trekking through the mountain disappeared almost instantaneously into joyous laughter. We had have arrived in the village of Wae Rebo.

I first heard of this secluded village from my high school friend Audrey. She was kind of my muse in terms of travel. Before I started my travel business three years ago, we had coffee and I asked her about all of the unique places she’d been to in Indonesia. One place stood out and I promised myself that I would visit it one day.

Wae Rebo has a charm I cannot begin to express through words alone. Getting to Wae Rebo requires traveling to the island of Flores, in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), about one-and-a-half hours from Bali. From the airport in Labuan Bajo, there’s another six to seven hour drive to Denge, a village at the foot of a mountain where Wae Rebo sits. Depending on what time you arrive, you might have to stay overnight before continuing by foot for another two to three hours. Yes, it took us almost five hours because we started the hike too late (ideally if you start when it’s still dark you get there in less than three hours).

The unique thing about Wae Rebo, first of all, is mbaru niang (cone-shaped houses) The houses receive support from a team of Jakarta-based architects and the government. Each of these houses gathers more than one family, so they have a very communal feeling.

If you decide to stay overnight, you will stay in a guesthouse, which is the newest out of the only seven houses. You’ll also notice the biggest house, niang gendang, the one in the center of the half circle layout, where the village elder invited us in for a formal welcoming ceremony. After the ceremony, the village elder said from now on we were all part of the Wae Rebo family.

Indeed, I can’t help but notice this warm, familial feeling from almost everyone in Flores. Perhaps it has to do with how they prefer to be addressed here — we call all the older ladies mama, all the older residents kakak (older sibling) and the kids adik (younger sibling). The men? We call them oom (uncle).

The morning after, when it was still dark, we got up to catch a morning view of the whole village. As the sun started to appear, the clouds were moved by the wind and then moved through the houses, making it look like a village in the clouds. We took turns taking pictures with this background. After breakfast, we gathered the kids and took some fun pictures together. It was the weekend, so all of the kids were there in the village. There are no schools in Wae Rebo, so the older kids have to go to the foot of the mountain on weekdays to live in Denge village to go to school.

Finally, we said goodbye and started our descent. As we arrived back in Denge, I could not help but to feel very lucky to have been able to fulfill my dream of visiting Wae Rebo and I made another promise — to share this story with people I knew to hopefully convince them to experience this themselves one day.

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