My humble hut for four nights

My home for four nights in Alor (well, just off Alor island) is La Petite Kepa, a collection of huts by the sea on Pulau Kepa which is just off the village of Alor Kecil.

It is a very rustic place; most walls (where they exist) are matting material and roofs are grass (except for some clear corrugated plastic to let natural light in). All power is solar-derived and toilets are flushed with scooped saltwater. It appears that both fresh and saltwater and hand-carried in. It’s a simple eco-lodge, if you like.

It is run by Cedric and Anne from France. Cedric also runs the dive business called alor-diving.com. They have 2 young daughters aged perhaps 5 and 9. And they all speak Indonesian. They kids are home-schooled by Anne in a lovely classroom attached to their house, set slightly apart from the guest huts.

They have four Alor style huts (all with shared bathrooms) and a few normal huts (only some with bathrooms, others are sharing). In addition, there are some bigger and sturdier bungalows. There is a larger hut for dining. The staff make delicious Indonesian food; it’s all very authentic without the common European favourites like sweet-and-sour fish.

Prices start at around USD23 for the Alor style or normal huts (with shared bathrooms) and include three meals a day plus unlimited coffee, tea and water.

As there isn’t much light from human settlements at night, the stars are beautiful.

I did four dives over two days with them, with one day of rest at the end on Monday. Due to very strong currents (apparently the moon is very close right now on its elliptical orbit), three of the four dives were muck dives. That’s quite an irony because the waters around Alor are very clear.  You can read about my two day dives here:  Day 1 and Day 2.

I enjoyed my stay very much. But let me make it quite clear, this isn’t the kind of place for everyone. They have lots of guests who travel from half the world away repeatedly to be here for the remoteness and the diving.

If you want your creature comforts, do them a favour and stay away. The last thing they need is to have the wrong kind of customer that will be unhappy, leave unhappy and leave bad reviews on Tripadvisor.