Ruteng is the city

Thanks to my Dad’s suggestion, I thought I would provide you with a few more details of what I see & hear on a day-to-day basis. It’s a shame I can’t give you a sound-scape of Ruteng as the noise is one of the most perplexing aspects of living here, but instead you could download ‘Ruteng is the City’ (a song by a local artist that might make a nice bit of background listening!) from http://sarabi.multiply.com/music.

Although it may look like it from some of the pictures I have posted, Ruteng is not on the edge of a jungle – it is at the top of a mountain range, and to both the north and the south the sky-line is dominated by steep tree-lined hills. These are most visible in the morning, but as the clouds close in during the course of the day they become obscured although the peaks will occasionally poke through above the clouds. The volcanic soil is incredibly fertile & all the houses are surrounded by gardens growing corn, bananas and mangos.

The mountains to the south

The houses themselves are made of a variety of materials depending on the wealth of the owner: the most prosperous live in brick-built modern houses (like mine), those on an average income construct wooden houses, & the poorest live in the more traditional bamboo-weave houses. But regardless of wealth, all have a large sound system which blares out a range of traditional songs, reggae, and hip-hop. Generally houses are single story, but there are a few with two floors. Many houses have a small shop (kiosk) at the front. This is a common cottage industry here and they sell a range of products such as eggs, flour, and small sachets of shampoo.

A bamboo house in the foreground, a two storey wooden house in the background

The roads and pavements are in bad repair. Often there are large holes, or entire stretches of pavement missing & the incautious risk falling straight into the sewers! The most common form of transport is motorbike and all manner of things are carried on them – babies, crates of chickens, carpets- it is not unusual to see a whole family riding on one bike.

The only set of traffic lights in Ruteng

For public transport you can either take a motorbike taxi (ojec) or a bemo. Bemo’s are small vans with two benches in the back, and for a minimal cost they will take you door-to-door (although you may have to drop a number of other passengers off first). Bemo’s are one of the main causes of noise in town – to attract your attention they sound their horn at any pedestrian. This horn is customized to each bemo, some sound like a police siren, others like an ice-cream van, some are like wolf-whistles, whilst others are more like trains horns. On top of this there is always a young boy hanging out of the door shouting the bemo’s destination.

A bemo on the Trans-Flores Highway


To further confound this assault on the ears, all forms of transport sound their horn to make you aware of their presence. Because there appears to be no road laws (they don’t even particularly stick to driving on one side of the road) drivers beep at every junction and every time they overtake. This isn’t quite such an anarchic system as it sounds – my main concern is that I will get run over when I return to the UK as I ignore a car rushing towards me beeping!