By the time I arrived in the riverside, the view of the water directly reminds me to the viral clear blue lake of Paisupok Lake in Sulawesi which is currently popular in Indonesia and spread on social media like tiktok, Instagram, and facebook. The underwater view is clearly seen from where I was standing, the trees, mossy rocks, and lush green forest reflects the shadow on the surface of the water. Today, the team and I visiting Tiwu Pai Waterfall, located in Meleng Village, Desa To’e, Reok Barat District, Manggarai Regency, in the North part of Flores Island.
How to Get There?
We started the trip from Ruteng at 9 am driving toward the north part of the city to Reo where we stopped to grab our snack after spending 1 hour 30 minutes in the car. We continued the drive through the pantura or north coast provincial road of Flores via Robek sub-district and ended in Meleng village. From Reo, we spent about an hour drive and had arrived in Meleng during lunch time in the local house belongs to Siprianus Harum (59), who is a relative to Narsi, one of the team members (5).
Siprianus family’s house was where we spent some time for having lunch and we started the walk to Tiwu Pai waterfall from here.
We might not be able to see this breathtaking Tiwu Pai if we did not meet Siprianus. He informed us about the opportunity of seeing not only one waterfall but two, they are; Tiwu Pai and Ndewu Wulang waterfall that are located in different locations but having the same source of spring water located less than 2 km from the waterfalls.
After discussion, we decided to see these two waterfalls during our noontime in Meleng by starting to explore Tiwu Pai Waterfall which later became the highlight of our full day trip.
Explore Tiwu Pai Waterfall
None of us has been to this waterfall before. We knew it after seeing some photos and footages posted on facebook. Later on, I invited Narsi, our freelance guide at the company, who has relatives that live near the area, to get involved in this project.
From the parking area, we walked for 5 minutes to Siprianus’ house and then continued to walk for 15 minutes of 300 meter to the main spot.
We met Irenius Andar (39), a local to Meleng who organizes the activities during the exploration around the waterfall. He initiated the facilities that can be enjoyed by visitors in the area by providing bamboo rafting, swing, recreation area, jumping spot, photo spot, changing room, and toilet. All of these were built since June 3rd 2025, funded by his own from the donations of visitors.
Knowing that we had to explore two waterfalls in the area, we made sure to just spend for a fewer time in Tiwu Pai. However, after being introduced by Iren, his nick name, we explored the waterfall by starting the activity with bamboo rafting, swimming in the waterdrops of Tiwu Pai, swing, jumping to the pool that made us spending more than an hour here and it was definitely worth doing.
Let’s make the pictures below speak for itself!
Explore Nderu Wulang Waterfall
Nderu Wulang waterfall is located next to Tiwu Pai waterfall on the north part. If you want to explore these two areas at once like us, you will have to be back to the main road from Tiwu Pai waterfall and then park your vehicle in the main entrance owned by Donatus Salem (52) who initiated this since April 2025.
According to Donatus Salem, Nderu Wulang was firstly promoted by a teacher of high school from Ruteng who flew his drone around the sky of Nderu Wulang blended in the lush green forest. From his drone shot, he spotted 5 levels of the waterfall and then he posted this photo and video on his social media and because of that, many local tourists including some foreign visitors who we met during the visit from France had come to explore this area. He said that more than a thousand of visitors from Manggarai Regency area and 10 foreign visitors have been to this place in just 5 months.
Since it became popular, now, Donatus Salem started to open his land for access to the main spot. His one hectare piece of land is headed toward the blue river water. As informed, besides for swimming, visitors could also do camping in the area near to the waterfall and Donatus, his nick name, guarantees the safety and comfortability of all visitor who doing this by building toilet, proper access to the spot with stairs, and bamboo holder along the path, and bamboo rafting added with a small river tubing.
Our Recommendations
You might ask about why these stunning places have just been opened for tourist to visit. Why is this place just recently known by many especially for foreign visitors?
- Both Tiwu Pai and Nderu Wulang Waterfall have just opened for tourists spots within 3-5 months before this post is published. Nderu Wulang was firstly opened in April and then Tiwu Pai was later opened in June 2025 . According to Iren, The waterfall was full of trees like bamboo, banyan trees, and other tropical trees surrounding it and made people were scared to go exploring as it sounds mystical for the locals.
- Both two places, Nderu Wulang and Tiwu Pai are only accessed through local land lords. They initiated the facilities for the entrance. For Nderu Wulang, as told by Siprianus Harum, the entrance to the spot is only through one man ownership and this will cause no conflict of interest towards the locals especially whose land is used to pass by many visitors. Meanwhile, for Tiwu Pai, the utilization of the attractions spot including the access to the spot remain debatable as told by Iren. He hoped that this will no longer will be the case so that many people could come and visit Tiwu Pai.
- These two waterfalls can be visited during your stay in Ruteng with the total of 3 hours drive one way and continue with a 15 minutes walk to each spot. If you wish to make it mixed with your Flores road trip, we recommend you to include this during your Flores Round Trip and extend one day by staying a night in Reo. You can also enjoy the white sandy beach on your way back to Ruteng.
- Last but not least, the local people do not apply entrance fees especially at Tiwu Pai waterfall, they only ask for your support by sharing donations. So, if you want to support the locals, you can also ask for setting your lunch in Meleng Village like we did.
Photos and story written by Yulianus Irwan
