After being cooped up for far too long with far too many party nights in this little place called Queenstown I am finally off again in one week to my favourite country of all time, Indonesia. The Dutch, the English and the Portuguese once fought over it a few hundred years ago. But while they were unsuccessful in the long run, the Australians are doing a much better job right now, slowly and sneakily taking over Bali and beyond.
I’m in a bit of a predicament right now. According to Wikipedia there are 17.508 islands. Some time ago an earthquake created 6 more somewhere off Sumatra, so I’m a little undecided right now on where to go. I don’t want to stay too long on Bali. This has hardly nothing to do with the loud Australians, who I’m quite fond of, and more to do with the overall touristic busyness of the place. So my first option would be to head over to Java, check out Borobudur and some national parks and then slowly make my way along Sumatra all the way to Pulau Weh. I have a plane ticket from Medan to KL at some point, so that route would make a lot of sense.
But then, I never actually planned on using that ticket. One rule for getting an Indonesian visa is that you have to produce an onward ticket. Only when you arrive by plane, though, so there you go. My second option would be to catch a Pelni or cheap flight to Makassar on Sulawesi, do some diving, see if some people are getting buried in Tana Toraja and then head over to Kalimantan, which I have to admit I know not much about. Yet. Maybe somehow do a little quick visa run across to Sarawak and spend another 2 months in the Indonesian part of Borneo.
What would you do if you were in my pants?
Nomadic Matt - 13 July 2008 @ 5:23 PM
gili islands? lombok? the tiniest island you can find?
traveljunkie - 13 July 2008 @ 5:27 PM
Hmm, I’ve lived on the Gilis for about a year. Travelled all the way east to West Timor and all the way up to Maluku. I think I’d like to go somewhere I haven’t been to. Thanks for your comment though, Matt.
Sam - 21 July 2008 @ 9:19 AM
Sulawesi’s high on my list if I ever make it back to Indonesia. Go to Makassar, up to Tana Toraja, then brave it overland through the supposedly unsafe central region and up to the northern part with all the diving.
I’d also like to check out Sumba at some point but preferably when they’re doing the horseback fighting which I think is like Feb-March. Papua and Maluku also look cool. Somehow I can’t get myself too excited about Sumatra and Kalimantan, though I haven’t really studied up on these places either.
If you haven’t been to Java you should definitely go there. One place I recommend is Kawah Ijen in East Java - I think a lot of people skip it along the route between Bromo and Bali but it’s worth the stop.
If you had time you could also do some truly off-the-beaten-track exploring. I’m sure there are plenty of islands that no tourist has ever visited, probably a few of which would have good beaches and snorkelling, etc.
traveljunkie - 21 July 2008 @ 11:45 AM
Yeah, I’ve decided on the overland bit through Sulawesi and then a Pelni to Kalimantan. I’ll let you know about Kalimantan. I thin it’ll be amazing…