Everyone knows about the lush tropical
islands of Java and Bali. But here's a secret:
Indonesia has 17,000 other islands worthy of your
attention.
By Chris Taylor
Catherine Heald has nothing against Bali. In truth,
says the chairman and CEO of New York–based tour
operator Remote Lands, Bali’s culture is just as
mesmerizing as advertised: a unique tropical brew of
Hinduism, ornate costume and dance, and a
spectacularly lavish habitat.
But Indonesia isn’t just about that tourist mecca —
or even the neighboring island of Java and the
capital city, Jakarta, with 130 million people and
attractions like the Buddhist temples of Borobudur.
Why? Because there are plenty of other islands for
serious travelers to consider — more than 17,000 of
them, in fact (6,000 of which aren’t inhabited).
“Bali is absolutely wonderful, a Shangri-la with
some of the best hotels in the world,” says Heald,
who, along with partner Jay Tindall, organizes
tailor-made trips to some of the planet’s
less-discovered places. “But if you want to have
remote cultural experiences, you have to go where
fewer tourists go. For the real traveler, it’s worth
it.”
From big-but-overlooked neighbors like Sulawesi,
Kalimantan, and Papua to tinier gems like Lombok and
Flores, these Indonesian islands are destinations in
their own right. “Most Americans think only of
Bali,” says Laura Kidder, editorial director for
Fodor’s Travel Publications in New York. “But for
Australians and more intrepid travelers, this is
almost like their Caribbean, because each of these
islands has a little something different to offer.”
To be sure, island-hopping through Indonesia isn’t
as simple as skipping through Hawaii, from Oahu to
Maui and back.
For travelers looking for experiences beyond the
usual, Indonesia’s islands represent a virtual
buffet of Southeast Asian culture. “Indonesia is all
about variety,” explains Tindall, who has traveled
to Papua and also spent time with Indonesian tribes,
whose customs have remained unchanged for thousands
of years. Accommodations on the islands can range
from simple losmans, or backpacker guesthouses, to
high-end resorts. “There’s the luxury of Bali; the
remoteness of Nias, off the coast of Sumatra; and
islands that combine ruggedness and luxury in one
place,” says Tindall. As such, for your
island-hopping pleasure, here are a few remote
jewels to consider.
Island: Lombok
Only a stone’s throw from Bali is Lombok. It’s the
next island in the eastern Nusa Tenggara chain, and
it has the advantage of being less developed while
still being able to offer a decent infrastructure
for visitors to get around.
“It’s not just for backpackers anymore,” notes
Kidder. “There’s still some remoteness to it, but
now there are luxury hotels as well.” That means
that if you’re not up for more rustic Indonesian
traditions like the mandi — where you shower by
scooping bowlfuls of cool water over yourself — you
can check in at a place like the Oberoi Lombok,
where prices can stretch to almost $1,000 a night
for the opulent Royal Villa Ocean View.
Most visitors to Lombok congregate around the
Senggigi area, a coastal sweep north of the biggest
city, Mataram. The white-sand beaches, the Rinjani
volcano (Indonesia’s third largest), and the
indigenous Sasak culture — perhaps best known for
its elegantly designed home furnishings — are all
natural lures. An added bonus is the island’s
relatively small size (it’s slightly more than 40
miles across), which allows you to experience much
of what the island has to offer without having to
spend most of your vacation worrying about getting
from point A to point B.
Air service to Mataram and regular ferries from Bali
bring Lombok within easy reach. But to take things
an extra step, check out the Gilis, three tiny
islands off Lombok’s northwest coast. The stretches
of white sand and plentiful coral reefs make Gili
Air, Gili Meno, and Gili Trawangan dream spots for
snorkelers and scuba divers, and the islands’
beachside bungalows can make for a gorgeous but
affordable getaway.
Island: Sulawesi
This spindly-looking island with peninsulas
seemingly spinning off in every direction is almost
the opposite of compact Lombok. But the island’s
far-flung arms have just as much richness to offer,
both above and below the sea.
Formerly known as Celebes, Sulawesi is the world’s
11th-largest island, spanning more than 100,000
square miles. Regular air service from Denpasar and
Jakarta (courtesy of Indonesian airlines like
Garuda) will get you to the capital, Ujung Pandang,
or to Manado, at the island’s northern tip, where
the Bunaken Marine Park is said to house one of the
most biodiverse coral-reef systems in the world,
making the area a perennial favorite of scuba
divers.
For a cultural experience like no other, there’s the
Tana Toraja area — the so-called Land of the
Heavenly Kings. These mountainous highlands north of
Sulawesi’s capital are home to villages with
traditional tongkonan houses, which are elevated and
have dramatically curved roofs. Toraja’s local hub
is the town of Rantepao, where upgrades to roads and
to hotels in recent years have made it more
accessible to visitors.
The truly unique cultural attraction, though, is the
area’s funeral rites, which are among the most
elaborate in the world, with festivities of feasting
and dancing that can last more than a week.
Ancestors are honored, too, with effigies placed in
man-made caves that have been carved into sheer rock
faces — these Toraja tombs have long fascinated
anthropologists. In short, says Kidder, Sulawesi is
perfect for one particular type of traveler: the
culture fiend.
Island: Kalimantan
This famed island is known to the West as Borneo.
It’s the world’s third-largest island and is
actually divided up among Malaysia, Brunei, and
Indonesia. The bulk of the 287,000 square miles,
though, belongs to the Indonesian side and is called
Kalimantan. It’s also home to one of the world’s
richest rain forests.
Those best suited for a visit to this island are
ecotourists and people who want to experience this
incredible biodiversity before it’s destroyed by
loggers eager to harvest tropical woods. Kalimantan
is less touristy than Malaysian Borneo (or Sarawak),
so the traveling can be slower going, but the deep
forests and the indigenous Dayak culture — famed for
its communal longhouses — can make it well worth the
journey. Having some basic ability in Bahasa
Indonesia, the Malay-like national language spoken
across the country (in addition to the local
dialects), can be helpful in getting around.
Some tourists stick to East Kalimantan and its
capital, Samarinda, where you can travel up the
Mahakam River by longboat. But probably the most
celebrated areas are the orangutan preserves started
by legendary conservationist Biruté Galdikas, where
you can still see the endangered species (whose name
means “man of the forest”).
“Visitors to Kalimantan usually go for the
orangutans, and you can even stay in guesthouses
near the research camps,” says Meinarti Fauzie, a
spokeswoman for the Indonesian Consulate in New
York. She suggests flying to Palangkaraya, Central
Kalimantan’s capital, before you make the 120-mile
trek to preserves like the 2,500-square-mile Tanjung
Puting National Park, where Galdikas’s renowned Camp
Leakey is situated.
Islands: Flores,
Sumbawa, and Komodo
Keep traveling along the chain that takes you from
Bali to Lombok and you’ll arrive at these three
neighboring islands. First, you’ll reach Sumbawa,
where the remnants of an ancient sultanate, complete
with teak-laden royal palaces, make you feel “as if
you’ve stepped back in time,” says Fauzie. There’s
also the volcanic Mount Tambora, whose eruption in
1815 wiped out the kingdom of the time and is said
to have been larger than Krakatoa’s.
Farther along is Flores, an island with a
Catholic-influenced culture (thanks to its history
as a Portuguese colony) and renowned for its Easter
processions, a rarity in Muslim-dominated Indonesia.
Combining those traditions with an unspoiled terrain
that some liken to the Bali of decades ago, Flores
makes for another unique stop on your itinerary.
Perhaps Flores’s most memorable sight is Mount
Kelimutu, a volcano in the island’s central Ende
region, with its three neighboring lakes that range
in color from turquoise to reddish to dark brown.
Another lure is the legendary Komodo Island, right
on Flores’s doorstep. The Komodo dragons can grow up
to 10 feet long, can weigh as much as 200 pounds,
and can eat six pounds of meat in a minute, so “you
definitely want a guide,” laughs Fodor’s Kidder.
Travelers often opt for cruises that combine visits
to all these islands rather than take them on one by
one, which is more difficult. Travel in this region
can be rustic, but you can recharge at the Amanwana
resort on the nearby island of Moyo. The resort is
made up of 20 air-conditioned, hardwood-floor tents
in the middle of a rain forest; the getaway is part
of the Amanresorts chain, so it’s an ultra-luxe
wilderness experience. The resort also offers a
live-aboard cruise — seven days on a luxury boat
that takes you through the local seas.
Island: Papua
Even if you haven’t heard of Papua (which was
previously known as Irian Jaya), you may know the
area already: It’s actually the western half of
Papua New Guinea, the huge island just off the
northern tip of Queensland, Australia. And while
Papua New Guinea takes better advantage of tourist
dollars, Papua offers a more unspoiled look at
tribal culture.
“It’s very authentic, and you can still go to places
where tourists haven’t been yet,” says Remote Lands’
Tindall. “It’s incredibly different, with people
still living Stone Age customs. It’s a very basic
traveling experience but very fulfilling.”
Because the island doesn’t have a constant stream of
visitors, it’s probably best to go as part of a
package set up in partnership with local operators
rather than to just show up at the airport in the
capital, Jayapura. And you will need a special
permit in addition to your general Indonesian visa,
Fauzie points out. That can be secured at police
stations in jumping-off points like Jakarta and
Denpasar as well as in Jayapura itself.
The Baliem area is your likely destination, home to
rugged mountains and local tribes whose tools still
include stone axes and bows and arrows. But Tindall
also suggests places like Raja Ampat, off the
island’s northwest coast, which is a diving area so
pristine that they’re still discovering new species
of fish there. Raves Tindall, “It’s among the best
diving in the entire world — and no one knows about
it.”
