ASIA - Indonesia

CONTINENT: ASIA
COUNTRY: Indonesia

DIFFICULTY: (1: Low, 5: High)

ITINERARY:
Travel in the Indonesia bay between the less known and attended islands: Krakatoa - Madura - Comodo - Flores - Lamalera, in search of natural landscapes and unknown traditions.

Carla travelled between these five islands with a "Channel 5" crew to make a documentary about this amazing bay.

In Krakatoa the group walked to the top of the namesake Vulcan, witch is still active after the terrible explosion that destroyed part of it. The island is covered with thin black sand, white pumice rocks and green bushes.

Later she went to Madura, located in front of Surabaya to attend the Karapan-Sapi, that take place every August in witch some bulls trained for the occasion challenge each other in a crazy race where they are tied in pairs and equipped with some bamboo branches where a kid is pulled while trying to balance himself on it. The atmosphere of the race and the fans are similar to the Siena Palio.

The third island reached after several hours of navigation is Comodo, where several giant varani also called dragons lives in the wild. These animals easily reach the length of two meters and a weight of over 150 kilograms. Carla attended their feeding and followed their movement's trough the forest and beach.

The next stage brought her at Flores, one of the most beautiful islands of the bay. It is also volcanic and characterized by several volcanic cones witch now are lakes with the particularities of changing colours during some hours of the day making it all different between them. In Moni is even possible to see three of them close to each other's: a black one, a turquoise one and an emerald one.

The last destination is the island Lamalera, near Flores in witch the inhabitants lives by hunting the whales. Carla took part in one of those expeditions being the only woman between fifteen fishermen, on a boat made of bamboo and canes from sunrise to sunset. It's a very demanding hunt, where man and animals fight with equal weapons. After several rituals the chase of the prey begins, moving only by oars they came close enough to have one of the fishermen jumping several times from the boat to the back of the whale hitting it with an harpoon made out of a bamboo cane and a piece of iron risking his own life. When they return to the village all the fish is divided equally between the families.

Proposal for the itinerary:
The trip can follow the same route described by Carla or it can be modified toward other and more traditional destinations (Bali and Joyakarta islands).

The best time of the year is August and the duration goes from 15 to 20 days. It doesn't have any particular difficulties but the travel is mostly made by boat and often sleeping in huts.

This trip can be planned on different time of the month following the dates of the local festivities and typical traditions.

For more informations write to Carla.