ASIA - Indonesia

CONTINENT: ASIA
COUNTRY: Indonesia

DIFFICULTY: (1: Low, 5: High)

ITINERARY:
Travel in the Indonesian 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 takes place every August, in witch 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, trying to balance himself on the branch. The atmosphere of the race and the fans are similar to the Siena Palio.
The third island reached, after several hours of navigation, was 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 to Flores, one of the most beautiful islands of the bay. It is also volcanic and characterized by several volcanic cones which are now lakes, with particular changing colors during the day, creating a lot of differences between them. In Moni, it 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 was the island Lamalera, near Flores in which the inhabitants lives by hunting whales. Carla took part in one of these 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 animal fight with equal weapons. After several rituals the chase of the prey begins, moving only by oars they come close enough to have one of the fishermen jump 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 are divided equally between the families.
Proposal for the itinerary:
The trip can follow the same route described by Carla or it can be modified towards other, more traditional destinations (i.e. Bali and Joyakarta islands).
The best time of the year is August for a duration of 15 to 20 days. There are no particular difficulties but the travel is mostly made by boat and often sleeping in huts.
This trip can be planned for different times of the month, depending the dates of the local festivities and typical traditions.

For more informations write to Carla.