a couple photos from Komodo National Park.


https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...dbc01cec2.jpeg
From the top of Kelor Island, Flores Sea
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...2bcc417b0.jpeg
on Komodo Island.... we found a dragon!!!
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...6d4cde5a8.jpeg
from the top of Padar Island. Each bay has a different color sand: one black, one pink, and one white.

Adorable animals of N. Sulawesi


https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...53a8c47a8.jpeg
sea turtle in Bunaken Marine Reserve
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...139f49a17.jpeg
tarsier baby, Tangkoko NP
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...2f86362875.png
tarsier adult. Smallest primate in the world
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...25c9f0c382.png
black crested macaques, Tangkoko

Oh, those are fabulous!!! Absolutely wonderful photos! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Thanks Progol! Here are just a couple more - We balanced our wildlife viewing with some temples and scenery in Bali :)


https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...50bf659aa.jpeg
rainy day at the Sangeh Monkey Temple
https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...43d8d3fce.jpeg
Pura Kawi Gunung
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...e1592811c.jpeg
Still raining at Pura Samuan Tiga
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...7dfd2dedbd.png
beautiful Bali rice paddies and mountains (Sidemen)

Gorgeous, lush, beautiful! Fabulous!

You're definitely making me rethink what we can and can't do. I had planned a trip to Java and Bali many years ago but, thanks to a job change, I couldn't do it. Now I wonder if and when we can!

Bali is easy (other than the crazy traffic) and from there you can fly nonstop to LBJ on Flores. I'm sure you'd be able to pickup a Komodo package tour in Bali or LBJ without necessarily booking in advance. LBJ is a big snorkeling center.

If possible, try to fly into DPS without connecting in Jakarta (my suggestion would be to try to get Singapore Airlines with a connection in SIN). Cattle class is like flying Business on other airlines!

Thanks so much, Progol. I remember reading some of your posts before our Croatia trip last year and they were very helpful to me! Our trip was fabulous for us, but I honestly wouldn't recommend it to anyone else. We wanted to see very specific wildlife on three different islands, and then we added Bali because we had to fly through anyway and decided we needed to add some culture to our trip. All of the destinations / sights / activities we did were fantastic, but the in-between parts were very much not fun. The driving is bad pretty much everywhere (either due to terrible traffic or terrible road conditions) and the flights are always delayed and a bit chaotic. Between-island travel took us a full day every time. If I were recommending an Indonesia trip to someone else, I might recommend Bali and Flores/Komodo live-aboard, which would be very do-able, or if you are really into wildlife, maybe Borneo + N. Sulawesi or maybe Sumatra + Java, but that would be a lot of driving. Java + Bali would also be very nice. I am going to follow your Japan-planning now! That is another place I would love to go someday...

Thanks so much, ljturco! My interest was and still is primarily cultural with a little wildlife thrown in. I had hoped to travel on one of the traditional boats (name escapes me) but I don't think we'd physically manage that now. I'd love to see Borobudur on Java and to experience some of the traditional culture of Bali. I'm not sure that we'll get there but it's still on the never-ending list! Flores and Komodo sounds like something that could happen, but who knows....we are 70 and 76, with an aging parent and brother with needs, so who knows what will be?!

If you ever consider Egypt and Jordan, you can check out my Fodors TR - LOTS of photos!! That was a fabulous trip! And Japan is around the corner for us - as you see from my planning thread, we're now traveling much more slowly than many folks do, though still trying to cover a range of places.

very much agree with mlgb regarding Bali / Komodo.
Progol - I have been to Egypt (and Israel) but not Jordan. I hope to get there some day! It is looking like Greece for us next summer, so I'll be jumping over to that forum now :)

Well, it looks like we might be in Greece, too! If all goes well, we will be there in the late Spring!

You might enjoy looking at the first half of my TR since I’ve got plenty of pix of Jordan (and a few words, too).

Indeed a fabulous report! You were very brave to encounter the Komodo, and also adapted to the living ‘Cultures’ very graciously. The equatorial climate is not of everyone’s taste, it is just too hot and humid to be handled!

Hi ljturco Thank you for such a great trip report! We are planning a trip to Bali in June-July. Would you recommend the travel company you used in Bali? Which one was it?

Hi Serezha,
In Bali, we used Sidemen Tour and Trekking https://sidementourandtrekking.com. Although based in Sidemen, they will do tours all over Bali. Our guide, Komang, was our favorite of the whole Indonesia trip. We enjoyed talking with him about Balinese culture as much as we enjoyed the sights he showed us.

WOW, I just found your TR now, as we're planning a similar trip next year. We'd like to do everything you did, plus Borobudur and the eastern part of Flores. OK, maybe minus the snorkeling on Sulawesi, but I'd like a couple of days of birding here and there. And we have about 24 days on the ground, so something's gotta give. Lots, lots of good info, thank you so much, and great photos. I'm still working on logistics, and see what must stay and what can't.
Did you work with Kekayon Journeys for the entire trip? Did they arrange guides and transfers? Because I can book flights and hotels myself, but is the knowledge of the land that I'm missing, How did you find the wildlife and/or birding guides?
I need to go back and re-read everything, thank you!!

xyz99 - thank you for your comments and questions! Our trip lasted for about 28 days, but almost a week of that was in Singapore and the resort in N. Sulawesi, so if you take off those places and the elephant sanctuary, you could probably do our trip in 24 days. We really try to avoid 1- and 2-night stays, but we could have cut a day or even two from Bukit Lawang and a day from Flores, and there is your time for Borobudur. I had initially wanted to go to Borobudur, but we just didn't want to cram anymore in, and we didn't want to shorten our stays anywhere.

I will say that, even with 3 and 4-night stays, we found the having to fly every few days very tedious, and it was a "hard" trip. Each travel day typically meant a long drive to the airport, a long wait at the airport, a short flight, and then a long drive from the airport to your next destination. Most of the destinations are not very proximate to the airport, and even if it looks close on a map, it probably takes 3 times longer becasue of terrible road conditions and/or terrible traffic. So, just be aware of that.

I worked with Kakayon on everything (for the Indonesian part of the trip) except for international flights. It just wasn't expensive at all to use them, and I think they were likely able to get better prices at hotels etc than we would have been. The internal flights would have been a massive pain for me to book, inputting all the traveler info, finding the right connections etc - I just didn't want to deal with it, so I used them. They were also able to recommend the best sequence of islands based on the various flight schedules, so that saved me a lot of leg-work. And, in the event of a flight change or cancelation, or an issue with a hotel etc, they dealt with it and I didn't have to. I did go back and forth with them many times to get the exact itinerary I wanted - especially for Bali. I did not want to be in areas swarming with tourists and I was pretty adamant. I also didn't want random city tours here and there. The itinerary went through many, many iterations as we narrowed down the perfect hotels, activities, and schedule for us.

Kakeyon found us the local bird/ wildlife guides. They got us the most fabulous local bird guide in Tangkoko - first name "Mensur" and my husband might know his full name if you are interested. He has worked with the BBC and National Geographic, and he guides them when they are making documentaries. He knows every inch of the jungle, and knew exactly where to find everything we wanted to see. My husband said Mensur is one of the best guides he has ever had anywhere. He knew where to find - and how to identify - all the endemic birds for my husband including the hornbill at feeding time.. In Bukit Lawang, we were not able to find a "real" bird guide. Our orangutan guide did a good job at knowing where to look for specific birds and knew many of the calls, but wasn't a real "birder". I think the more serious bird guides are in the less-touristy national parks in Sumatra, like Way Kambas, but this was not a "bird trip" and I wanted to see orangutans above all else. In Bali and Flores, we didn't have bird guides or nature guides, just general guides. All of them were absolutely fabulous, and I doubt I would have found them on my own.

Oh - in Singapore, we had an outstanding local professional bird guide, if you are going to Singapore. He actually wrote the Singapore bird field guide. Happy to share his name if you want it.

Anyway, hope some of that is helpful. happy to answer more specific questions if you have them!

ljturco
After reading as much I could and going back and forth a million times, I think we'll skip Sulawesi. It sounds wonderful, but even before you mentioning it, we got to the same conclusion: we already have 7 domestic flights in a month, in addition to the big international ones. It will be so tiring...
We have 2 days (3 nights) in Bukit Lawang, and I think that will be enough. Yes, orangutans are high on our list too. I emailed a trekking company, no response yet. Do you think it would be possible to go out in the morning, return to the lodge for lunch and go out again in the afternoon? Instead of a long 6-7 hrs day?
Kakayon sounds like a good solution. From past experiences, we know how important is to have an agent on the ground, in case things go wrong. I'll contact them and see what they can do for us.
Yes, please share the Singapore birder guide info. If it was Kim Seng Lim, I have his contact. We were supposed to be there in February, but we had to cancel that trip. But if a different one, please share.
Thanks for all the good tips, I might come back with more questions later.

I think that's probably the right choice to skip Sulawesi. We really only went becasue I was obsessed with the tarsiers and my hubs is always happy to see endemic birds. We just added the resort / snorkeling so that we wouldn't only be on Sulawesi for three days. LOL. And there was a nice, direct flight from Singapore. But it is far away from everywhere.

The Singapore bird guide was Kim Seng Lim!!!! He was excellent!

In Bukit Lawang, I would not recommend doing separate morning and afternoon jungle treks. It is at least an hour trek each way just to get into the jungle and more than that to get deeper in where you see more animals. You could just go in the morning, say from 8 - 1, and then be done for the day. But we loved the longer days with lunch in the middle. The jungle lunches were so delicious!! Also, just to make sure you know you have to have a guide with you to go into the jungle, and the guide takes care of your lunch :)