This summer I travelled to Indonesia for the first time. The main part of the trip was spent in Sulawesi and Halmahera, with four days at the end at Way Kambas National Park in southern Sumatra. I travelled throughout in a group of four (together with David Branagh, David Russell and Eugene Garver). The Sulawesi/Halmahera section of the trip was organised by Malia Tours, based in Sulawesi. The Way Kambas section was organised through Ecolodges Indonesia and we stayed at their Satwa Elephants Ecolodge.
The prices per person for the tours were as follows:
Sulawesi and Halmahera (21 days): 45,000,000 IDR (c. £2520/ $3305). This included all internal flights in S&H, but not international flights and connecting flights to Sulawesi from Jakarta. Otherwise everything was included.
Way Kambas (4 nights/ 5 days): $658/ £501. That included transfer from the airport at Bandar Lampung and everything else. We didn't even have to share a room.
I think these prices are pretty good value. You could do the areas more cheaply independently but would struggle to get an organised tour for as low. Many 'big brochure' tours of comparable length to Sulawesi and Halmahera cost two to three times what we paid, and that's often to be part of a larger group.
I'll go through the itinerary for Sulawesi and Halmahera in the next post. First of all, there were a couple of complications worth mentioning.
A few weeks before we began the tour, Nurlin Djuni - who runs Malia and was to be our guide for the trip - informed us that his wife had sadly passed away. This left Nurlin as the only carer for their young son, Wallace. After some discussion Nurlin decided that he would have to arrange other guides for most of the trip, although he guided us on some sections (carrying Wallace through the forest as he did so!). As a result we had a wide array of guides through the trip. These included Ateng (in north Sulawesi), Bahar (in Halmahera), and Allin (in Lore Lindu). Others were with us too, and we frequently had two or three guides with us. Although the guides were of variable experience, they were all friendly, diligent and patient.
Our guide in Way Kambas was Heri, who is the main bird guide at Satwa. He was quite excellent and his ability at finding nightbirds was as good as I've ever seen.
The other complication came when I went to Aberdeen Airport to fly out to Jakarta via Amsterdam. Just before I was about to board the plane we were told there was a technical problem and the flight would be delayed for a few hours while it was checked. This meant I would miss my connection to Jakarta. Because the delay was so late in happening there was no time to make alternative arrangements and the next time I could fly out was 24 hours later. Even then, a short delay (but this time known well in advance) meant that I got put on a Lufthansa flight via Frankfurt instead of the KLM flight I had booked. I lost a day of the trip because of this and met up with the rest of the group in Tangkoko. This delay cost two or three good species, although I was able to make up most things.
The prices per person for the tours were as follows:
Sulawesi and Halmahera (21 days): 45,000,000 IDR (c. £2520/ $3305). This included all internal flights in S&H, but not international flights and connecting flights to Sulawesi from Jakarta. Otherwise everything was included.
Way Kambas (4 nights/ 5 days): $658/ £501. That included transfer from the airport at Bandar Lampung and everything else. We didn't even have to share a room.
I think these prices are pretty good value. You could do the areas more cheaply independently but would struggle to get an organised tour for as low. Many 'big brochure' tours of comparable length to Sulawesi and Halmahera cost two to three times what we paid, and that's often to be part of a larger group.
I'll go through the itinerary for Sulawesi and Halmahera in the next post. First of all, there were a couple of complications worth mentioning.
A few weeks before we began the tour, Nurlin Djuni - who runs Malia and was to be our guide for the trip - informed us that his wife had sadly passed away. This left Nurlin as the only carer for their young son, Wallace. After some discussion Nurlin decided that he would have to arrange other guides for most of the trip, although he guided us on some sections (carrying Wallace through the forest as he did so!). As a result we had a wide array of guides through the trip. These included Ateng (in north Sulawesi), Bahar (in Halmahera), and Allin (in Lore Lindu). Others were with us too, and we frequently had two or three guides with us. Although the guides were of variable experience, they were all friendly, diligent and patient.
Our guide in Way Kambas was Heri, who is the main bird guide at Satwa. He was quite excellent and his ability at finding nightbirds was as good as I've ever seen.
The other complication came when I went to Aberdeen Airport to fly out to Jakarta via Amsterdam. Just before I was about to board the plane we were told there was a technical problem and the flight would be delayed for a few hours while it was checked. This meant I would miss my connection to Jakarta. Because the delay was so late in happening there was no time to make alternative arrangements and the next time I could fly out was 24 hours later. Even then, a short delay (but this time known well in advance) meant that I got put on a Lufthansa flight via Frankfurt instead of the KLM flight I had booked. I lost a day of the trip because of this and met up with the rest of the group in Tangkoko. This delay cost two or three good species, although I was able to make up most things.