Indonesia forum

I'm feeling that Amed is the go for you. Top spot in Bali when it's not high season which OCT is not. Basically, beaches, seafood, snorkelling, relaxed. You'll want your own transport...could hire a bike/car in kuta and drive up to amed and stop along the way at some cool spots like tirta gangga, pura lempuyang. How long have you got in mind in Bali?

Did some poking on the subject and Amed looks amazing!!! There is mountain bike tours and great snorkeling it looks like so right up our alley. Thanks so much guys!!

Thamks for the info tyler!!

The only problem I'm running into is that Indonesia is so big and there is so much I want to see!!

I love history so Borobudur is a must, and I am a nature lover so Orang-utangs on Borneo are a must, and I am a beach bum at heart so I def. want to spend some time on the sand.

I will look into Gili Islands, pristine white sand sounds pretty nice, I just dont want to cram too much into the 4 weeks or so that I have there. I learned my lesson last year trying to do 4 countries in 8 weeks and feeling really rushed. So I will just have to pick a couple destinations and try to get as much quality time in each as I can.

Thanks again guys!!

Hey Roux,
Mooball is giving you good advice. 4 weeks is a limited amount of time to do more than 1 country - I would also suggest relaxing your itinery a little. Like you said you're already feeling some stress about it...And it sounds as if everything you want to do you can do it in Indonesia.
If you have your heart set on Borneo and orangutans - you can consider the Kinibatangan river in Sabah. It is easy to get to and you will see them in the wild. You can try the www.sabahtourism.org website for a list of homestays throughout Borneo. I was at the Misowalei homestay for the Kinibatangan. Was great.
Enjoy.

Indonesia is indeed huge but you can see quite a bit in a month and October is a great time to go there.

If you want to do Borodur for a few days then I'd suggest sticking to just one other "general area" rather than trying to visit too many different places. Below are 3 suggestions you might like to think about. All have an Air Asia connection to your next destination (Malaysia) which would save you back tracking too much.


1. Bali, then Lombok and or Gilis. Possibly a snorkeling boat trip to Labuan Bajo from Bali or Lombok via Komodo. Air Asia flies to KL from Bali.

2. Northern Sumatra has orang outangs as mentioned, Lake Toba, and there's also some pretty good diving/snorkeling off Pulau Weh. Flights from Medan or from Banda Aceh (for Pulau Weh) on Air Asia.

3. Central and southern Sulawesi: Mountain scenery and trekking in Tana Toraga plus some interesting culture and then the Togean islands for your relaxed beach and snorkeling fix. Togeans are a little difficult to get to and there aren't daily ferries going there but they are rather pretty islands with nice beaches and snorkeling. Air Asia flies from Makassar (AKA Ujung Padang) to KL.

You could get to any of these places from Java on a domestic flight bought once you've arrived in Indonesia. It's usually possible to get a flight next day unless there's some big holiday or something. Indonesian airlines don't have very state of the art online booking systems yet and often refuse foreign credit cards but if you google Lion Air, Srijiwaya, Batavia and Mandala you'll get an idea of routes and prices. The national carrier Garuda is usually (but not always) quite a bit more expensive but it's worth checking their site too. Merpati have a poor safety record and also tendency to cancel flights at the last minute... personally I try and avoid them when there are other options available! There are loads of smaller airlines too but those are the main ones.