Indonesia Adventure: Sumatra, Krakatoa, the Komodos and Bali

[TonyQ]

@@gatoratlarge

Great trip and very enjoyable read

Those komodo dragons are huge!

[Treepol]

Thank you so much for this excellent information, I am bookmarking for a future trip.

 

Would you say that August-Sept was the optimum time to visit Indonesia?

[Kitsafari]

What an awesome adventure! Im surprised that you could get so close to the dragon. Amazing.

[gatoratlarge]

Thks all. Treepol AUG SEPT sure worked out for our trip weather-wise. It was not too hot although Indonesia is certainly in the tropics and my recollection was it rained that night but that made it clear the following morning. We had excellent weather.

[Atravelynn]

Thanks for the daily itinerary. Very helpful planning for all of the people you'll likely be sending to Indonesia due to this impressive report. The good weather and lack of rainy days reported by Gator coincides with this chart I found.

 

http://www.weather2travel.com/climate-guides/indonesia/

 

Did Adventure Indonesia put together the whole trip or just the nature parts?

[gatoratlarge]

Thanks Lynn! I sure hope so--it is a worthy and wonderful wildlife destination---I also believe that eco-tourism is perhaps the best chance at preserving what's left all around the world I believe that's the case...Novi was my contact at Adventure Indonesia. She patiently answered a million questions before we left on the trip. Adventure Indonesia arranged the entire trip within Indonesia. I was responsible for getting to Medan, Sumatra via air and leaving Denpasar, Bali----they took care of the arrangements otherwise . It gets tricky with all the internal logistics and we had multiple stops and flight so they were a Godsend...they were significan;t cheaper than a couple US based quotes I received and I bet they are a company the US outifts would contract with to do the exact same thing...they had great knowledge about what was feasible and able to be accomplished and what was not...AND they even threw in an extra which was just plain nice---to and from the airport in Bali (where they have one of their offices) even though we had finished our program in the Komodos and planned our own in Bali---they picked us up and delivered us to our hotel an hour to the interior of the island---didn't have to do it.

[Sangeeta]

Sounds like a wonderful safari - all your 'must haves' were well worth insisting upon! The Indonesian outfitters sound like a great find.

 

Saw a doc once on the effectiveness of Komodo saliva - they took two slabs of meat. One was cut open and left as is. The other was cut open and a bit of saliva put into the gash. The next day, the saliva one looked like a horrible putrefied mess while the other one still looked almost normal. Ugh!

 

On a happier note, the boat safari sounds fantastic.

[Atravelynn]

Thanks Gator, looks like Adventure Indonesia does it all. That eases the planning.

[gatoratlarge]

One note re: Adventure Indonesia is that they did not take a credit card---ultimately I had to wire money to them prior to the trip---I think four weeks prior for full payment. Believe you me I've never been happier than seeing my name on that little sign at the Medan airport!! I actually was not too worried about the legitimacy of the outfit especially since I peppered Novi with questions for months on end and she patiently answered them all...the feedback and advice was definitely coming from a place of knowledge on the subject so I was quite comfortable about that....still....there's always the fear that something might not be right....but in the end, I think we saved a couple thousand $$ each and the price I was quoted from the US groups was unaffordable....I wouldn't have been able to go otherwise. I would also say that they trip was likely very similar as the options for accomodations are pretty limited as well...I definitely recommend them highly.

[Atravelynn]

I know that unease between wiring and being collected. Very rarely have I heard of any problems, though, in any country.

[jeremie]

Wonderful experience! I gives me many good ideas! How lucky were you to spot sun bears in the wild with this sunset!