After two months it’s time to say goodbye to Indonesia. Our journey took us from the busy metropole Jakarta to funeral ceremonies on Sulawesi, to an island paradise on the Togians, to a cigarette factory and a sulfur mine, temples and volcanoes, sea cows and dolphins, and finally to a party on a beach.
We spent one week exploring Lombok and rented a motorbike to go to Kuta, surfers’ paradise. Moving on to Sumbawa proved difficult with slow and cumbersome public transport, and we once more regretted not having our own wheels.
Maluk in Sumbawa was another surfers’ dream, and that’s it. As travelling became too time-consuming to move further eastwards and explore more of Sumbawa and Flores, we decided to move back west instead. We passed some nicely quiet days on Gili Meno before celebrating New Year’s on Gili Trawangan together with many others.
As so often in places where transport was time-consuming and difficult, we were rewarded by meeting friendly locals and having some nice adventures, whereas in very touristy places near Bali we experienced only hassle and shameless crooks. This is certainly a consequence of so many visitors carelessly spraying their cash.
But overall we very much enjoyed Indonesia – especially the less frequented areas without mass tourism. The country is incredibly large, very spread out and has much to offer. We did not have enough time to visit Sumatra, Molucco and other regions, so we definitely have to come back!
