Komodo, Indonesia: Into the dragons' den

Sailing on a schooner around eastern Indonesia, Natalie Paris mixes sunbathing on deck with a spot of island exploration - and a meeting with the carnivorous lizards of Komodo.

Telegraph.co.uk, By Natalie Paris, 11:09AM BST 10 May 2010

While not exactly fire-breathing, these large monitor lizards have an acute sense of smell, large claws and a toxic bite

Indonesia's vast archipelago has always lured adventurers, with tales of stormy straits, desert islands and man-eating dragons. European trading ships sailed here in the 16th century in search of treasures. These days the Spice Islands, now known as Maluku, have fallen off the charts of the average seafarer, but farther south, legends of dragons live on. Here lie remote islands perfect for modern voyages of discovery.

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Dirk Bergsma, a latter-day explorer, got his first taste of the country in the Seventies when he caught a lift on a wooden schooner locals used to transport cargo. The journey inspired him to found a tour company, Sea Trek, that organises intrepid but relaxed cruises along the old spice routes. "You can sail to places so incredible you can't believe they still exist," he says.

Nearly two decades after Dirk bought his first schooner, I joined 14 other passengers boarding another on an adventure of our own. We might have had gin-and-tonics, sun loungers and a wonderful crew who rinsed our walking boots for us, but we still felt like adventurers.

Each day would start with some sailing, typically past pods of dolphins and lackadaisical turtles

The double-masted Katharina sails all over the eastern archipelago, including to Maluku, but our voyage was the most accessible that she offers – a 10-day trip east from Bali to the island of Flores and back. This popular itinerary allowed us to make various stops within the Komodo National Park, a diver's haven with sharks and manta rays below the surface, and above it, the island homes of one of the world's most impressive creatures – the Komodo dragon.

While not exactly fire-breathing, these large monitor lizards have an acute sense of smell, large claws and a toxic bite. Although they eat mainly carrion, they prey on deer and water buffalo, and have killed a human as recently as 2009. From Ari, our companionable guide on board the Katharina, I learnt that the dragons eat their dead and are cannibals, forcing their young to live in trees for up to five years to avoid being attacked. Suddenly our planned two-hour hike to spot them seemed less appealing, knowing that they could be anywhere around us – on land, in branches above us, in the sea. That's right. They swim, too.

An encounter with the lizards is certainly the most obvious reason to explore this scattering of volcanic islands, but there are plenty of others. In the couple of days before we went in search of dragons, the boat stopped at Flores ("Flowers"), an island named by the Portuguese that has smoking cones, fertile flanks and forested ridges studded with the tin roofs of villages glinting in the sun.

The winding island road, forever either climbing or falling, is lined with Catholic churches, neat wooden houses and tethered goats, pigs and tawny cows. As our driver negotiated the many switchbacks through the lush interior, old women squatting next to fires of coconut husks smiled up at us through lips stained red by betel-nut juice, and schoolchildren yelled "Hello, mister" at every bend.

We had come inland to see the dramatic crater lakes at the top of Mount Kelimutu, which change colour depending on mineral levels and have, in the past, been a rainbow palate of brown, cream, red, blue and emerald green. Kelimutu's three lakes have a spiritual meaning for locals and represent the afterlife.

The dramatic crater lakes at the top of Mount Kelimutu have, in the past, been a rainbow palate of brown, cream, red, blue and emerald green

At sunrise, two lakes that were brilliant turquoise during my visit were the first to be bathed in light. These are the two that welcome the spirits of the good and the young, and the sun gave them a pinky halo. Yet a chill remained at the third, on the other face of the mountain, supposedly the resting place of evil spirits. This lake was as black as an inkwell and, while it was shrouded in shadows, an air of foreboding was almost tangible.

That feeling returned a few days later on the boat, as we checked our zoom lenses and prepared to set foot on Rinca island, dragon territory. Rinca and neighbouring Komodo, where the dragons also live, have a more arid landscape than Flores. Shoes or flip-flops, I wondered? Apparently the dragons can launch themselves into a sprint as quickly as a small dog. Shoes it was, then. I had just started to weigh up whether it would be safer to stride out with the ranger or stay close to the group when our first group of dragons appeared right in front of us.

Six or seven lay under a ranger's hut, the occasional yellow forked tongue sliding from square jaws. They were just as big as I had imagined. Shutters whirred and we edged nearer. "Careful," one of the rangers said. "Not too close."

For a minute the dragons seemed docile. But then something disturbed the group. In a flash they rose up on haunches encased in folds of scales and darted forward at speed, their thick bodies switching from side to side in a manner that was alarming in something 10 feet long. Deep inside, some innate urge screamed "Run".

I flinched and the ranger laughed. "Don't worry," he said, waving a stick as if idly flapping at a mosquito. "Their noses are really sensitive; they will run away." We had no choice but to believe him and follow him into the woods.

These stocky predators are the largest lizards on earth and are a protected species. There are only about 4,000 of them living in the wild, all found on this cluster of islands. We spotted one with its head close to the ground, camouflaged by the trees. "He is waiting for a monkey," the ranger said. Sure enough, 15 yards along the track we saw a young family of long-tailed macaques skipping along the forest floor.

On the crest of a hill another dragon sat on its hind legs, leaning against a rock and staring down at the bay where the Katharina was docked. Fearing an ambush of the kind recently filmed by the BBC's Life crew – in which dragons had sat mercilessly waiting for a wounded buffalo to die, tongues flicking in anticipation – our group filed back down to the jetty with new purpose.

It was a pleasure to return to the blissfully relaxing routine of the Katharina. Soon I was sitting with my legs over her bow, sea salt in my hair and the waves slapping at my bare soles, watching another uninhabited island slip out of view.

On board were seven air-conditioned, amply appointed cabins, shared by passengers from all over Europe. We ate communal dinners with wine at a large, deck-top dining table and there were sun loungers for optional massages against the backdrop of sublime sunsets. The small lounge and bar downstairs was the perfect nook for nightcaps, and the crew raised handsome maroon sails whenever there was a brisk wind.

Each day would start with some sailing, typically past pods of dolphins and lackadaisical turtles, sheets of ferocious currents and whirlpools. Then, as we travelled slowly back to Bali, we would drop anchor in order to visit island communities on Flores, Sumbawa and Lombok. Some demonstrated how to weave ikat cloth, others how to master the steps of traditional dances.

In Sumbawa we disembarked onto a beach at Wera, where village children ran out to greet us and show us half-built wooden ships positioned like breakers along the black sand. Skilfully made but incomplete, they resembled skeletal Mary Celestes that required years of crafting before they could be blessed and put out to sea.

Sumptuous lunches would be dished up on board before afternoons spent snorkelling or exploring pristine beaches, such as the smudged pink sand at Gili Banta, turquoise bays around Riung and the corals at Gili Lawa.

Afternoons would be spent snorkelling or exploring pristine beaches, such as the turquoise bays around Riung

We came to learn that other passengers had enjoyed previous voyages on the Katharina. At night they swapped stories under the stars of journeys further east, of meeting warrior tribes and sailing through the Alor strait, where "there was nothing but swirling seas". A retired Dutchman told me on our final night: "You should come when we sail to Papua. Now that is truly magnificent."

As we approached the glittering lights of Bali's coastline, I felt every bit the returning explorer, with a successful voyage and encounter with fearsome reptiles under my belt. Even in this day and age, new adventures are always possible at sea.

Explore

(0844 499 0901; www.explore.co.uk) offers 16-night "East Indies Seatrek" tours including a 10-day Bali-Flores-Bali voyage on the Katharina between May and October. The trip includes four nights in a hotel in Bali on a b & b basis and nine nights' full board in ensuite cabins on the schooner: prices from £2,370 with international flights; £1,621 without. Between July and August, places are available for children at £2,478, with adult places costing £2,601, both with flights.

Sea Trek

(0062 361 283358; www.anasia-cruise.com) offers a range of voyages on the Katharina to Indonesian destinations farther afield.

Metro Madness: Riverboat Ranting

Jakarta Globe, Simon Pitchforth, May 07, 2010

The heart of darkness is fully wired these days.

This week, I managed to skip Jakarta’s 21st century heart of darkness and headed into the jungles of Borneo for a few days to do a “Lord Jim.” In Conrad’s novel, Jim, a disgraced young seaman, heads into the jungle in order to live with the Dayaks. So I rocked up to Palangkaraya in central Kalimantan with a bag full of mosquito repellent and amusing hats.

Palangkaraya is a small city that received a lot of attention from Sukarno, who considered making it the Indonesian capital at one point. The nation’s first president got the Russians to build some nice, wide boulevards around town when he was flirting with the red menace and also had a fancy woman shacked up here in a rather tasteless pied-a-terre. Even Sukarno’s successor Suharto, rather hubristically decided to make Indonesia self-sufficient in rice by draining the peat swamps in the huge rainforests and jungles that lie beyond the city to start a huge planting program. Not only did the rice not materialize, due to the peat soil being too acidic for the stuff to grow in, but the release of previously locked-in carbon from the dried out swamps has helped Indonesia reach its current status as the world’s third-largest producer of greenhouse gases. In the words of that intellectual colossus, Homer Simpson, “Doh!”

Along with that, rampant deforestation, slash-and-burn agriculture, forest fires, palm oil plantations and a rapidly dwindling orangutan population have prompted a veritable army of tree-hugging, granola munchers to descend on the area to hold conferences and try to engage rainforest communities in conservation efforts.

However, I wasn’t in town to jam with either Sting, Bono or Bob Geldof. My plan was to ford upstream into the jungle on a pleasant three-day riverboat cruise.

For the past few years, a couple of lovely ladies, Lorna Dowson-Collins and Gaye Thavisin, have run eco-tours from Palangkaraya up into the lush jungles of Borneo. The pair have built a huge cruise boat, which can house groups of up to 10 people, with a spacious top deck on which tourists can recline in comfort and spy on the orangutans at the water’s edge as they muck about and exhibit appalling table manners.

The rivers themselves are quintessential jungle waterways. As calm as mirrors and between 50 and 100 meters in width, they meander through lush protected forests with only the occasional illegal gold mining operation or chainsaw buzzing in the distance to remind one of the dangers that this ancient environment now faces. The tour is an educational one and has previously been enjoyed by various European and Australian parliamentary delegations, as well as the prince of Denmark, who apparently had a whale of a time.

We made a brief stop at an orangutan rehabilitation center and learned that some of these hairy chaps are in a very sad state indeed. Orphaned and suffering from malaria, flu or other ailments, the center nurses them back to health and releases them back into the wild. It’s becoming a losing battle, however, as there are now more orangutans coming in than going out.

The cruise itself is magnificent and takes one through idyllic areas of primary rainforest as yet completely unspoiled by man and his vociferous appetite for destroying things and soiling his nest. Mind you, I was still able to get a mobile phone signal for the entire duration of the trip. The heart of darkness is fully wired these days, you understand.

If you’re up for a cruise like this then take a look at: www.wowborneo.com. An interesting one will be taking place between May 20 and May 23, in fact. If you find the Jakarta Highland Gathering a bit passe then the Isen Mulang Cruise will take you to the traditional Dayak games of the same name. One of the events is a game of soccer played with a burning coconut. Silly sods.

Meanwhile, in terms of saving this ancient environment, consumer choice is perhaps your best weapon. Don’t eat the baso (meatballs) in East Java that locals were recently found making from kidnapped monkeys. Perhaps another thing to avoid would be palm oil, which is apparently present in 10 percent of all supermarket products. Giving up Indonesia’s Blue Band palm margarine shouldn’t be too difficult for Westerners though, seeing as the stuff tastes like clarified goat bile. Mind you, the less we eat of the stuff, the more that can be used as chainsaw lubricant. Anyway, let’s all sit in a circle now and sing, “We shall overcome.”

Simon Pitchforth has lived in Indonesia for well over a decade and is the editor of Jakarta Java Kini magazine.

Size Doesn’t Matter on Gili Nanggu

The Jakarta Globe, Ade Mardiyati

Guests to the island can pay Rp 100,000 to have the opportunity to release endangered sea turtles back into the ocean as part of a conservation program. (JG Photo)

Gili Nanggu, situated just off west Lombok, is a small island of 12.5 hectares. Yet the island feels a lot bigger than this, with its undisturbed corners of natural beauty and numerous swimming spots.

The underwater world is also stunning with lots of brightly colored fish swimming close to the beach in the warm tropical water.

Traveling to the island is relatively easy — it’s a 45-minute boat ride from Lembar Harbor in Lombok, or a 15-minute boat ride from Taun Harbor, also in Lombok.

A taxi ride into Lembar from Selaparang International Airport takes about 45 minutes to an hour, while from the airport to Taun takes about 90 minutes.

Boats can be chartered from either harbor at any time of the day. Local operators charge about Rp 150,000 ($16) for a boat from Lembar with a maximum capacity of six passengers. From Taun it is about Rp 25,000 cheaper.

“Visitors are mostly foreigners from Europe, usually couples — honeymooners — because of the serenity and peacefulness here,” said Suherlan, or Herlan, a staff member of Gili Nanggu Cottages and Bungalows. “Vendors, like jewelry sellers [often spotted on the other islands in the Gilis], are not allowed to enter the area.”

The island has 10 cottages with timber floors and seven bungalows, with prices ranging from Rp 250,000 to Rp 350,000 per night with breakfast included.

Although cheaper, the cottages trump the bungalows due to their beachfront location. The upstairs bedrooms have large windows that open out onto a view of the sea and the balmy breeze.

Inside each cottage is a bed with a mosquito net and a fan. Some cottages also have a sitting room.

The bungalows are set back from the beach, just a short walk along a track.

The simple hut-like structures sit on a raised platform and the room comes with air-conditioning and an attached bathroom.

The resort has a restaurant serving local and European cuisine. Grilled fish is also available as local fishermen bring their catch to the island.

One of the most intriguing things about the resort is the conservation program it runs for the endangered Hawksbill sea turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) — locally known as penyu sisak . The turtle is one of seven species of sea turtles found in the world. The name “hawksbill” refers to the turtle’s hooked beak.

The Gili Nanggu Sea Turtle Conservation Program has been functioning since 1995.

Adult sea turtles lay eggs once a year. If you are lucky enough to visit Gili Nanggu when the baby sea turtles are ready for release, you can take part in this natural conservation activity and help give the sea turtles a future.

“Fishermen around the area used to sell the turtles and the eggs to traditional markets in Lombok and Bali to be consumed or for religious purposes,” Herlan said.

Turtles are said to be used for offerings in Balinese ceremonies, but in fact this is rarely the case. People like to eat them, and most of the turtles that are sold illegally end up in the cooking pot.

“To stop the species from disappearing, we buy the eggs from the fishermen and hatch them here,” Herlan said.

The eggs are purchased for Rp 500 each from the fishermen, usually during the rainy season in February and March, Herlan said. For 45 days, the eggs are buried under the sand until they hatch. A year after, when they are strong enough to survive, the turtles are released into the ocean.

“Guests can participate in the conservation program by paying Rp 100,000 to release a turtle,” Herlan said. “It is a nonprofit program as the money goes to the cost of purchasing the eggs and breeding the turtles for a year.”

Turtles are released every month by visitors to the island, Herlan said.

Gili Nanggu makes a wonderful holiday spot at any time of the year, but it’s best to avoid Muslim or school holidays, when the island is more crowded than usual.

How to get there

Boats can be chartered for one-way trips to the island from Lembar for Rp 150,000 and from Tuan for Rp 125,000. Reservations are required.Peak season is from June to August.

Tel. 0370 623783 or 081 237972299

www.gilinanggu.com

Climb ev'ry mountain

The Jakarta Post, Badgery-Parker, Jakarta | Sun, 12/06/2009 9:24 AM

Mt Merapi, viewed from Mt Merbabu, Central Java

Indonesia is a hiker’s paradise, but sometimes it can be tough just knowing where to start. A new website aims to help you take the first step.

Dan Quinn makes lists. He makes lists of things to do. He makes lists of things to buy. And he’s made a list of mountains to climb.

“Without a list,” he says, “I don’t get things done.”

One of the things he wants to get done is to climb at least 100 of Indonesia’s “Ribus”.

A “Ribu” is the term humorously coined for a mountain in Indonesia with an elevation of (as the name suggests) at least 1,000 meters. There are around 130 of these dotted across the archipelago, all listed on the Gunung Bagging website, www.gunungbagging.com.

The Gunung Bagging website is the brainchild of Quinn and fellow Briton Dr Andy Dean. The two hiking enthusiasts met earlier this year on a trip with hiking group Java Lava. Once chatting, they shared their frustration at the lack of comprehensive and accessible practical information on how to climb Indonesia’s hundreds of peaks. The fresh air and physical exercise obviously did them some good, because by the time they came down from the mountain, they had hatched a plot to create such a resource.

Now, several months later, the combination of their passion for climbing, Dean’s scientific and technical knowledge (he is a geographer by training) and Quinn’s writing skills has resulted in the Gunung Bagging website, a clean, user-friendly and helpful resource on Indonesia’s mountains and how to climb them.

The name, in case you’re wondering, comes from the English and Scottish pastime of “mountain bagging” — trying to climb (or “bag”) all mountains above 3,000 feet (about 1,000 meters).

The idea of the “Ribus” is based on the list of “Ultras” — peaks around the world of more than 1,500 meters.

“Here, if you follow 1,500 meters as for the Ultras, you really run out of options [for hikes] from Jakarta on the weekends and many are missing,” Quinn explains. “So we brought that prominence down to 1,000.” (Their methodology for identifying the peaks is detailed on the website.)

The website lists 123 of these, divided into three categories: sangat tinggi (really high: >3000 meters; there are 30 of these); tinggi sedang (quite high: 2,000–3,000 meters; 49) and kurang tinggi (not all that high: 1,000–2,000 meters; 44). Also included are 20 spesials — mountains that might not make the grade in terms of height, but make up for it with other properties (Anak Krakatau being the obvious entrant here; it’s a midget at only 264 m but its cracker personality always makes it the life of the party). The website also organizes the mountains by province.

The idea is for each entry on each mountain to give information about elevation, location and practical information about how to “Bag it!” plus any other relevant and interesting information.

But that’s a lot of information and a lot of mountains. “We can’t climb them all so we will require information. It’s a collaborative effort,” Quinn says.

“We do both want to stress that it is not finished — it is a framework,” Dean says. “And we want people to contribute to it.”

Sunset over Mt. Merapi and Mt. Merbabu, Central Java

While there are a few famous mountains on which a lot of information is available, he adds, “There are hundreds of volcanoes with very little information and definitely people who have climbed them. … There is definitely a large group — bigger than you might expect — of Indonesian people who do a lot of climbing of volcanoes.”

Each entry has a space to enter comments (scroll down past the Google Satellite Image) so anyone can enter a comment, containing useful practical information about how to climb the mountain — where to start from, difficulty and how long it might take a moderately fit walker, equipment needed, facilities available, etc.

All comments are moderated — “we want to try and remain impartial rather than slagging off a porter or something” — and all contributors credited. Although the website is in English, useful comments written in Indonesian will also be included.

In this way, the website aims to cater both to those who are “prominence fanatics”, who take mountain climbing very seriously, and to those who’d just like to get out of the city and go on an enjoyable walk.

Either way, Quinn says, “We want to make it easier for people to do things and visit places.”

And if you should manage to “bag” 20 of Indonesia’s volcanoes, you can even enter your name in the Gunung Bagging “Hall of Fame” — you could even be the first. But if you haven’t started yet, you’ll have some catching up to do.

Anak Krakatau, Lampung

Quinn, who came to Indonesia a year ago because of his fascination for gamelan (“the volcanoes were an added bonus”), has already started ticking them off on his list.

“When I moved here, I thought, great, you know, if I could climb five this year it would be brilliant,” he says. “I think I’ve done 13 or 14.”

Dean, who was a keen hiker in the UK and then Canada, where he lived for five years, has also pulled together a respectable count in his couple of years living in Indonesia.

“I’ve managed to climb 10 or 11 volcanoes, and have realized that climbing volcanoes in Indonesia is not that difficult,” he says.

“I like the physical challenge of climbing the volcanoes in Indonesia and the view from the summit at sunrise and sunset. And in Indonesia, as long as you don’t climb on the Independence Day weekend, you can actually escape from people. Java is pretty crowded, but there are parts of Java you can be really impressed by the forest and get away from the crowds.”

Papandayan, West Java

But too often, he adds, it is difficult to know where to start. “Sometimes it can just seem too hard, and you can really decide not to bother. That’s an important motivation for us.”

“I hope it will encourage people to go to places they might not visit otherwise,” Quinn says. “As people visit more a place more often, it becomes more accessible.”

There’s a benefit for everyone. Practice responsible hiking, and the local economy around the mountain gets a boost from the visitors. And the benefits for hikers are manifold.

“Firstly, it’s just going for a walk in a natural environment,” Quinn says. “It’s such a simple pleasure that many people are very disconnected from these days.”

As such, it’s good for both mental and physical health.

“You generally come back with a fresh perspective on things that had been troubling you at work or in life generally,” he says. “You learn more about the place you live in, get away from that disconnect of just sitting behind a computer or in a car.”

— Photos by Daniel Quinn

Dr Andy Dean and Dan Quinn will be launching www.gunungbagging.com, with a website demonstration and Q&A session, on Saturday Dec. 12, 3 p.m., at Eastern Promise, Kemang. They can be contacted via the website.

Good for …

A weekend out of Jakarta

• Rajabasa, Lampung (1,248 m)
• Ciremai, West Java (3,078 m)
• Cikoray, West Java (2,820 m)

Taking in the sunset

• Lawu, East Java (3,265 m)

Making sunrise worth getting up for

• Butak, East Java (2,868 m)

Family outings

• Papandayan, West Java (2,643 m)

Mad bastards (just getting to the starting point is an adventure…)

• Tambora, West Nusa Tenggara (2,730 m)
• Rantemario, South Sulawesi (3,478 m)

Romantics

• Batur, Bali (1,675 m)

Folklore lovers

• Agung, Bali (3,031 m)

The unfit, unable or just plain lazy

• Tangkuban Perahu, West Java (2,075 m) (you don’t even hve to get out of the car)

Solitude … just getting away from it all

• Most of them really …

Some interesting facts

Highest Ribu: Carstensz Pyramid, Puncak Jaya, Papua (4,884 m)
Lowest Ribu: Tombia, Central Sulawesi (1,022 m)
Most western Ribu: Hulumasen, Aceh (2,310 m)
Most eastern Ribu: Cycloop, East Papua (2,000 m)
Most northern Ribu: Seulawah Agam, Aceh (1,810 m)
Most southern Ribu: Wanggameti, East Nusa Tenggara (1,225 m)

Provinces with the most Ribus: West Java & East Java

100 major tourism events to be organized next year

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

As part of the government's efforts to reach its target of seven million foreign tourist visits in 2008, the Culture and Tourism Ministry plans to promote some 100 international events throughout the archipelago next year.

The ministry's director general for marketing, Thamrin B. Bachri, said that as a facilitator, the ministry would cooperate with local administrations to make the events a success.

"We will help the administrations to properly organize the events so that they will be worth seeing," Thamrin said Thursday.

"In addition, the ministry will also help publicize the events both inside and outside the country," he added.

According to the ministry, the international events will include cultural festivals, musical performances and sports events.

"For example, there will be a Tabot cultural and religious festival in Bengkulu, and we will try to attract as many as tourists as we can from Malaysia and Singapore as the primary markets as they are the closest to Bengkulu," Thamrin said.

In addition to cultural events, he said, tourists would also be able to attend sporting events, such as the Indonesia Open golf tournament and Indonesian International Diving Adventure event, both in Jakarta, and the World Karting Championships in Sentul, Bogor.

Other events expected to support the success of Visit Indonesia Year 2008 are the Arak Tabuik festival in Padang Pariaman, West Sumatra, next August; Tourism Funday in Anyer, Banten, in February; Papua Cultural Festival in August; and the annual Java Jazz Festival in Jakarta in March.

"Basically, these events are held annually, so what we are doing now is further promoting them and packaging them better," Thamrin said.

The soft launch of the Visit Indonesia Year 2008 campaign will take place Friday in the Balai Kartini, Jakarta, with a concert by top Indonesian performers, such as AB-Three, Edo Kondologit and Samsons.

The government will also conduct a public awareness drive as part of its efforts to highlight Indonesia's friendliness.

The domestic campaign will involve encouraging people to smile at tourists and help them in a friendly way, as well as establishing tourist police units in major tourism spots, simplifying licensing procedures, and working together with travel agencies, hotels and airline offices so as to help ensure the success of the campaign.

As for overseas promotion, the government will advertise on international television channels, the Internet, and through Indonesia's tourism offices abroad.

"Visit Indonesia Year is not a program of the Culture and Tourism Ministry alone, it involves all stakeholders and all citizens. So, its success will require their participation," Minister Wacik said Thursday.

Visit Indonesia Year 2008 will be officially launched by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Jan. 1. It is hoped that it will attract seven million foreign tourists to Indonesia's shores and earn the country some US$6.4 billion.(ndr)

Eco-tourism expands as Bali gets back to nature

Wasti Atmodjo, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar

The eco-tourism industry is on the steady increase in Bali, with many living around or near beaches, hilly areas, paddy fields or forests conserving and managing their land for tourists, coordinator of the Bali Ecotourism Study Group, AA Gde Raka Dalem, says.

Raka is working with a team from Udayana University, to collect data on eco-tourism in Bali. He said the growth was sparked by an aggressive movement to "get back to nature", including how to behave in an environmentally friendly manner.

"It's in line with the rising concern over various issues like gas emissions and global warming and has also been affected by the rising environmental awareness among visiting tourists," he said over the weekend.

Initially it was only tourists from developed countries who were interested in eco-tourism projects.

Based on his own observations, Raka said, an increasing number of tourists from Asia, had displayed a greater interest in eco-tourism.

Data from Culture and Tourism Ministry showed in 1998 the global tourism industry was dominated by Europeans with some 384 million (60.3 percent of the total) visits. European tourists also showed the highest growth rate at 8.1 percent per year between 1980 and 1998.

By the year 2010, the number of global tourist visits is projected to grow by 4.1 percent per annum to 1 billion.

At the national level, foreign tourist arrivals to Indonesia between 2005 and 2009 were projected to reach 10 million per annum, with spending amounting to $10 billion.

In 1996, Raka said, various representatives of the Indonesian tourist industry gathered in Bali to discuss the growing eco-tourism market. They later agreed to establish an Indonesian eco-tourism community.

The group set down eco-tourism's guiding principles, which are being continually developed and revised.

Initially, Raka Dalem said, the eco-tourism concept was translated to mean a tourism business which involved the participation of the community.

The understanding later evolved to incorporate three major pillars -- economy, community involvement and ecological conservation.

In Bali, he said, the concept would be easily implemented due to the existence of traditional wisdom, Tri Hita Karana, which dictates Balinese maintain harmony among Man, God and Nature.

Raka said Bali offers a complete set of eco-tourism projects.

"Including beaches, agricultural farms, forests and hilly areas," he said.

Sambangan area in Buleleng regency, for example, offers packages inviting travellers a glimpse of the agricultural lifestyle, forest walks and waterfall tours.

"Now a new attraction is offered, which we call spiritual tourism, meditation at the above-mentioned waterfall areas," he said.

Tenganan in Karangasem regency, Raka said, also offers unique culture and natural beauty. Locals are known for their skillfully hand-woven cloth.

Tenganan has also a collection of a wide variety of endangered plants and including kluwek, and various colorful butterflies.

"Packages featuring bird watching in a mangrove habitat in Nusa Dua and monkey watching in Alas Kedaton, Sangeh and Ubud, are some examples eco-tourism in Bali," Raka said.

The eco-tourism projects are managed by the government or tourism offices and also by the community itself in cooperation with investors. Jro Gede Karang T Suarsana, for example, is one investors who is focussing on the development of rural tourism in his own village, Tembuku, in Bangli regency.

Tembuku offers trekking through rice paddies, sweet potato and corn fields. In a number of areas tourists can see goats and cows grazing freely and in other locations they see irrigation facilities with clean water.

Upon entering the village, visitors may wish to meet the locals, learn traditional dance, music or how to make utensils for religious offerings.

Ecotourism in 'Lord Jim' country

The Jakarta Post

Duncan Graham, Contributor, Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan

There's a lot of curiosity and much activity among the mud and mangroves at a Kahayan River inlet in Palangkaraya, the capital of Central Kalimantan.

Six carpenters are building cabins atop a stripped-down, 20-meter former cargo boat bought by two foreigners with a dream. They want to introduce serious ecotourism to the huge but almost empty province -- and by doing so save the forests and the Dayak who depend on them.

The inlet, with two primitive hand-cranked steel cable winches, is a local bush version of a dry dock though heavy rains have flooded the site.

That hasn't deterred the workers who are racing to get the craft looking presentable for the May 23 celebrations of Central Kalimantan's 50th anniversary (see sidebar).

When the cheering has faded and the bunting been pulled down the engine will be installed, heaved in by muscle power, for this open-air boatyard has few facilities. Then the fittings will be finessed to ensure they're of a standard to meet the needs of international clients.

The Dayak Hope will be a floating boutique hotel with five double cabins. It will be capable of sailing into the upper reaches of the province (known locally as Kalteng), giving ecotourists the chance to see distant Dayak villages, wild (not rehabilitated) orangutans scrambling through the treetops and tropical flora and fauna.

For businesswomen Lorna Dowson-Collins and Gaye Thavisin this is a major undertaking. They plan to put the Indonesian part of Borneo on the world map of discerning tourists looking for experiences they can't get in Amsterdam or Adelaide.

The couple have already sunk more than US$60,000 (Rp 550 million) of their own money into the plan, which includes development of a river port in Palangkaraya, more floating hotels and extensive marketing overseas.

"Gaye and I have gone beyond just ooh-ing and aah-ing and thinking how great it would be to open up the Kalimantan environment to others," Lorna said.

"We're now up to our necks in a venture that's driven by our vision to protect Kalteng's unique forests and create new sources of income for the local jungle-dwelling communities."

Up to their necks? An outside observer might think this a defective metaphor. Add the crocodiles of business envy, the leaches of bureaucratic interference, the everyday hazards of remote-area life made doubly difficult in the tropics, and the fickleness of the tourist industry -- and you can see that on the Richter risk scale this show is quaking.

Lose one visitor into the swirling brown crocodilian waters or have a hard encounter with a hornbill and the word will move at warp-speed through the Internet.

Fun in frontierland? Sure -- but only if it comes with air-conditioning and cell phone access.

Boat-based tourism

This is "Lord Jim" country, the land made famous in Joseph Conrad's classic. In the story, a disgraced young seaman shrinks from society to live with the Dayak. He helps better their lives but is killed after making a second error of judgment. (Read the book if you want to know the first.)

Fortunately, neither Lorna nor Gaye are dewy-eyed business maidens. Both have sweated long enough in Indonesia to know that foreigners giving birth to a new idea won't have an easy labor, whatever soothing sounds are made by politicians who say overseas money's welcome, but won't ease the traumas of investment.

Lorna grew up in Jakarta where her father was a doctor at the British Embassy until he was kicked out of the country. Before that happened the family went sailing most weekends through the Thousand Islands just offshore from the capital -- an experience that helped develop Lorna's love of adventure.

Dad was expelled allegedly for treating Indonesians and referring patients to Singapore surgeons rather than the locals. Whatever the reason it gave young Lorna insights into the way things are sometimes done in the Republic.

She went on to study anthropology and work in the UK on international development programs, but was soon back in the archipelago.

In Indonesia she's been a consultant with the Australian aid agency AusAID in Aceh, and with a non-government organization (NGO) in Kalimantan on training projects and developing business enterprises.

Gaye is an Australian who formerly managed the Kalimantan Meeting Center (KMC), a three-star hotel and restaurant at Rungun Sari, about 36 kilometers northwest of Palangkaraya. She now runs a foreign investment company, PT Kalimantan Tourism Development.

Both are members of the Subud community, a spiritual movement started in Java early last century. They live at Rungun Sari where a magnificent meeting hall has been built and is available to all faiths.

"My river journeys whilst working for the NGO took me to the heart of the local people's lives and their rapidly depleting forests," Lorna said.

"Rivers are still the main transport system linking remote villages, a fascinating but uncomfortable affair. This led me to think: What could be better than a boat hotel with comfortable cabins and a restaurant viewing deck to enjoy the passing, peaceful days of village and jungle life?"

Indeed. Great idea but nothing stands in isolation. The current investment buzzword is "infrastructure" meaning roads, ports, airports, hotels and other public facilities have to be fixed first.

Sustainability

There aren't too many roads in Kalteng -- the biggest province in Borneo at 154,000 square kilometers. However, by Indonesian standards the main links are in reasonable condition.

Borneo isn't jam-packed Java: There are only 10 million in the whole Indonesian section of the island, with maybe less than 250,000 in Palangkaraya.

The locust swarms of Hondas and Yamahas have yet to plague the highways and the air is breathable outside the smoke season when farmers set fire to the forests in defiance of edicts from Jakarta.

There's no international airport so connections -- frequently late -- have to be made through Jakarta or Surabaya. Foreigners remain a rarity -- only 2,000 visited last year -- and not all Palangkaraya hotels are either comfortable or welcoming to outsiders.

The plan is to run Dayak Hope from the river close to the KMC hotel while port facilities in Palangkaraya are upgraded. Then, if all goes well, boats two and three will be built. These will probably be custom-built rather than converted.

The original budget of Rp 280 million for the boat alone has already doubled. Other investors have come to the rescue so the project is still afloat and heading for commercial operation in September -- with a plan to break even by the second year.

Mike Johnson, a marine environmental anthropologist from East Java, has been hired to advise on the work, though the design came from a French marine architect.

Johnson reckons the cost of building a floating hotel from the keel up will be little more than buying and reshaping an old boat -- and a lot easier.

The proposed tariff is Rp 4.3 million per person for a three-day, all-found river trip. The partners reckon this will attract a market between backpackers who'll rough it anywhere, and the top-end tourists who want five star toilets.

Lorna put together a business plan entered it in an international competition and won a useful Rp 74 million for her proposal. Through this she met Dutch travel agents interested in supplying management skills, clients and maybe investment.

"Our first planned tours will be along the Katingan River into the newly established Sebangau National Park, one of the last surviving peat swamp forests in Kalimantan and home to the largest known remaining orangutan populations in the world," she said.

"Unfortunately, illegal logging and forest fires continue to threaten the survival of the park.

"Our overall aim is to promote ecotourism in Kalteng as a viable way of protecting the forest and promoting the welfare of local communities through creating an effective strategy for economic growth.

"We'll provide 25 per cent of our boat tour profits to finance village ecotourism and conservation programs using microfinance loans to establish home-stays and train guides.

"The communities depend on the natural resources for their livelihoods. When use is sustainable the balance in the ecosystem is maintained. But where income is low the local people are forced to exploit.

"Poverty is a large threat to biodiversity. To conserve nature it's important to deal with poverty alleviation.

"We believe that our boat will be the vehicle to develop a social enterprise that can make a real difference."