Sumatra or Flores

Hi fellow travellers,

I will be travelling to Indonesia in May - it will be my 5th visit - I am torn between going to Flores/Rinca/Komodo or Sumatra - I have not been to either - I will be there for 10 days this visit but I want to spend a few days in Jakarta (truly love the city) and then would fly internally to the other destination. I was wondering whether Medan to Bandah Aceh travelling overland and visiting Danau Toba and Samosir would be possible in say 5n/6d (I know Pamela has posted quite a bit about this thank you very much) %26amp; is not going to be too far distance wise or alternatively going to Flores and organising a tour from there to Komodo/Rinca again 5n/6days ? Any recommendations would be much appreciated.

I also have a small question regarding Jakarta - when I was there last I wanted to go and see what Mangga Dua was all about - the taxi driver misunderstood me and took me to a suburban area called Mangdu?? - it looked nice and upscale - can anybody tell whether it even exists or if this was a scam by the taxi driver to get a lot of money out of me?

Thank you for all your help

Regards

Tanya

Sumatra or Flores

There are quite a few similar sounding places in Jakarta. It happened to me once. I wanted to go to Senayan and the driver said ';o, yaa!'; and took me to a place called Senen, instead!

There are a few rogue taxi companies in Jakarta and sometimes, drivers pretend to have misunderstood and take the passengers for a long ride. If you use taxi in Jakarta, it is always advisable to use a reputed taxi such as - Bluebird group, Gamya, Express Taxi. Never travel by Kosti Jaya taxis, they have a notorious reputation of demanding extra fare and cheating passengers.

Sumatra or Flores

Hi Tanya,

I would do Sumatra either

North Sumatra - Bukit Lawang,Tangkahan 7 Lake Toba OR

West Sumatra- Padang, Bukittinggi,Lake Maninjau and Harau Canyon.

OR

If the flights have resumed (they resumed about May 9th last year when new contract was signed)you could fly down to Kutacane, head up to Ketambe- 1 hr away, do a one day trek in the jungle with Pak Mus or whoever, head back to Kutacane and fly to Banda Aceh and spend a day or two on Pulau Weh.

Here is the Ketambe website

www.ketambe.com/ketambe_how-to-reach.html

The bus trip from Medan to Banda Aceh is not that exciting from what I have heard.

I say Sumatra/Aceh because the time frame may be difficlut for Flores- with flights etc.

If you wish to do the boat trip from Lombok you will have to fly to Lombok and then get the harbour in the east to get the boat to Flores which I believe takes about 3 days, then another boat to see Rinca and then you need to get somewhere else to fly back.

I know a little about this because I am trying to help another couple with information about Flores- great for me to do this because I will be going there next year.

Suggest you have a look at these blogs on Flores- they give you some perspective timewise.

travelblog.org/Asia/…blogs-page-1.html

I photocopied a map of Flores today for these other travellers and if you would like a copy email me at pamela_fuge@yahoo.com.au

Hope I have been able to help you just a little.

Pamela

Hi Pamela,

Thank you so much for the excellent information - I think I will move the Flores visit to a later date. I see the flight to Kutacane was scrapped from the 19th Jan 09 - so might make the journey overland.

Regards

Tanya

Hi Tanya,

Just to correct you the Flights to Kutacane HAVE NOT been scrapped.

The contract signed by the airlines has finished and a new one with the same airline or a different one should be signed in May this year.

I am not sure why the contracts are so short, maybe something to do with the weather at that time of the year.

The airlines use small planes so during heavy monsoonal weather it might not be safe to fly.

Pamela