East Indies Exploration: Culture, Sea & Spice Islands

You will be picked up by your tour leaders at your Maumere hotel and be taken directly to the boat, where you will meet your fellow passengers and your crew. After settling in, we will head back to shore and take a short drive to the scenic Iwang Gete highlands to visit a small village of Watublapi, where we will be met with singing and dancing by the local people. Famed for their unique textiles, we will be shown first hand their ancient techniques of spinning, dyeing, and weaving their famous fabrics. Here we will have the chance to view (and purchase) some of the local textiles, try their betel nut, and brave their locally produced liquor. Back on the boat for lunch, we will cruise out of the harbour and head off to the east, giving you a chance to become familiar with your new home for the next 12 days, stopping for a snorkel and a swim along the way, before sunset cocktails and dinner as we cruise on into the night. NB* Due to the unpredictability of flight schedules it is necessary to arrive in Maumere the day before departure. Ask us about pre-tour accommodation options.

Meals:  L,D

After breakfast we will explore the (hopefully) belching Komba volcano with our dinghies, and go for a snorkel on the surrounding reefs. Late morning we will head south and cruise towards the mainland and the beautiful Lewaling Bay. Later that afternoon, we will snorkel and watch the sunset over Ile Apé, another active volcano. After dinner, we will make the overnight crossing to Alor.

Meals:  B,L,D

After breakfast we will head to shore and board some local boats to visit with Mawar, a friendly but wild dugong who lives in the seagrass beds of the nearby bay. We will also get to meet by “local hero”, Pak One, who ensures that Mawar is well protected. In the afternoon we will pay a visit to Umapura, a village famed for its weaving and dyeing industry, where we can see how the local women create their intricate ikat cloth. There is every chance to purchase some as a memento. Later we will go for a great snorkel on a nearby reef, before cruising to our next destination to spend the night at anchor.

Meals:  B,L,D

Today we visit the very traditional village of Takpala up in the hills, of Alor where we will be welcomed by the chief and be witness to a ceremonial war dance in honour of our visit. We will see their traditional ‘Moko’ war drums and intricately designed ‘Ikat’ fabrics, which have been woven and dyed using age old techniques, and used in local bridal dowries for centuries. Around midday we will weigh anchor and cruise east as we enjoy lunch on board, stopping in the late afternoon at a picturesque tropical island to snorkel and swim on a coral reef. We will then head east as we continue our journey into the night.

Meals:  B,L,D

We will wake up in a lovely bay on Wetar Island and go ashore to a local fishing village to meet the locals and see their way of life as they dry their catch on the beach. Spend the day swimming and beaching, snorkelling and exploring, and indulge in a bit of local culture by way of ‘sopi’, a strong alcoholic drink made from a local palm tree. Later in the afternoon we will weigh anchor and continue our journey east.

Meals:  B,L,D

This morning we will go ashore on a small island and be welcomed into a remote village where the locals will share with us their way of life as farmers and fishermen After lunch we will continue cruising, stopping off at another tiny island, this one deserted, to swim, kayak, snorkel over the reef and relax on the sand. This evening the crew will set up for a beach BBQ and we will dance and sing our way into the night before heading off again for an overnight cruise to our next destination.

Meals:  B,L,D

Today is another day of cruising and exploring in one of the remotest parts of Indonesia. We will visit a very simple village where the people’s houses are made using the products of the sago palm, the staple crop in this part of the world. The villagers will demonstrate for us how they process the heart of the sago palm into the edible product that sustains them. After lunch we will cruise around the island and stop off to explore the beaches and reefs, where we will snorkel along the way.

Meals:  B,L,D

Today will be a day at sea where we will pass four spectacular volcanic sea mounts, explicit examples of Indonesia’s place along the Ring of Fire.- One of these islands is uninhabited by people, and is home to tens of thousands of sea birds, (brown and red-footed boobies, and frigate birds), who will likely come out to encircle the boat in great numbers on our approach. If the tide allows, we will go ashore and investigate, and surely have a snorkel. In the late afternoon we will proceed north to the fabled Spice Islands.

Meals:  B,L,D

By dawn we should have the Banda Archipelago ‘Spice Islands’ in our sights, original home of the nutmeg and the scene of much bloodshed between the colonial powers of Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries over control of the spice trade. We will go ashore and go ashore and visit Fort Revenge, built by the Dutch, before snorkelling on the local reef. Later we will head across to the main island group, and the main town, and anchor in the beautiful enclosed anchorage under the imposing gaze of a 600-metre-high volcano. If we get there in enough time before nightfall, we will go ashore and explore the town.

Meals:  B,L,D

Today is a day of exploring the history and beauty of the Spice Islands with a visit to the main town of the Spice Islands and its fort overlooking the harbour. We will wander through the streets and markets of this bustling town and meet the local people. After lunch on the boat we will take a local boat over to the biggest of the islands, where we will walk among the vast nutmeg plantations, visit another Dutch fort, talk with the locals and visit one of the last ‘perkineers’, the farmers who still run the larger plantations on the island who will tell us about life on the islands. Later in the afternoon we can snorkel on a local reef and have a chance to see the rare and multi-hued Mandarin fish, who only comes out at dusk to mate. Dinner will be had ashore at a local restaurant that offers traditional and delicious local dishes.

Meals:  B,L,D

This morning we have time for a final stroll around the town or a last snorkel before we say farewell to the Spice islands around lunchtime and head north. We will have lunch on the way, passing another major seabird island, before settling in for a relaxing afternoon on board as we scour the horizon for migrating whales.

Meals:  B,L,D

We will wake up just south of our final destination and our last few hours will be spent enjoying the majesty of the ocean, and we may very well see more whales along the way. As we drop anchor in the harbour, we will say farewell to our crew and tour leaders and be taken to the airport for our onward journeys, ending a magical 12 days of exploration and adventure.

Meals:  B