Indo Mag: A Sailing Trip Around the Indonesian Archipelago
This past May, a dream of mine came true when I traveled to Indonesia for the first time. Through a very unique travel agency called Momentum (who specialize in adventures) we found an expat named Patti, who has built a beautiful boat that sails around the archipelago. Never did I imagine that we would run our hands through the dark ocean at night and watch it light up with phosphorous, see a Komodo dragon in the wild, swim over a massive sea turtle, or be taught to make native dishes in situ. Special thanks to Momentum for treating us and hosting this trip we were incredibly lucky to take, and will never, ever forget.
Love, gp
Indonesian Archipelago
We sailed a little corner of the Indonesian archipelago—comprised of more than 17,000 islands—over the course of four days.
The Boat
Our amazing boat, the Silolona, was designed after traditional Indonesian trade boats that sailed along the historical Spice Routes.
Inside one of the boat’s bedrooms.
Views from the boat.
Before we set sail off the coast of Labuana, Nasir, one of the crew members who also built the boat, performed an Indonesian ritual for safe passage. Nasir turned out to be a total rockstar—singing, dancing, and tandem water skiing with me.
What we did…
Moses loathed the tube.
You can Magiver a toy out of anything in Indonesia.
BBQ on the island of Banta
When we would arrive at a new beach, we would spend 20 minutes picking up the debris that had washed up on shore. Among the refuse were small brown glass bottles, which seemed to be everywhere. We saved those and the crew showed us how to turn them into homemade lanterns by filling them with kerosene and making a homemade wick. We lit the beach by perching them on the rocks (see all the little specks of light above). At the end of the night we lit giant rice paper lanterns and sent them off with a prayer. (Moses is now a pyro thanks to this particular evening.)
We built a fire and watched in awe as the chef cooked a gorgeous traditional Indonesian barbeque of fish, chicken, and vegetables with beautiful sauces and salads to accompany.
Rocking Nasir’s world with his first ever s’more.
Food
The food on the boat was beyond. Everything was super fresh, with the fish and produce usually picked up from an island the same day or sold to the boat directly from sellers on the water.
The produce pantry.
You better like your sous chef in a kitchen this small.
Croissants baked fresh every morning.
Chicken satay, tempe, egg, tofu, rice steamed in palm leaf and steamed veggies covered in satay sauce.
Chef Yudha was kind enough to write a few of the recipes out. Hand illustrations included. See typed recipes below.
The Sights
Komodo National Park
We disembarked to go dragon spotting and were a little trepidatious. These guys are carnivorous and can run up to 20kmh.
This did nothing to assuage our fears. Apparently the dragons eat everything but the skulls.
We spot our first two walking. They don’t look so bad.
View from the top.
Pink Beach
We spend an afternoon on Pantai Merah (Pink Beach), which gets its color from the beautiful coral that surrounds the islands.
Sea Commerce
Around the island of Loh Buaya where many fishing villages are, fishermen would see our ship coming and row up with crafts they had made, or their catch from that day. A man sells smoked fish in the picture above.
Nasir bought some white bait from these kids for dinner that night. He paid for the fish with cans of soda.
Terima kasih for the best holiday ever.
Special thanks to Momentum Adventure who treated us and hosted us as their guests throughout this incredible journey.
