The last few weekends have been heavily focused on getting some more flights and places booked for Indonesia. Indonesia is the first country we're going to and it is not easy being "flexible" and have a "let's see where we'll end up tomorrow" attitude because it's all islands. You can't just catch a car or bus to quickly hop over to another place; you either need to fly or take a boat. I've read plenty of posts and comments on taking ferries and boats for smaller distances (Lombok to Bali) and there are quite a few horror stories out there. For most parts, we're going to take the plane. It's not very expensive, so it is ok. But taking planes does mean that we have to book now, cause most planes for travel within the country easily book out (so I've read). And we're less than 3 months away from take-off (eek!).
I didn't think that figuring out places for Indonesia would be quite this hard. I suppose it isn't, if you only look at the Unesco World Heritage site (ha!). Once you start looking elsewhere and get to reading various blogs and sites, then you'd almost want to ditch every other country on the list and just tour around the islands of Indonesia for 6 months. They have such diversity from one little island to the next big one. It is crazy to decide and give yourself a time limit. So far we're at about a month.
Also, we have to take into account travel time in between places. You'd think that because it's all scattered, it'd be easy to get from one place to another. Don't get me wrong, I suppose it is fairly easy and there are a lot of airports and options. Though one trip we booked to get all the way to Papua takes 15ish hours excluding the ferry to get to another tiny island, when a direct flight would be 3ish hours. I am not complaining, it is what we chose and are aware of, but it is making me rethink other locations further down the line when, on paper, we're already at the end of September and haven't even left the country yet. Oh the irony when I said "scattered" and "easy to get to places", ha!
On to the less waffly bit
In case you're curious, the sites we've used so far to book flights within Indonesia are Skyscanner and Nusatrip. I also saw that Tiket is an option (as recommended by Lonely Planet), which we might try for the next flights.
Where we want to go
Jakarta
I think this might only end up being a day or two, as we have a lot of other stuff we'd like to see. At this stage though, I am even unsure, if passing through there is even worth it compared to other places.
Does anyone have any recommendations on what to see/do in Jakarta?
Temples
Hot on the list are the Prambanan and Borobudur temples. Just google these names and then stay in awe for days. They're also both on the UNESCO World Heritage list, so we figured, if we're going to see temples in Indonesia, then these two should be it. They are also relatively close to one another on Java island.
Lombok
Most people told us that Lombok would be better than Bali for a beach time out, as it is less touristy and less crowded. There is apparently a pink beach and Mount Rinjani, an active volcano you can hike around and up. We might also make a day trip to the Gili Islands which are said to be rather beautiful (but also touristy, so we'll see).
Komodo National Park
How cool would it be to actually see a real dragon? I mean, it won't take me on its back up in to the clouds à la Daenerys, but I'll take what I can. The time we're going though is when they usually have their little dragons, so hopefully we'll still see at least one. From a distance I shall think, as I read that they eat whole deer and young ones can climb trees.
Papua
We're going to West Papua, more specifically to Raja Ampat, to spend a few days at the beach and snorkel our way through corals and clown fish. Getting there is a bit tricky, so we chose to take the ferry to Waigeo and back. Fingers crossed it's all going to be fine. By the way, Raja Ampat is an archipelago with one of the most biodiverse marine life.
Also on Papua, we're going to the Baliem Valley where the Dani people live. It's quite tricky finding accommodation there, so should anyone have any tips...much appreciated.