3 days in Ketambe: where to go, what to do and what to eat

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West of Sumatra Island is vastly known for two reasons- palm plantations and orang-utans. If Sumatra and seeing orangutans in the wild is on your wishlist, then I’d say head to Ketambe. It is often a battle between Bukit Lawang and Ketambe for orangutan spotting; the difference is that the former is more organized and orangutans are often tamed/bred there. Ketambe on the other hand is wilder. Continue reading

Raja Ampat for non-divers

Photograph by Abhinash Jena. Click to enlarge.

After days of research for our upcoming trip to Indonesia, I had almost given up. Raja Ampat looked like a diver’s paradise because I couldn’t see much else than pictures of colorful fishes and corals. Raja Ampat is a life-changing experience in more ways than one. Excellent diving spots and beaches aside, it has many small islands that are inhabited by natives living in small villages. Most of them live without modern-day distractions like cell phones and iPods but they are ever so happy and content. Every year thousands of people from all over the world arrived here to see the diversity under the sea; what were non-divers like me, who had only snorkeled twice in much friendlier waters of Thailand before, to do there? It looked rather expensive too. Continue reading