Bat Island Indonesia Komodo February 20, 2025 My first trip to the islands around Komodo was in 2009, not long after I got my Advanced Open Water certificate as a diver. To be honest, scuba diving this area is not really a good idea for an inexperienced diver, but there were only five divers on the boat and the dive master was forgiving of my inexperience. The boat was the Moana and I'd highly recommend it for a small, budget-friendly live-aboard dive trip. “Bat Island” was where we moored the last night on board, on our way back from the islands to Labuan Bajo on Flores Island, the most common gateway used to access Komodo National Park. The island is just a small rocky cone with a large mangrove forest in its tidal wake. The forest is home to thousands of fruit bats who sleep in the trees during the day and then fly out at sunset to feast on insects on the larger islands. You can barely seem them in the picture. The black dots in the sky to the right of the island are the bats. It's quite a sight and a spectacular end to a great diving adventure. Bats leaving Bat Island for their nightly feed.
Pulau Weh Among the places I've been scuba diving, Pulau Weh is perhaps one of the most off-the-radar destinations. The island sits just off the coast of Banda Aceh on the northern tip of Sumatra, the very center of the 2004 tsunami that devastated a large area of Southeast Asia.
Torajan Rice Silo Tana Toraja, in the center of Sulawesi island, has one of the most distinctive cultures you'll run across in all of Southeast Asia. The Torajans are fiercely proud of their heritage and continue most of the traditions they bought with them thousands of years ago.
Candi Sewu Candi Sewu is a charming Buddhist temple that's well over 1,200 years old. It's very close to the more well-known Prambanan complex in central Java, but seldom visited. One of the chubby stone guardians of Candi Sewu
Hotel Majapahit The Hotel Majapahit in Surabaya is one of the less known classic hotels around Southeast Asia. It was built in 1910 by the the Sarkies Brothers, who built Raffles in Singapore and the Eastern & Oriental in Penang. The lobby building which has this window was built in 1930, which is why it reflects a heave art deco design.
Prambanan The Prambanan Complex just outside Yogykarta in central Java is less well-known than the nearby Borobodur Temple, but no less impressive. The towers of the central grouping of the Prambanan Complex