Orangutans & Dragons

After breakfast, a driver picks you up from your hotel. You board a local motorized canoe to travel into the backwaters and observe orangutans on Pulau Kaja, a forested island. The Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOS) manages the island, where the orangutans live free from human interference.

You explore the extensive blackwater lake of Bagantung by motorized canoe to observe birds, local wildlife, and the fishing activities of the villagers in this peatland swamp ecosystem. You cruise through the large, forested Selat and Badak Islands, where you can look for orangutans, proboscis monkeys, and endemic birds. You also visit Dayak villages to see traditional dances, experience their hospitality, and learn about their daily way of life.

Walk through and explore a local rubber plantation and learn about the processes of growing and extracting the latex from the source by tapping the trees. Learn about the many medicinal herbs and plants that can be found growing in the forest. Visit more local Dayak villages and learn about some of their traditional livelihoods, such as rattan weaving, and enjoy local entertainment in the form of a kacapi (two-stringed instrument) performance, and local self-defense or shadowboxing. Explore the tiny fishing village of Tundai, perched atop raised walkways on the edge of an expansive blackwater lake. Here, you float through on canoes, admiring the stunning reflections and learning more about the unique fishing practices.

On the morning of Day 4, you will be transferred to the airport for your flights to Bali.
* If doing a 14-day journey, you will spend two nights in Bali with the extra day at your leisure.

You will be met at the airport in Komodo by your tour leaders and be taken straight to your boat. After settling into your new home for the week, you will head off for your first of many snorkelling expeditions. Go ashore on Rinca Island in search of the fearsome Komodo dragons, found only in the Komodo National Park. This is the world’s largest lizard, growing up to a length of three meters and weighing up to approximately 70 kilograms. Another highlight will be when you anchor off a small island to witness the nightly departure of thousands of flying foxes that fly at dusk to feed on the mainland. Enjoy a fantastic drift snorkel as you visit Gili Lawa Darat, an island in the north of the park, from where you can trek to the viewpoint and watch a majestic sunset across the park.

Go ashore on Sangeang island, an active volcano, where you will visit the local village and enjoy snorkelling on the colorful coral reef just offshore. Experience one of the famous SeaTrek beach BBQs under a night sky filled with millions of stars as you feast on the amazing local delicacies prepared by the chef, and all accompanied by live musical entertainment from the talented crew. You will go ashore on the forested Moyo Island where you will travel to the interior of the island to visit a scenic waterfall in the rainforest, where you can bathe in the refreshing cool water.

Prepare for an exhilarating opportunity to swim with whale sharks, the majestic gentle giants of the sea. These massive but harmless animals have long
congregated here in the bay, but now, thanks to travellers like you, a mutually beneficial alliance was formed with the local fishermen who have their
traditional small floating fishing platforms in the bay that attract the sharks. Visit a local village and witness their age-old practice of buffalo racing, where the local men ride their prized beasts through a mud-filled rice paddy, an exhilarating sight to behold. Visit a strange and mystical volcanic island with a sunken crater lake in its center and visit a small coastal community to see pinisi ships being built on the beach.

Enjoy a unique snorkelling experience where volcanic gas escapes in the form of bubbles from the sea floor among the corals, with the metallic black volcanic sand below being home to an abundance of very interesting invertebrates. Entering the Komodo National Park again you will go drift snorkelling in one of the best and healthiest coral reefs in the park. You will have a hands-on experience at a coral conservation project on Hatamin Island, where you will learn about the work and get a chance to create your own coral rack and place it in the sea. Snorkel at a favorite hangout of sea turtles, where you will have a chance to swim with these gentle reptiles as they cruise along the shallow water of the reef. Swim with manta rays as they feed on the current and circle the so-called cleaning stations, where small fish remove parasites from their skin.

After breakfast on your last day, you will take a scenic drive towards Melo Village, where you will witness the traditional Caci dance performance. Local strongmen perform a ritual whip-fight between two rivals in which the players, each armed with a rattan shield and a whip, will try to hit each other while dancing to the rhythm of traditional acoustic instruments. You say farewell to the crew and your fellow shipmates as you disembark and continue onto your next destination.