Rafa is taking you to Indonesia and shows his 5 favorite places. Dream now, travel later.
In this time of forced stay at home, many of us are looking forward to the next trip. On the other hand, it’s a good moment to enjoy the memories of our past travels and adventures.
I looked with pleasure at the photos from my recent photography tour to Indonesia and revived those moments with excitement. We visited small and big islands on this beautiful and less known part of the world (at least for us Europeans 😊). LINGS was with us and made my trip carefree! One broken tripod and a crashed drone did not stop us and the LINGS crew was helpful and supportive as always!
The trip started in Bali, the most famous island in Indonesia. The island is full of beautiful temples, smiling local people and rice fields! And yeah, I almost forgot, a lot of tourists! But we did not go there for nightlife, yoga, or surfing, but to explore the natural beauty of Indonesia, so Bali was just the beginning of the trip.
I will bring you along with me on this trip and share with you my 5 favorite places in Indonesia!
1 “Air Terjun Fiji” waterfall
The island of Bali is full of waterfalls and rice fields. They are scattered around the island and are a big attraction for tourists. My favorite waterfall is “Air Terjun Fiji”, located in the North part of the island. It’s located in the middle of the jungle and on top of it, rice terraces create an amazing landscape.
2 Ulun Danu Beratan
Balinese people are famous for their craftmanship. All around the island beautiful Indus temples showcase this skill passed on by centuries. These temple are also fantastic photography subjects. Look at the Ulun Danu Beratan temple! What a beautiful and peaceful place.
3 Nusa Penida
Few hours by boat from Bali, Nusa Penida has more than a few amazing places in its sleeves! Look at the majestic beauty of these rock formations in the Kelingking and Diamond Beach.
Just a few years ago the island was being abandoned by many locals as there was no tourism, until some Instagram influencers discovered the amazing beauty of this place and tourism boomed here as well. Still, tourists are not so many yet. The roads are quite bad (if you go rent a car with a driver, don’t get a scooter, as so many tourists crash on their rented bikes) and distances are much bigger than what looks like on the map. But the place is amazing!
4 Komodo archipelago
Komodo National Park, is home to the Komodo Monitor, the biggest lizard in the world! It’s very big… and its favorite meal are water buffaloes and deers! So better to visit the park with a ranger!
But that’s not all… The small islands of the Komodo archipelago are amazing, and my absolute favourite is Padar Island (in the photo below at night under the full moon)! Look at this place, what amazing shape and pink beaches!
The sand color is caused by the presence of large quantity of red coral in the white sand. Padar Island was inhabited by the Komodo dragon until few decades ago, now they can be found only on Rinca and Komodo islands, the two big islands of the archipelago.
We visited the archipelago area on a private boat. An amazing experience, but after three days on it everyone was happy to go back on land!
5 Sumba Island
Sumba is a quite unknown island South-East from Bali. This island is not of volcanic origin, like most in Indonesia, so the rock formations are very different. Also, tourism did not pick up so much yet. Only a few hotels can be found, and reaching different spots requires a lot of driving on quite bad roads. The alarm was often set very early in the night to be able to reach different spots in time for sunrise. Look at these places! Totally worth it…
Indonesia is an amazing place for landscape photography. So much is still unexplored and often you might get that feeling to be the first one to photograph these places.
The coronavirus outbreak changed the plans of everyone, also my photo tours, including the next Indonesia Photo Tour have been affected. For more info checkout my photography school website www.swissschoolofphotography.chor drop me an email directly to raffa@swissschoolofphotography.ch
Stay all safe!
Raffa
Landscape and Drone Photographer
@mixyourshot
@swissschoolofphotography
Lieblingsgegenstand bei LINGS: Sony Alpha 7R III