Kepulauan Togean Nasional Park, Sulawesi, Indonesia

5Dinovi 5:00 PM Aug 28, 2017

A Piece of Heaven for Natural Tourism
Togian is fantastic place for serenity. Clear water, healthy corals, so many kind of fish, good scenery, meet many kind persons, many activities can do. This place far from luxury, everything simple, humble in extra ordinary ambience. If you looking for live music, banana boat, yacht.. forget this place. Afternoon from Gorontalo with ferry Tuna Tomini for 12 hours shipping. There is bussines class, but we choosed economic class then book crew bedroom 500K rupiah for 4 persons with AC. So we can slept well until arrived next early morning at Wakai. You can rent matrass for 10K and sleep in the middle of ferry. Majority using this. Or you can sleep at deck, with sky as your roof. From Wakai to cottage, we used katinting (small wooden boat). This boat will use for our hoping island for next 3 days too. Owner name is Rully, small, calm but very helpful and always on time. Thanks Pak Rully. For under water activity, we only had a chance to California Reefs, Taipi and reef #4 or #5 (I forgot). And stingless jellyfish lake. Far from enough, because so many beautiful places there. But it’s very amazing place and underwater view. For land activities, we went to : - Bajo Village at Pulau Papan. Visit their village, climb up small hill for see scenery 1.8 km wood bridge connecting 2 islands. Played with Bajo children. They were funny, shrinking and big smile always. Please bring same candy here to eat together with them. - Pulau Salakan, about 30 m by boat from Kadidiri. Go uphill to see cluster islands, like small famous Raja Ampat. Before back, buy cheap fresh fishes and lobsters for cooked at hotel. - Tobil Island. Passing small village, continued with relax trekking in the forest to find a Aren sugar traditional processing. They made it in the middle of forest, with noisy forest animal for backsound. You can try to use traditional canoe, a very small wood boat. And try traditional food from sago (I forget the name, like papeda at Papua) Unfortunately because bad weather, we can’t go to Una una. Feel sadden My cottage has own jetty, in the night we sat there in the dark and saw milky way above, and fluorescent plankton under. Like firefly on the water. Morning we could see cuttlefish hunting. Fish…? Hundreds everytime, anykind.. My trip arranged by guide from Gorontalo name Ferry. He was good enough, planed our trip from ferry ship, booked bedroom at ferry ship, cottage, boat for hoping island and always companied us in every journey. He helped suggest best destination which match with our time, budget and our style. Don’t expect a 5star service, but we’re really helped. Little sad for me that few Indonesians knows about Togian. Even in my cottage, at that time local guests were my family only.

5Julian R 5:00 PM Sep 29, 2018

How to survive to the logistics problems of getting there
The Togean islands are truly a hidden gem in Indonesia, meanwhile all the turist crowds goes to Bali only a few bold travellers go these islands. Just to make a bit easier going there I will try to give all the information I can from my experience visiting this area. 1. Visit in group: I recommend visiting the Togean island in group (4 to 6 people) because the transportation costs are very high in case you miss any public transport or even there is not any, because often the public boats do no work for long periods. Just to get an idea a private boat to Malenge (60km from Ampana) is about 4,5 million rupees. This amount of money broke anybody budget, so to share costs bring friends. 2. The quickest way of getting there: especially for foreign travellers with a few days to spare is going by plane from Jakarta to Palu and then Ampana. Just arrive at late afternoon at Jakarta Airport, take the early morning flight to Palu, and then take the morning flight to Ampana. If you are lucky will be able to catch the 13:00 public speedboat to Wakai and from here (previously arranged with your accomodation) you will be picked up to your final destination. For the return you must spend one night in Ampana and then the next day take the morning flight to Palu and then to Jakarta and then in the late afternoon to your country. The most comfortable place to spent the night in Ampana is the Lawaka Hotel, the staff can speak english, there is a nice restaurant and is very near the airport. In case you get stranded in Ampana I suggest going to Marina Cottages (ask for Mr. Edy), Triple R Cafe' (ask for Mr. Dadang) or Togean Journey office (ask for Mr. Owan) to get help to find you transportation and accommodation before going to the Togean Islands on your own. 3. The accommodation: do not expect something fancy like in Bali, there is shortage of water so everybody is expected to save water, there is no international food so expect to eat plenty of rice, vegetables and fish. Almost all the cookers are local Indonesian people so you will eat like a real Indonesian citizen. The electricity is not available all day in every accommodation, so do not expect to charge your electronics during the day hours. The accomodations are full board, water and tea included except soft drinks and beers. Just lower a little bit your expectations, the pictures of the accommodations look stunning but the rooms are mainly in the basic side but comfy enough. Those people who like mingling with locals, nature enthusiasts and crowd haters will love this place. 4. Always book in advance: check the website accommodations, send them an email and wait several days because there is poor telephone signal trough the Togean islands. Possibly they will ask you to contact their representatives in Ampana, mainly the persons cited in the point 2. They will ask you to place a deposit in the accommodation account bank in Indonesia to book your room (via TransferWise the operation can be made very smooth). I suggest to pay completely the accommodation fare because there is no way to pay by credit cards in the resorts nor ATMs nearby (only in Ampana). Besides the amount of Indonesian rupees notes you need to pay the accommodation is so bulky that you literally will need a briefcase to carry all the money (keep in mind the Indonesian ATMs withdrawal limit per transaction is 2,5 million rupiah for 100,000 notes with a total maximum of 6 million rupiah withdrawal a day). So my advice pay in full the accommodation and carry money only for excursions and beers. Remember the places with ATMs are Jakarta Airport, Palu Airport and Ampana City, if you miss these places to get money you will be in trouble. 5. Choose the accommodation keeping in mind what are you going to do during your days in the Togean Islands. If you look for diving days choose a diving resort; if you want an island to walk Malenge and Una Una island have tracks to walk; if you are looking for small secluded beaches I recommend the resorts from Malenge and Waleakodi Islands. If you are looking for pristine snorkelling spots only Una Una can offer something out of the ordinary, everywhere else is just fine because of the coral bombing. 6. The right time to go is during the months of April-October when the sea is calm and the visibility under water is crystal clear. The busiest months are from July to August, if your intention is travelling during these months you must book with several months in advance because the resorts have few bungalows. If you are able to overcome all this hurdles you will be in a traveller dream: forested secluded beaches, lovely sunsets, environmentally friendly low-key resorts, fellow travellers from all over the world, friendly local people and wildlife everywhere. If you ever dream of going to an exotic Pacific island or going to the Maldives islands you can do the same and on the cheap in the Togean Islands.