If you ask me for one of my favourite trips in Indonesia, come on board the handmade wooden boats of Perama Tours and cruise for three days and nights to Flores. That’s Indonesia! Watch the carpenters shape the boats in their dock, feel the wood under your feet, watch the dolphins follow the boat near Komodo Island.
How is it that this tour opportunity is quite unknown & a secret trip? Perama has chosen a promotion that I would never have chosen: they call the package “Komodo Hunting Trip”. Well, a visit to Komodo Island is included, but the beauty of the trip goes far beyond that!
Day 1
Coming from Bali, you need to take the ferry to Sengigi in Lombok, where the Perama tour to Flores begins. On the first day, the Perama bus travels across Lombok to their landing sites, with stops along the way to give an insight into the local culture & traditions of Lombok’s ethnic groups. But the breathtaking part for me was arriving at Perama’s traditional dock where they make their Bugis Phinisi style boats and see the barefoot carpenters at work.
The boats in the dock look like strange pieces of furniture. Forget all the plans – it’s all in the heads & hands of the skilled carpenters.
After sunset, the crew lights a bonfire and the boat sets sail for Sumbawa, the island east of Lombok. You sleep on the boat – it feels like a seventies adventure. Thank God I escaped the comfort zone. And nowadays – it’s a rare experience! The captain is an Indonesian who has known the sea for decades – I have never felt so safe on a boat.
2nd day
Arriving at the Sumbawa coast in the morning, the boat stops at the small island of Satonda for some snorkelling & island visiting. The boat then heads east with a stop at Kilo Beach, Sumbawa.
Day 3
After another night, the ship reaches the archipelago around the Komodo Islands. The beauty of the archipelago in the Marine National Park around Komodo and Labuan Bajo is breathtaking. Dolphins followed our boat.
After stops at Komodo and Pink Beach, the boat continues east.
Cruising towards Flores, the sea is dotted with small islands that the ship passes like in a wonderland, the archipelago gets more and more beautiful.
The harbour town on the west coast of Flores is called Labuan Bajo. Final stop of our boat tour. In the village yo find plenty of accommodations and one-day boat tours around the marine park with snorkeling and island stops.
Touring the inner island of Flores: A motorbike is the best way to explore Flores. But beware of the winding mountain roads of Flores and the cold mountain nights.
More about soon in the next chapter, Travelling Flores.
Perama Tour link here
+++ Update 2023 +++ Perama Tours had a hard time in the Covid epidemy and discontinued many of its famous tour programs including this tour to Flores, as well as its famous ship dock. Today, Perama offices are mainly brokers for general tour offers by third parties and some old short-term programs of their own. Boat tours to Flores still exist by third parties, but a bit more pricy.
