The East Indies

All-enveloping stepping stones towards the Timor Sea with dragons, isolated coves, pristine beaches and a lot more

Nusa Tenggara (the South East Islands in Bahasa) are a string of islands strung out from Bali eastwards towards the Australian coast, some islands are Roman Catholic, some Moslem and some a mixture of both, but whatever their religious proclivities they are diverse places with each island giving you incredible architecture, music and food

Round houses on Sumbawa, towering roofs on Sumba, and animism on Flores, what more excitement do you want! Culturally you could construct an Eurovision Song contest between them all and fail to come up with a more deserving cultural winner!

For those who appreciate wildlife of the mammalian variety the island of Pulau Moyo off Sumbawa contains some of the best in Indonesia and is well worth a 2 or 3 day stop if you’re in the area and appreciate that kind of thing

Timor looms at the far east End of the island chain, it’s a mountainous troubled island that’s emerging from years of difficulty and if you are of the more adventurous ilk an extension of this itinerary can be made to Timor starting off at Kupang and finishing at Dili in independent East Timor where if you admire Lusophone culture you will be in for a very pleasant treat