Perjalanan ke Indonesia!

Most of you already know about my plans for an adventurous jaunt to Indonesia in just under three months. For those who don't, here is the grand unveiling of my Indonesia trip!

On the 27th of November I will fly out of Melbourne with my travel group, headed for Denpasar, Bali. From there, we fly to Ujung Pandang (also known as Makassar), the capital of the island of Sulawesi. An easy way to spot where I'll be is to look for the 'k'-shaped island on SBS world news!

Because Sulawesi has a rather mountainous region in the centre, its four peninsulas are actually completely isolated from one another. The only way to get between them is by boat or plane. So, we catch another plane from Ujung Pandang/Makassar to Kendari, the regional capital of Sulawesi Tenggara (South East Sulawsi).

In Kendari we'll attend a 10-day language course at a university and home-stay with lecturers. Classes will be in the mornings (Indonesians start school earlier than we do!), and buddy/tour-guides will show us around in the afternoons as 'field experience'.

Next we visit a village in Sulawesi Tenggara for a six-day survivor-style experience! Here we get to teach English and cultural studies for two days in each of a primary, junior secondary, and senior secondary school. Aside from our busy teaching schedule, we'll get to tour the village and help our home-stay families with their daily work (hopefully not rice fields for me!).

After our hard work in the village, we sail from Kendari to the tiny island of Hoga, part of the Tukangbesi island group in the reef area of Wakatobi (named after the four most important comprising islands in traditional Indonesian style). Here we stay in a "resort" (very non-Western longhouse), and relax by the beach for three days.

Then, while some of my travel friends go off to tour Bali and Java, I will make the long three-leg journey home to Australia on the 21st of December to see my friends and family who will have sorely missed me!