Here we go again!
After my time in Toraja, it was time to head to the next destination, Banggai Laut, which is a 750 km ride followed by a 9-hour ferry ride to reach.
I went from Rantepao to Palopo, nothing much to do there, but had to stay 2 nights because of the rain, I then kept riding north.
Here’s the link to the full album, a lot of water related photos upcoming.
I spent a night in Poso before riding all the way to Luwuk. From there, I waited for a ferry to take me to Banggai Laut, the main town of the Banggai Islands.
Somewhere along this route.
Waiting for the ferry, which was several hours late.
If you are curious about the ferry comforts, here’s a photo of what it looks like in the sleeping section.
After this long 4 days journey, I finally made it to Banggai Laut! After a bit of a rest, I started to explore the island.
First stop is a just small beach, Pantai Bontolan, near the town.
This post will be a lot of beaches and sea related activities.
Here’s Pantai Bone Baru.
The next day, I explored parts of the island. The first stop was a small cave near a fishing village. Most people in this village live on the water, likely for financial reasons. When you can’t afford to live on land, you live on water.
The cave is called Goa Tokubet. It’s quite small but still cool, with beautifully blue-colored water.
The entrance is a bit eerie, located at the base of a large tree.
The color of the sea water is quite special.
The village, on the water.
And this is their surrounding, this isn’t even a tourist attraction on this island, actually this place doesn’t get many tourists and doesn’t much tourism infrastructure.
One of my favorite beaches on this island, Pantai Kelapa Lima. Amazing wild beach.
After that, the rain came for a few days, so I had to wait to explore the rest of the island.
When the rain finally stopped, I visited Tanjung Gundul Pasir Putih, a rock formation with a hole in it surrounded by beautiful water—if you’re lucky. Unfortunately, when I went, the water was just okay, but it’s still a cool and photogenic spot.
I went to “Pantai Pasir Putih” to try and find a local fisherman to take me to the rock and a nearby lagoon.
One guy agreed to go with me. This is how he gets to his boat. I think he charged 100k for about two hours.
Here’s the first stop, viewed from the drone.
And viewed from the drone.
After walking around for a bit you can go to the lagoon nearby.
You can swim around there too.
This is what I mean by “there’s no tourism infrastructure”. Just using the fishing boat to go around these places.
The little village is very authentic also, but there’s nowhere to sleep around here, you always have to go back to the “center” of Banggai Laut.
Next stop, on the nest day, Pantai Oyama.
This place has some infrastructure for visiting, I think you can even sleep there and on the weekend they have boats for locals to go enjoy that incredible beach.
I went on a weekday (which I’d recommend, if you want to be there, basically, alone)
This is the kind of “boat” you might have to get on to get there, it’s only about 20 minutes but not the best feeling with camera gear on your bag and seeing water come in the boat constantly.
But the destination is WELL worth it.
Unreal beauty.
After about 2 hours of enjoying this place, the weather was turning and it was time to get back to the “main land”.
I went to another part of the island and the rain stayed away. Ended up at Pantai Bakum.
This is from the end of July 2023, I don’t know what they were doing but the beach was split in two and there was a “big” road leading there that seemed under construction..
Still looked pretty damn good from the sky with the drone tho.
You can see the construction on the left of the image here.
The next day was my last on the island, and it was pretty quiet except I went back to Pantai Kelapa Lima for sunset.
On the way there.
The previous photo is here. As of the time of writing this, there’s name on the map for this place.
Sunset at Pantai Kelapa Lima.
The next day I took the ferry from Banggai Laut to Pelabuhan Ferry Boniton, on the bigger island of Banggai.
Made a detour to visit Danau Tendetung,which during dry season looks really nice but I guess it’s not that amazing during “rain” season.
I kept riding to the town of Salakan where you can find accommodation but there’s not much to see in town.
There was also lots of rain, limiting activities.
I rode to Wisata Bone Pompon in a small rain.
The next day I headed up to the most famous attraction in all the Banggai islands, Danau Paisu Pok, the fresh, clear water lake with amazing blue color water.
Random spot on the way there.
The lake… from the sky.
From the GoPro, underwater.
You can even spot a fish from the drone viewpoint.
It’s less than 100km, but it was a long ride, almost 4 hours of riding, the road was not great. I stayed a little bit further from the lake, at that time not many options were available to sleep around the lake, I am sure they will develop this area a lot in the coming years. Anyway I stayed at Azzahra Cottage Poganda, it’s ok, but it was VERY basic.
The beach there is once again beautiful.
The location of the rooms is amazing tho. But there’s nothing available, they didn’t have pillows, barely had sheets, no towels, no food… not ideal. This was in 2023, maybe it’s better whenever you’re reading this. Or just come prepared.
The village across the road from the lake is also quite interesting.
There is more to see on this bigger island of Banggai Island but due to visa constraints and rain I couldn’t see much more, so the next day I crossed back to the main island of Sulawesi, to the city of Luwuk.
Luwuk has a few great waterfalls, this one is probably the most famous and good-looking. Air Terjun Piala.
After 2 nights in Luwuk it was time to backtrack a few hours to Ampana, a town on the shore of gulf of Tomini, the gulf that is the home of the Togean (Togian) islands. A famous divers and snorkelers destination.
On the way there the landscape is not bad.
The end of Ampana town
Sunset on the gulf.
The next day I took my motorcycle from Ampana to Wakai. Wakai is the main town of the Togean Islands.
It is doable to bring a motorcycle from Ampana to Wakai, but it probably won’t be a proper ferry but rather a smaller wooden boat with a makeshift ramp.
After arriving in Wakai I left my bike at the “city office”. The guys were very friendly and didn’t ask me for anything in return. But they’ll love a little money or a pack of cigarettes.
The Togean Islands have a few accommodations, some geared toward divers with equipment available. Many of these accommodations are basic and somewhat pricey for what you get, but that’s the price you pay for being in such an amazing location.
After some looking around, I chose to stay at Bolilanga Island Resort, located on a private island.
From Wakai, I took a local boat that was slow and made many stops.
Get off at Katupat Village, and from there, the staff will take you to the island.
The island has no phone signal, and there’s no electricity except for a few hours in the evening, powered by a generator.
While I’m fine with that, it’s VERY difficult to sleep when you’re sweating just lying down. No electricity means no fan, so sleeping is tough until 2-3 am when the temperature finally drops a bit.
However, the place is quite nice. It’s clean, the beds are comfortable, and the hammocks are perfect for chilling, which is the main activity there after snorkeling.
Speaking of snorkeling, you can jump right into the water from the pier and immediately see the vibrant underwater life. I saw a lot, but GoPro underwater photography wasn’t really my thing, so I didn’t take many shots.
And a lot more, but the GoPro underwater photography wasn’t my thing. so I didn’t shoot much underwater.
This is the island.
The pier.
The area.
Sunset.
The bungalows at night time,
There’s a lot to explore around the Togean, especially if you are a diver but also just for people who want to snorkel. Going around by boat only isn’t so simple sometimes tho.
But I did go on a snorkeling tour.
The first stop is a reef in the middle of the ocean.
The second stop. Another reef. Full of life.
Lunch stop is at Karina Beach, sadly it quite dirty. Hopefully they clean this in the future.
The area is amazing from the drone tho.
The final stop is the Ubur-Ubur lake, Ubur-Ubur mean Jellyfish in Indonesian. Probably the word I know best.
This is the lake from the sky. These jellyfish do not sting, I was told it’s very safe to swim here.
It started raining, but I jumped in, and I was mesmerized by the amount of jellyfishes in this lake, just unbelievable to swim with these things.
There are millions of them in the lake.
Unreal stuff.
Back at the resort for sunset.
Saw a little friend from the pier.
The island is amazing, but there are some downsides. It’s a bit pricey for what you get, with no electricity or fan for sleeping, and the food is very basic. Locals don’t really come to these resorts; it’s mostly foreign tourists, and the prices reflect that. But when I look back on it, it was definitely worth it.
Just be aware that there’s not much to do besides snorkeling, eating, and sleeping. I enjoy that, but after three days, I was itching to explore more.
The next day, I headed back to Wakai to reunite with my motorcycle.
From Wakai, you can take a proper ferry to Gorontalo. Check the schedule with the locals, or more accurately, check what day it might come, because it’s often late or off-schedule.
After waiting for hours in Wakai, the ferry finally left around 8-9 pm (it was supposed to leave at 3-4 pm). The ferry had a lot of foreigners, especially during the high season—July and August, when Europeans are on vacation. People scramble for an A/C dorm.
The ride was a bit loud with the ferry slamming on the waves but the 12h ride was over fairly quickly in the end.
The next part will be the north of Sulawesi, more animals, volcanos, waterfalls and beaches.
See ya.
