Sumbawa Travel Video Guide

Sumbawa Travel Itinerary

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East of Lombok, the scorched, mountainous island of Sumbawa is often perceived as an inconvenient but necessary bridge between Lombok and Komodo, but it does hold some fine west-coast beaches , as well as spectacular coral just offshore at Pulau Moyo . In the east, the exceptional reef breaks at Hu'u have become legendary amongst surfers. Sumbawa is a strictly Muslim enclave and both male and female travellers should dress conservatively.

Historically, the Sumbawan people in the western half of the island have always been influenced by the Balinese and the Sasaks of Lombok, while the Bimans in the east share linguistic and cultural similarities with the Makarese of Sulawesi and the peoples of Flores and Sumba. Up until the end of the sixteenth century, Bima Region was still mostly animist, ostensibly ruled by a succession of Hindu rajahs with Javanese origins but, when the Makarese of Sulawesi took control in the early seventeenth century, they converted the people to Islam . The Dutch only really controlled the area at the beginning of the twentieth century, and were ousted by the Japanese in World War II. Soon after, Sumbawa became a part of the modern republic of Indonesia. Transmigration and the wholesale reaping of the sappanwood and sandalwood forests have put huge pressure on the little land that is useable and Bima's once illustrious bay is now filling with silt as

a result.

Ferries to and from Lombok (90min) dock at POTO TANO , at the extreme western end of Sumbawa; buses meet all incoming ferries and run south from the harbour to Taliwang (1hr; Rp2000), and north to Alas (45min; Rp2000), Sumbawa Besar (2hr; Rp3000) and sometimes all the way to Bima (9hr; Rp10,000). Ferries to and from Flores (9-12hr) use the port at Sape . Pelni ferries dock at Bima .

Your Tips For Sumbawa

• Lombok and the Gili Islands Indonesia Travel Videos
  Indonesia Travel Itinerary
  Thirty-five kilometres east of Bali at its closest point, Islamic Lombok (80km by 70km) is populated by Sasak people and differs considerably from its Hindu neighbour. - Indonesia
  

• Java Indonesia Travel Videos
  Indonesia Travel Itinerary
  One of the most populous places in all of Asia, Java is still characterized by great natural beauty. - Indonesia
  

• West Papua (Irian Jaya) Indonesia Travel Videos
  Indonesia Travel Itinerary
  The island of New Guinea , the second largest in the world, is neatly bisected down its north-south axis, the eastern portion comprising independent Papua New Guinea and the western half, Irian Jaya , belonging to Indonesia. - Indonesia
  

• Komodo national park Indonesia Travel Videos
  Indonesia Travel Itinerary
  Off the east coast of Sumbawa lies Komodo national park , a group of parched but majestic islands that have achieved fame as the home of the Komodo dragon, or ora as it is known locally, which lives nowhere else but here and on a few neighbouring islands. - Indonesia
  

• Sulawesi Indonesia Travel Videos
  Indonesia Travel Itinerary
  Sulawesi sprawls in the centre of the Indonesian archipelago, its bizarre outline resembling a 1000-kilometre letter "K", a foretaste of the many peculiarities that make this one of the country's most compelling regions. - Indonesia
  

• Kalimantan Indonesia Travel Videos
  Indonesia Travel Itinerary
  Cupped in the palm of an island arc between the Malay peninsula and Sulawesi, Kalimantan comprises the southern, Indonesian two-thirds of the vast island of Borneo, whose northern reaches are split between the independent sultanate of Brunei and the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak. - Indonesia
  

• Sumba Indonesia Travel Videos
  Indonesia Travel Itinerary
  Sumba has a genuine reputation in Indonesia for the excesses of its funerals, the wealth of its ikat fabrics and the thrill of the pasola , an annual ritual war fought on horseback. - Indonesia
  

• Bali Indonesia Travel Videos
  Indonesia Travel Itinerary
  With its fine beaches, pounding surf, emerald-green rice terraces and exceptionally artistic culture, the small volcanic island of Bali - the only Hindu society in Southeast Asia - has long been Indonesia's premier tourist destination. - Indonesia
  

• Sumbawa Indonesia Travel Videos
  Indonesia Travel Itinerary
  East of Lombok, the scorched, mountainous island of Sumbawa is often perceived as an inconvenient but necessary bridge between Lombok and Komodo, but it does hold some fine west-coast beaches , as well as spectacular coral just offshore at Pulau Moyo . - Indonesia
  

• Flores Indonesia Travel Videos
  Indonesia Travel Itinerary
  A fertile, mountainous barrier between the Savu and Flores seas, Flores comprises one of the most alluring landscapes in the archipelago. - Indonesia
  

• Sumatra Indonesia Travel Videos
  Indonesia Travel Itinerary
  North Sumatra now receives more tourists than any other Indonesian province except Bali and Yogyakarta, and the main interest lies in the rugged central highlands, the homelands of the Batak who arrived over four thousand years ago and evolved almost completely in isolation from the rest of the island, developing languages and cultures that owe little to any outside influences. - Indonesia