I’m currently writing this blog post on a 9-hour ferry to a very remote island in Sulawesi, Indonesia. My personal starlink is working overtime.

A few weeks ago, my friend Nina (@ninambakker), who I met on Socotra Island, whatsapp’d me saying “I’m going to Sulawesi, do you want to join?”. My immediate reaction was obviously, yes - Sulawesi has been so high on my list for a long time but it’s hard to get to and very few friends of mine would be down for it. So when the opportunity came up, I knew I had to make it work to join her.

Sulawesi is a large area in Indonesia, so to get into specifics, we’re going to the Banggai Islands, which are a number of islands located east of Central Sulawesi. These islands are remote and at this stage, I do not recommend for a medium to high maintenance traveller. If you’ve been to Raja Ampat, then you’ll find these islands comfortable - there’s running water and electricity 24 hours, and wifi can be found every couple of days at homestays. But for many tourists, they are still too rough around the edges - some homestays are asian style toilets only, no hot water and most food is provided at your homestay due to lack of restaurants, meaning no fussy eaters. You’ll have to get by with google translate as English speakers are few and far between.

Majority of the time, you’re the only tourists. You may see a couple staying at your homestay but for the most part you’ll have everywhere to yourself. On one island, we didn’t see a single tourist the entire time.

Here’s my itinerary - we moved around a lot, partly because it doesn’t bother us much and partly because we had to get back for work. Note, prices don’t include tip. In true Indonesian fashion, tips were always argued against and denied, but with a little persistence, they were accepted.

How to get there:

From Sydney, take the afternoon flight to Bali (Denpasar). Stay overnight near the airport, then take the 7am flight on Lion Air from Denpasar to Makassar, then the 10.15am flight from Makassar to Luwuk, arriving at 11.30am. Once you land in Luwuk, there will be plenty of taxi drivers offering rides to the ferry port or you can download the app “maxim”, which is like their grab or gojeck. I recommend stopping for lunch on the way rather than grabbing lunch at the port.

The ferry leaves for Leme-Leme at 2pm. You can purchase tickets on the ferry and the trip is about 3 hours, price of the ferry is 54 rupiah.

In total, the journey from Sydney is around 30 hours.

Day 1 - Leme-Leme

We stayed at Penginapan Novpritri homestay (150,000 rupiah) right next to the ferry port, which was an easy walking distance. The homestay had air-con and a restaurant nearby that served freshly caught Tuna (50,000 rupiah pp), alternatively, most homestays will cook dinner for you upon request.

Leme-Leme is a very small town that consists of one street, however we jumped on scooters to try (15,000 rupiah for an hour) and capture the light setting - we spent an hour just scootering around and taking in the fact that I’m back in my happy place that is - remote Indo.

Day 2 – Paisu Pok Lake

Our driver for the island picked us up at 8am and drove us to Paisu-Pok, which is about a 40-min drive. His name is Ardin and his whatsapp is +62 821-9213-3566 - minimal English but he’s a good man.

On the way we stopped at a stunning beach called Pantai Poganda, where I finally got my hands on a fresh coconut. You won’t believe me but we had this whole beach to ourselves.

Paisu Pok

Now to the destination we’ve been waiting for - Paisu Pok. You’ve probably seen it on Insta through the jaw dropping videos where haters will legit say it’s AI - I don’t actually blame them, the scenes at the lake are unreal. When we first laid eyes on it, all I could hear behind me was Nina’s American accent saying “OH MY GAWD”.

Entry is a bank breaking 5,000 rupiah (50 cents aud) and you can rent one of those cool wooden canoes for 50,000 to get that content. There are even guys working there that have drones so you can get them to take videos of you, they’re insanely good at flying drones so I recommend this if you don’t have your own drone.

Paisu-Pok is a freshwater lake, which has a depth up to 15 metres, the impressive part is you can see the bottom clearly due to it’s insane clarity. The lake was only recognised at a tourist spot in 2024, which goes to show how new this whole area is to tourism. We arrived at 10.30am, which was good lighting for shooting and even though there were some locals around, you’ll often be the only tourists. Locals were still using the lake for washing clothes and showering until 10-years ago when the government decided to clean it up. The small pool on the way in is where the locals now wash their clothes from the run-off of the lake.

Paisu Batango Spring Bath

Once again, we had this swimming spot to ourselves. It’s a mix of fresh water and saltwater (brackish water) and once you swim through the current becomes very strong, just an fyi.

Kawalu Bay

You can row a boat over or try and paddleboard, we didn’t have time to do this so we just pulled our scooters over on the side of the road and checked it out - it’s difficult to swim from the land side so better if you take a boat.

Gracia Homestay

Our homestay for the night provided breakfast, lunch and dinner for us as there are no restaurants around. For lunch, dinner, cold drinks and scooter hire, the total was 450,000 rupiah ($45 AUD). The room is basic but comfortable, no wi-fi and no aircon but it has a fan.

NB: If you have the time, I recommend spending an extra night here to take a boat and just chill. We collectively agreed that we would have liked to spend more time here and really embrace the swimming spots.

Day 3 – Salakan

We scootered down to Paisu Pok at 7.30am for a morning swim, which was the best morning swim of my life. If you get there early enough you can have it to yourself and just a few locals - quiet enough to hear all the morning birds. If you’re a photographer, then I recommend shooting it around 8am and again at 10am.

Our next homestay for the night was in Salakan, a 3-hour drive but we stopped first at Teduang Beach to see the heart coral, I think it’s man made but there is coral on it, which is cool. After a swim there, we headed to Mandala Beach, which is an hour from Salakan.

Our homestay was Azafa Guest House and it was 230,000 rupiah. We walked to dinner nearby and had noodles for 20,000 rupiah (yes, $2).

Day 4 – Transfer to Benggai Laut

Our driver drove us to the southern part of the island to take a private speedboat (80,000 rupiah per person) to Benggai Laut. The public ferry takes an hour, private boat takes 15-minutes.

Once on Benggai Laut, we grabbed Tuk Tuk’s and dropped our stuff at Rotan Homestay. We had a driver on this island but you don’t need one, we ended up renting scooters and taking ourselves around as I prefer scootering. We grabbed a fresh seafood lunch on the water at Rumah Makan Paya, would recommend. For our afternoon boat trip, we met Papa Ashsi +62 852-1956-9552 in his village and he took us around for a couple of hours to some cool beaches, including Long Beach, which was my favourite beach of the whole trip. Total for the boat was 300,000 ($30) and 300,000 for Wisma Roen Homestay.

Day 5 – Benggai Laut

Due to ferry schedule changes, we unexpectedly only had one full day on Benggai Laut, so we really had to optimise it. To organise our morning boat trip, we scootered to Pasir Putih village in the morning and asked for a boat to take us to Tanjung Gundul and the nearby lagoon. For a couple of hours on the boat, it cost us 300,000 rupiah in total.

Time was of the essence because we wanted to see the sand bank at low tide, so once we finished at Pasir Putih, we scootered to Papa Asih again where he took us from 11.30am to 4pm to see Pasir Timbul and Long Beach. Total was 700,000. Papa Asih also has a coconut farm so you can get fresh coconuts on your way back to his village.

Dinner was at Kaloka Resto & Cafe, which is owned by a French guy and his Indonesian wife. It was good to meet an English speaker because he gave us more of a rundown on the island and what tourism is like here - he counted on two hands how many tourists were on the island at the time, which goes to show how little tourism there is here still.

Day 6 - Ferry to Mbuang Mbuang

The ferry to Mbuang Mbuang leaves at 10am so we rocked up at 9.30am and got settled. This ferry was meant to be only four hours but it ended up taking nine hours. I found this ferry much more comfortable than the ferry from Luwuk to Peleng because there was a large living room type situation where we hung out with the locals and everyone napped. I also setup my starlink so was able to work, which made the nine hours go by somewhat “fast”. The ferry stops off at a lot of villages to deliver clean water and supplies, as well as what seemed like some peoples online shopping. In one of the towns I yelled out “kelapa kelapa”, which is coconut in Bahasa, so before I knew it, a local man was climbing up a palm tree and grabbing me coconuts.

Whilst this day was a massive trek, it was a really great experience and we were able to connect a lot with the locals on the ferry. We also connected by calling Kyle “boule”, which means albino aka white person. The locals found this hilarious.

We got picked up by our “driver”, which was really a “walker”, given there are no cars in Mbuang Mbuang and also no need for a scooter given it’s just one short street for the village. Our man walked us to our homestay where we were greeted by the family we were staying with. The homestay was organised by our guide Ikram as there’s no commercial places to stay that are available to book online or via whatsapp. Mbuang Mbuang is a simple village but the people are so friendly and hospitable. There is no running water and electricity is only available from 6pm to 1am - if you’re a hot sleeper, then this will be difficult as the portable fan will shut off around 1am.

If I had known how remote Mbuang Mbuang was, I would have packed slightly better and brought baby wipes to clean my feet as well as toys for the kids.

Day 7 - Mbuang Mbuang

Our homestay was right next to a mosque and the call to prayer began at 4am. The early wake-up call coupled with the storm that leaked through the roof and kept dripping it on me, meant that I didn’t have the best sleep.

We took a boat out to go see the jellyfish lake, which is the reason why we ventured this far. There are many jellyfish lakes in Asia but this one is still quite pristine due to the lack of tourists, I assume this village maybe gets a couple of tourists a month. The jellyfish have lost their ability to sting as they have no natural predators, so you can swim easily with them and it’s a pretty cool experience.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner was provided at our homestay and we ate fresh fish. We actually tried to organise another boat in the afternoon to check out some other beaches but everyone was out fishing for dinner so I ended up hanging out with all the kids and trying to get coconuts.

Day 8 - Mbuang Mbuang to Banggai Laut

We didn’t have the patience nor the time to take the 9-hour ferry again so we organised a speed boat to pick us up. The speed boat was 3.5 million rupiah ($300 aud) and only took 1.45 hours, so it was well worth it. By the time we arrived to Banggai Laut it was still only 10am so we went back to Rotan Homestay, grabbed scooters and headed off - obviously grabbing coffee on the way.

We really wanted to go back to Long Beach and see some other beaches around there that we hadn’t had a chance to, so we arranged with Papa Ahsi again to take us out on his boat for a few hours. I’m so glad we had this extra day because I was feeling like I didn’t get to do enough on Banggai Laut. Our boat trip for today was 600,000 rupiah and when we got back to Papa Ahsi’s village we were starving so I asked Papa Ahsi where can we get Mie Goreng (it’s one of the few Bahasa words I know). In typical Indonesian fashion, he obviously insisted we eat at his place and we sat down on his wooden floors and ate amazing Mie Goreng.

Day 9 - Banggai Laut to Luwuk

Now this is a big tip, instead of taking an 8-hour ferry from Banggai Laut to Luwuk, try and get on the flight operated by Susi Air via Traveloka. The flight only operates a few times a week, but instead of an 8-hour ferry it’s only 35-minutes. We booked this a few days prior but got lucky that there were still seats as it only fits 12 people. If you’re scared of small aircrafts, then this isn’t for you but you probably haven’t reached Sulawesi by being scared of questionable transport options.

The airport was only built in 2024 and still has dirt roads leading up to it. The check-in baggage weight is 5kg’s and every kilo over is $1.5. You also have to get weighed so they can balance out the plane.

When we got to Luwuk we grabbed scooters, checked into Hotel Santika Luwuk and set off for the waterfalls. Luwuk is full of waterfalls, which is the main thing to see here. The famous waterfall you see on Instagram is Kamumu but Piala waterfall is very cool.

To get around, everyone uses an app called “maxim”, which is super easy to use.

Now I didn’t actually get to see Kamumu because on this day I stacked it at the waterfall, broke my toe then stacked it on a scooter. So I spent the next day either in bed or in a wheelchair.

If you go to Piala waterfall, then you’ll likely go to Ayus waterfall, however this road is so dodgy. Do not attempt unless you’re very good at riding scooters. Ayus waterfall unfortunately wasn’t flowing despite being the rainy season, which was disappointing but it was still cool.

For dinner post hospital we went back to Seafood Luwuk to cheer me up, because nothing cheers me up more than morning glory and fresh fish. The food here is so good albeit the slowest cooks in the world, I’ve warned you. For lunch we waited 90 minutes to get food…

Day 10 - Luwuk

I spent majority of the day in bed apart from going to RSUD Luwuk hospital to get x-rays. Nina and Kyle brought me the best coffee from Cocos, highly recommend.

They went to Piala waterfall at 8.30am to film some drone footage before all the locals got there. Their photos are insane from the waterfall (see below), so if you can, I recommend going when it first opens.

After Piala, Nina and Kyle went to Kamumu, which is an hour drive away, I think it looks cool (from what I saw in their photos) but Nina preferred Piala.

Day 11 - Home

The long journey home turned even longer. The route you take is Luwuk to Makassar, Makassar to Denpasar, Denpasar to Sydney.

Unfortunately our second flight got delayed 4 hours, which meant I missed my flight to Sydney. If you have the time, I recommend spending a couple of days in Uluwatu to minimise this risk.

Tips:

Cash is king, once you fly out from Makassar airport, no where will take card. ATM’s can be found in Salakan, Banggai Laut and Luwuk. My recommendation for this itinerary is to take out a minimum of 5 million rupiah.
If you have extra time, spend another day in Paisu Pok area
Mbuang Mbuang is a cool experience but if you want to cut something, then this is what I would cut. It’s an incredible local experience and the jellyfish are cool, but there’s not much else to see.
This trip isn’t for the mid to high maintenance travellers, majority of toilets are asian style and no shower has hot water. You’ll be grateful if you have aircon.
In the villages, try be modest. This part of Sulawesi is heavily Muslim so modesty is appreciated although you will never feel uncomfortable or judged by what you wear by the locals.
Some of the islands have no proper waste disposal, so please please try and keep your rubbish to a minimum. Small things like cutting off bikini tags on new bikinis should be done before you leave for your trip, particularly for plastic items.
Download google translate offline. Service is limited and so is wifi.
Dress for comfort, not for looks. Things will get dirty and you won’t be able to wash things until you’re back in Luwuk.
Packing tips - baby wipes, coral safe sunscreen, betadine, snorkelling mask and toys for kids.
Don’t stress too much about your transfers, each homestay will arrange it for you. Being able to ride scooters around each island is super useful as we only used drivers to get from town to town that required decent distances.
Final tip, this area is pretty remote. I don’t recommend it for your first time in Indonesia unless you’re familiar with the culture, food and way of life. There is a lot more to this area than just pretty pictures you see on Instagram. It’s incredibly culture rich and tourism is still pretty new here so don’t expect resorts and be respectful of the homes you stay in and the people you meet.

Contact List (via Whatsapp):

Ikram - our guide +62 816-4387-607.
- He organised transfers for us and a couple of the homestays. If you’re overwhelmed, then he can organise everything for you. He doesn’t travel with you fyi, he just organises it and connects the right people.
Big islands Banggai Peneng Driver - Ardin +62 821-9213-3566
- He will meet you at Leme-Leme and take you from town to town. Peneng is a big island, so there’s a few hours in between the major towns.
Boat Benggai Laut - Papa Ahsi +62 852-1956-9552
- Papa Ahsi can take you to Long beach and the surrounding beaches. You meet him at his village on the north east.
Homestay Banggai Laut - Wisma Roen +62 812-1964-4415
- Can also organise scooters for you
Homestay Mbuang Mbuang - Papa Panji +62 823-4563-3868
- Ikram can also organise this homestay for you. English is very very limited.
Driver Luwuk +62 857-5711-7127
- Transfers to and from Luwuk airport as well as waterfalls. Kamumu waterfall the road is very bad, so you may want to organise a driver for this.

10-Day Sulawesi Itinerary

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