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!!Please join us for a three-week sojourn in Bali and Sulawesi to experience:
the hospitable people,

  

the lush landscapes,

 

the diverse cultures,

 

the coral reefs,

 

the arts and crafts,

 

the ceremonies,

 

the dances,

  

 

the food,

 

the history,

 

the  music and song,

 

the markets,

 

the flowers, and much more.

 

These pictures are a selection of the 3,000 that Vince Gutschick took on the July, 2010 trip, in the company of his wife, Lou Ellen Kay, the Academy director (Vince is secretary/treasurer), their son, David Gutschick, and friend Sue Shiao.  Please note that there are many more of Vince’s images of Indonesia online, in fullscreen size.  Soon to be posted online are images of the arts and crafts that we brought back from the trip.   We’d like to note that Vince and Lou Ellen regarded the July, 2010 trip as the lifetime-best trip, and over 33 years they have traveled to 35 countries on 6 continents.   David and Sue have traveled to 50 countries and similarly enjoyed the special nature of travel in Indonesia.

 

Why go with us?

  • To be up front, the trip will support the Academy, via a donation of $1,000 per person.  This levels the cost to that of a package tour, while we will have much greater flexibility.  For one, we’ll stop wherever we want to along the way between our lodgings.   We’ll have extremely knowledgeable, licensed, local guides as we did in 2010.  
  • We wish to share the cultural awareness and the wealth of experiences in Indonesia, this great collection of cultures spread over more than 30,000 islands of all sizes
  • We have 33 years of experience traveling overseas - Vince and Lou Ellen, to 35 countries; David and Sue, to 50 countries.   We are adept at pulling together very good itineraries and doing the logistics, such as knowing travel times, country regulations, medical and safety  precautions,  money matters, reliable service providers, cellphone bands in operation, weather, cultural norms in Indonesia, and more.   We offer many guidelines and tips, specifically for this trip, on a page of FAQ, frequently asked questions (this page is being revamped and will be ready by the time we have an interested group). We typically spend 4 to 6 months, or longer, planning each trip.   For us, it’s part of the joy of anticipation.  For our trip companions, it assures good results, especially for those with less time to do the ‘homework’ on trip preparations.  Do note, however, that a significant amount of work on your own is a requirement.  This includes putting reservations in your name (see below), packing all your needs, assuring that your passport is valid for a sufficient time, notifying your credit card company and bank about account use overseas, etc.
  • Because we will use local (Indonesian) service providers who accommodate groups very flexibly, we can set up itineraries with the dates we want and the order we want.   We’ll travel in small vans, not big buses, and we’ll stop wherever it interests us, just as we did in 2010.  Our guides found the most interesting people and places that we’d never have found on our own, and they accommodated our special requests, such as finding Wayan Pager’s atelier in Blah Batuh where we bought a gamelan and I Ketut Berati, the master mask carver in Singapadu.  We’ll also introduce you to some of our friends there who run little hotel, build ships…

 

How does the trip work?

  • We’ll travel about 3 weeks total, beginning in early July.  The exact dates will depend upon a chain of “ifs” concerning flight availability, group members’ availability, etc.  We’ll sort this out as rapidly as we can when enough people have signed up for the trip.
  • We offer planning of the itinerary (collaboration is welcome, until we have to finalize our reservations);  locating reliable flights, ground transport, guides, and hotels;  the guidelines, advice, and tips on the FAQ site and in several in-person meetings; tracking of all relevant changes,  such as in flight times; and discussion about the rewards of Indonesia, at any time.
  • You agree to do reservations of flights, ground transport and guides (in groups of 4 to 6), and hotels in your own name.  This arrangement obviates the need for us to engage US tour agencies (adding the expense of middlemen) and also assures that the Academy will not incur major financial losses if our group members cancel out.  We vouch for the accuracy of the information we supply, and we will help anyone make reservations safely online, preferably using our secure computers so that malicious redirects and spyware are avoided.
  • Each person donates $1,000, tax-deductible, to the Academy.  This supports the Academy, which in its early years operates at a significant loss, as do most start-up businesses.   It allows us, then, to keep offering a strong and eminently enjoyable education to our students.
  • The estimated total cost of the trip, including the donation, is $6,000, including all flights, ground transportation, guides, entry fees, meals, and lodging.  In 2010, Lou Ellen and Vince spent another $500 each on souvenirs.  Yes, this is a goodly amount of money, but it is comparable on a per-week basis to cruises, which are much more restrictive and which don’t engage the local cultures, as we do, in many rewarding ways.  We also compared it to the ACIS trip we took to Thailand in 2008 for about $3,400 per person, with incidentals.  The costs per week are comparable, $2,000 for our 2012 trip and $1,700 for the Thailand trip.  Again, our trip is notably closer to the people, the cultures, and the land.
  • We need to have a group of 8 to 15 people, to make the lengthy effort supportable. Children under 15 must be accompanied, with at least one adult per child.  Please visit our FAQ site soon.
  • We need you to make a commitment by December, 2012.  The very good small hotels and the coral reef resorts have limited space that fills up quickly.  We chose July because it is in the gap between the end of the rainy season and the August influx of European tourists, and because many of you are most free in the summer months here.   As it is, it is likely that the group might be split for some flights (we can’t get blocks of seats, as can big tour agencies), with rendezvous at a final destination.  It will be up to us to assure coordination.  If the tour is oversubscribed, we will set up a waiting list, which will be cleared by 1 April.  Donations must be received by that date and are only refundable, in whole or in part, for circumstances beyond the control of the person who cancels.
  • You’ll sign a contract, affirming the understanding of the way the trip works.  Children under 18 will be included in the contract of their parents or guardians.  The contract notes that the participant(s) assume(s) the risks of travel unless the Academy is grossly negligent.  We trust that you understand the need for this.  The contract will also note that medical care or emergency transport, if needed, are your responsibility.   We can direct you to very good providers of trip insurance and medevac insurance.   We should all carry trip delay insurance; Indonesia has 150 of the world’s 400 active volcanoes, and Gunung Merapi erupted last year.  Our new friend, Wawan, from Tanah Beru, Sulawesi was there and sent us some pictures, along with expressions of great concern for the inhabitants of the area.
  • It’s not necessary to know any Bahasa Indonesia language at all.  That said, we found some friends that way, from shopkeepers to pilgrims at sacred Hindu springs.   Online lessons are great for this.  Betul!

 

Where will we go?

  • Bali and Sulawesi are among the most rewarding islands in Indonesia.  While Java has much to offer in history, culture, and landscape features, the logistics of adding a number of flights and transports would demand a considerably longer trip.  Maybe next time!
  • Bali is fabled for many things, among them:
    • art, which is everywhere, from touristic to classic, small to large.  It’s deeply entwined in Balinese culture, in every home on up to busy local markets and formal galleries
    • ceremonies, from small daily offerings of flowers made by each family, to funeral cremations, long processions with a tall funerary tower, vividly decorated
    • lush landscapes, ranging from meticulously kept rice fields to volcanic slopes
    • dances, sacred and public. You might peruse our photos of legong, barong, and kecak dances
    • and Hindu culture, the only remnnat of the Majipahit culture that once covered the archipelago.  

A map of Bali is linked here.   You’ll also find that perusing detailed maps in guidebooks provides many hours of pleasure.  For our 2010 trip, we bought a Periplus map, available online from many booksellers.

  • Sulawesi, known in the past as the Celebes, is a giant starfish-shaped island over 1000 km from tip to tip.  Appropriate to its size, Sulawesi harbors a great variety of cultures, intimately intermixed, including:
    • the Torajan, being remarkable for elaborate funeral ceremonies with the building of new temporary “starship” houses, many processions, chants, sacrifice of numerous animals for sharing meat with relations of all degrees, and a welcome extended over vast areas
    • Bugis, formerly known over wide areas as both pirates and traders; they still sail wooden ships over long distances
    • Makassarese, dominating over trade for centuries
    • Minahasan, Christians of the north
    • Chinese, particularly in larger cities and towns

Sulawesi is also famed for its coral reefs,  several national parks and nature reserves, and monuments, historic and prehistoric.
An interactive map of Sulawesi is linked here; again, a Periplus map is available online.

  • The exact locations we’ll visit will be settled soon.  If you wish to make suggestions, please do.  Our itinerary will be full each day (other than the rest day on first arriving in Bali, so that we may recuperate from the long flights).  Here is a summary of places we are most likely to visit:
    • In Bali: Denpasar (administrative center; temples, museums, markets), Sanur (hotel, beach), Singapadu (bird and reptile parks; master carvers), Ubud (artistic center; center for dance and music; excursions to many nearby areas for temples, arts and crafts, museums, ceremonies, scenery), Tirta Empul (sacred spring with ceremonies), Lake Batur (volcanic lake; famous temples…avoiding the true tourist traps),Tirta Gangga (water temple), Tenganan (pre-Majihapit traditional village)
    • In Sulawesi: Tana Toraja (including many locations with burial cliffs, markets, funeral ceremonies, mountain views, arts and crafts), Makassar (old Paoere harbor, art galleries, great variety of food), Jene Ponto area (fishing villages, seaweed farmers, horsemen, Bissapu Falls), Tanah Beru (building of large wooden boats), Bira (villages), Pulau Bunaken (coral reef ; snorkeling and diving; porpoise viewing), Tangkoko Nature Reserve (rare animals in a vast tract; see a story of one family’s visit here)

We have a summary of our travels and experiences inside Indonesia in 2010, written as a preview to our friends and relatives.  It’s a PDF document, to save layout from Word, so you may need to download Abode Reader.  When we have time, we may post more details.

 

We hope that we have piqued your interest.  If you are interested in the trip,  please use the address below to contact us, with no obligation.  Please provide your name and contact information, and note any special needs, any constraints such as timing of the trip.  You’re welcome to include suggestions about the itinerary.

 

 

Please email
to tell us at the Academy
that you’re interested in
the July, 2011 trip to Indonesia.  Thanks.

 

When we have a group of sufficient size, we will set up more extensive communication, including group meetings and a secure, password-protected Web link for sharing all our information among ourselves.