Garuda Indonesia Colours Magazine April 2019 | Page 95

Travel / Wakatobi
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1. Wakatobi from the air,
showing the rich reefs.
2. Fishermen in Werake
Village, Hoga Island.
3. The Bajo travel from
one island to another using
wooden boats.
4. The majority of Bajo
children are excellent divers.
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 e Orang Bajo community, known as
Th
Bajo Mola, who settled here in the 1950s,
might be one of the most intriguing (and
friendliest) stilted villages in all Indonesia.
As my plane descended towards
the tangle of lagoons around
Matahora Airport on Wangi
Wangi’s rural western coast,
I was already getting an inkling
of the relaxed, low-key island
lifestyle that awaited me.
I stayed the night in town
so that I could wake early to
spend a couple of happy hours
in Central Market snapping
photos and drinking syrupy-sweet
Sulawesi kopi with the friendly
stall-holders before I wandered
towards the waterfront.
The Orang Bajo community,
known as Bajo Mola, who settled
here in the 1950s, might be one
of the most intriguing (and
friendliest) stilted villages in all
Indonesia. Almost 2,000 houses
are perched on gangly timber and
concrete stilts over the
shimmering blue waters of
the reef, offering ideal diving
platforms for the countless Orang
Bajo children who directed me
towards a fish restaurant where
I sampled refreshingly tangy sour
fish soup and deliciously doughy
kasuami (a sort of fluffy bread
made from cassava).
Wanci town is the embarkation
point for a world of adventures
stretching southwards through
the wonders of the Wakatobi
Archipelago. There are 143
islands in this group and, since
136 of those remain uninhabited,
it is safe to assume that little
can have changed here since
Wallace sailed past.
Sitting on the roof of a little
inter-island ferry-boat the next
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