12 Nov 2022

12 Nov 22 - Indonesia - Banda Sea Cruise Day 17 - The Last Morning Of The Banda Sea Cruise

I awoke for first light as it was our last few hours sailing into Labuan Bajo at the end of the Banda Sea Cruise. I had packed the evening before, so that I wouldn't lose any Birding time, as I had a good chance in this section of seeing my first Aleutian Tern. We were due to arrive in Labuan Bajo around 10:00, so there wasn't a lot of time to find one.
Sunrise as we sailed towards Labuan Bajo
There are a lot of small islands in this area, but all looked to have heavily degraded habitat
This island has its own private dive hotel & degraded habitat
Aleutian Tern: This monotypic species breeds in Alaska & Siberia and winters around Singapore & Indonesia
Aleutian Tern: Sadly only record shot photos, but it's good to have finally seen an Aleutian Tern
Aleutian Tern
Arrival into Labuan Bajo
A final tour photo
Unsurprisingly, there was a delay on our flight from Labuan Bajo to Denpasar. So we had some time to kill before our early afternoon flight. We ended up getting lunch in a restaurant a few minutes from the airport. There were these great-looking wooden Komodo Dragons by the entrance. This showed off one of the two main reasons why most tourists visited the town. It was either to join a dive boat or to see the nearby Komodo Dragons. Fortunately, I had seen them back on the trip in 1991 when it was a lot cheaper & there were far fewer tourists. On that occasion, there was just Keith Turner & I staying on the island in the park's accommodation, although a few more backpackers arrived the following morning from the boat they had slept on.
Wooden Komodo Dragons
Sadly, it was the end of an excellent trip with some good Birding company. We had visited a lot of very obscure Indonesian islands & seen some very tricky to see endemic Birds. Also, plenty of Cetaceans. I will leave you with a photo of my highlight of the trip.
Fraser's Dolphin: The dark & light stripes on the sides of the body & the distinctive short beak are diagnostic of Fraser's Dolphin (10 Nov 22)
Our arrived into Bali's Denpasar airport was the end of Banda Sea Cruise. Most of the passengers were to enjoy a final comfortable evening in the nearby Sulis Beach & Spa hotel. My bags also enjoyed the night there. However, after grabbing the laptop & a few other items, I headed back to the airport for an evening flight to Kuala Lumpur & an uninspiring hotel close to the airport.
Towel folding in the Sulis Beach & Spa hotel: I've never stayed in hotels that have indulged in this towel art before
When I visited Indonesia in 1991, we were able to obtain 60 day visas on arrival. Unfortunately, these had been reduced to 30 day visas on arrival when Indonesia reopened after the Covid shutdown. I needed to extend or renew my visa, as I was travelling in Indonesia for seven weeks on two back to back Bird Tour Asia tours to minimise the international flights. In theory, it was possible to request 60 day visas, but only from a few limited cities & with the likelihood of a lot of unnecessary bureaucracy & at least one or two days to obtain a visa extension. Therefore, the easiest & most certain option was to fly to Kuala Lumpur as the nearest international destination & then return the following day & pay the $35 US dollar fee for a new visa. I flew back the following evening to Denpasar & finally checked into the Sulis Beach & Spa hotel. Sadly, it hadn't been possible to fly to & return from Kuala Lumpur in the same day, despite only being less than three hours flight each way.

It was a very early start on the morning of the 14 Nov to return to Denpasar airport for a set of flights to Ternate. This was the starting point for the Bird Tour Asia Remote Moluccas tour.

The next section is a warning of the pitfalls for anybody planning to book internal flights in Indonesia: good luck if you have to book flights. When I booked the flights about three months earlier, I booked to fly with Lion Air from Ternate to Makassar (formally Ujung Pandang) in Sulawesi, with a connecting flight to Ternate. While I was in the middle of the Banda Sea Cruise, I received an email on one of the few occasions the Lady Denok's wifi connected to the outside world, to tell me the flight to Makassar was rescheduled to arrive after the Ternate flight left. I couldn't find any other direct flights for earlier than morning from Denpasar. Bird Tour Asia had advised that I book my internal flights in Indonesia before & after the Remote Moluccas tour with an Indonesian website called Traveloka. They proved to be a good website for making bookings, but totally frustrating when the flights changed. You then had to start a protracted chat conversation to describe the problem which ended up with a promise some back office team would look into it within a few hours. Generally, they failed to respond in that time & the time was changed to a response within one to three days.

I could see there was an alternative Lion Air from Denpasar to Surabaya & a second flight to Makassar in time to meet the connecting flight to Ternate. I asked Traveloka to change my booking to that set of flights, explaining that I was in the middle of the Banda Sea with limited wifi & giving them the authorisation to book the flights & confirmation I would pay any extra charges. Typical for Traveloka, they passed the request to the back office team who failed to do anything, other than add another day or two to the delay every time one or two days when I had a wifi signal. Eventually, after nearly a week, they responded with the statement that there was the alternative flight via Surabaya (that I had originally told them about) & did I want to consider that, followed by closing the conversation as resolved (having done nothing), as I hadn't responded within fifteen minutes. This was a new level of total incompetence for them.

It was now only four days before my flights & I still didn't have a connecting flight. In the end, I had to buy a new flight to Makassar via Surabaya & request cancellation of the direct flight from Denpasar. I then started a new three month battle with Traveloka with the help of Barclaycard to get my flight refunded. Traveloka insisted on only refunding 75% less fees of the cancelled flight stating it was my decision to cancel, not the airlines. In the end, I was forced to accept that, although Barclaycard were sympathetic & agreed to refund the remaining 25%. After I got my money back, Lion Air responded with a refusal to refund the cost of the flight as they hadn't cancelled it, despite the fact it was part of a single booking from Denpasar to Ternate. But I had at least got my money back by that point. They were no better than Traveloka.

I am not sure of the best way to sort out internal flights in Indonesia. Nearly every flight I booked a few months in advanced changed the time by a few hours. Most were not a problem apart from longer waits in airports. Another flight from Ambon at the end of the Remote Moluccas tour was rescheduled by Garuda to one day earlier, resulting in me having to cancel that flight (as I was still on the tour & on Buru). Again Traveloka were useless at helping & left me having to book at alternative flight with another airline & ask for a refunded of the Garuda flight. This was another four month battle with Traveloka & Garuda, after Garuda refused for the first two months to refund the ticket & only offering me a voucher for another flight to use within one year. Eventually, I managed to get about 75% of the ticket refund, with an additional refund from Barclaycard.

I was told by Mike on the Remote Moluccas tour to use Traveloka to work out the best flights & book the flights directly with the Indonesian airlines. He had experienced a quicker refund within a few weeks when a flight was changed. Whether that is always the best way is uncertain. What is clear is booking flights in Indonesia is about as unpleasant an experience of having things go wrong with Ryanair. However, I have a choice with European flights which involves refusing to use Ryanair. It is not that simple in Indonesia.

11 Nov 2022

11 Nov 22 - Indonesia - Banda Sea Cruise Day 16 - Kalao: Our Final Island Landing

There was some time for seawatching on the relatively short crossing from Tanahjampea Island to Kalao Island. The highlight was a pod of about sixty Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphins.
Kalao comes into view
Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphin: One of the pod surfaces, showing a short & stout beak and uniform-looking body colouration
Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphin: They are a small & fairly compact Dolphin with a noticeably falcate dorsal fin. There is clearer some variation in the dorsal fin shape, which is likely in a large pod where there will be a variation of ages & sexes
Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphin: This photos shows the short & stout beak and short body in front of the dorsal fin
Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphin: Another individual showing a thinner beak: perhaps this is an immature individual
Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphin: Another profile shot
Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphin: This photo shows the length of the body behind the dorsal fin
Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphin: A final photo of the tail flippers
Lesser Frigatebird: This Lesser Frigatebird was the highlight on the Avian front on the crossing
Lesser Frigatebird
White-bellied Sea-eagle: This was circling over the beach
We landed by this small village
A local boat
Another local boat
It was good to see a Malaysian Plover on the beach as we landed. It was nervous & started to walk away from us, before deciding to fly to a nearby point.
Malaysian Plover: This is a monotypic species which occurs on the sandy coasts of South East Asia, the Philippines & Indonesia
Malaysian Plover
Malaysian Plover
Common Sandpiper: This is a widespread species that breeds across the Palearctic & winters to Africa, India, South East Asia & Australia
After greeting the villagers, we headed into the trees behind the small village.
The forest looked in better condition than we saw on Tanahjampea
The villager's Water Buffalos looked happy with this muddy pool
Great-billed Parrot: This is the nominate megalorynchos subspecies which occurs in Sulawesi & its adjacent islands, the Moluccas & the West Papuan islands
Broad-billed Monarch: This is the ruficollis subspecies which occurs on the Lesser Sundas & the Islands in the Flores Sea
Broad-billed Monarch: There are no prizes for guessing how it got its name
The final species is another Blue Flycatcher with contested taxonomy. The one thing that seems to be agreed is it is not the same species/subspecies as the Blue Flycatcher that occurs on neighbouring Tanahjampea. Clements regards it as a monotypic endemic Kalao Blue Flycatcher which is restricted to Kalao. IOC (v12.2) lumped it back into Mangrove Blue Flycatcher as the only remaining Wallacean subspecies, with other subspecies in the Malaysian Peninsula, Java, Sumatra, Borneo & the Phillipines. Historically, other subspecies of Mangrove Blue Flycatcher were split as Sulawesi Blue Flycatcher. However, IOC (v13.1) has split it again as a monotypic endemic Kalao Blue Flycatcher. Eaton et al in the Birds of the Indonesian Archipelago splits it from Mangrove Blue Flycatcher & Sulawesi Blue Flycatcher based upon strong differences in plumage, mtDNA & vocalisations. At the moment, I'm still following Clements taxonomy.
Kalao Blue Flycatcher: This is a monotypic endemic which is restricted to Kalao
Kalao Blue Flycatcher: This was a shy individual & the photos are no better than record shots
Indonesian Butterfly sp.
Indonesian Robber Fly sp.: I've forwarded a copy to my mate John, who has now retired from the Natural History Museum having spent his life working on Horse Flies & Robber Flies. It will be interesting to see if he can get a name for this species
Returning to the beach through the village
Having seen our main target species, the Kalao Blue Flycatcher, we returned to the Lady Denok for our final voyage to the Flores Island port of Labuan Bajo. The Banda Sea Cruise was nearly over.
The crew always turned out to greet us on our return to the Lady Denok with cold flannels & drinks
Richard (front) & Tony enjoying a Coconut drink
As we sailed from Kalao, we saw this fishing boat signalling to us
My worry was the crew of this fishing boat had a major problem. However, it turned out they only wanted to trade some of their fish to top up their low numbers of cigarettes
We finished the evening with a cracking sunset

11 Nov 22 - Indonesia - Banda Sea Cruise Day 16 - Tanahjampea: Island Of Monarchs

We only have one Monarch in the UK, in a group of islands which are approximately 800 miles from the Scillies to the Shetlands. In comparison, Tanahjampea is less than 20 miles long & it has three Monarchs. In the previous Blog Post, I had covered many of the Birds were saw on Tanahjampea, but there were more species than I could acknowledge in the labels: hence this second Blog Post.
Despite all the of land where we landed having been cultivated, it appeared that the local Birds had adapted to this degraded habitat
There was a lot of locals moving around to their fields on these motorbikes
Island Monarch: This is the nominate cinerascens subspecies which occurs on Sulawesi, the Moluccas & Lesser Sundas. Other subspecies occur in New Guinea, the Bismarck & Solomon Archipelagos
Broad-billed Monarch: This is the ruficollis subspecies which occurs on the Lesser Sundas & the Islands in the Flores Sea. Another subspecies occurs in the Tanimbar Islands, with the final subspecies occurring in New Guinea & Northern Australia
But the Monarch we really wanted to see was the gorgeous-looking endemic Tanahjampea Monarch: the four I saw didn't disappoint me.
Tanahjampea Monarch: This is a monotypic species which is endemic to Tanahjampea
Arafura Fantail: This is the celebensis subspecies which is endemic to Tanahjampea & Kalao Islands in the Flores Sea. There are a number of other subspecies described in the Lesser Sundas, Moluccas, Tanimbar Islands, Kai islands, New Guinea & Northern Australia
Arafura Fantail
The final species is the Tanahjampea subspecies of Sulawesi Blue Flycatcher. This is a bit of a taxonomic nightmare. Clements regards it as a distant group containing a single subspecies within Sulawesi Blue Flycatcher, whereas, IOC (v12.2) splits it as a monotypic species. However, in the very latest IOC Checklist (v13.1), IOC have lumped it back into Sulawesi Blue Flycatcher, despite stating that the taxonomic status is uncertain. Eaton et al in the Birds of the Indonesian Archipelago splits it from Mangrove Blue Flycatcher & Sulawesi Blue Flycatcher based upon strong differences in plumage, mtDNA & vocalisations. At the moment, I'm still following Clements taxonomy.
Sulawesi Blue Flycatcher: This is the djampeanus subspecies which is endemic to Tanahjampea
Sulawesi Blue Flycatcher
I was happy with the Birds we had seen on the island
As the armouring on my Swarovskis starts to fall apart again, I now have a decision whether to return them to Swarovski or send them to Tony in Sydney for his unique armouring
We headed back to the Lady Denok late morning for the relatively short crossing to our final island destination of Kalao.