12-day Jungle Tour
Just imagine. There is a place on earth where you can genuinely share the daily life of people still living in a Neolithic culture. Neolithic agricultural techniques and a Neolithic way of thinking, in a virgin tropical forest. And you will also discover there an extraordinary shamanism.
You do not need to be a seasoned adventurer for that. No mosquito, no danger of any kind. No difficult walks. Just pleasant rides in motorized dugout canoes.
Soft, comfortable adventure
You will first relax three days in Siloinak Resort, established in our private island. Sleeping in large twin or single bungalows on the beach, with hot and cold showers.
Your food is prepared with the best fishes, crabs and lobsters, direct from the sea, as well as organically grown vegetables and rice.
A white sand private beach, 900 meters long, a crystal clear lagoon: this is paradise.
After this heavenly stay, you take motorized dugout canoes, visit a superb mangrove and reach Mentawai Jungle Camp, the only one in an archipelago 500 km wide.
The comfort there is surprisingly good. Real beds, toilets, hot showers. Food is the same as in Siloinak. During 3 days, you visit the surrounding forest, totally protected, and share the life of the Mentawai people.
You are the only visitors who come here and have the opportunity to experience an authentic encounter, organized as part of a sustainable development program.
Mutual respect, possibility to go beyond the usual tourist experience if you wish to do so; English speaking local guides ready to explain their own culture they fight to protect, tour-leaders dedicated to the sustainable program they support.
An exclusive program we are the only ones to offer. We do not organize Guaranteed departures tours. This tours are exclusive to each Tour Operator and tailor-made to its needs.
Program
Day 1 : Welcoming of the group at the airport.
Transfer to the hotel for a Welcoming Drink. Lunch. Visit of the city on foot, possibility to buy gifts. Transfer to the harbor at 7 pm. Departure of the ferry between 8 and 10 pm.
Day 2 to 4 : Siloinak Resort.
Siloïnak Resort is built on a 8 hectares deserted island, with 900 meters of coconut palms fringed beaches and a wonderful lagoon, ideal for swimming among tropical fishes.
Build in an authentic Mentawai spirit, the Resort is composed of a large restaurant and sixteen bungalows hosting one or two persons. Roofs are made of palm leaves and the complex is entirely built with local tropical red wood. The bungalows are spaced in a large flower garden, so as to preserve everybody's privacy and are widely open to the sea. Hot water is available in the eight shared showers. The architecture of the facilities responds to the same aesthetic spirit that prevails on the entire island.
A professional cook with a wide experience in top Indonesian hotels prepares the meals.
If you have ever dreamt being Indiana Jones or Robin Crusoe, you have found the right place! Enjoy your stay on our private island: the water in the lagoon is 28° Celsius, sometimes 32°!
Activities suggestions
«Robinson Crusoe» day
The area is known to be the best surf spot in the world. You will join a surfers' group on the waves during one day. After 1 to 2 hours in the speed boat watching the surfers, you will be abandoned with your lunch and water on a small islet! The boat will pick you up at the end of the afternoon. A splendid solitude experience!
Snorkeling
The boat allows you to visit wonderful beaches, ideal for observing lots of tropical fishes. Duration : 8 hours.
Massages (on request)
A profesional masseur gives you a session per day . The Balinese massage is a synthesis of the Thaï massage and Chinese techniques of acupressure. Series of stretching and slowly and deeper massages are made, using essential oils as clove, cinamon, coco, ginger.
Duration of the daily massage session: 1 hour.
Aquagym, Kundalini Yoga, Tantra, Rebirth, Holotropic breathing classes (on request)
The morning or the evening, according to other activities, aquagym session or other classes in the lagoon or on shore.
Duration : 1 to 4 hours. |
Day 5 : Departure for Mentawai Jungle Lodge.
Departure by motorized dugout canoes for a 3 hors ride to Mentawai Jungle Lodge, our camp in the forest, established nearby a traditional Mentawai village. We venture through a mangrove until reaching a river. The river's water draught is quite limited. When the water level is very low, we may ask our guests to get off and walk some minutes up the riverbed. We arrive at Mentawai Jungle Lodge late afternoon.
Mentawai Jungle Lodge
The camp is made of platforms sheltered by palm leaf roofs, where we set up large Coleman "dome" tents, 3x3 meters wide. We provide comfortable beds, with good mattresses, not camping mattresses. Showers (hot and cold) and toilets are shared. Each tent accommodates two guests. Individual tents are available for an extra cost.
A restaurant offers you a simple comfort, the food is prepared by a professional cook, as in Siloinak Resort. The camp is equipped with freezers, but all our food is cooked from fresh vegetables, meat, fish.
Day 6 to 8 Stay at Mentawai Jungle Lodge.
Life at Mentawai Jungle Lodge does not require strenuous physical effort. We adopt the slow activity pace of the Mentawai people in their daily activities. Visiting the surrounding forest or the neighbouring clans requires only 2 or 3-hour walks. A walking stick might be of use, and we recommend you wear high rubber boots. Mentawai Adventure can rent this kind of gear on arrival.
Daily activities: wake up for a bath in the river, fishing with the women; sago (the staple food of the Mentawaians) processing, manufacturing a rattan basket, manufacturing a basket for transporting the sago, making the sago, and baking it; manufacturing a bow and arrows, and making the poison for the arrows; bark cloth processing. And if we are lucky, we will witness a shaman ceremony.
We can explore at leisure the surroundings and visit other clans. At dusk, dinner at our camp, the food is a mixture of Indonesian classics and Western favorites.
Shamanism
You have the opportunity to discover a shamanist society still living in perfect symbiosis with Nature.
Shamanism is a quest for harmony in the relationships between human beings and Nature, the clans, men and women and between individuals. It is a profound wisdom born out of the constraints of survival and is also an effective natural medecine practiced by witch doctors: the shamans.
Numerous taboos - actions that are forbidden because they threaten harmony - , especially those concerning hunting, wisely balance the use of the environment. Long and complex rituals regulate the hunting expeditions, thus limiting the damage among the monkey and wild hog populations. Other shamanist taboos regulate the relationships inside or between the clans.
The travelers may get lucky and be invited to a healing ceremony or to the ritual preparation for a hunt that are part of the daily life of the Mentawai. During these ceremonies the sikerei (shamans) call on the spirits to re-establish harmony where it is missing.
According to the Mentawai, illnesses and accidents are nothing but the symptoms of a troubled mind. Perhaps the global pollution and destruction of nature brought on by Western cultures are the very symptoms of our troubled souls?
You may find a clue to the answer to this question by participating in these ceremonies. This authentic experience is a rare privilege. It goes far beyond tourism: we are speaking of a discovery, of a deeply human experience and, why not, of establishing lasting friendships between the Mentawaians and their guests.
Day 9 Back to Muara Siberut and Padang .
We ride back to Muara Siberut harbour to take the ferry. Arrival at the end of the day. Dinner and night in a simple guest house, with shared bathroom, at Muara Siberut.
After lunch, according the ferry time, we will depart to Padang.
Day 10 Bungus Beach.
Arrival early morning at Padang. Transfer by minibus to a small beach resort situated 20 km. south of Padang. We will discover Bungus area during a 4 to 6 hours stroll: rice fields, visit to farmers, bath at a cascade, and share a nice evening with good music in a cool restaurant on the beach. Night in a simple hotel (double or single rooms with attached bathroom).
Day 11 Bungus Beach.
We visit some small islands by canoe: snorkeling, lunch on the beach, nap under the coconut trees, and in the evening, we will go fishing onboard a large wooden traditional boat. Night in a simple hotel (double or single rooms with attached bathroom)
Day 12 End of the trip.
Breakfast and transfer to the airport for the travellers departing the same day. Transfer to Padang town centre for the others.
Photography Workshops
Photography Workshops, are based upon the 12-day Jungle Tour program, with adaptation to their specific nature and to the requests of each Tour Operator.
Gilles Bordessoule, the founder of Mentawai Adventure is a professional photographer, journalist and writer since 1977. He has publish hundreds of reportages in all kinds of French magazines, including Paris Match, V.S.D and publishes a 14 pages " travel photo workshop" in each issue of Photofan / Chasseur d'images. Chasseur d'images is the largest European Photomagazine.
Gilles has also publish 4 photographic albums about the Alps, Morocco, Nepal, Sahara. (See Amazon.com or Google).
Gilles can organize a photo workshop with the participation of the Mentawai, or co-lead such a workshop.
Spiritual Retreats
Siloinak Resort, being situated on a deserted island is the perfect place for any spiritual retreat.
Gilles Bordessoule has written 5 books about western psychotherapy and eastern spirituality. He has been professionally trained in rebirthing, holotropic breathing and Tantra ( Skydancing and traditional). He has founded (and directed during several years) the Spiritual Center "Vivescence" , in Fontainebleau, near Paris, France, where hundreds of therapists have organized workshops.
Gilles can simply organize the setting for a spiritual retreat, or co-lead such a workshop (rebirth, holotropic breathing, Tantra).
