Enggano
An Island A Hundred Kilometres Out In The Indian Ocean Whose People Speak A Language Related To Nothing Nearby, Reached By An Irregular Ferry And Visited By Almost Nobody · Malakoni, Bengkulu
Enggano lies ABOUT A HUNDRED KILOMETRES OFF BENGKULU IN THE OPEN INDIAN OCEAN, and it has been isolated long enough to show it. THE ENGGANESE LANGUAGE IS NOT CLOSELY RELATED TO ANYTHING ON THE NEARBY MAINLAND and is treated by linguists as an early and divergent branch of Austronesian - the kind of thing that only survives where nobody comes. That isolation had a brutal side: INTRODUCED DISEASE REDUCED THE ISLAND'S POPULATION CATASTROPHICALLY over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and the community that remains is small. WHAT IS THERE NOW IS BUFFALO ON EMPTY BEACHES, surf nobody rides, forest, and five villages. THE FERRY FROM BENGKULU RUNS IRREGULARLY AND TAKES MANY HOURS, weather permitting; there is a small airstrip and very little else. Expect to be stranded at one end or the other - that is the normal experience of Enggano rather than a failure of planning, and it is why almost nobody has ever been.
Enggano Island, North Bengkulu, Bengkulu, Malakoni, Bengkulu, Indonesia
GETTING THERE IS THE ENTIRE PROBLEM. THE FERRY FROM BENGKULU RUNS IRREGULARLY - not daily, on a schedule that changes and is frequently disrupted - AND TAKES MANY HOURS ACROSS OPEN OCEAN. There is a small airstrip with very limited flights. BUILD IN SPARE DAYS AT BOTH ENDS AND EXPECT TO BE STUCK; that is a normal outcome here, not a failure of planning. THERE IS NO GATE AND NO ADMISSION: the island is villages, beaches and forest. ACCOMMODATION IS A VERY SMALL NUMBER OF BASIC HOMESTAYS, arranged on arrival or through contacts - there is no booking system. BRING ALL YOUR CASH AND MOST OF YOUR SUPPLIES. Electricity is limited and phone signal is patchy to absent.