Bajau People - Sea Nomads

Join us for an epic Indonesian cruise trip to meet one of the most welcoming and smiling people of the archipelago. The Bajau people are living exclusively in coastal areas of Sulawesi, Maluku, Kalimantanand the Lesser Sunda islands, including the Komodo area.

In the past, they were true nomads living essentially aboard small skiff called lepa, where they would cook, sleep and fish. They have now been sedentarised and inhabit villages by the shore, often literally above water, in wooden houses built on stilts, with wooden alleyways serving as streets. No wonder the Bajau are also called the “sea Gypsies”.

Most of them still make their living entirely from the sea: they fish, collect trepang and other mollusks on the sea floor, act as traders of sea produce or use their boat to ferry people and cargo from island to island.

It is a wonderful experience to visit these Bajo villages, always lively, colorful and busy. One of the highlight of such visit will be to witness how they developed an exceptional ability to free-dive, deep and for extended period of time, a testament to their adaptation to the environment.