Climbing Lombok’s Gunung Rinjani offers the feel of a true expedition without the months of slogging through snow. Here you’ll negotiate nothing more harrowing than thick mahogany and teak forests filled with creeping roots, impudent monkeys, and a cacophony of woodpeckers, yellow-crested cockatoos, and red-cheeked parrots. Maps and trails are fickle, so it’s better to travel with a guide and porter. Not only will they deepen your cultural experience, but their sprightly maneuvers in flip-flops—while shouldering inhuman loads on bamboo poles—will prod your flagging resolve on the steepest sections.

At 12,224 feet, Rinjani stretches its shoulders nearly to the island’s edge but doesn’t require technical skill; both the Balinese and Sasaks frequently make pilgrimages here (especially during the full moon). The more demanding route to the top makes a good first ascent for iron-willed beginners while offering experienced mountaineers all the usual elements: a predawn traverse over an exposed ridge, a heartbreaking false summit, and the daunting final push.
The three-to-five-day climb is best done before the rains begin in November, in an open loop of roughly 25 miles between the villages of Senaru and Sembulan Lawang. Views of Indonesia’s archipelago are matched by the stunning sight of the volcano’s interior. A crescent lake surrounds a miniature volcano-within-a-volcano (Rinjani erupted harmlessly in 1994), and at its edge, a cathartic hot spring joins a cool freshwater stream. After the climb, you can recuperate on Lombok’s quiet beaches or make the quick trip to Bali for some old-fashioned pampering at a high-end resort.


Accommodations in Senaru are homestays (pseudo hotels); youth hosts can arrange guides, porters, and transportation for about $50 per person. Try Rinjani Homestay, Pondok Senaru, or Bale Banyan Senaru (each about $5 per night). Neither village has telephones; make your arrangements with Perama Travel in Senggigi at 011.62.0370.693007.

Asia Above the Fray

Hat Rai Leh: Phra Nang, Thailand

Climbers accustomed to hardship might initially resist the rhythms of Hat Rai Leh, in the saddle of the Phra Nang cliff at Thailand’s southwestern spur. They may miss those arduous approaches, those wind-battered bevies, the bland boiled meals, but such longing will not last. A few days here will persuade even rugged rock rats to embrace simple beach bungalows, cool midday swims, and sumptuous dinners. All the comforts of slow tropical days can be had for less than $40 cam, and the time passes under a sun that rises and sets over the twin beaches of this striking spit.


But there definitely are challenges to be found in this limestone wonderland. Climbs range from 5.6 to 5.13d, over exceptional rock with deep, positive pockets and smooth handles. Steep routes reward dynamic moves that climbers recall with reverence during lazy evenings in the village.
Beginners can arrange introductory courses at one of the many climbing shops integrated with the half-dozen bungalow operations, while experienced climbers can choose from a host of spectacular routes, reachable from the beach or aboard one of the numerous small boats for hire in the bay. Bring one or two 60-meter ropes for multipitch climbs; sport routes are standard, and 15 quick-draws and some webbing are all you need.


Fall is a good time to go; November is usually the driest month, though protected overhangs provide routes even on a rainy October afternoon. Either month lets you beat the winter rush, when overflow climbers sleep on the beach, while still offering a chance to join the friendly community of climbers who make the pilgrimage to Phra Nang from all parts of the planet.


Among the bungalow accommodations are Sand Sea Bungalows (011.66.75.611.944, but don’t count on it working) and Railay Village (no phones), each about $20 per night. For climbing guides contact King Climbers (kingclimbers@iname.com) or Wee’s Rock Climbing in Rai Leh (no phone, but staffed most evenings). Check out www.thaibiz.com/texsrockclimbing/ for a preview.

Asia Above the Fray

The MacLehose Trail: Hong Kong

Most Asian adventure-travel itineraries include Hong Kong merely as a convenient connecting point or a brief stopover for souvenir shopping en route to or from more remote locations. But the MacLehose Trail, which snakes 62 miles across Hong Kong’s New Territories, offers a different perspective that even city-phobic travelers can appreciate.


This mountainous six-day trek, from Sai Kung Peninsula in the east to the ancient port of Tuen Mun in the west, traverses subtropical forest and grassy wildflower slopes as it shoots you high above the throngs to view the South China Sea and the rugged hills of China. Linking eight of the region’s more than 20 country parks, the trail reaches its apex atop Tai Mo Shan, at 3,232 feet the region’s highest mountain.
Through-hikers should figure on about 35 hours to cover the entire trail, pitching a ten in campgrounds or staying hostels along the way. The hike begins gently; the tough sections occur between Pak Tam Au and Tate’s Cairn at the Gilwell campsite, a 14-mile stretch that you reach on either the second or forth day, depending on which end of the trail serves as your starting point. At the small villages along the route you can stop for provisions such as sea cucumber in oyster sauce that’ll make you relegate your freeze-dried meals and energy bars to the bottom of your backpack.


The ideal season is October through December. Summit Tai Mo Shan in clear weather and you’ll be rewarded with sweeping views of the New Territories’ northwestern plains and the Chinese coastline. The urban mayhem of Hong Kong down below will seem like an exotic dream.


Get maps and trail descriptions from the Country and Marine Parks Authority in Kowloon; call 011.852.2733.2132. The main ranger office (011.852.2420.0529) is also a good source of information. The hostels charge about $5 for members of International Youth Hostels, $8 for non-members. Reservations are advised: call 011.852.2788.1638. Campsites are either free or run a mere $2-3 per night. For additional information contact the Hong Kong Tourism Association’s New York office at 212.421.3382 or call 800.282.4582 to obtain brochures.

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Solomon Islands Diving

After the recently launched Solomon Island Aggressor logged 295 nautical miles charting 30 new scuba-diving sites, it became clear that the starring attraction of the Solomons’s remote Western Province is…bait balls. These roiling masses of grunts, jacks, and mackerel are frenzied fish parties crashed by assorted billfish, devilfish, dogfish tuna, bumphead wrasses, and reef sharks, all fearless in the presence of the rare diver.


The 107-foot Aggressor, a 16-passenger yacht based in the Solomons just four months a year, aims to ensure that humans feel as relaxed as the fish. The nine-member crew includes a chef with a penchant for gourmet twists on regional cuisine (the cassava with marinated steak is delicious). Carpeted staterooms have private baths, air conditioning, and queen-sized beds or twin lofts. There’s a photo center, video library, six-person hot tub, GPS system with Loran C, and safety equipment with integrated nitrox and oxygen capabilities.
July through November, the Aggressor makes seven-day sojourns that explore the geothermal hot spot of Vella Lavella Island, 629 square kilometers of forest, fumaroles, and dormant volcanoes with a coast inhabited by porpoises, sharks, rays, bait balls aplenty, and vast populations of clownfish, cowries, and soft coral. Also on the itinerary are visits with the islanders; a look at topside World War II sites in Guadalcana’s capital city of Honiara; and a stay in Gizo in the New Georgias, renowned for radical walls, wrecks, and offshore Plum Pudding Island, where a marooned John F. Kennedy and his IPT-109 crew spent ten long days.


Weekly charters are $2,695 per person (experienced divers only), double occupancy, including meals, diving, three hotel nights, a two-tank Gizo dive, and a tour of Honiara. Contact 800.344.5662.

Sea Kayaking in Fiji

In the remote villages of Fiji, some of the locals mark important events by spending the evenings drinking kava, a mildly narcotic brew made from the dried root of the pepperlike yagona plant. A suitable occasion, for instance, might be your arrival by sea kayak. On Vanua Levu, Fiji’s second-largest island, Eco Divers-Tours will lead you on a five-day kayak expedition along an indented coast to remote villages still unacquainted with conveniences like electricity. The kayaking in Savusavu Bay is grand: On short open-water passages you might divert your course to get a closer look at a spouting pilot whale. Or on the Nasekawa River you could exchange greetings with a farmer who is amazed that you have come from such a faraway place—i.e., Savusavu town, about six miles distant.


But the best reason to make the trip is the opportunity to spend the night in the villages and experience the true Fijian lifestyle and hospitality. You’ll stay in the villagers’ homes, eat their food (taro, cassava, corned beef, raw fish, or just about anything else marinated in coconut cream), and sleep on pandanus mats on the floor. If you’re lucky, you will sit up with them well into the night drinking kava prepared from the yagona root you presented as a gift upon your arrival. After enough bowls full of the chalky-tasting liquid have been passed around, you might learn from your hosts that the lower you are to the ground, the longer you will live. That trees have eyes to see and ears to hear. And that it is far better to spend money on a child’s education than on electricity.
The five-day trip is around $760-1,025 per person for groups of two to ten, including all meals, hotel accommodations for the first and last night, and kayaks; call 011.679.850122.

Loloata Island Resort, Papua New Guinea

Diving Papua New Guinea needn’t entail a sweaty wait for a connecting flight to some cost-a-small-fortune remote corner of the island country. Some of PNG’s best macro diving lies within a half hour of its gateway, Port Moresby’s international airport. The reefs at Loloata Island Resort in Bootless Bay, 12 miles southeast of town, are virtually untouched—chalice choral flaunt ten-foot spreads at a depth of just five feet.


A 15-minute van ride gets you to a barbed-wire gate, and a ten-minute ferry ride lands you on uninhabited Loloata Island and its sleepy, 1960s chicken farm turned resort. Its waters shelter vast stands of hard coral and sea whips, along with pygmy sea horses, mantis shrimp, pipefish, and lots of mollusks—of the 43 known species of allied cowrie, 39 are found here.
The resort has 17 beachfront bungalows on stilts, each with colonial-style furniture, private baths, and veranda with ocean view. On-site you’ll find a modest restaurant and bar, as well as an ad hoc zoo with kangaroos, wallabies, and several kinds of native birds. The resort’s dive operation provides equipment, PADI instruction, and a ten-person dive boat. More than 30 sites lie within easy reach: End Bommie is known for its scorpionfish; Lion Island for black coral; and A-20 Havoc for its sunken bomber. New sites include Dianne’s Reef, inside the main barrier reef packed with soft corals, and Nadine’s Passage, a narrow gully through the barrier reef thick with gorgonian fans, pink sea whips, and pygmy sea horses. Bring your own computer and camera gear.


Double rooms are $200 per night, including airport transfers and meals. Call 011.675.325.8590.

Three Versions of Vanuatu

If you’re looking for the prototypical fantasy island plus a wild hit of traditional culture, Vanuatu could be it. Just a seaplane’s hop from Fiji, this South Pacific archipelago is home to an eerie Titanicky dive wreck, locals who have bungee jumped for centuries, and a religious cult that anxiously awaits the return of appliance-bearing American soldiers. Known as the New Hebrides until 1980, Vanuatu’s 83 islands have 185,000 residents who speak 115 different languages. Little has changed in their fascinating home since Allied forces (and James Michener) passed through in the ’40s.


On the surprisingly cosmopolitan island of Efate, book one of 70 elevated bungalows, each with air conditioning, marble bathrooms, and balcony, at the beachside Iririki Island Resort (doubles $240-$290; 011.67.8.23388). On-site activities include snorkeling, canoeing, kayaking, and windsurfing.
When the jet lag has eased, take the one-hour plane ride to Espiritu Santo Island, the country’s largest, and hook up with Santo Dive Tours (one-tank dive, $20; 011.67.8.36822). Here you’ll explore the 654-foot luxury liner turned WWII troop ship President Coolidge, one of the world’s largest easily assessible wrecks and one of the finest dives around. The almost fully intact ship, at rest in 60 to 230 feet of water, is littered with the personal effects of 5,000 American troops and crew. When you come up for air, stay in one of 17 hexagonal, thatched-roof fares at the six-acre Bougainville Resort. It feels like an old estate villa, surrounded by tropical gardens teeming with orchids, hibiscus, and frangipani (doubles $75; 011.67.8.36257).


On Tanna Island, you can almost touch the edge of 1,184-foot Mount Yasur, a volcano so reliably active you’ll want to wear running shoes. Locals belive that it’s the originator of the universe—or a spiritual home after death. Go at night, when the sound effects and fireworks are even more dramatic. Arrange for a guide on this 40-minute (one way) hike at the Tanna Beach Resort (doubles $49-$61 per person; 011.67.8.68626), which has nine thatched-roof bungalows with private baths.


If that’s not enough excitement, attend services at a church of Jon Frum, a cargo cult that emerged after American planes dropped luxuries onto the island during World War II. Members pray for refrigerators and radios to again drop from the sky and display the Red Cross insignia liberally.


Fall visitors may catch the three- to five-day Nekowiar Ceremony with its famous Toka Dance, an alliance-making event between villages consisting of feasting, face-painting, and dancing, which takes place between August and November. Even if VCRs aren’t falling from the sky, it’s nice to know that tradition is alive and well in Bali Hai.

Sailing in the Whitsunday Islands, Australia

Divers may extol the Whitsundays as an ideal base for scuba trips to the Great Barrier Reef, but in their deep-sea tunnel vision, they’re ignoring some of the finest sailing on the planet. Reliable winds and hundreds of protected bays among this tight jumble of 74 mostly uninhabited islands make it a perfect place to ride the waves.


Sixty-six of the archipelago’s islands have been designated national parkland, replete with faw sandstone bluffs and lush pine, acadia, and eucalyptus forest. The other islands host developed resorts, lending a dash of gentility to this bushland environment just of the edge of Queenstown. The Hayman Island Resort spa is worth a stop. For an elegant dinner, dock at the Hamilton Island Resort, where the Outrigger Room serves excellent seafood. For a more casual meal, toss back some fish and chips at Harpoon Harry’s, overlooking the marina in town.
Another scenic destination is Whitsunday’s southern chain, including Pentecost, Saw, and Thomas Islands, where you can grill coral trout or bluefin tuna on the back of your boat in perfect seclusion.


Australian spring (our fall) brings fine tropical weather, with generally steady, moderate breezes and warm water for windsurfing and snorkeling. On land, you can lounge on the coral-lined white-sand beaches that surround Daydream, South Molle, and Hook Islands. From your beach towel you may spot wallabies, goats, goannas, and other Australian fauna separated from the mainland when the Ice Age carved these “drowned-mountain” islands. Underwater, the array is equally dramatic, whith anemones, barramundi, octopi, white sharks, manta rays, and turtles frequently passing before your mask.


You can easily arrange day trips from the Hamilton docks or hire a seaplane to deliver you from the back of your sailboat. Most Australian charter companies provide twice-daily radio checks, which include weather updates and reassurance for the less-experienced sailor.


Australian Bareboat Charters (011.61.7.4946.9381) and Sail Whitsunday Yacht Charters (011.61.7..4946.7070) can arrange excursions. A 40-foot bareboat yacht runs $244-$462 per night (five-night minimum); add $99 per night for a skipper. for more information on yacht charters, check www.whitsunday.net.au.

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