In the last three blogs we’ve been showing you tiny Sapeken island, the market & fishing hub for the eastern part of the Kangean Archipelago, north of Bali, east of Madura, in Indonesia. 

Our entourage must get bored too easily.  We decided we did not want to go depart Sapeken the way we’d come—a route that would involve discomfort while not letting us see anything new. 

The first time I came to the remote Kangean Archipelago—NNE of Bali—in Indonesia I yearned to take a peak at the untouched coral reefs & other underwater life there. 

From the main island of the Kangean Archipelago, we crossed over to the nearby isle of Mamburit—one of those last remaining places where they continue to build traditional wooden sailing craft the old way. 

I first heard of the remote Kangean Archipelago when reading an old book about the Dutch in the East Indies during the the last century.  I was struck by stories of a few brave souls who moved out to this hyper-remote little chain of islands that lies NNE from Bali, but is administratively counted as part of Madura, East Java—though laying far from Madura.