Mbokita, the Bajo Village at Sombori

On the Sombori side of our route there's a village called Mbokita, built on stilts above shallow water. Almost every operator in this region lists it as a stop. Very few say anything true about the people who live there.

It sits in Menui district, in Morowali, Central Sulawesi, inside the same stretch of protected water that covers the Sombori islands. From the boat you see a line of houses standing on poles over the shallows, roofed in red and blue, with walkways connecting them and boats tied underneath.

Who lives there

The Bajo are a maritime people found across eastern Indonesia, Malaysia and the southern Philippines, historically living on and from the sea to a degree that has few parallels anywhere.

Boat dwelling declined after the nineteenth century and gave way to a shore-based existence. Today most Bajo live in pile-house settlements above shallow coastal water, which is exactly what you're looking at when you arrive at Mbokita.

There's a good deal more worth knowing, including the well-documented physiological adaptations to breath-hold diving that these communities carry. That belongs in an honest account of who they are, and it's covered properly on who the Bajo of Sulawesi are. What it is not is a party trick to be requested. Nobody at Mbokita owes a visitor a demonstration.

What the visit actually is

Mbokita is a working village. People live there, fish from there and build boats there. There's no ticket office, no visitor centre, and nobody on shift.

That means it is not a cultural performance. There's no dancing laid on, no craft demonstration, no lunch in a traditional house arranged for guests. If that's what you're expecting, you'll be disappointed, and the disappointment would be the fault of the expectation rather than of Mbokita.

What it is: a walk along the walkways, the chance to see how a settlement built entirely over water actually works, and usually some contact with people going about their day. Children are generally the first to say hello. Your guide translates.

How to be a good visitor

A short list, and none of it is complicated.

Ask before photographing people. Every time, not once at the start. This is the single thing most often got wrong.

Keep drones high and brief, or don't fly. A drone at low altitude over someone's house is intrusion. The wide establishing shot is fine; hovering is not.

Don't hand out money or sweets to children. It's well meant and it does damage over time. If you want to contribute, ask your guide what would actually help.

Buy something if something is for sale. That's a normal transaction and it's welcome.

Dress as you would in any village, which mostly means covering up between the boat and the walkway.

More on the reasoning behind all of this on travelling responsibly around Labengki and Sombori.

When you'll see it

Mbokita appears on the Sombori side of our longer itineraries. On the five-day trip it gets a proper afternoon rather than a passing look, which is a better experience for everyone including the village.

On shorter trips it's a stop between other stops, and whether it's reached at all depends on sea conditions that day, like everything else out here.

There's no fee to pay here. No village retribution, nothing collected at the shore. Entrance costs across the whole route sit inside the package, so you arrive owing nobody anything, which is the right footing to visit somebody's village on.

Where it sits in the route

Mbokita is on the Sombori side, which means it comes on a day that also takes in caves and beaches rather than being a destination on its own. The geography and the rest of what that side of the route covers is on the rest of Sombori Island.

If the cultural side of this trip is what draws you rather than the lagoons, the five-day itinerary is the one that gives Mbokita room to be more than a photograph.