Indonesia
Indonesia, an archipelagic country spanning over from We island bordering with Singapore in the easternmost region to Merauke bordering with Papua New Guinea in the westernmost region, fascinates you with thousands islands. Lying in the Southeast Asia region, Indonesia covers 17,508 islands and islets and about 6,000 of them are resided. Indonesia is widely known as a country that lies along the equator where the city of Pontianak in Borneo is passed through by the equator. That is the reason why Indonesia has tropical climate with only two seasons: rainy season and dry season.
The capital city in Jakarta, a nucleus of government and business, one can find a metropolis where the hectic atmosphere in the city center mingled with the old-fashioned Dutch colonial buildings in Kota Lama (Old City) in the northern suburbs. The downtown providing the skyscrapers and luxurious buildings blended with the uptown historical constructions are the two faces of Jakarta. Foreigner can obtain many tourism objects in Kota Lama as well as go shopping at the metropolitan malls spread out the downtown and the suburban area.
Over the insular tourism destinations, Indonesia possesses a lot of tourism spots spreading over the archepelago. These are among them:
1. Kuta, Bali.
Talking about Indonesia, foreign and domestic tourists always refer to Bali as the island of paradise. Being exotic and amazing, Bali, a provincial island at the eastern side of Java island, possesses many tourist destinations such as the Kuta Beach designated as a magnet for either surfers or divers around the world. Kuta is a small town in southern Bali which was once a former fishing village. It was one of the first towns on Bali to climb up to be considerable tourist development. Kuta is internationally well-known for its long sandy beach, varied accommodations of restaurants and bars, and significant Australian population.
Let me remind you how to get Kuta Beach. Firstly, after you get to Bali in Ngurah Rai International Airport, you can hire a taxi to find hotel where you and your family can spend your days there. It only takes 10 minutes away by taxi from airport to the Kuta. Foreigners can lie in the sun for hours to get tanned in the Kuta Beach, making the skin auburn as many people of many nationalities long for. If you want to learn how to surf, you will find many surfing classes with cheap prices. For the challenging sport-loving people, you can feel your pounding heartbeat in bungie jumping which can be found in the Kuta and its vicinities.
Legian and Seminyak are northern extensions of Kuta along Jalan Legian (Legian Street) and Jalan Basangkasa (Basangkara Street). They are suburbs with cottage-styled accommodations, where many foreigners reside. Also to the northern paces are Petitenget, Berawa, Canggu, and Seseh - new extensions of Kuta Beach. They are easy to reach through Abian Timbul or Denpasar and Kerobokan. Hotels and motels can be found everywhere along Kuta with the affordable prices. Among them, a number of large hotels are the Oberoi Bali, Hard Rock Hotel Bali, the Intan Bali Village, the Legian in Petitenget, the Dewata Beach and the Bali Sani Suites in Berawa.
You do not feel to worry about hanging around, you can go to Musro where you can spoil yourself with music and beverages. Taking a stroll in Bali will not be complete before you visit the cliffside temple at Uluwatu, only 90 minutes from Kuta Beach. Fishing and enjoying the barbecued sea food at Jimbaran for those who love eating crustacean cuisine. At Canggu located beyond Seminyak you can enjoy surfing the volcanic black sand beaches.
2. Yogyakarta, Central Java.
Tourism object the foreigners will notice in Central Java is Yogyakarta, pleasant city of Javanese culture and music is long-inherited. As the province in the middle of Java island, Yogyakarta, also often referred to simply as “Yogya” has two nearby historical ruins of Buddhist and Hindu kingdom namely Borobudur and Prambanan temple. These historical sites, located near Yogyakarta, are Borobudur situated on approximately 40 kilometers northwest of Yogyakarta and Prambana located 18 kilometers east of Yogyakarta.
There is no written record of who built Borobudur. The construction time has been approximately calculated by comparison between carved reliefs on the temple's hidden foot and the inscriptions commonly used in royal inscriptions during the 8th and 9th century. Borobudur was likely founded around 800 AD. This corresponds to the period within 760–830 AD, on the acme of the Sailendra dynasty in central Java, when it was under the influence of the Srivijayan Empire in Sumatra. The construction was estimated to have taken 75 years and been completed during the reign of King Samaratungga in 825 AD.
Built from gray andesite stone to exalt Buddha Gautama, Borobudur rises to seven terraces, each smaller than the one below it. The top is Great Stupa, standing 40 meters above the earth. Borobudur is decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues. A main dome, located at the center of the top, surrounded by 72 Buddha statues seated inside perforated stupa. As the shrine measuring to 123 x 123 meters, Borobudur becomes a great Mahayana Buddhist monument in the world.
Prambanan, a Hindu temple, that is situated on the outskirts of a Yogyakarta suburb is also the tourism spot you cannot ignore. It possesses many small temples and shrines inside the temple compound. Prambanan provides you wonderful traditional legend about one of its shrines namely Rara Jonggrang. The popular legend of Rara Jonggrang is connected to the site of the King Boko Palace, the origin of the Durga statue in northern chamber of the main shrine, and the origin of the Sewu temple complex nearby. The legend tells about Prince Bandung Bondowoso who had fallen in love with Princess Rara Jonggrang, the daughter of King Boko. But the princess refused his proposal of matrimony as Bandung Bondowoso had killed her father. Bandung Bondowoso kept insisting that she be impelled to agree with a marriage, but she gave one impossible-challenging condition: Bandung had to build her a thousand temples in only one night. The Prince meditated and invoked a myriad of spirits from the earth. Assisted by the demons, he succeeded in building 999 temples. When the prince was about to complete the rest of the temples, the princess aroused her maids and ordered the village women to hit rice places and set a fire in the east of the temple, attempting to make the prince and the spirits believe that the sun was about to rise. As the cocks crowed, the supernatural helpers got back into the ground, tricked by the fire light and the sounds of cock-a-doodle-doo. Bandung was exasperated about the trick and in revenge he cursed Rara Jonggrang to stone. She became the last and the most beautiful of the thousand statues. According to the traditions, the unfinished thousandth temple created by the demons become the Sewu temple compounds nearby (Sewu means "a thousand" in Javanese), and the Princess is the image of Durga in the north cell of the Shiva temple at Prambanan, which is still known as Rara Jonggrang (meaning Slender Virgin in Javanese).
Located nearby is an open air theater where the Ramayana saga is performed, telling the never ending love of Rama and Shinta is evolved and embellished in Javanese culture. In downtown Yogyakarta, you can visit Keraton of Yogya, Keraton is a Javanese sultan’s palace that has a Dutch colonial architecture when it was founded in 18th century. Gamelan, a typical Javanese music, blending the harmonious melody can bring you through the spirit of Javanese. You cannot leave Yogyakarta without bringing a souvenir named batik, a handicraft of dyed textiles in Jalan Malioboro. Batik consists of many models and colors whose major color is brown. Also wayang golek (wooden puppets) and wayang kulit (leather puppets) are the traditional performances you should attend. Played by a dalang, someone who holds and plays wayang, wayang golek and wayang kulit will amuse you with the story of either kindness or evilness. If you are a true adventurer, a trek to Mount Merapi is an obligation. As Indonesia’s most active volcano, it might be rumbling during your journey. It has regular and minor eruptions. Take the bus to the village of Selo. From Selo, you can hike to the Merapi Summit within 3 to 4 hours.
The capital city in Jakarta, a nucleus of government and business, one can find a metropolis where the hectic atmosphere in the city center mingled with the old-fashioned Dutch colonial buildings in Kota Lama (Old City) in the northern suburbs. The downtown providing the skyscrapers and luxurious buildings blended with the uptown historical constructions are the two faces of Jakarta. Foreigner can obtain many tourism objects in Kota Lama as well as go shopping at the metropolitan malls spread out the downtown and the suburban area.Over the insular tourism destinations, Indonesia possesses a lot of tourism spots spreading over the archepelago. These are among them:
1. Kuta, Bali.
Talking about Indonesia, foreign and domestic tourists always refer to Bali as the island of paradise. Being exotic and amazing, Bali, a provincial island at the eastern side of Java island, possesses many tourist destinations such as the Kuta Beach designated as a magnet for either surfers or divers around the world. Kuta is a small town in southern Bali which was once a former fishing village. It was one of the first towns on Bali to climb up to be considerable tourist development. Kuta is internationally well-known for its long sandy beach, varied accommodations of restaurants and bars, and significant Australian population.Let me remind you how to get Kuta Beach. Firstly, after you get to Bali in Ngurah Rai International Airport, you can hire a taxi to find hotel where you and your family can spend your days there. It only takes 10 minutes away by taxi from airport to the Kuta. Foreigners can lie in the sun for hours to get tanned in the Kuta Beach, making the skin auburn as many people of many nationalities long for. If you want to learn how to surf, you will find many surfing classes with cheap prices. For the challenging sport-loving people, you can feel your pounding heartbeat in bungie jumping which can be found in the Kuta and its vicinities.
Legian and Seminyak are northern extensions of Kuta along Jalan Legian (Legian Street) and Jalan Basangkasa (Basangkara Street). They are suburbs with cottage-styled accommodations, where many foreigners reside. Also to the northern paces are Petitenget, Berawa, Canggu, and Seseh - new extensions of Kuta Beach. They are easy to reach through Abian Timbul or Denpasar and Kerobokan. Hotels and motels can be found everywhere along Kuta with the affordable prices. Among them, a number of large hotels are the Oberoi Bali, Hard Rock Hotel Bali, the Intan Bali Village, the Legian in Petitenget, the Dewata Beach and the Bali Sani Suites in Berawa.
You do not feel to worry about hanging around, you can go to Musro where you can spoil yourself with music and beverages. Taking a stroll in Bali will not be complete before you visit the cliffside temple at Uluwatu, only 90 minutes from Kuta Beach. Fishing and enjoying the barbecued sea food at Jimbaran for those who love eating crustacean cuisine. At Canggu located beyond Seminyak you can enjoy surfing the volcanic black sand beaches.2. Yogyakarta, Central Java.
Tourism object the foreigners will notice in Central Java is Yogyakarta, pleasant city of Javanese culture and music is long-inherited. As the province in the middle of Java island, Yogyakarta, also often referred to simply as “Yogya” has two nearby historical ruins of Buddhist and Hindu kingdom namely Borobudur and Prambanan temple. These historical sites, located near Yogyakarta, are Borobudur situated on approximately 40 kilometers northwest of Yogyakarta and Prambana located 18 kilometers east of Yogyakarta.
There is no written record of who built Borobudur. The construction time has been approximately calculated by comparison between carved reliefs on the temple's hidden foot and the inscriptions commonly used in royal inscriptions during the 8th and 9th century. Borobudur was likely founded around 800 AD. This corresponds to the period within 760–830 AD, on the acme of the Sailendra dynasty in central Java, when it was under the influence of the Srivijayan Empire in Sumatra. The construction was estimated to have taken 75 years and been completed during the reign of King Samaratungga in 825 AD.
Built from gray andesite stone to exalt Buddha Gautama, Borobudur rises to seven terraces, each smaller than the one below it. The top is Great Stupa, standing 40 meters above the earth. Borobudur is decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues. A main dome, located at the center of the top, surrounded by 72 Buddha statues seated inside perforated stupa. As the shrine measuring to 123 x 123 meters, Borobudur becomes a great Mahayana Buddhist monument in the world.
Prambanan, a Hindu temple, that is situated on the outskirts of a Yogyakarta suburb is also the tourism spot you cannot ignore. It possesses many small temples and shrines inside the temple compound. Prambanan provides you wonderful traditional legend about one of its shrines namely Rara Jonggrang. The popular legend of Rara Jonggrang is connected to the site of the King Boko Palace, the origin of the Durga statue in northern chamber of the main shrine, and the origin of the Sewu temple complex nearby. The legend tells about Prince Bandung Bondowoso who had fallen in love with Princess Rara Jonggrang, the daughter of King Boko. But the princess refused his proposal of matrimony as Bandung Bondowoso had killed her father. Bandung Bondowoso kept insisting that she be impelled to agree with a marriage, but she gave one impossible-challenging condition: Bandung had to build her a thousand temples in only one night. The Prince meditated and invoked a myriad of spirits from the earth. Assisted by the demons, he succeeded in building 999 temples. When the prince was about to complete the rest of the temples, the princess aroused her maids and ordered the village women to hit rice places and set a fire in the east of the temple, attempting to make the prince and the spirits believe that the sun was about to rise. As the cocks crowed, the supernatural helpers got back into the ground, tricked by the fire light and the sounds of cock-a-doodle-doo. Bandung was exasperated about the trick and in revenge he cursed Rara Jonggrang to stone. She became the last and the most beautiful of the thousand statues. According to the traditions, the unfinished thousandth temple created by the demons become the Sewu temple compounds nearby (Sewu means "a thousand" in Javanese), and the Princess is the image of Durga in the north cell of the Shiva temple at Prambanan, which is still known as Rara Jonggrang (meaning Slender Virgin in Javanese).Located nearby is an open air theater where the Ramayana saga is performed, telling the never ending love of Rama and Shinta is evolved and embellished in Javanese culture. In downtown Yogyakarta, you can visit Keraton of Yogya, Keraton is a Javanese sultan’s palace that has a Dutch colonial architecture when it was founded in 18th century. Gamelan, a typical Javanese music, blending the harmonious melody can bring you through the spirit of Javanese. You cannot leave Yogyakarta without bringing a souvenir named batik, a handicraft of dyed textiles in Jalan Malioboro. Batik consists of many models and colors whose major color is brown. Also wayang golek (wooden puppets) and wayang kulit (leather puppets) are the traditional performances you should attend. Played by a dalang, someone who holds and plays wayang, wayang golek and wayang kulit will amuse you with the story of either kindness or evilness. If you are a true adventurer, a trek to Mount Merapi is an obligation. As Indonesia’s most active volcano, it might be rumbling during your journey. It has regular and minor eruptions. Take the bus to the village of Selo. From Selo, you can hike to the Merapi Summit within 3 to 4 hours.
