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Riau Islands, Bintan. View over Tanjung Pinang. Parts of the city are built on stilts (from helicopter). (Photo Bjorn Grotting)
Due to it’s strategic location and size Bintan has a rich history. Riau has for centuries been the home of Malay and the Orang Laut people (sea nomads). Later migrants came from south China and Indochina, today people from a large region of Asia has settled here. Bintan was located aside the China-India maritime trading route, and was early in the 14th century, together with Temasek (Singapore), recorded in Chinese maritime records as one of the islands of the Riau archipelago that was inhabited by Malay pirates.
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Apr 13, 2013 | Categories: Riau, The History | Tags: bintan, history, indonesia, island, islands, nusa tenggara, photos, pulau, riau | Leave A Comment »
Bali, Gianyar, Goa Gajah. The elephant cave. The cave entrance area. (Photo Bjorn Grotting)
The mysterious Goa Gajah (elephant cave) is one of the oldest relics on Bali. The exact time of origin is uncertain, but archeologists estimate the cave to have been built around year 1022 AD. This was long before Majapahit entered the island, and also hundreds of years before the first Europeans set foot here.
The site is a mix of Hindu- and Buddhist symbols, among them the cave with the entrance in an artistically carved cliff, a bathing pool with fountains, a statue of the Buddhist goddess Hariti, as well as several other Buddha figures.
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Mar 12, 2013 | Categories: Bali | Tags: bali, balinese, elephant cave, gianyar, goa gajah, hashing, indonesia, island, photos | Leave A Comment »
Bali, Badung, Seseh. Balis gold, a fully grown ricestraw. Rise is not only food, it is a very important part of the Balinese and Indonesian culture and history. (Photo Bjorn Grotting)
Few things, if any, have had a larger influence on the development of Asia and Indonesia than the knowledge of how to grow and cultivate rice. Rice is intimately involved in the culture as well as the food ways and economy of many societies. Folklore tells us that when the Kachins of northern Myanmar (Burma) were sent forth from the center of the Earth, they were given the seeds of rice and were directed to a wondrous country where everything was perfect and where rice grew well.
Rice is an integral part of their creation myth and remains today as their leading crop and most preferred food. In Bali, it is believed that the Lord Vishnu caused the Earth to give birth to rice, and the God Indra taught the people how to raise it. In both tales, rice is considered a gift of the gods, and even today in both places, rice is treated with reverence, and its cultivation is tied to elaborate rituals.
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Feb 27, 2013 | Categories: Life | Tags: bali, indonesia, island, photos, rice | Leave A Comment »
Traditional Toraja House in Kete Kesu Village, Tana Toraja – South Sulawesi
Tana Toraja is located in the Northern part of the South Sulawesi Province. Situated between Latimojong Mountain range and Mount Reute Kambola. The arible Toraja consists of three groups. The Eastern around lake Poso, Western Toraja living around the Palu river and Kalawi in Centre Sulawesi. The Specific architecture of Torajan house has its own architecture form. Torajan house are shaped like a bout and the two ends are shaped like the bow.
Torajan house is a compound buildings consist of traditional houses (Tongkonan) and rice storage buildings (Lumbung). The building are sculpted with ornaments of various shapes. The ornament is painted with traditional colour dominated with the black and red colour. All of them create the aesthetic value of the building of Torajan houses.
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Feb 20, 2013 | Categories: Life, Sulawesi | Tags: indonesia, island, islands, people, photos, sulawesi, tana toraja, tongkonan | Leave A Comment »
Surabaya. These ships, called Pinisi, are unique to Indonesia. This is still a common way of transport. Kalimas harbor. (Photo Bjorn Grotting)
Surabaya is East Java’s largest and Indonesia’s second largest city with a population somewhere between 2 and 3 million. Traditionally the city is one of the most important commercial port and trading centers in South East Asia. The harbor is Indonesia’s second largest after Tanjung Priok in Jakarta, protected by the Madura island just east of Surabaya.
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Feb 17, 2013 | Categories: Java | Tags: indonesia, island, islands, java, kalimas, madura, mas, photos, pinisi, surabaya | Leave A Comment »
Java, Banyuwangi. Looking south towards Ketapang and Banyuwangi. (Photo Bjorn Grotting)
On the easternmost part of Java there are three volcanoes that all are nature reserves; Bromo-Tengger, the Yang plateau and the Ijen plateau with Gunung Raung to the extreme east. There are also three additional reserves in this area, all located by the coast; Baluran animal reserve at the north east part, the most easily accessible, the Alas Purwo reserve on the south east part and the Meru Betiri reserve at the south coast.
In Meru Betiri it is said there are still a few remaining Javanese tigers lurking in the forest, but the species were last seen in the Ujung Kulon national park in 1950 and is unfortunately most likely extinct today.
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Feb 13, 2013 | Categories: Java | Tags: Banyuwangi, indonesia, island, islands, java, Ketapang, photos, volcano | Leave A Comment »
Bali, Buleleng, Singaraja. A family selling durian south of Singaraja. The taste of this characteristic fruit is definitely better than its smell. (Photo Bjorn Grotting)
Singaraja was once the center of trade on Bali, as well as the capital of the island. Traders from all over Asia have arrived here since the 10th century, trading goods like weapons and opium in change of fresh water, food, cattle and slaves. Singaraja means “lion king”, while there are no lions here, the name is in remembrance of an old palace built in 1604 by the mighty king Raja Panji Sakti.
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Dec 26, 2012 | Categories: Bali | Tags: bali, balinese, buleleng, gitgit, island, islands, photos, singaraja | Leave A Comment »
Ujung Kulon is offering a wide variety of landscapes with beaches, swamps, forests and corral reefs (Photo Bjorn Grotting)
Ujung Kulon National Park is located on a peninsula at the extreme west part of Java, it was Indonesia’s first national park and by many still considered as the finest. Gunung Honje (620 m) is the highest point, at the center of the park there is a plateau called Telanca with an altitude of about 140 m. The rest of the park is mostly lower land and a shifting coastal landscape, in total it covers 760 square kilometers.
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Dec 25, 2012 | Categories: Java | Tags: indonesia, island, islands, java, krakatau, photos, ujung kulon | Leave A Comment »
Bali, Gianyar, Gunung Kawi. An 11th century temple complex close to Tampaksiring. On the eastern part there is five temples or shrines. (Photo Bjorn Grotting)
Gunung Kawi is the largest and maybe also the most impressive of the old monuments on Bali. Like Goa Gajah this site is around 1.000 years old, probably built at the end of the 11th century. Gunung Kawi was first discovered by Europeans in 1920, even if the local population had knowledge of it a long time before that.
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Dec 14, 2012 | Categories: Bali, Featured | Tags: bali, balinese, candi, gunung kawi, hindu, indonesia, island, monument, photos, tampaksiring, temple | Leave A Comment »
Indonesia, Java, Puncak. Green hills covered with tea plants in the Puncak Pass. (Photo Bjorn Grotting)
If you travel from Jakarta to Bandung you can pass through the scenic Puncak pass, about 90 minutes by car from the capital. The Puncak area is a very popular escape from the hot and hectic city, and along the road there is an abundance of bungalows, cottages, hotels, villas, restaurants and recreation places.
The pass is starting about 10 km from Bogor at Ciawi and continuing up through the villages of Cibogo, Cipayung and Cisarua to the Puncak pass and down on the other side to Cipanas.
To get there from Jakarta you take the Puncak & Bandung exit as the Jagowari toll way ends (not Bogor or Ciawi). From there on the road will wind through local villages before beginning to rise through a spectacular lanscape on ever increasingly steep mountain passes and gorges.
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Dec 05, 2012 | Categories: Java | Tags: cibodas, cipanas, cisuara, gede pangrango, indonesia, island, java, pass, photos, puncak, taman safari | Leave A Comment »
