On a densely populated and highly modernized island of Java, some people are still facing difficult and hard life. With small and no steady income to sustain their economy, people in Kampong Cegog must work very hard to make the ends meet. Kampong Cegog is located in the village of Rancapinang; sub-district Sumur, regency of Pandeglang, Banten. Nestled in a hilly area, it is the last settlement before entering the south part of Ujung Kulon National Park, a world heritage site, sanctuary of the last Javan rhinoceros.

The environment of East Timor is highly diverse; in terms of geology, topography, climate, as well as terrestrial and aquatic flora and fauna. Obviously man has affected the East Timor environment, but it is equally true that most resource uses are curtailed by and adapted to the island's natural conditions. The differences in practises and livelihoods found throughout East Timor reflect these varying natural conditions in highly specialised systems for resource use.

Rail Jerker's Diary.
MALANG HASH HOUSE HARRIERS II, East Java, Indonesia. Run # 740 Friday, 6 May 2005.
Hares: "Draimulen"; his wife "Mentek"; and her sister "Ayam Mini".

Splendid Inn Hotel is the "Hash Head Quarters & Correspondence" of Malang Hash House Harriers II, a mixed hash, which runs every Friday, with HHH (Happy Hash Hours) at the Inn on Wednesday evenings.

The approximately 65,000 Asmat people of the south-central alluvial swamps of Irian Jaya Province are descended from a Papuan racial stock. They live in villages with populations that vary from 35 to 2,000. Until the 1950s, when greater numbers of outsiders arrived, warfare, headhunting, and cannibalism were constant features of their social life. Their houses were built along the bends of rivers so that an enemy attack could be seen in advance.

The North Sumatra Triangle -- a paradise for budget tourists. "Unity in Diversity" is the national motto of Indonesia. There are over 300 tribal-ethnic groups living on 6,000 islands. The remaining 11,000 islands are uninhabited. The larger islands are Java, Sumatra, Irian Jaya and Kalimantan. Kalimantan comprises two-thirds of the island of Borneo, the other one-third being East Malaysia (Sarawak and Sabah) and the Sultanate of Brunei.

Halmahera is the largest island in the Maluku archipelago. Because of the mountainous landscape it is however the most sparsely populated, considering the size. Population is about 130.000, and there are no large cities here. Only on the northern peninsula there are some infrastructure and villages of any significance, there are some villages on the southern peninsula as well. The population are mainly Muslim with a mix of ethnic backgrounds; Arabs, Indians, Portuguese, Dutch and Malay.

Bromo-Tengger national park is located on East Java, about three hours by car from Surabaya. Tengger is a huge, old caldera with the Bromo volcano inside. The smoking cone of Bromo raises from the plain of this 10 km wide caldera, but is not the highest mountain inside. Side by side with Bromo are also other mountains like Gunung Batok (2.440m) and Gunung Kursi (2.581m). Bromo (2.392m) and the nearby Semeru volcano, the highest mountain on Java (3.676m), have during the two previous centuries had at least 100 eruptions.

Join the Norwegian guys in World Wide Vikings on an expedition to Puncak Jaya, the highest peak in Indonesia, also known as Carstensz Pyramid. The expedition took place in December 2002 / January 2003. Carstensz Pyramid is the lowest peak of the Seven Summits (the highest mountains on seven continents), but not necessarily the easiest to climb. The mountain is located in the Indonesian part of New Guinea, and is not easily accessible.

A couple of years ago West Timor used to see tourists in the range of 3 - 4.000 foreigners a year. Many of these visited the mountainous region of the Gunung Mutis protection forest. Particularly bird watchers showed a great interest to the area. In 2001 tourism dropped to less than a hundred visitors yearly due to the proximity to the East Timor border, the refugee situation and general instability in the area, and still in 2003 the difficult situation persists.

I just came from four days at BUKIT LAWANG near GUNUNG LEUSER NP in Sumatra...Such an amazing place and it's really tragic the way that the town has yet to recover from the 2003 flood. It needs only one thing - and that's tourists. Pre Nov.2003 Bukit Lawang was an absolute oasis for travelers to northern Sumatra and we made up a HUGE part of the local economy.