Indonesiaphoto

About 12 km north of Tabanan city, along the road to Pura Luhur Batukau, you will find the holy springs of Yeh Panes Penetahan. Today they are surrounded by the charming "Yeh Panes Natural Hot spring and Spa", and for a small fee you can come inside and have a look or take a bath in one of the pools, which just costs a little bit extra. If you wish you can also rent a room here and stay the night in this relaxing area.

The small town of Batu is located about 15 km northeast of Malang, and is a popular place for vacation and recreation among the local population on East Java, at least those who can afford such a luxury. The climate up here can be very pleasant. There may not be so much to do in Batu itself, but the surrounding landscape is beautiful.

Padang on Sumatra's west coast is the island's third largest city with a population of about 700.000. It is the provincial capital of West Sumatra and most of the products from this region is exported through Padang. The major export articles are coal, rubber, coffee, spice, tobacco, rattan and tea. Padang is situated at the foot of the Minangkabau highland, which is named after the original inhabitants of west Sumatra.

Makassar has a population of about 950.000 and is the provincial capital of south Sulawesi. From 1971 to 1999, the city was named Ujung Pandang, and the two names are often used interchangeably. It is  the largest city on Sulawesi, and has for centuries been the commercial center of trade for Sulawesi and the eastern Indonesian islands. Major goods exported from here are textiles, paper, processed food, building materials and a variety of agricultural products.

Batam is one of the largest islands in the Riau archipelago, and not long ago it was just another poor island with coastal villages and unspoiled nature. The declaration of the Batam free trade zone in 1989 has turned the island upside down, after just a few years of rapid construction it now has a modern airport, tourist and business centers and a still growing infrastructure that has changed the island completely.

Papua is the largest province of Indonesia, comprising a majority part of the western half of the island of New Guinea and nearby islands. The province originally covered the entire western half of New Guinea (named Irian Jaya), but in 2003, the western portion of the province was declared by the Indonesian Government as a separate province named West Irian Jaya (now West Papua).

Timor is the easternmost and clearly the largest island in the Nusa Tenggara archipelago (see also East Timor). The island is 450 km long and 105 km wide. Area 30.820 sq. km, with a population of around 1.3 million on West Timor and about 850.000 on East Timor. The island has several mountain chains, the highest mountains can be found on the eastern part. Gunung Ramelau, also called Tata Mailau, on East Timor is the highest peak (2.950m).

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.

West Kalimantan is not a large tourist destination, and therefore not a place where you can expect to find many tourist facilities. The region has about four million inhabitants, and the largest concentration of people with Chinese background in Indonesia. The most important town is Pontianak, founded in 1770 by an Arabic trader. Pontianak has an airport with departures to and from for example Singapore, Kuching and Jakarta.

The Bohorok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center was started in 1973 by two Swiss zoologists, Regina Frey and Monica Boerner, and funded by Frankfurt Zoological Society and WWF. The intention was to help orangutans that had been displaced due to land clearing or recovered from captivity. In the first years they had great success in the four steps of rehabilitation; removal from captivity, a quarantine of at least three months, release into the forest around the center and finally taken deep into the rainforest to be released into the wild permanently.

Identifying someone in Indonesia as a member of the Chinese (orang Tionghoa) ethnic group is not an easy matter, because physical characteristics, language, name, geographical location, and life-style of Chinese Indonesians are not always distinct from those of the rest of the population. Census figures do not record Chinese as a special group, and there are no simple racial criteria for membership in this group.

In June 17, 1864, Governor-General Mr. L. A. J. W. Baron Sloet van Beele broke ground for the first railway line in Java, which was then part of Netherlands East Indies. The line belonged to the Nederlandsch-Indische Spoorweg Maatschappij (Netherlands East Indies Railway Company), and the first line in operation was between Semarang and Tanggung, opened in August 10, 1867.

The main variable of Indonesia's climate is not temperature or air pressure, but rainfall. The almost uniformly warm waters that make up 81 percent of Indonesia's area ensure that temperatures on land remain fairly constant (see table below). Split by the equator, the archipelago is almost entirely tropical in climate, with the coastal plains averaging 28°C, the inland and mountain areas averaging 26°C, and the higher mountain regions, 23°C.

At the boundary between Yogyakarta and Surakarta there are several temples which are scattered within a distance not more than 1 km. It is interesting to note that these temples belong to a sacred place of two religions: Hinduism and Buddhism. The temples were constructed between the eighth century and the ninth century A.D. Prambanan, the name of the complex of these temples, is a beautiful and fertile region.

To fully enjoy living in a country like Indonesia you need the ability to quickly adapt. Many people will on their first visit to Asia experience a cultural shock, absolutely everything is different. A cultural shock is not just a way of speech, it can be quite real for most of us moving to a new country. It will not appear right after the move as many may believe, for the first 1-2 months everything will look new, exciting and charming.

The uma of the Saguguluk is a common destination for foreigners. Getting there does not involve great distances. But distance is made up for by the degree of difficulty in getting there, without which the journey would have much less appeal anyway. One climbs up out of the settlement moves through cultivated forest into primary growth areas, and follows river beds in the absense of a torrential downpour, these being preferable to slogging through the frequent sections of knee-deep mud.

With this article we will try to give some background information about the safety situation in Indonesia, but it must be up to you to decide if it is safe enough to visit the country. Be aware that the situation changes frequently, so make sure you have the latest and most reliable information before you make up your mind. But don't get too intimidated by what is written in the western press, most of Indonesia is safe with very friendly people, as you soon will discover when you go there.

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.