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.

Bukit Lawang is a pleasant getaway from the polluted streets of Medan. The village sits on the eastern outskirts of Gunung Leuser National Park, a huge sanctuary for the flora and fauna of the region, but BL is maybe most famous for the Bohorok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center. These attractions has made Bukit Lawang one of the most popular destinations in northern Sumatra, and today the town exists almost only for the purpose of serving the tourists.

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.

Natuna is not among the most visited tourist destinations in Indonesia, and the access to these remote islands are not so straightforward. Natuna can however offer unspoiled beaches and a landscape and a culture that is absolutely worth a visit. The islands are known for lovely woven textiles and their traditional dance. The Natuna islands are spread over a wide area, located in the South China Sea between east and west Malaysia, Kalimantan and Singapore.

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.

East Kalimantan, or Kalimantan Timur (Kaltim), is perhaps the most accessible part of Kalimantan and at present probably the most industrially advanced province of Indonesian Borneo. Mostly its prosperity is due to its oil and timber resources. After Irian Jaya it is the second most spacious province of Indonesia, and with its 2.5 mill people population density is among the lowest of Indonesia with about 12/km2.

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.

The term Batak designates any one of several groups inhabiting the interior of Sumatera Utara Province south of Aceh: Angkola, Karo, Mandailing, Pakpak, Simelungen, Toba, and others. The Batak number around 3 million. Culturally, they lack the complex etiquette and social hierarchy of the Hinduized peoples of Indonesia.

In much of the information currently available in the popular literature dealing with the Mentawai islands, that is information published in cyberspace as well as in travelogues, the prevailing perception is that the local people (and here they are usually referring to the inhabitants of Siberut) have been isolated through the ages and have only just been "discovered" by outsiders.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.