Mojokerto and Trowulan
About one hour by car from Surabaya you will find the city of Mojokerto and just east of this the Trowulan village. Trowulan was in the 14th century the capital of the great Majapahit empire, once the mightiest kingdom on Java and the first to control the entire Indonesian archipelago. Majapahit’s rule lasted from 1294 [...]
Padangbai
Padangbai is a popular place to stay for travelers who are on their way to or from Lombok. There are also public boats leaving regularly from here to Nusa Penida. The village is located in a lovely bay, with the large ferry terminal and a long beach surrounded by green hills. A large part of [...]
Gunung Agung
Gunung Agung is Bali’s highest and most sacred mountain. It is 3.142 meter high and can be seen from almost everywhere on Bali and from the neighboring islands, but most of the time it is covered by clouds. The best time of year to see the mountain is August to September and of course early [...]
Makassar
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 [...]
The Banda Islands
The Banda Sea is one of Indonesia’s deepest oceans, at the most more than 6.500 m deep. It spans a large area, all the way to Sulawesi in the west. At the center of the sea south of Seram there are a small group of ten islands plus some uninhabited small corral islands, called the [...]
The Aru Islands
The group of islands called Aru are located just west of West Papua in the Arafura Sea, which stretches all the way to West Papua to the east and Australia to the south. Aru is the easternmost group of islands in Maluku, they consists of about 85 islands totaling an area of 8.563 sq. km. [...]
Tirta Gangga
Tirta Gangga is a small village built on an altitude of about 500 meters, seven km northwest of Amlapura. Tirta Gangga means “water from the Ganges”, and the place is known for it’s “water palace” and beautiful surroundings. In many people’s opinion this is among the most beautiful areas on Bali.
Tenganan
When Majapahit conquered Bali in 1343 there were some Balinese who did not accept this change of rule, and therefore built their own villages in remote areas. The descendants of these people are today known as Bali Aga or Bali Mula, meaning “the original Balinese”. They still live in villages like Tenganan in East Bali [...]
Goa Lawah
There is no doubt why Goa Lawah, the bat cave, has got this name. Thousands of noisy bats fill the air in and around the cave, with a sharp smell of bat droppings covering the ground in a thick layer. It is also said that pythons live inside the cave, feeding on the bats. The [...]
Sade, a Sasak village on South Lombok
A visit to a traditional Sasak village is a necessary part of your trip to Lombok. There are two villages like this a few kilometers north of Kuta, called Rembitan and Sade. Even if some of these traditional villages today may have become tourist traps a visit can be an interesting experience. All the guides, [...]
North Lombok
North Lombok is dominated by the massive Gunung Rinjani volcano, and most of the villages here sits on the slopes of the mountain or along the narrow coastline. Many travelers come here on their way to the Gili islands or to climb Gunung Rinjani, and will therefore miss the rest of the beautiful landscape with [...]
Gunung Rinjani
Gunung Rinjani is one of the highest mountains in Indonesia with an altitude of 3.726 m. At the bottom of the crater there is a large lake called Segara Anakan, about 8 km long and 6 km wide. The lake is surrounded by steep walls and is located about 600 meter below the rim of [...]
Fish and surf on Kuta, South Lombok
Driving far south on Lombok you will eventually reach the small village of Kuta, about 54 km south of Mataram. This is the only area on the south coast which has some tourism of any significance, but must not be compared to Kuta on Bali. This place is much more quiet with only a fraction [...]
Danau Bratan
The Danau Bratan lake is located inside the old caldera of the now extinct Gunung Catur volcano. The lovely area around the south and west side of the lake is known as Bedugul (see separate article). Not far from here are the Danau Buyan and Danau Tamblingan lakes, two of the four large lakes on [...]
Bedugul
Bedugul is the name of the area south and west of the Danau Bratan lake. Taking the road passing Bedugul is the fastest way to travel from the southern tourist areas to Singaraja and North Bali. From the south the road passes through some steep terrain before Bedugul, with a very scenic landscape. The Taman [...]
Nusa Penida
Nusa Penida consist of three islands; the large Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Ceningan. The islands are under administration of the Klungkung district. A common way to travel here is by public boat from Sanur to Lembongan. You can also sail from Padangbai directly to Nusa Penida, which will bring you to Sampalan on [...]
Nusa Tenggara facts
The Nusa Tenggara islands are mostly poor and sparsely populated. Especially on the eastern islands the climate is dry and the landscape mountainous. Nusa Tenggara is different from the rest of Indonesia both geographically, ethnically and culturally. The main reason for this is the deep waters dividing Nusa Tenggara and the western parts of Indonesia [...]
West Timor
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 [...]
Semarapura
Even if many still use the old name Klungkung, the official name of this city is today Semarapura. Most maps and signs now use the name Semarapura. The biggest attraction here is the Taman Gili (island-garden) complex, consisting of Bale Kambang and Kerta Gosa within a large garden. In the western part of the garden [...]
Klungkung
Klungkung is one of the smallest districts on Bali, but as a former center of the Gelgel dynasty it is also one of the most important historically. It includes Semarapura city, Goa Lawah and the three Nusa Penida islands. 1343 was a particular important year in Balinese history, when the island was conquered by Gajah [...]
Weyewa identity
The Weyewa inhabit the western highlands of Sumba, Nusa Tenggara Timur Province, where they cultivate rice, corn, and cassava using slash-and-burn farming methods as well as continuous irrigation of padi fields. They supplement this income through the sale of livestock, coffee, and their distinctive brightly colored textiles. Until the 1970s, there had been relatively few challenges [...]
Puncak Jaya
The summit of Puncak Jaya (“Victory Peak”) as it is called in Indonesia, better known as Carstensz Pyramid among climbers, stands at 4.884m and is located in the western central highlands of Irian Jaya at a latitude of 4° S. It is the highest peak in Oceana, or the Australasia continent, and in Indonesia. It [...]
The Tapir
Tapirs inhabit jungle and forest regions of South America, Central America, and Southeast Asia. There are four species of Tapirs: the Brazilian tapir, the Malayan tapir (which we find in Indonesia), Baird’s tapir and the Mountain tapir. All four species of tapir are classified as endangered or vulnerable. Their closest relatives are the other odd-toed [...]
The Tarsier
Tarsiers are primates of the genus Tarsius, in the family Tarsiidae, which is itself the lone extant family within the infraorder Tarsiiformes. Although the group was once more widespread, all the species living today are found in the islands of Southeast Asia. Evolutionary history Fossils of tarsiers and tarsiiform primates are found in Asia, Europe, [...]