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When it comes to Indonesia, there are few activities that aren't available. Every imaginable watersport is conducted here, with locations for diving, snorkelling, surfing and windsurfing scattered around the archipelago. Sumatra, Kalimantan and Papua have plentiful jungle trekking options, whie climbers should get a grip on the rocks of Java or Bali.
This large and remote national park has barely been touched by tourism. It's a wonderful area for trekking, rich in exotic plant and animal life. The butterflies there can be larger than a human hand. It's also home to several indigenous tribes who wear colourful clothing for their traditional ceremonies.
Attractions in the park include ancient megalithic relics, mostly in the Bada, Besoa and Napu Valleys; remote peaks, some more than 2500m (8200ft); bird-watching around Kamarora; and the large lake of Danau Lindu.
The main national park office, rangers station and visitors centre are about a 1km walk from Kamarora village. Here the rangers can show you the start to several short trails, which don't require a guide - such as the 10m (33ft) high waterfall about 2km (1.2mi) from Kamarora, and the hot water springs at Kadidia (3km/1.85mi). You can also arrange a guide for the longer treks here.
(Sulawesi)
bus from Palu
At the bottom of a lush green valley is one of Bali's oldest, most charming and certainly largest ancient monuments. Gunung Kawi consists of 10 rock-cut candi (shrines), memorials cut out of the rock face in imitation of actual statues. They stand in 7m-high (23ft-high) sheltered niches cut into the sheer cliff face.
(Bali)
from Ubud
| full | Rupiah 4100.00 |
| child | Rupiah 2100.00 |
This famous rehabilitation centre was set up in 1973 to help primates readjust to the wild after captivity or displacement. After a new quarantine centre outside Medan became operational in early 2002, the Bukit Lawang Centre became an orang-utan viewing area, offering a unique opportunity to see semi-wild orang-utans up close during feeding times.
(N Sumatra)
www.orangutans-sos.org
small boat river crossing by dugout canoe from Bukit Lawang
| full | Rupiah 20500.00 |
Set in plunging craters at the summit of a volcano, the coloured lakes of Kelimutu are undoubtedly the most spectacular sight in Nusa Tenggara. Astonishingly, the lakes periodically change hue - today one may be iridescent turquoise, its neighbour chocolate brown and a third lake dark green.
A few years ago the colours were blue, maroon and black, while back in the 1960s the lakes were blue, red-brown and café au lait.
It's thought that the lakes' colours are in constant flux due to dissolving minerals, a process that can accelerate in the rainy season. The moonscape around the summit gives Kelimutu an ethereal atmosphere, especially when clouds billow across the craters and sun shafts add luminescent pinpoints to the lakes.
There's a sealed road up to the lakes from Moni, 13.5km (8.5mi) away at the base of the mountain.
(Nusa Tenggara)
| free |
Looming out of a patchwork of bottle-green paddies and swaying palm tops, this colossal Buddhist relic is one of southeast Asia's marvels. It has survived Gunung Merapi's ash flows, terrorist bombs and the wear and tear of a million pairs of tourist flipflops to remain as enigmatic and beautiful as it must have been 1200 years ago.
Borobudur is built from two million block stones in the form of a massive symmetrical stupa, literally wrapped around a small hill. It stands solidly on its 118m x 118m (387ft x 387ft) base. Six square terraces are topped by three circular ones, with four stairways leading up through finely carved gateways to the top. The paintwork is long gone, but it's thought that the grey stone of Borobudur was at one time washed with a colour to catch the sun.
(Java)
www.borobudurpark.com tel info 0293 788266
bus from Yogyakarta
| full | US Dollar 11.00 |
Less developed than Bali, Lombok has better beaches, a bigger volcano and more varied landscapes. Tourism is still low key, and many visitors are independent travellers drawn by the island's intoxicating diving and snorkelling, hiking and surf spots, as well as Lombok's intriguing endemic culture.
Bali is so picturesque that you could be fooled into thinking it was a painted backdrop: rice paddies trip down hillsides like giant steps, volcanoes soar through the clouds, the forests are lush and tropical, and the beaches are lapped by the warm waters of the Indian Ocean.
Recent tragic events have scared away many of those who simply saw Bali as a place for cheap beer. While the Bintang is still tasty and plentiful, Bali's temples, ceremonies, beaches, mountains and passion for life are undiminished and more easily enjoyed than ever.
Call it the pause that refreshes. With tourism numbers down since the high-profile bombings, questions about the environmental and cultural cost of unbridled tourism are being addressed more openly. Organised resistance to new resorts and golf courses that would deplete the once-thought-inexhaustible waters that ribbon the hills has emerged. Meanwhile the world-class restaurants, spas, shops and beaches continue to beckon.
If you can stand its pollution, and if you can afford to indulge in its charms, then Jakarta is one of the region's most exciting metropolises. Consider Jakarta the 'big durian' - the foul-smelling exotic fruit that some can't stomach and others can't resist.
Once saddled with a reputation as a poverty-ridden hell hole, Jakarta mutated into an Asian boom town in not much more than a decade. Reduced by the 1998 riots to a burnt-out shell, it remains very much at the centre of political events re-shaping Indonesia.
At first glance, this hot, smoggy city feels like nothing more than a waiting lounge for the millions queuing up to make their fortune. Jakarta's infamous macet (gridlock) chokes its freeways, town planning is anathema and all attempts to forge a central focal point for the city have stuttered and ultimately failed.
Beneath the veneer of glass fascias, concrete slabs and shabby slums, however, this is a city of surprises. From the steamy, richly scented streets of Chinatown, to excellent shopping, to the city's thumping, decadent nightlife, Jakarta is a Pandora's box, filled with all the good and bad of Indonesian life.
With such a multiplicity of ethnic groups, Indonesia has a surfeit of cultural events throughout the year. On Sumba, mock battles that hark back to the era of internecine warfare are held in February and March. On Balinese New Year, Nyepi, (March-April) everything shuts and the island grinds to a standstill as locals seek to convince evil spirits that the island is uninhabited. During the Balinese festival of Galungan (moving dates) even the gods descend to earth and join in the revelry. There's a dramatic Easter Parade on the island of Larantuka, whip duels in Ruteng, Flores in August and Torajan funereal feasts in central Sulawesi, held mainly between August and October. As most Indonesians are Muslim, many festivals are affected by the lunar calendar; dates are subsequently 10 or 11 days earlier each year.
