Indonesia guide online warm welcome You to Indonesia.....
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What is on your mind when you hear about Indonesia? beauty nature, great adventure, delicious spicy food, or friendly people? all is true, even most of us doesn't speak in English well, we just believe that smile is an universal language that acceptable for all people around the world!!! so we will smile even we doesn't know what You asking about, hehehehe, that's funny, isn't?
For You who just hear about Indonesia, we will tell You all about this beautiful country.
Geography of Indonesia
Indonesia located between latitudes 11°S and 6°N, and longitudes 95°E and 141°E. It consists of 17,508 islands, about 6,000 of which are inhabited. These are scattered over both sides of the equator. The largest are Java, Sumatra, Borneo
(shared with Brunei and Malaysia), New Guinea (shared with Papua New
Guinea), and Sulawesi. Indonesia shares land borders with Malaysia on
Borneo, Papua New Guinea on the island of New Guinea, and East Timor on
the island of Timor.
Indonesia shares maritime borders across narrow straits with Singapore,
Malaysia, the Philippines, and Palau to the north, and with Australia
to the south.
At 1,919,440 square kilometres (741,050 sq mi), Indonesia is the world's 15th-largest country in terms of land area and world's 7th-largest country in terms of combined sea and land area.
Laying along the equator, Indonesia has a tropical climate, with two distinct monsoonal wet and dry
seasons.
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People
According to the 2010 national census, the population of Indonesia is 237.6 million,
with high population growth at 1.9% and
58% of the population lives in Java,
the world's most populous island.
There are around 300 distinct native ethnic groups in Indonesia, and 742 different languages and dialects people's spoken.
Tourism
Indonesia has a well-preserved, natural ecosystem with rainforests that stretch over about 57% of Indonesia's land (225 million acres), approximately 2% of which are mangrove systems.
One reason why the natural ecosystem in Indonesia is still well-preserved is because only 6,000 islands out of 17,000 are permanently inhabited.
Forests on Sumatra and Java
are examples of popular tourist destinations. Moreover, Indonesia has
one of longest coastlines in the world, measuring 54,716 kilometres
(33,999 mi),
with a number of beaches and island resorts, such as those in southern Bali, Lombok,
Bintan and Nias Island.
However, most of the well-preserved beaches are those in more isolated and less developed areas, such as Karimunjawa, the Togian Islands, and the Banda Islands.
Dive sites
With more than 17,508 islands,
Indonesia presents ample diving opportunities. With 20% of the world's
coral reefs, over 3,000 different species of fish and 600 coral species,
deep water trenches, volcanic sea mounts, World War II wrecks, and an
endless variety of macro life, scuba diving in Indonesia is both
excellent and inexpensive. Bunaken National Marine Park, at the northern tip of Sulawesi, claims to have seven times more genera of coral than Hawaii, and has more than 70% of all the known fish species of the Indo-Western Pacific. According to Conservation International, marine surveys suggest that the marine life diversity in the Raja Ampat area is the highest recorded on Earth. Moreover, there are over 3,500 species living in Indonesian waters, including sharks, dolphins, manta rays, turtles, morays, cuttlefish, octopus and scorpionfish, compared to 1,500 on the Great Barrier Reef and 600 in the Red Sea.
Surf breaks
Surfing is also a popular water activity in Indonesia and the sites are recognised as world class. The well-known sports are mostly located on the southern, Indian Ocean side of Indonesia, for example, the large oceanic surf breaks on southern Java. However, the north coast does not receive the same surf from the Java Sea. Surf breaks can be found all the way along Sumatra, down to Nusa Tenggara, including Aceh, Bali, Banten, Java, Lombok, the Mentawai Islands, and Sumbawa.
Although Indonesia has many world-class surfing sports, the majority of
surfers are came from abroad, especially Australia and United States.
However, the seed of local surfing enthusiast began develop in Bali and
West Java's Pelabuhan Ratu and Pangandaran
beach, mostly came from nearby cities of Jakarta and Bandung. On Bali,
there are about 33 surf spots, from West Bali to East Bali including
four on the offshore island of Nusa Lembongan. In Sumbawa, Hu'u and Lakey Beach in Cempi Bay
are popular surfing spots among surfing enthusiast. Sumatra is the
second island, with the most number of surf spots, with 18 altogether.
The common time for surfing is around May to September with the trade
winds blowing from east to south-east. From October to April, winds tend
to come from the west to north-west, so the east coast breaks get the
offshore winds
.
Two well-known surf breaks in Indonesia are the G-Land in the Bay of Grajagan, East Java, and Lagundri Bay at the southern end of Nias island. G-Land was first identified in 1972, when a surfer saw the break from the window of a plane. Since 6 to 8-foot (Hawaiian scale) waves were discovered by surfers at Lagundri Bay in 1975, the island has become famous for surfing worldwide
National parks
Bogor Botanical Gardens established in 1817, and Cibodas Botanical Gardens
established in 1862, are two among the oldest botanical gardens in
Asia. With rich collections of tropical plants, these gardens is the
center of botanical research as well as tourism attraction since
colonial era.
There are 50 national parks in Indonesia, of which six are World Heritage listed. The largest national parks in Sumatra are the 9,500-square-kilometre (3,700 sq mi) Gunung Leuser National Park, the 13,750-square-kilometre (5,310 sq mi) Kerinci Seblat National Park and the 3,568-square-kilometre (1,378 sq mi) Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park, all three recognised as Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra on the UNESCO World Heritage list. Other national parks on the list are Lorentz National Park in Papua, Komodo National Park in the Lesser Sunda Islands, and Ujung Kulon National Park in the west of Java.
To be noticed, different national parks offer different biodiversity,
as the natural habitat in Indonesia is divided into two areas by the Wallace line. The Wallacea biogeographical
distinction means the western part of Indonesia (Sumatra, Java,
Kalimantan) have the same flora and fauna characteristics as the Asian continent, whilst the remaining eastern part of Indonesia has similarity with the Australian continent.
Many native species such as Sumatran elephants, Sumatran tigers, Sumatran rhinoceros, Javan rhinoceros and Orangutans are listed as endangered or critically endangered, and the remaining populations are found in national parks and other conservation areas. Sumatran orangutan can be visited in the Bukit Lawang conservation area, while the Bornean orangutan can be visited in Tanjung Puting national park, Central Kalimantan. The world's largest flower, rafflesia arnoldi, and the tallest flower, titan arum, can be found in Sumatra.
The east side of the Wallacea line offers the most remarkable, rarest, and exotic animals on earth. Birds of Paradise, locally known as
cendrawasih, are plumed birds that can be found among other fauna in Papua New Guinea. The largest bird in Papua is the flightless cassowary. One species of lizard, the Komodo dragon can easily be found on Komodo,
located in the Nusa Tenggara lesser islands region. Besides Komodo
island, this endangered species can also be found on the islands of
Rinca, Padar and Flores.
Volcanoes
Hiking and camping in the mountains are popular adventure activities. Some mountains contain ridge rivers, offering rafting activity. Though volcanic mountains can be dangerous, they have become major tourist destinations. Several tourists have died on the slopes of Mount Rinjani,
Indonesia's second highest volcano and a popular destination for
climbers visiting Lombok in eastern Indonesia. Popular active volcanoes
are the 2,329-metre (7,641 ft) high Mount Bromo in the East Java province with its scenic volcanic desert around the crater, the upturned boat shaped Tangkuban Perahu and the volcanic crater Kawah Putih, north and south of Bandung respectively and both with drive-in access up to the crater, the most active volcano in Java, Mount Merapi near Yogyakarta, and the legendary Krakatau with its new caldera known as
anak krakatau (the child of Krakatau). Gede Pangrango volcano in West Java is also a popular hiking destination, especially among domestic hikers.
In Sumbawa, Mount Tambora
with its historical massive volcanic eruption back in 1815 that
produced massive caldera also had gained attention among hikers. In
neighboring island of Flores, the three-colored volcanic crater-lake of Kelimutu is also hailed as one of Indonesia's natural wonder and had attracted visitors worldwide. Puncak Jaya in the Lorentz National Park, the highest mountain in Indonesia and one of the few mountains with ice caps at the (tropical) equator offers the opportunity of rock climbing. In Sumatra, there are the remains of a supervolcano eruption that have created the landscape of Lake Toba close to Medan in North Sumatra.
Cultural tourism
Bali is famous for its rich culture
Indonesia consists of an entire 300 ethnic groups, spread over a 1.8 million km² area of 6,000 inhabited islands.
[5] This creates a cultural diversity, further compounded by Hindu, Buddhist, Islamic and European colonialist influences. In Bali, where most of Indonesian Hindus live, cultural and religious festivals with Balinese dance-drama performances in Balinese temples are major attractions to foreign tourists.
Despite foreign influences, a diverse array of indigenous traditional
cultures is still evident in Indonesia. The indigenous ethnic group of Toraja in South Sulawesi, which still has strong animistic beliefs, offers a unique cultural tradition, especially during funeral rituals. The Minangkabau ethnic group retain a unique matrilineal culture, despite being devoted Muslims. Other indigenous ethnic groups include the Asmat and Dani in Papua, the Dayak in Kalimantan and the Mentawai in Sumatra, where traditional rituals are still observed.
Cultural tourism also plays a significant part in Yogyakarta, a special province in Indonesia known as centre of classical Javanese fine art and culture.
The rise and fall of Buddhist, Hindu, and Islamic kingdoms in Central
Java has transformed Yogyakarta into a melting pot of Indonesian
culture.
Most major Indonesian cities have their state-owned museums, although
most are in modest display. The most complete and comprehensive museum
that displaying Indonesian culture and history spanned from prehistoric to colonial era is National Museum of Indonesia located in Jakarta.
For Indonesian and foreign visitors unable to visit all Indonesian provinces, Taman Mini Indonesia Indah in East Jakarta provides a comprehensive microcosm of Indonesian culture. Established in 1975 by Tien Suharto, this park displaying museums, separate pavilions with the collections of Indonesian architecture, clothing, dances and traditions all depicted impeccably.
(source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_Indonesia)
Culinary
Indonesian cuisine is one of the most vibrant and colourful cuisines in the world, full of intense flavour.
It is diverse, in part because Indonesia is composed of approximately 6,000 populated islands of the total 18,000 in the world's largest archipelago,
with more than 300 ethnic groups calling Indonesia their home.
Many regional cuisines exist, often based upon indigenous culture and foreign influences.
Indonesia has around 5,350 traditional recipes, with 30 of them considered the most important.
In 2011, Indonesian cuisine began to gain worldwide recognition, with
three of its popular dishes make it to the list of 'World's 50 Most
Delicious Foods (Readers' Pick)', a worldwide online poll by 35,000
people held by CNN International. Rendang top the list as the number one, followed closely by nasi goreng in number two, and satay in number fourteen.
Indonesian cuisine varies greatly by region and has many different influences.
Sumatran cuisine, for example, often has Middle Eastern and Indian influences, featuring curried meat and vegetables such as
gulai and
kari, while Javanese cuisine is mostly indigenous,
with some hint of Chinese influence. The cuisines of Eastern Indonesia
are similar to Polynesian and Melanesian cuisine. Elements of Chinese
cuisine can be seen in Indonesian cuisine: foods such as
bakmi (noodles),
bakso (meat or fish balls), and
lumpia (spring rolls) have been completely assimilated.
Throughout its history, Indonesia has been involved in trade due to
its location and natural resources. Additionally, Indonesia’s indigenous
techniques and ingredients were influenced by India, the Middle East,
China, and finally Europe. Spanish and Portuguese traders brought New World produce even before the Dutch came to colonize most of the archipelago. The Indonesian islands The Moluccas (Maluku), which are famed as "the Spice Islands", also contributed to the introduction of native spices, such as cloves and nutmeg, to Indonesian and global cuisine.
Indonesian cuisine often demonstrates complex flavour
, acquired from certain ingredients and
bumbu spices mixture. Indonesian dishes have rich flavours; most often described as
gurih (savory which equate to
umami) and
pedas (hot and spicy), and also combination of basic tastes such as
manis (sweet),
asin (salty),
asam (sour) and
pahit (bitter). Six main Indonesian cooking methods are
goreng (frying),
bakar (roasting) or
panggang (grilling),
tumis (stir frying),
rebus (boiling) and
kukus (steaming).
Indonesia is the home of sate
Some popular Indonesian dishes such as
nasi goreng,
gado-gado,
sate,
and
soto are ubiquitous in the country and considered as national dishes. The official national dish of Indonesia however, is
tumpeng, chosen in 2014 by Indonesian Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy as the dish that binds the diversity of Indonesia's various culinary traditions.
Today, some popular dishes that originated in Indonesia are now common across much of Southeast Asia. Indonesian dishes such as
satay, beef
rendang, and
sambal are also favoured in Malaysia and Singapore. Soy-based dishes, such as variations of tofu (
tahu) and
tempe, are also very popular.
Tempe
is regarded as a Javanese invention, a local adaptation of soy-based
food fermentation and production. Another fermented food is
oncom, similar in some ways to
tempe but using a variety of bases (not only soy), created by different fungi, and particularly popular in West Java.
(source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesian_cuisine)
There is so many beautiful place where you can visit, so many delicious food you can taste, and so many experiences that You can get, and so many unforgetable memories You will have. So, what are You waiting for?
But, everything must be prepare well before You go to Indonesia, search all information about it,accommodation, transportation, restaurant, everything!!!
and now, here at indonesia guide online we will give You information, and idea's where to go.
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Happy traveling.........!!
