Indonesia
land of 10000 islands.
Allthough
troubled by turmoil, Indonesia is quite safe and as long as you stay away
from demonstrations you will hardly notice anything.
The kampung folk are to busy 'surviving' so they have no time for demonstrations.
VISA
REGULATIONS:
Since
01/02/2004 Indonesia abolished free visa on entry. |
| The Tsunami aftermath.... The province of Aceh and islands like pulau Weh are wiped clean. Nothing exists on the coastal area's. It will be like that probably for many years as rebuilding will take a very long time. Also islands like Nias and surrounding islands are affected. Probably many of the coral reefs have been devastated as well. Medan and Toba area are unharmed, but at the moment Medan is loaded with refugees from Acheh. Many places have no drinking water, so all comes in bottles! |
Travelling
in Indonesia is dirt cheap, but dont expect Western comfort, unless you
want to go every where by plane.
If you travel always keep an eye on your luggage, and don't leave camera's
and passports in the luggage. Do not show off jewellery like neck chains,
rings, that's asking for trouble. Don't give creditcards/ATM cards to
anyone! They can be copied very easy nowadays and plenty of tricks to
get data copied.
Busses go everywhere and you will hardly have to wait to catch a bus,
even on the long distance. But dont expect things to go fast, on the average
a bus does not make more than 60-70 km per hour, so expect to sit in the
bus for long hours.
Java has an extensive railroad network. The train rides in general are
beautifull, don't travel at night you will miss a lot.
If you travel by car or motor be very carefull at night, giant lorries
without head or taillights are common and bloody dangerous.
Plenty of cheap hotels everywhere (Losmen). For around Rp 20.000 you have
a proper bed. The cities a bit more of course.
Be aware that Indonesia is huge.......Java is 1500 km long, Sumatera almost
2000 km and Kalimantan is 5x West Malaysia!
There is plenty to see, also (or shall i say especially) outside the common
tourist destinations.
At present inflation is sky-high, but the value of the rupiah also went
down significant.
I travelled extensively through Indonesia especially Jawa, Bali, Sumatera,
if you want any specific information drop me a line.
A
remark after the Bali tragedy: Keep in mind that fanatic idiots
can be found anywhere. So a similar accident can happen anywhere in the
world. But at present Indonesia is almost 'tourist-less' and this is unnecessairy
area's like Toba (predominant Christian), Bukittinggi and Berastagi (all
Sumatera) are very safe I went there myself. In Jakarta avoid the gouverment
building area, or just ask whether any demo is going on and avoid them.
In the small kampung (village) people have no time for fanatic religious
things and demonstrations, they are to busy to survive!
ANOTHER WORD ON BALI: Be forewarned, Bali is a giant tourist trap.
The place is swarmed on the beaches with Aussies, other places are flushed
with Japanese,Taiwanese,Korean you name it.
A place like Ubud has been turned into one big shopping street where every
lousy artist seems to have its own galery and selling their stuff at exorbitant
prices! Near Lake Batur you get sick of all the children trying to sell
postcards, even after you told 100 times no.
Food is ridiculous in price (5 to 10 times Java). If you want cheap food,
go to a roadside stall have a fried chicken/rice + orange juice for around
Rp 7000.!
Denpassar has almost no tourists at all, and the area around the Pasar
Besar is great, oposite the pasar is another building where the sell all
the handycraft you can imagine (cheap enough just pay no more than 10-20%
of what they ask for), dont be afraid to haggle.
Below
you can browse some pictures from Indonesia
^^^
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