Java – World Travel

Pangandaran Java Indonesia Travel

WorldTravelDB.com — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 06:01:42 +0000

Situated on a narrow isthmus, with a broad sweep of sand on either side and a thickly forested national park on the nearby headland, Pangandaran is Java’s premier beach resort. While it can never compete with Bali’s pristine white sands or party atmosphere, it is nevertheless an attractive, friendly and peaceful – or lively, if you’re here during Indonesia’s school holidays – spot to recuperate before pushing onto sights inland.

As well as days of sun-worshipping on Pangandaran’s volcanic black-sand beaches, the town and its surrounds offer up coastal walks, forest treks and seafood so fresh it’s still sparkling. And with an army of hotels covering every budget base, you should have no problem finding something to suit.

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Java Indonesia Travel

WorldTravelDB.com — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 07:01:17 +0000

Of all the 17,000 islands that make up Indonesia, Java is king. It may not have the beaches of Bali, the jungles of Kalimantan, or the remoteness of Papua, but it’s the heart of the country, a heart with more drive and energy than any other island in this vast archipelago. With 120 million people crammed into an area half the size of Great Britain, Java is one populated place. And with such unfathomable human resources, it’s no wonder that the nation’s political and economic past, present and future are decided within its shores. For many, Indonesia quite simply begins and ends with Java.

Jakarta, the capital, is a colossal metropolis with all the problems of a city vastly overstretched; it won’t grab your attention for long unless you’re a mad shopper or über-urbanite. But the rest of the island has offerings that shouldn’t be ignored. A string of volcanoes lace the island like fiery rubies. Some are docile giants, while others blow their top at the drop of a Javanese fez; Gunung Bromo is a must for any visitor. Pounding the southern coast is the Indian Ocean; a magical sight, but it can be dangerous for swimming. There are, however, some fine beach enclaves, such as Pangandaran, Java’s premier beach resort, and world-class surf breaks at Ujung Kulon and Alas Purwo National Parks. Java’s calmer northern side hides less-developed tropical islands. Inspired by such natural beauty, and influenced by Hindu-Buddhist, Muslim and Western invaders, the Javanese have over the centuries created temples and kraton (palaces) of unique splendour. The Buddhist temple Borobudur is an architectural wonder and some of the oldest Hindu temples in Java can be found in the lofty Dieng Plateau. Cultural Yogyakarta and Solo are perfect places to sample Javanese art.

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Gunung Bromo Java Indonesia Travel

WorldTravelDB.com — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 07:01:19 +0000

Gunung Bromo is nature’s Borobudur; it’s a landscape that’s as evocative and resonant as any in Southeast Asia, and is the raw material for countless legends and as many picture postcards.

Compared with Java’s other major peaks, Gunung Bromo (2392m) is a midget, but this volcano’s beauty is in its setting, not its size. Rising from the guts of the ancient Tengger caldera, Bromo is one of three volcanoes to have emerged from a vast crater, stretching 10km across. Flanked by the peaks of Kursi (2581m) and Batok (2440m), the steaming cone of Bromo stands in a sea of ashen, volcanic sand, surrounded by the towering cliffs of the crater’s edge. Nearby, Gunung Semeru (3676m), Java’s highest peak and one of its most active volcanoes, throws its shadow – and occasionally its ash – over the whole scene.

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Dieng Plateau Java Indonesia Travel

WorldTravelDB.com — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 07:01:24 +0000

The lofty plateau of Dieng (2093m above sea level) is home to the oldest Hindu temples in Java. Its name comes from Di-Hyang (Abode of the Gods), and it’s thought that this was once the site of a flourishing temple-city of priests.

More than 400 temples, most of which were built between the 8th and 9th centuries, covered the highland plain, but with the mysterious depopulation of Central Java, this site, like Borobudur, was abandoned and forgotten. It was not until 1856 that the archaeologist Van Kinsbergen drained the flooded valley around the temples and catalogued the ruins. The eight remaining temples are characteristic of early Central Javanese architecture – stark, squat and boxlike.

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Cibodas And Cianjur Java Indonesia Travel

WorldTravelDB.com — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 07:01:29 +0000

Cibodas, the next village over the Puncak Pass, is home to billions of pot plants for sale and the beautiful high-altitude extension of the Bogor botanical gardens, the Kebun Raya Cibodas (admission per person/per car 4000/6500Rp; 8am-6pm). It’s surrounded by thick tropical jungle on the slopes of the twin volcanoes of Gunung Gede and Gunung Pangrango. The gardens, which are bigger than Bogor’s, were originally planted in 1860 and now contain 1014 species. Beside the entrance to the gardens is the entrance to the Gede Pangrango National Park.

Cibodas has limited facilities and gets far fewer visitors than Cisarua, but it has fine scenery and excellent walks. Visitors must pay 2000Rp on entering the village.

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Surabaya Java Indonesia Travel

WorldTravelDB.com — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 07:01:29 +0000

There’s no denying that Surabaya is big, noisy, polluted and intimidating. As Indonesia’s second-largest city and the home of the country’s navy, Surabaya is a colossal port peppered with cranes, corporate buildings and crowded spaces. Against the calm of rural East Java, it is pandemonium writ large.

But while Surabaya has all the trappings of a modern city, it too has its contrasts. Brightly daubed becak still cut blindly through the waves of Japanese saloon cars, and the claustrophobic streets of the city’s old town hum with the sights, sounds and smells of earlier times.

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Borobudur Java Indonesia Travel

WorldTravelDB.com — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 07:01:33 +0000

Like Angkor Wat in Cambodia and Bagan in Myanmar, Java’s Borobudur makes the rest of Southeast Asia’s spectacular sites seem almost incidental. Looming out of a patchwork of bottle-green paddies and swaying palm tops, this colossal Buddhist relic is one of Southeast Asia’s marvels, surviving Gunung Merapi’s ash flows, terrorist bombs, and the wear and tear of a million pairs of tourist flip-flops (thongs) to remain as enigmatic and beautiful as it must have been 1200 years ago.

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Yogyakarta Java Indonesia Travel

WorldTravelDB.com — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 07:01:34 +0000

If Jakarta is Java’s financial and industrial powerhouse, Yogyakarta is its soul. Central to the island’s artistic and intellectual heritage, Yogyakarta (pronounced ‘Jogjakarta’), called Yogya for short, is where the Javanese language is at its purest, Java’s arts at their brightest and its traditions at their most visible.

Fiercely independent and protective of its customs, Yogya is now the site of an uneasy truce between the old ways of life and the trappings of modernity that have swept across the island in recent decades. Still headed by its sultan, whose kraton remains the hub of traditional life, contemporary Yogya is nevertheless as much a city of burger bars, traffic jams and advertising hoardings as batik, gamelan and ritual. But while the process of modernisation homogenises many of Java’s cities, Yogya continues to juggle past and present with relative ease, sustaining a slower, more conservative way of life in the quiet kampung that thrive only a stone’s throw from the throbbing main streets.

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Bogor Java Indonesia Travel

WorldTravelDB.com — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 07:01:34 +0000

‘A romantic little village’ is how Sir Stamford Raffles described Bogor when he made it his country home during the British interregnum. As an oasis of unpredictable European weather – it is credited with 322 thunderstorms a year – cool, quiet Bogor was long the chosen retreat of starch-collared colonials escaping the stifling and crowded capital.

Today, the long arm of Jakarta reaches almost the whole way to Bogor, and while a ribbon of green still just about survives between the two, the city is already choked with the overspill of the capital’s perennial traffic problem.

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Solo Java Indonesia Travel

WorldTravelDB.com — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 07:01:35 +0000

Solo, a traditional and unhurried city 65km northeast of Yogyakarta, often plays second fiddle to its more conspicuous neighbour. But this is just plain unfair. With its backstreet kampung, wide thoroughfares, laid-back locals and rich cultural heritage, Solo has more than enough to warrant at least an overnight visit. Plus the usual cries of ‘Hello mister’, ‘Becak, becak’ and ‘Come to my gallery’ – so ingrained in many of Java’s cities – are less frequent here, as are the tourists; more often than not you won’t bump into another traveller as you wander the alleyways and markets of this attractive city.

In many ways, Solo is also Java writ small, incorporating its vices and virtues and embodying much of its heritage. On the downside, the island’s notoriously fickle temper tends to flare in Solo first – the city has been the backdrop for some of the worst riots in Java’s recent history. This fact will come as quite a surprise to most visitors, who will find the locals some of the friendliest on this crowded island. On the upside, the city’s long and distinguished past as a seat of the great Mataram empire means that it competes with Yogyakarta as the hub of Javanese culture.

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