Indonesia 🇮🇩

Indonesia is the largest island country in the world, with its 34 provinces constituting more than 17,500 islands that spread from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean in an arc.

Indonesia is home to me in a way no place will ever be. I grew up living in different cities from age 6 to 18 (Karawang, Surabaya, and Jakarta). During my visits after college, I explored a lot and deeply appreciated the country and its people. I will share just a few places that left a mark on me in recent years.

National Monument (MONAS) is a 433 ft (132 metre) tower in the centre of Merdeka Square, Central Jakarta, symbolizing the fight for Indonesia. Construction began in 1961 under the direction of President Sukarno. Monas was opened to the public in 1975. It is topped by a flame covered with gold foil.

Fatahillah Square, also known as Old Batavia, is the historical district of Jakarta located in Kotas. During Dutch Colonial times in the 16th century, this was the heart of the walled city. Home to attractions such as the Jakarta History Museum and many colonial buildings, this area fills up with artisans, jugglers, and tourists on the weekends.

Fatahillah Square

My comfort food- Nasi Goreng

Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta, Indonesia is the largest mosque in Southeast Asia and the sixth largest mosque in the world in terms of worshipper capacity.

Kawah Putih is located near the charming little market town of Ciwidey, approximately 50 Kilometers south of Bandung.

Kawah Putih (White Crater)-is a sizeable highly acid lake (pH 0.5-1.3) that changes colour from bluish to whitish green, or brown, depending on the concentration of sulfur

Tangkuban Perahu is situated 30 km north of the city of Bandung in the direction of Lembang. It is the only crater in Indonesia that you can drive up to its very rim. Mount Tangkuban Perahu has a distinctive shape, and looks like an “overturned boat”. Here you will be greeted by sulfur fumes which the crater continues to emit although the volcano is not active.

South Jakarta

View from Skye, Jakarta

Ancol Love Port Bridge (Jakarta)

Café Batavia-Elegant, colonial-era room with high ceilings for creative Indonesian cuisine, coffees & cocktails.

Civet in cage at Agrowisata kopi luwak

Kopi luwak is a coffee that consists of partially digested coffee cherries, which have been eaten and defecated by the Asian palm civet. It is also called civet coffee. The cherries are fermented as they pass through a civet's intestines, and after being defecated with other fecal matter, they are collected.

Satria Agrowisata- Great experience! They also offer free trial of 12 kinds of coffee and tea and you can also observe how Luwak coffee is made. Worth a visit!

Lunch at Made's Warung

Tanah Lot is a rock formation off the Indonesian island of Bali. It is home to the ancient Hindu pilgrimage temple Pura Tanah Lot

Rock Bar at Ayana Resort-Legendary sunsets & cocktails, chill beats above the crashing waves.

Infinity pool - Potato Head Beach Club, Seminyak

Seminyak Beach

OMNIA Bali-Swanky, oceanfront club . iconic OMNIA cube sitting on the edge of Uluwatu cliffs. Now known as Savaya Bali

Double Six Beach

Ubud

This place has been on my bucket list ever since I read the book back in 2010.

Eat Pray Love is about Elizabeth, a New Yorker with a career as a writer, a husband, and a seemingly balanced life. Although her life was quite normal and beautiful on the outside, she felt empty on the inside, so she divorced and decided to travel for a year in Italy, India, and Indonesia in an attempt to find her desire to live intensely and to rediscover herself. The last destination on her list was Bali, the place where she meets Ketut Liyer and she falls in love with a Brazilian businessman.

Bapak Ketut's son (Jan 2020)- he read my palm and said I will travel a lot ;) (PS. I went on a 2 month long eurail trip in 2020 before moving to Canada)

Palm reading at Fatahillah square in Aug 2014 (PS. I moved to Sweden a month later). He said that I will travel a LOT. His words "soon, you will not think twice, you will just get up and go"

Ubud Market

Sam Poo Kong, also known as Gedung Batu Temple, is the oldest Chinese temple in Semarang, Central Java, Indonesia. Originally established by the Chinese Muslim explorer Zheng He, it is now shared by Indonesians of multiple religious denominations, including Muslims and Buddhists, and ethnicities, including Chinese and Javanese.

Semarang Rainbow Village- Kampung Pelangi is inspiring on a few levels: first, it shows how, with paint, willpower, and creativity, a whole community was able to add colour (literally) to its surroundings; second, unlike some kampungs in Indonesia that can be a little depressing due to the amount of garbage in their lanes, this one, as other kampungs in Semarang, is litter free. While it does not mean that inhabitants' lives are more joyous or easier, they live with dignity in a clean and neat environment.

Borobudur Temple Compounds This famous Buddhist temple, dating from the 8th and 9th centuries, is located in central Java. It was built in three tiers: a pyramidal base with five concentric square terraces, the trunk of a cone with three circular platforms and, at the top, a monumental stupa. The walls and balustrades are decorated with fine low reliefs, covering a total surface area of 2,500 m2. Around the circular platforms are 72 openwork stupas, each containing a statue of the Buddha. The monument was restored with UNESCO's help in the 1970s.

The Borobudur monument combines the symbolic forms of the stupa (a Buddhist commemorative mound usually containing holy relics), the temple mountain (based on Mount Meru of Hindu mythology), and the mandala (a mystic Buddhist symbol of the universe, combining the square as earth and the circle as heaven).

The Grand Mosque, view from the tower. The Mosque is indeed grand. It was said to be modelled after Nabawi mosque, a famous mosque in Madinah (Saudi Arabia) because of the six giant hydraulic umbrellas that can open when needed. The mosques is open for non-moslem visitors as well. You can see the big Quran inside.

Simpang Lima (means "five intersection") is a vast field at the heart of Semarang. At night, we can eat, drink or just bring our self-wandering around Simpang Lima. There are plenty of food stalls offering variety of Indonesian and Javanese food.

Simpang Lima, the downtown of Semarang area, is probably the best place to stay if we want to enjoy the hustle bustle of the town life.

Patenggang Lake is a lake located in the area of natural tourist attractions in the southern Bandung city, West Java, Indonesia, to be exact it is in Ciwidey village. Located at an altitude of 1600 meters above sea level, this lake has a very exotic landscape.

Puppet Museum (Wayang Museum)- Its located on Fatahillah Square in Kota Tua (Old Town). Very interesting to see all the puppets and masks displayed on the 2 floors.

Henshin serves authentic Nikkei cuisine, a bold combination of Peruvian and Japanese cuisine.

View from Henshin Jakarta

Mamasan Bali-Sophisticated Asian fusion food

Woo Bar Bali

Sanur Beach Parasailing

I did this out of curiosity, would never do this again. Garra rufa fish, the animals most commonly used in fish pedicures, don't want to eat your dead skin. They do it because they're so severely starved that they'll try to eat human skin for sustenance.

Dessert at Altitude, Jakarta with a wonderful view of Thamrin Roundabout

Rafting trip on the Ayung River. The Ayung River is the longest river on the Indonesian island of Bali. It runs 68.5 km from the northern mountain ranges, passing the Bangli, Badung, Gianyar regencies and the city of Denpasar, before discharging into the Badung Strait at Sanur. The river is famous for white water rafting.