Indonesia Off The Beaten Path

  ITB Bandung south gate early afternoon
by ullfri49
 
  • ITB Bandung south gate early afternoon
      ITB Bandung south gate early afternoon
    by ullfri49
  • Celing of the Prayer room
      Celing of the Prayer room
    by TravelLuc
  • Lale Lombong sign on the roadside
      Lale Lombong sign on the roadside
    by theo1006
  • Wall with 1372 names at Margarana
      Wall with 1372 names at Margarana
    by theo1006
  • Our picnic spot at Rana Mese
      Our picnic spot at Rana Mese
    by theo1006
 
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Kalimantan: Loksado

by jungles

Loksado is the largest town in its area but is in fact a tiny, but picturesque, one-street village with both a mosque and a church. Almost as soon as we got there we were invited to a wedding reception, with lots of well-dressed people eating rice with their hands. Within walking distance of Loksado there are two even smaller towns, both with traditional Dayak longhouses. On the way there we found a beautiful little waterfall that we could swim in, which we had to ourselves until some little kids rocked up. We spent the night sleeping in the smaller but more traditional of the two longhouses, in which 24 people live. Wonderful experience, though the floor wasn't that comfy.Loksado is a good base for trekking as their are many very traditional villages nearby that can be visited. This area does not see much tourism and so the traditional way of life you will see is authentic and not just...

Kalimantan: Tambung Malahoi

by jungles

Tambung Malahoi is a tiny traditional village - the most beautiful little town I have seen in Indonesia - with a fantastic 50-metre longhouse in which the majority of the villagers live together. The village also has other traditional architectural features such as isandungs which are mausoleums built high on stilts in the form of miniature houses. The people here are very friendly, and life in the village centres aroud the river which runs through it, where the children play and the grownups bathe and wash their clothes. For more info on sandungs and on our journey to Tambung Malahoi, please see my Kalimantan page.

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Kalimantan: Banjarmasin

by jungles

The major highlight of Banjarmasin is its floating market. Unlike other 'floating markets' that have turned into souvenir markets for tourists, such as the ones near Bangkok in Thailand or on Inle Lake in Burma, this one is still authentic. To get there, we had to wake up before 6am and go down to the river to hire someone to take us to the market, half-an-hour away by small boat. About 40 canoes make up the market: they're filled with people who paddle there from miles away with their fruits, spices and anything else they can sell, jostling for position with everyone else. And so for a few hours they just trade away with each other from their boats. It's great that something like that still goes on the way it has for centuries. And it was very photogenic at dawn

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Riau: Tanjung Pinang

by jungles

Many people dismiss the Riau Islands as tourist resorts for golfers and rich Singaporeans, but there are more than 1000 islands that make up the chain, and only four resorts. Bintan Island is much more authentic than nearby Batam Island, and Tanjung Pinang was as Indonesian as any city we've been to in the archipelago. It has a great covered market and a large area near the harbour that is completely built on stilts rising out of the water - very picturesque. We hired a boat to take us across the bay to a little village called Senggarang, also mostly built on stilts, where we saw two interesting Chinese temples. One of them had huge statues of Buddha and the like surrounded by manmade waterfalls, etc. It looked a little bit like a theme park to be honest. The other one was much smaller but had been completely taken over by a huge banyan tree, the whole building being tangled up in its...

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Sumatra: Kerinci-Seblat National Park

by jungles

Treks in this park can be organised in Sungai Penuh and are highly recommended. There are several options to choose from; in the past the climb up the Kerinci volcano has been a popular choice, but this was closed in 2004 due to rumblings and fear of an eruption. We chose to hike up to Seven Mountains Lake and then base ourselves there for a few days while we trekked around the jungle. We didn't see all that much wildlife (the elephant in the photo was actually chained so I don't count that), but we did hear several animals (including a tiger), and the scenery was beautiful. For details of our trek see my Sungai Penuh page, link below.

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Sumatra: Bengkulu

by jungles

Bengkulu, a small, pleasant city in the bottom half of Sumatra, facing the Indian Ocean on the western coast. It's large enough to have a few sites of interest, but not so large that it has all the noise, pollution, and chaos found in all big cities in Indonesia. The 7km strip of white sand beach is one of its major attractions. There is also a fort and a Chinese quarter with interesting architecture.

Sumatra: Krui

by jungles

Krui is a tiny fishing town with a laid-back atmosphere, a bit more character than Kota Agung, and a nicer beach (apart from the dead goat we saw washed up on the shore). As a daytrip from Krui we went back into Bukit Barisan National Park to visit these waterfalls that we'd heard about. We tramped through the mud for awhile until we lost the trail and my camera fell into a river, so we never did make it to the waterfall. We did get to have our first experience with leeches, though. Our bodies were crawling with them by the time we got out of there. Nick even had one on his bum. So, the moral of this story is, don't go trekking in the jungle without a guide.Krui is starting to become known amongst the surfer crowd for its waves. We saw one westerner when we were there, who was the first one we'd seen since we met up with Nick's uncle and his surfing buddies 11 days before. But tourism...

Sumatra: Bandar Lampung

by jungles

Bandar Lampung is a city of about 700,000 people in southern Sumatra. I don't think much of big cities in Indonesia in general; they're noisy, smelly, chaotic, and hardly picturesque. This one didn't seem to be much different, until we got ourselves lost in the mazes of alleyways down near the harbour and were adopted by all the children of the neighborhood. There were no honking minibuses here, the paths were too small for that. It was just local people going about their daily lives in their little houses packed with children. As a Westerner, you can't walk down a street in Indonesia without at least one kid yelling out, "Hello, Mister!" Well, in Bandar Lampung it got a bit out of hand, and soon we were like two pied pipers with a huge band of children following us. One of the older girls invited us into her house, where we sat out on the back porch and watched the fishing boats in the...

Java: Cipanas: Hot Springs

by jungles

There are several towns named 'Cipanas' throughout Indonesia, as the name simply means 'hot springs,' and the volcanic landscape ensures that there are plenty of those in the country. The one we went to was a very small village in West Java that is often called the 'Switzerland of Java,' at least according to the Rough Guide. There is a much larger Cipanas (pop. 50,000) that is only about 60km from Jakarta and is popular with the capital's residents on weekends. This one, on the other hand, is near Garut southeast of Bandung. It took us about 9 hours to get there from Jakarta, which involved a train to Bandung, then a taxi, two buses (because the first one broke down on the way) and a horse and carriage. All the guesthouses here have the hot spring water pumped straight into the rooms, so you can have your own private jacuzzi in your hotel bathroom, minus the bubbles. Since this was only...

Java: Ujung Genteng: Surf and Turtles

by jungles

Ujung Genteng is a tiny fishing village in West Java, about three hours or so from Pelabuhan Ratu. It is known by some surfers for its waves, but otherwise it receives very few visitors. There is basic accommodation in a group of bungalows run by a woman known to the surfer crowd as "Momma." Just ask anyone with a motorcycle for Momma's and they will take you there; it's a few kilometres outside the village itself. It's a very relaxing place with not much to do but watch the fisherman mending their nets, and, of course, surf. This is only for the experienced, though, and if you don't have a board watch out as the waves are really too strong for bodysurfing safely (not that that stopped Nick). There is an old shipwreck washed up on the reef that you can walk out to, but be aware that there are sea snakes in the seagrass that you'll have to wade through. There are some waterfalls nearby;...

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Off The Beaten Path: Cities in Indonesia
  1. Jakarta Off The Beaten Path
  2. Yogyakarta Off The Beaten Path
  3. Bandung Off The Beaten Path
  4. Ubud Off The Beaten Path
  5. Pulau Batam Off The Beaten Path
  6. Kuta Off The Beaten Path
  7. Pulau Bintan Off The Beaten Path
  8. Surabaya Off The Beaten Path
  9. Bandung Off The Beaten Path
  10. Bali Off The Beaten Path
  11. Malang Off The Beaten Path
  12. Medan Off The Beaten Path
  13. Lombok Off The Beaten Path
  14. Bukittinggi Off The Beaten Path
  15. Solo Off The Beaten Path
  16. Manado Off The Beaten Path
  17. Sanur Off The Beaten Path
  18. Uluwatu Off The Beaten Path
  19. Borobudur Off The Beaten Path
  20. Makassar Off The Beaten Path
  21. Padang Off The Beaten Path
  22. Salatiga Off The Beaten Path
  23. Bogor Off The Beaten Path
  24. Kupang Off The Beaten Path
  25. Semarang Off The Beaten Path
  26. Karimunjawa Off The Beaten Path
  27. Banda Aceh Off The Beaten Path
  28. Bogor Off The Beaten Path
  29. Pulau Seribu Off The Beaten Path
  30. Pelabuhanratu Off The Beaten Path
  31. Palembang Off The Beaten Path
  32. Prambanan Off The Beaten Path
  33. Danau Toba Off The Beaten Path
  34. Rantepao Off The Beaten Path
  35. Pangandaran Off The Beaten Path
  36. Sorong Off The Beaten Path
  37. Cirebon Off The Beaten Path
  38. Wonosobo Off The Beaten Path
  39. Sukabumi Off The Beaten Path
  40. Balikpapan Off The Beaten Path
  41. Pekanbaru Off The Beaten Path
  42. Blitar Off The Beaten Path
  43. Java Off The Beaten Path
  44. Pegunungan Dieng Off The Beaten Path

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Bali Off The Beaten Path  Special Capital Region of Jakarta Off The Beaten Path  East Java Province Off The Beaten Path  West Java Province Off The Beaten Path  Riau Province Off The Beaten Path  Central Java Province Off The Beaten Path  Yogyakarta Special Region Off The Beaten Path  North Sumatra Province Off The Beaten Path  West Sumatra Province Off The Beaten Path  East Nusa Tenggara Province Off The Beaten Path  West Nusa Tenggara Province Off The Beaten Path  South Sulawesi Province Off The Beaten Path  Maluku Province Off The Beaten Path  North Sulawesi Province Off The Beaten Path  Aceh Special Region Off The Beaten Path  Papua Province Off The Beaten Path 

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Questions and Answers

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Q:  Hello Folks, I am going to Indonesia and want an idea as to what is a realistic daily budget, a little further... 

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A: Motorcycle may cost you around 30-50k + 10k for the petrol. Say 50k on average for both basic accommodation will be around 100k-150k 30k-50k for the food so 300k... 

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