Welcome to Indonesia

Indonesia is the largest archipelago in the world, consist of about 17,508 islands, which only about 6,000 are inhabited. There are five major islands are Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Papua, and last but not least Java, home to 70 percent of the country's population. Indonesia shares Papua with Papua New Guinea and Kalimantan with Malaysia. The most well-known island in Indonesia is probably Bali, which is one of the most favorite destinations for foreign tourists. Some areas of the archipelago are quite influential and also have many attractive object tourist such as Riau Islands, Bangka-Belitung, Nusa Tenggara and Maluku islands. Indonesia is strategically located between the continents of Asia and Australia.

Bahasa Indonesia is the national language, which is akin to Malay, written in Roman script and based on European orthography. There are about 583 languages and dialects spoken in the archipelago. They normally belong to the different ethnic groups of the population. Some of the distinctly different local languages are: Acehnese, Batak, Sundanese, Javanese, Sasak, Tetum of Timor, Dayak, Minahasa, Toraja, Buginese, Halmahera, Ambonese, Ceramese, and several Irianese languages. In all tourist destination areas English is the number one foreign language fairly spoken and writer, whereas some Dutch is till spoken and understood in the bigger cities and French increasing in its popularity at the better hotels and restaurants.

Indonesia has a diverse collection of flora and fauna. Aside of species of fauna familiar to both Asia and Australia, there are species indigenous to Indonesia. The orang utan apes of Sumatra and Kalimantan, the giant komodo lizards roaming free on the island of Komodo, the one-horned rhinoceros of Java, the wild banteng (oxen), tigers and many other species which are now protected in wildlife reserves.

The flora of Indonesia ranges from the tiny orchid to the giant "Rafflesia arnoldi" plant which is the largest flower in the world as it can bloom to almost a metre (3.2 feet) in diameter. These and many other species of plant life can be seen at the Bogor Botanical Gardens.

Being located near the equator, Indonesian climate is divided into two: dry and rainy seasons. Most of Indonesia has their rainy seasons from October through April, but certain places like Maluku have theirs from March to August. During the rainy season, rain starts around noon and lasts into the afternoon. Some areas can have sudden showers for more than two hours.

This doesn't mean that there will be drought for half of the year. It is quite possible that there will be tropical showers in a dry season's afternoon, as much as dry, summer-like days in a rainy season.

The average precipitation for Indonesia is 150 mm per month.

The temperature is almost constant except for the exceptionally rainy season's nights, when it can drop. The temperature on the coast is about 28 degrees Celcius (82,4 in Fahrenheit) and drops dramatically in the highlands. For instance, in the highlands of Irian Jaya, temperatures at night can drop to about 7 degrees C (to even 0 degree on mountain tops), while during daytime they reach to about 22 degrees C.

Indonesian ancestors were born with talent for crafting things out of trees, metal, mud and rock. This led to the beauty and artful Indonesian handicrafts. Our love towards the beauty of rhythm and movements gave births to many performing arts, as well as traditional music and dances. (Ref;indonesia-tourism.com)