Make the most of your stay in Bali and rent villa Emerentiana. This villa for 6 is located on the scenic Bukit Peninsula, near Kuta and the airport of Denpasar. Are you looking for comfort and privacy? Then Villa Emerentiana is the place for you.

Learn Indonesian with IALF in Jakarta, Surabaya or on Bali

Three nights of pure adventure, exploring Komodo, Rinca & surrounding islands by boat.

By: Emma Kwee

Jakarta is serviced by Soekarno Hatta International airport, located about an hour driving (20 kilometers) from central Jakarta. The airport is often called Cengkareng by Indonesians, after the subdistrict it is located in. Many international airlines from Europe, Asia and Australia make Soekarno-Hatta their turnaround airport, while a number do continue on to Bali and Australia.

This airport is also the hub of Indonesia’s own Garuda Indonesia as well as home for most of Indonesia’s regular domestic airlines and low-cost carriers (LCC).  The airport consists of 3 terminals, with the newly built low cost terminal being the latest addition.

For most international visitors a visa on arrival is mandatory (25 USD). Make sure you have USD, Euro or Rupiah at hand, otherwise you’ll have to ask permission to visit the ATM that conveniently is located after customs!

By: Emma Kwee

Indonesia is a tropical country and has two main seasons: the dry season that runs roughly from April to October and the wet season from November to March. That doesn't mean it never rains outside of the wet season, but the heavy monsoon rains mostly fall in the wet season (with possible floods, mudslides and so on).

Best time to visit Indonesia is during dry season between April and October. The humidity is slightly less and weather is pleasant at this time of the year. Even though generally speaking the dry season is hotter, the climate differs from island to island (which makes sense if you consider that there are more than 18.000 of them). The average temperature is 28°C and the humidity ranges from 70 and 90%. Don't be fooled however, up in the mountains it gets fairly chilly!

By: Ed Caffin

Indonesian money surely isn’t the most practical. Most people carry many notes around in their wallets, because even for the smallest purchase, you’ll need thousands of rupiahs. It gets worse when you have to pay large sums of cash, and all those zeros start to make you dizzy. Also, well-used notes, like the 1,000 rupiah one, can look so much abused that I sometimes hesitate to pay with them. On the other hand, rupiah banknotes are, unlike those of most other countries, quite beautiful and interesting to look at. The Indonesian rupiah truly is money with character. Here are some facts and figures.

Why are rupiahs called rupiahs? The name rupiah comes from the Sanskrit word for wrought silver, rupya. The name was first used to denote a coin introduced by a 16th century ruler in Northern India. The coin obviously was silver based. From there, rupee or rupiah became a common name for the monetary unit in many countries along the Indian ocean, like India, Pakistan, Seychelles and Sri Lanka. And the name also made it to Indonesia.

By: Beatrice

The traffic is horrible, the streets are absurdly flood-prone, and the pollution is suffocating. Yet Jakarta is hardly ever boring, especially event-wise.

Admittedly, it is a bit tricky to find out where the happenings take place, although there is almost always something artsy going on in Jakarta. Knowing the usual spots would be a very good start.

Jakarta based Beatrice shows you where to go for your weekly dose of art.

By: Jason Hue, first published in Jakarta Expat

The Indonesian language teaches its speakers to be respectful, hence people are often addressed with the salutation of Pak (men) or Ibu (women), usually if they’re notably more senior (in age or company seniority).

From a business perspective, this is really helpful especially for a person like me who is always very forgetful with names. Imagine meeting a roomful of people and immediately forgetting the person’s name right after shaking his hand. By using these salutations, it saves me from embarrassment of forgetting their names.

By: Indonesia Inquiry A Resource Portal for Indonesian Issues

There is a wide variety of volunteer opportunities in Indonesia.  Whatever your favorite cause (be it the environment, children, economic development, education, women’s issues, etc.), there’s a good chance of locating a matching group to support in the country.  Interested individuals can formally volunteer via domestic and international non-profit organizations, religious institutions, educational entities, and private groups.  Visas or special permissions are required depending on the length of stay, type of project, and persons involved.

Organizations might have a religious affiliation (directly or indirectly), which can have its pros and cons depending on government approval, community diversity, and individual preferences.  Volunteers may be expected to pay for their own travel and living expenses, or they may volunteer and receive certain assistance in return (e.g., housing, food, and transportation stipends).  The following groups are a small sampling of volunteer opportunities abroad.  Please feel free to add Indonesia-specific suggestions in the comments section at the end of the post.

By: Emma Kwee

West Java is the most populated province in Indonesia, with over 43 million inhabitants. The capital Bandung is the third largest city in the archipelago and home to a whopping 8 million people. West Java offers stunning vistas, smoking volcanoes, tea plantations, historical (often colonial) architecture and great food and shopping. Sundanese culture and language are an intricate web of traditions and customs. Great food and open-minded friendly people will make you feel at home at once in West Java.

Hello Bandung

Bandung is the capital of the Sundanese, the main culture of the provinces West Java and Banten. Within this cultural hemisphere, only Jakarta is excluded. The Sundanese have their own cultural legacy and language, which is truly unique and can be experienced in no place better than Bandung.

By: Abmi Handayani

Central Java is full of mysterious enchantment. This province is sandwiched between the more populous West and East Java provinces. Semarang is its capital city, even though Yogyakarta is often considered the cultural heart of the region.

Central Java is rich in natural beauty and historical significance. Covering about ±32.548 km², Central Java offers a lot of diversity. With more than five volcanos looming large over the province, the land here is very fertile. Green rice paddies in the coastal lowlands are followed by vegetable, coffee and tea plantations on the central mountain slopes.

Central Java: The Java Man & Temples

Besides its natural resources, Central Java is also somewhat of a treasure chest for archeologists. In 1891, Dutch paleoanthropologist Eugene Dubois found fossils of the Pythecanthropus erectus, later dubbed the Java Man, in a karst area in Sangiran. Since that time, many other other ancient sites and fossils were found, both by the foreign as local researchers. In 1814 Raffles struck gold when Indonesians pointed him in the direction of the Borobudur temple (Magelang). The Prambanan (at the border area of Yogyakarta and Klaten), discovered in 1811 is a ninth century Hindu temple, and one of the biggest in Southeast Asia.

By: Emma Kwee

East Java (Java Timur in Bahasa Indonesia) is the easternmost part of the island of Java. it includes the island of Madura and some other smaller islands in the region. The capital of East Java is Surabaya,  the second largest city in Indonesia and a major industrial center and port. East Java is the second most populated province in Indonesia, after West Java. The population consists of Javanese, Madurese and a sizeable Chinese community.

East Java's Star Attraction: The Bromo

Most visitors to East Java only see the Bromo volcano, the star attraction in the region, located around 70 kilometers from Surabaya. The Bromo-Tengger-Semeru National Park it sits in is a popular hiking destination. Typically, people will stay near the bromo overnight and hike or ride on horseback to the volcanoe at sunrise. While its views are indeed spectacular, East Java has a lot more to offer.