Bandung, the Parijs van Java

Honestly, I never visited this place. I'm  attracted to write this city because in recent days, detik.com has some interesting articles about this place.

There's so many choices of tourist attraction in this city. Recently, this city is famous as Creative City. Even though, don't just think about the souvenir products with that tagline. In this city, you can explore about astronomy in Bosccha to playful animals in this district.

First category is nature. The first destination is Ciwidey. This place is famous with it's Strawberry Farm. Second place is Kawah Putih (White Crater). This place is famous with it's thick fog around it, and it's beautiful natural scenery. Next choice is Pangalengan. This place is famous with it's Cow Farm. Here you can try milking the cow, and see the process of producing hygiene packaged milk. That's why this place is suitable if you traveling with your children. Next destination is De Ranch, Lembang. You can ride a horse with cowboy suit in this place. Near this place, you can find Rumah Sosis (Sausage House). Here you can buy various type of local sausage.

Next category is culture. The most famous name for this category is Saung Udjo. Here you can learn to play angklung, a traditional music instrument made of bamboo. The instructor has some experience instructed abroad.

Next is urban attraction. The first place is city park. The name is Taman Kota (Insinyur Haji) Juanda, located on Dago Atas. Here are some artificial caves, legacy from the age of colonization. In weekend, you can visit local market on Lapangan Gasibu and Lapangan Tegalega.

You can also visit coffee shop named Ngopi Doeloe on Braga Street. This place is also famous nationally as Distro Center. It means you can buy locally branded t-shirts, with it's unique design style.

Translated from: Segudang Aktivitas Seru untuk Mengisi Liburan di Bandung
by Faela Shafa

Arborek, Raja Ampat

Raja Ampat, Papua is famous with it's under water beauty and animals diversity. People sometime call it diver's paradise. So if you love scuba diving, you should visit this place. You can also visit www.diverajaampat.org.

Detik Travel has an article about this place. But this article not focusing on it's under water paradise, but some interesting attraction above the ground. It is discussed a place called Desa Wisata Arborek (Arborek Tourism Village).

This place is famous with natural views and also traditional handicraft. The actual location is on Meos Mansar (village name), Raja Ampat (district name), Papua Barat (province name). This place is a pioneer in becoming a tourist attraction village. This village still has it's own beach, so here you also can enjoy the beauty of coral reefs. To discover more, you should rent a boat (called ketinting) to go further from the beach. In this place you can also found local fisherman that still using traditional tool such as pike.

You can also have some interaction with it's friendly people. While enjoying some scenery, don't forget to say hi to local people. There you will see how a traditional handicraft being made.

To access this place, first you should go to city of Sorong. From there, use boat to go to Waisai, the capital of Raja Ampat. From there, you need two hours boat ride to access Arborek Village.

Original article by Putri Rizqi Hernasari

Gili Trawangan

This time, I will write about Gili Trawangan. It is located in the Nusa Tenggara Barat province. It is on the island close to Bali island. Why this place? The main reason you should visit this place it's because here you can found Turtle Breeding Center. You can touch and play with baby turtles.

The other reason you should visit this place is in this place motorcycle is forbidden, so you can enjoy the unpopulated air and of course the beautiful view of the beach there. You can enjoy it on foot, or you can also rent a bike.

The reason I write this place is because in recent months, many of our national television discussed this beautiful place. If you interested, you can find more information here, or just Google the word Gili Trawangan.

Islands of Indonesia

Indonesia has so many islands. Therefor Indonesia has so many beaches too. There's still many beaches that haven't been touch as tourist attraction. But int his post, I won't write about beaches. In this post I will write about Indonesia's main islands.

Sumatera

Sumatera Island (source: harunar-peta.blogspot.com)

This is the most eastern island in Indonesia. Aceh is one of province located in this island. The culture in this island is generally similar with Malaysia culture, that is called Melayu culture. One of the popular culture attraction in this island is Padang, Batak, and Minangkabau culture. Sumatera is also popular with it's endemic animals such as Gajah Lampung (Lampung's Elephant) and Orangutan.

Kalimantan
Kalimantan, and sometime called Borneo abroad, is located in the center part of Indonesia. This island famous of it's natural resources such as vast rainfall forest and also coal mines. This island have some similarities with Sumatera island. Malaysia is also located in the northern part of this island, therefor the culture of people in this island is also Melayu culture. Same with Sumatera, this island also popular as home of Orangutan. This island also have many palm plantation area. One of the most popular city in this island is Pontianak, which has Tugu Khatulistiwa (Equatorial Mark) in it, caused this city is located in the 0 degree equator.

Jawa
Jawa, and sometime called Java abroad, is the most populated island in Indonesia. The city capital, Jakarta, is located in the western part of this island. The most popular cultural city located in this island is Yogyakarta. This city (or province) also popular with Borobudur Temple. Javanese culture is the originating culture in this island, therefor there's some other original culture such as Sunda, Banyumas, Madura, Banyuwangi, etc.

Bali
This is the most popular tourist site in our country. Sometime people more familiar with this island other than country of Indonesia itself. Bali is famous with it's beautiful beaches and culture. I think you already know this island better than me indeed.


Sulawesi
Sulawesi, and sometime called Celebes abroad, is the island which has shape like K in alphabet. This island famous with it's underwater attractions. This island also has many cultural attraction such as Manado culture, located in the northern most of the island. The most famous city in this island is Makassar, which is becomes so modern in the recent years.

Lombok, Ambon & Nusa Tenggara
These are smaller islands with some popular beaches and underwater attreaction. It's not located in one place, I just made it that way to simplify things. Komodo island is one of the most popular place here, this is the place popular with it's Komodo Dragon.

Papua
It has named Irian before. This island has so many natural attractions in it. This island still has the most natural rainfall forest. You will face some unique culture here. The people in this island have dark skin.

Kardoman's Blog

Recently I found this blog, that unusually has some interesting information in it. It is about 20 Most Beautiful Places in Indonesia.And other post on the same site that made me interested was Top 10 the Most Beautiful Places in Indonesia. I found it quite interesting. As an Indonesian, honestly I don't know much about most of them. I hope you find it interesting too.

Travel Guidance Sites

Here I will write reviews about some sites that have information from collaborator around the world, based on their personal travel experience.

Wiki Travel
Wiki Travel is a site that have a review about many places in Asia, so there's also a review about Indonesia tourism places too. As other wikimedia sites, this sites is built by collaborators around the world, because it is free to edit any page on this site. For example, try Yogyakarta.

Trip Advisor
Trip Advisor is a site that mainly focused on tourist's experience. This site includes a review about hotel and restaurant near the location, and have some user rating on it. For example, try Kampung Lumbung.

If you have other favorite sites, you can freely add it on the comments below.

Welcome

This blog is dedicated to show everything about Indonesia, especially Indonesia tourism sites. I know that there's already a lot of similar blogs focusing on Indonesia travel, but still too few of them discussed about unique places which have some beauties that not as popular as some other places, so I will also write about that kind of places.

At first, I will discussed some sites that have local and thorough information, especially that who has some tourists' experience log in them. Hope this site can help you travel around Indonesia.