Top Places To Visit In Indonesia ( I )

If you want to enjoy a heavenly place on earth where sun shines all year long, enchanting scenery of beaches, mountains, villages, forests and many other sites available all over the country and blend with their respective local cultures and various attractions , then you should come to Indonesia. You'll certainly need a lot of time to visit and explore all those places completely.

I'd like to divide this hub into 3 (three) segments which each segment describes 3 of 10 destinations altogether.

God Almighty has created Bali with a lot of specialties. Located in eastern Indonesia, Bali is paradise where it can satisfy your curiosity about people who live in modern time but still strongly preserve their tradition and legacy culture combining with mesmerizing natural beauty!.

Because of its beauty too, an American author, Elizabeth Gilbert, once lived in Bali and wrote her memoir book : Eat, Pray, Love, a book that became the best seller for several weeks in The US. Based on this book too, a movie stared by Julia Robert and given the same title was made and shot depicting the attractions of some places in Bali as described in the book. Off course besides exploring attractive destinations there, you can also meet, face to face with the balinese figures mentioned in the novel, like Wayan the Healer and Ketut Liyer the Medicine Man in Ubud, Bali. Although Elizabeth Gilbert had to visit three different countries in the world to accomplish Eat, Pray, Love, but I myself have strong feeling that Bali can indulge your passions for Eat (good local as well international food) , Pray for soul enlightenment, and Love your loved one(s).

Bali is also famous for its sprawling temples. In those temples Balinese hold their religious activities which some of the events are also open for public and tourists to witness.

Yogjakarta is located in Central Java Province and also the capital city of the province. If you want to see the A to Z of batik making, then Yogjakarta is the place. Batik made in Yogjakarta is certainly among the best batik in term of quality and motifs people can get. Batik artists in Yogjakarta create batik motifs adhering to the principles of philosophy they hold . You can check the philosophy in batik motifs out at :

Yogja is also known as the city of Keraton. The name keraton refers to palaces in Yogjakarta which are well preserved where the Sultans of Mataram kingdom, The Hamengkubuwonos, have been living from generation to generation including the latest Sultan, Hamengkubuwono X who also lives there at present.

There are many attractions people can enjoy in Yogjakarta like visiting various parts of Keraton Yogjakarta as well as observing the antiquities inside them. You can also watch traditional dances and gamelan (Javanese traditional music instruments) which are performed regularly in Keraton area.

The winds of changes seem to blow into royal family of Keraton Yogjakarta too. Values and traditions which used to be exclusive in the past have been changed into more egalitarian so that common people are also given opportunities to enjoy. Royal cuisines, for example, which were the Sultans favorites now they are available for common people and specially served only at a restaurant inside the Keraton.

After keraton visit, exploring Yogjakarta city is as much enjoyable. some attractive locations can be taken into consideration like Borobudur temple, Prambanan temple, and Malioboro.

Located in northwest around 40 km away from Yogjakarta, Borobudur is one of the biggest Buddhist temple in the world built by King Syailendra in 9th century. This world landmark has gained acknowledgment from UNESCO as a world heritage which needs serious attention for its preservation. So, visiting Yogjakarta won't be complete if you don't include Borobudur in your destination.

Prambanan temple is another treasure owned by Yogjakarta city. This is a Hindu temple located approximately 18 km east of Yogjakarta and considered one of the biggest Hindu temples in South East Asia. As a world heritage Prambanan temple also gets special attention from UNESCO for its maximum preservation.

Malioboro is a shop arcade downtown Yogjakarta city which shows the heartbeat of Yogjakara. As the most famous spot in the city you only need to say the name and everyone will show you the directions how to get there. You can find anything related with Yogjakarta, you name them: batik, handicraft, ethnic shirt and T-shirt, traditional food and snacks, traditional transport like becak (pedicab) and andong (horse drawn vehicle), hotel of different rates, all are available at Malioboro.

A special hub about Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia, had been written. To find out how attractive Jakarta is, you can read this hub :

Besides those attraction sites, Jakarta Administration has also designed some events which are able to make great attractions for tourists to come to the city, one of those events is Jakarta Great Sale (JGS ). JGS is held in accordance with the anniversary of Jakarta city on June 22 and has attracted so many local as well as foreign tourists from neighboring countries to come to Jakarta just to make sure they don't miss the event. In this once-in-a-year event not less than 33 big shopping malls and department stores offer their products, including imported branded products, in crazy discounted prices. For some whole weeks shoppers will really be indulged to the resistance of their passions for shopping.

So, coming to Jakarta for shopping, or just for visiting its interesting places and enjoying the festivities is your choice.

Welcome to Jakarta and enjoy everything it offers in any  way to your convenience.