The name Indonesia was derived from indos nesos, meaning islands near India. The country is in fact the largest archipelago in the world with a thousand islands, 17,508 to be precise, spread in an area between the Asian continent and Australia, and between the Pacific and the Indian oceans.
The islands are inhabited by many tribes with diverse culture and languages, although there is a national language spoken throughout the country, namely Bahasa Indonesia. It is thus appropriate, that the countries motto is Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, which means Unity in Diversity.
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I never left my hometown before, until one day when I had to go on college, I made big decision move to Bandung. I didn’t have particular reason actually why I choose Bandung, except ITB (my college) and I just need to get out of my hometown. But after 7 years live in Bandung, now I can tell you all about this beautiful city that I always miss, just to stopping by and have flashback memory.
Bandung is the capital of the West Java, or it is known as Sundanese . Its population today is about 3 million, and that makes Bandung the fourth largest city in Indonesia. It is located at a relatively high altitude, about 800 meters above sea level, and it has a comfortably cool climate. This is one of the reasons why Bandung is a very popular place among expats, and at the same time, makes it also a popular destination among the Indonesians, who tend to come to Bandung by the thousands on weekends.
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Your travel to Indonesia would not be complete without having its traditional foods. Below are some of those foods you should not miss them when you come to that country.
Indonesia consists of many islands and many provinces. There are five big islands and more than thirty provinces altogether, and each provinces has its own unique traditional foods.
Jakarta, the capital city of the country, or as its original people called as Betawi, has Kerak Telor as its traditional food. This food can not be easy to find nowadays as Jakarta people like to flock to fast food restaurants and other modern foods which are scattered throughout the city. Kerak Telor would be easy to find on June and July when Jakarta celebrates its annyversary. The celebrations usually takes place at Kemayoran, and there will be many people selling Kerak Telor there. So, if you would like to try this Betawi traditional food, I would advise you to come to Kemayoran on June or July.
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I Love Bali, like I love You until the end. Tourism, Bali’s chief industry, has provided the island with a foreign audience that is eager to pay for entertainment, thus creating new performance opportunities and more demand for performers. The impact of tourism is controversial since before it became integrated into the economy. The Balinese performing arts did not exist as a capitalist venture, and were not performed for entertainment outside of their respective ritual context. Since the 1930’s sacred rituals such as the barong dance have been performed both in their original contexts, as well as exclusively for paying tourists. This has led to new versions of many of these performances which have developed according to the preferences of foreign audiences; some villages have a barong mask specifically for non-ritual performances as well as an older mask which is only used for sacred performances.
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