I’m looking at flights and wondering what personal experience people have with different indonesian cities.
I spent three weeks in 2015 and it was overall a great experience. I went to Jakarta and Yogyakarta in Java, Ubud in Bali, Labuan Bajo in Flores (as I wanted to visit Komodo National Park), and Manado in North Sulawuesi.
It is incredibly beautiful and culturally rich and I found Indonesian people to be very friendly and open to foreigners. Bali did feel a bit touristy but still authentic and interesting. It’s useful to bring a Bahasa Indonesia phrasebook as in some places people do not speak English. I would advice to try and balance natural and cultural sites and to try and visit a few of the islands as they are very different from one another. Flights within the country are relatively cheap.
Perfect, thanks! I tend to travel slow, though i am curious as to how the islands are different.
Culturally?
Whoa, komodo national Park looks pretty wild, did you end up going on any of the tours?
Did you use an app or a phrasebook for indonesian?
Yeah, I hired a local tour for Komodo, it wasn’t too expensive and mainly innvolved hiking and looking at wildlife.
I used an app for indonesian, just a simple list of phrases that could be played back ti hear how they sounded
That’s very cool. Did the lizards feel dangerous?
Did you see anything remarkable apart from the lizards? Those orangutans?
I didn’t feel in danger near the lizards, they were mostly chilling in the sun. I also saw some buffalo, a couple of interesting birds and thousands of bats at sunset. The tour I took had some snorkeling while waiting for sunset, that was also very nice (clown fish, mantis shrimp, sponges, etc)
Nice! Were the mantis shrimp particularly colorful? I’ve heard different things.
Water buffalo? I saw some crazy water buffalo horns while walking across Thailand, did any of yours have giant monster horns?
I traveled to Jakarta and Surabaya for work maybe 15 years ago for 3 weeks. It’s not anywhere I’d want to visit again with my own money tbh. I loved the people/culture. I loved the food (Indonesian is actually my favorite cuisine!). Everything else I kind of hated. Jakarta is just a ginormous, dirty, congested megacity. Surabaya wasn’t much different.
I’m sure the countryside and resort areas are lovely. I’m sure the cities have all sorts of hidden gems and fun areas. This wasn’t my experience though. I’ve been to many big cities (Manila, Sao Paolo, Rio, BsAs, among others), and Jakarta and Surabaya were just overwhelmingly dull and gross. (the foreigners looking for, ahem, “young sex” are really pervasive and gross as well)
Other colleagues of mine have similar experiences. My Brother-in-law however loves Indonesia. Why? His friend’s family basically owns an island lol. He goes and is treated like royalty on basically a private island, doing all sort of fun nature stuff.
I guess it all depends on where/how you go to Indonesia. Just wanted to give my perspective without knowing what you’re actually interested in.
Thanks for sharing your experience, definitely helps. I prefer living in smaller cities or towns and exploring those, so I will steer clear of Jakarta and Surabaya for sure. I feel the same way, most large cities are like most other large cities, and I avoid them when possible.
I’m leaning toward Yogyakarta right now, has ~95% less population than either Ja/Su, so it seems to fit the bill for a far less busy town with plenty to see and learn.
I’ve been to Bali and Borneo, but spent more time on the Malaysian side of Borneo. What are you looking for? Your photo looks like an idealised version of travel photography that I’ve never witnessed irl. Not an Indonesia thing, but more a nice place photographed at dawn with no people, with perfect light and settings that give an image that don’t represent real world experience.
I’m interested in the experiences travelers have had in Indonesia rather than looking for any one thing in particular. What did you think of borneo? Did you see orangutans or monitor lizards?
I like exploring countries from smaller cities and towns, learning what i can while I’m living there.
It’s definitely a nice picture of borobudur, reminds me a lot of angkor wat during sunrise/sunset.
