Alaksir Jakarta blog

And a welcome back to all readers, you should mainly reading this on my good friend Alaksir’s blog.  This is second in a short series of guest posts that have been on a foreigner’s perspective of Indonesia.  The first post is on a short introduction into which island’s we in the west would know of and why.  For the record, I’m Caoimhín part of Clan Raven Cub, living at present in England.

Sorry to keep you waiting readers, but a busy writing schedule kept this from being edited on time.  Today I thought to move from stories/ideas of the islands to what Indonesia actually is and how it came to be.  That’s a pretty broad topic and I really didn’t know where to begin but I thought to keep on the main issue as a westerner’s view I’d explore the issue for myself and clarify it for anyone who takes the time to read.

As I began with last time, Indonesia is a series of islands in the Pacific – some big, some small.  It stretches from the bottom of the Asian mainland to above Australia, between both the Pacific and the Indian oceans.  If one can picture, or look at the supplied map previously, the Vietnam/Thailand/Malaysian peninsula jutting off Asia just below China and circle the islands below this point to just above Australia, this comprises almost the entirety of Indonesia.  It is a bit unusual, in that it has territory on certain islands that it shares; this multi-island nation does have land borders.  The island of New Guinea is shared with Papa New Guinea; Timor is shared with East Timor, or the Democratic Republic of Timor Leste as it calls itself; Borneo it shares with both the independent nation of Brunei and Malaysia.  Borneo is known by Indonesians as Kalimantan and the Indonesian area only actually borders Malaysia and not Brunei.  In total Indonesia has between 13,667 and 17,058 islands, only about half of these inhabited.  It is the largest and the most inhabited archipelagic country in the world with 9.8 million square kilometres, another 7.9 under water, and with over 230 million inhabitants.  In comparison that’s four times the amount in the UK and three quarters of the population of America.  It has a massive mix of cultures, languages and religions, with Islam predominant.  It has the largest population of Muslims in the world.

The islands that are part of Indonesia began as one single land mass still connected to  the Asian mainland during the Pleistocene period four million years ago.  From around 2 millions years ago with the continual melting of ice most of this land was submerged and so Indonesia began as a series of islands.  Most people should be aware of tectonics – the idea that the great land masses are joined in seven large blocks, for the most part.  Indonesia is not just situated between too oceans but a few of these plates; the Filipino plate, the Pacific plate, the Australian plate and the Eurasian plate.  The manner of interaction between these plates has led to the island formations, submarine trenches and volcanic islands as well as mountainous stretches.

When the Australian plate moved Northwards it slipped below the Eurasian plate – the place in which it drops below exists as a vast underwater trench from the Lesser Islands up to Sumatra.  This clash of plates has also led to the formation of volcanoes all along this ridge.  Most earthquakes come from this region as one plate grinds against the other.  To the east the Pacific plate slips below the Eurasian plate thus creating another volcanic area.  Above is a quick guide to the plates in the region.  Indonesia is part of the Ring of Fire – a larger horseshoe area where 90% of the world’s earthquake and volcanic action takes place, the second largest area is the Alpide Belt which also runs into Indonesia.  The Alpide belt is the origin of the Himalayas growth and will continue to push land upwards in the region – bringing more submerged land in Indonesian to the surface, forming more islands.  Sumatra and Java lie on this belt while New Guinea is situated on the Ring of Fire.

Perhaps the single most famous place from Indonesia follows on from this topic – Krakatau.  In the 1800’s it and Tambora erupted famously.  Not surprisingly in this region a volcano of immense scale erupted, Toba.  What was to happen those 70,000 years ago left its mark across the globe.  Within Sumatra there lies the greatest volcanic lake in the world, comprising of four calderas, the most recent of which being the largest in the world.  This was the site of the super-eruption.  Around 3,000 cubic kilometres of material was blasted from the caldera in the eruption.  A caldera is where the land above a volcano’s magma chamber collapses, following the chamber emptying itself – usually after a large eruption.  In Tambora it has an explosive type of caldera due to high silica content.  This and other flammable minerals leads to an explosion during the shifting and collapse of the roof of the magma chamber.  Toba is thought to have been the biggest explosion in the last twenty five million years classified as Mega-Colossal, bigger even then Yellowstone.  It coated the entire Indian subcontinent in 15cm of ash with Malaysia covered in 9m of ash.  The fallout afterwards lowered the temperature by around 3 degrees C and much acid rain.  As an archaeologist it interests me because of the impact it seems to have made upon human development with theories suggesting that it wiped out most of the human race, dropping our number to ten of thousands.

On a final geographical note Indonesia is equatorial and its seasons are twofold – wet and dry.  It has a monsoonal climate with temperature remaining consistent, Jakarta being between 26 – 30 degrees in the most part.

As ever Wikipedia has helped this article with reference checking and figures but for those of you who know your geology please contribute to the new WikiBook on Indonesian Geology that still needs a lot of work.

And there goes my second post on Indonesia, now that we know our way around Indonesia I plan to introduce the peoples and cultures.  The next post should be about the how they got there in the first place.  If you liked this please leave a comment or drop me a line at clanravencub@live.co.uk.  I’d be particularly interested in seeing what ideas other westerners have of Indonesia and what Indonesians think of our views of their land.

Hi to all readers, you are reading this on my good friend Alaksir’s blog.  This post has been in the offing for quite some time now, from meeting Alaksir on twitter (relatively speaking) I have been learning more on Indonesia.  At one point I suggested writing a foreigner’s perspective, maybe an intro on some of the history and so on.  But snowed under with work, or trying to find some, I haven’t been able to finish it off until now.  For the record, I’m Caoimhín part of Clan Raven Cub, living at present in England.

So to begin what did I originally know of Indonesia – out of most of Polynesia I had thought quite a lot.  Java-Man, its location, its rich animal life and rain-forest like conditions.  I had even presumed that the native polytheist religions were quite strong.  And then a pause as I realised that was the length and breadth of my knowledge.  Some thoughts of Thailand fluttered into my head, mistaken identities, another culture I now also realise I know very little of.  And so this promised post had to start pretty much from fresh.

What to begin with?  Indonesia is one large island a set of islands in the Pacific.  Many people will know the names of individual islands, probably not associating them with Indonesia itself – New Guinea, Borneo, Java, Sumatra and Timor.  In this post I will talk to you somewhat about these islands and why they will, should or have stuck out in our mind.

The island of New Guinea is the largest of the Pacific islands, entirely covered in rainforest with the greatest diversity of wildlife, according to the recent documentary season Pacific by the BBC.  Its not Indonesia’s alone but is shared with Papua New Guinea.  As a bit of a wildlife fan, it is one place I find absolutely fascinating.  Wildlife isn’t the only diversity–with the density of languages being the highest on earth with well over a thousand languages, owing in no small place to the massive number of different tribal groups.

Borneo, a name from the movies.  Although names like Timbuktu and Borneo used to be by-words for the exotic, the old classic films are fading and these concepts are no longer part of the pop culture of the youth.  For others of us, Borneo still conjures a mixing of worlds – east meets west.  I think perhaps the image of Borneo signifies the truly inaccurate image the West have of the region.  It is somehow believed that the Pacific is a half-way house between the far Eastern cultures of India, China or Japan for example.  Not thinking that perhaps it is just yet again a highly different set of cultures that share similarities due to proximity with its neighbours.  Borneo is a truly stunning island famous for its caves–back to my wildlife–and its bat population.  Borneo is predominantly animist with a large portion of its Malayan population being Muslim.

Sumatra famous for its coffee, here in the West.  It is an image that conjures up ancient eastern empires as it should.  The early kingdoms of Kantoli (’Kandali’ in local spelling) and Samudra spread Malay culture across the nearby islands acting as a provincial centre.  The majority of Sumatra is Muslim.

Yet again a centre of coffee Java is famous for sharing its name with coffee also.  While the entire region is infamous for its geology, being on the lines of continental plates has caused much disasters – such as earthquakes and the recent tsunami – Java was created by volcanoes, that still form an east-west line across the island today.  The majority of Java is Muslim and Java hosts the capital city Jakarta.  Java has had a varied past from being a Dutch colony–during the colonial days the Spice Islands of the east attracted most of the western empires–to holding high Hindu Kingdoms, Buddhist kingdoms and Muslim Sultanates.  As an archaeologist, one other significant comment on Java is Java-Man.  A form of Homo-Erectus that rocked the world and complicated the original Out of Africa story that had at the time been proposed as the origin of man.

Timor famous recently for its province, the unsurprisingly named, East Timor.  While the word east refers to the east of the island, the word Timor comes from Malay also meaning east, as Timor is on the far east of the archipelago of islands.  So it means east east.  East Timor had been a Portuguese Colony since the 1500’s but following Portugal’s withdrawal, Indonesia claimed the entirety of the island, even though the nation had declared its Independence in 1975.  Recently East Timor has been recognised as a sovereign state making it the first new country of the 21st century.  Not commonly known, but the entire island is predominantly Catholic making the country of East Timor one of a few centres of Catholicism in the Pacific.  This was presumably spread by the Portuguese.

So that’s the first of my posts on Indonesia, I’m hoping to start exploring from here on a bit of what makes Indonesia tick.  Or rather how it developed that tick.  Next post will be another geographical post filling in the blanks of other Islands.  If you liked leave a comment or drop me a line at clanravencub@live.co.uk.  I’d be particularly interested in seeing what ideas other westerners have of Indonesia and what Indonesians think of our views of their land.

Anyone who has to endure working and commuting around a densely populated urban complex like Jakarta everyday can appreciate the preciousness of enjoying a bit of fresh air every once in a while.  Just 1-2 hours drive south of the Indonesian capital, the hilly  Puncak area has long been a top pick for Jakartans seeking a quick getaway from the ills of urban life.  It can be pretty tough to arrange for a decent accommodation as the best private villas in the area are already booked in advance most of the time, but if you’re looking for a more flexible arrangement, the Novus Puncak Resort and Spa at Cipanas can be your answer.

The spacious resort sits on top of the Cipanas valley overlooking the scenic Mount Gede.  It is about 10 km down from the peak of the Puncak on the left side of the road.

The first thing you’ll see once you get off your car to get to the reception, after passing by a wooden horse right next to the entrance, is a classic-looking lounge that also serves as  the hotel’s dining area, the Puncak Cafe.  If you arrive hungry, I recommend getting one of the outdoor tables to enjoy the fresh cool air.  The food might not be a top culinary treat, but its pretty decent and reasonably priced.  But if you really insist on treating your taste buds better, a 5-minute drive will take you to Pondok Daun restaurant at Cibodas.

My wife and I settled on a grand superior room without the private plunge pool, thinking that it might be too dangerous for our 1-year-old who’s just started to walk on her own.  But in hindsight, there wasn’t actually much reason to be worried as the pool is placed outside the room on the terrace and we were keeping an eye on her all the time.  So if you want to enjoy dipping in a private pool on your own private yard but don’t want to spend too much for a suite, go ahead and book the grand superior with pool.  Oh, and do ask for room 821; this is the only one that has a heated pool, aside from the suites that is.

Overall, the room is quite nice, that is if you don’t have a particular sensitivity with bathrooms.  The bathroom is very plain and I think is actually a little shoddy for a four-star facility like this.  The room comes with either a king-size or a twin bed, CD player and all the usual standard amenities.

One thing you’ll quickly appreciate about the resort if you have a busy bee for a toddler like us is the generous open space that’s available all around the facility.  This resort obviously aims at the MICE market, and that means all the motivated seminar attendants need a lot of space to play their so-called team building exercises.  They have a pretty tall aerial ropeslide or the ‘flying fox’ facility, which you can book through the reception if you’re interested.  And one of the things they offer that my little one was particularly fond of was a nice little garden infested with furry rabbits.

I heard the Novus spa comes recommended and I think I know why.  The treatment was great, the place had a tasteful atmosphere and the price was right.  I only wish spas like this were closer to home.  I recommend the Mountain Natural Essence package if you’re looking for a really nice, relaxing experience.

The really special thing about the Novus resort is its natural ambience.  The grand superior rooms are floored with tasteful wooden parquet and slate stones, giving you a nice sense of the surrounding environment.  Just beside the swimming pool is a heated whirlpool where you can enjoy a nice hot bath after a swim while looking at the lush green landscape around the hotel.  And don’t forget the wonderful spa.  It’s priceless.