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Month: November 2024

Indonesia, 2024 (#27 in teaser series: Borobudur, before the deluge)

Published November 29, 2024 by Pelidoug

Indonesia, 2024 (#27 in teaser series: Borobudur, before the deluge)

 

Q: where would you find the world’s largest Buddhist temple?

A: in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation.

Beautifully sited on a lush plain, between volcanoes, Borobudur is in Central Java,

Java is “our” planet’s most populous island…but is far from its most frantic/frenetic.

My photo was taken at 3.41 pm on 18 October 2024;  the prevailing mood was “a relaxed state of high anticipation”.

A few raindrops gently fell, while we waited for our appointed time to ascend the temple steps.

(visitor numbers – and their access and behaviour – are now strictly regulated. Borobudur’s hitherto “laissez faire” regime had been rapidly destroying what the too-many, too-careless tourists had come to see)

The prevailing mood and the rain’s intensity were about to change…dramatically!

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Indonesia, 2024 (#26 in teaser series: “a perfect place to enjoy cool air and relaxing scenery after a series of shopping activities” )

Published November 28, 2024 by Pelidoug

Indonesia, 2024 (#26 in teaser series: “a perfect place to enjoy cool air and relaxing scenery after a series of shopping activities” )

 

 

Wonderful Indonesia’s wonderfully-unlikely description refers to Tangbukan Perahu.

This post’s title is quoted from that volcano’s Wonderful Indonesia webpage.

Tangbukan Perahu is just one of Indonesia’s many active volcanoes, but this one is uniquely accessible.

A sealed road allows cars and buses to drive almost all the way up, to within a few easy walking paces of the main crater’s rim.

Tangbukan Perahu rises more than 2000 metres above sea level.

It dominates the local countryside – countryside which it has in large part shaped and fertilised.

Tangbukan Perahu has also, intermittently, delivered terror and death.

read moreIndonesia, 2024 (#26 in teaser series: “a perfect place to enjoy cool air and relaxing scenery after a series of shopping activities” )
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Indonesia, 2024 (#25 in teaser series: “Wayang” without “shadow puppets”)

Published November 27, 2024 by Pelidoug

Indonesia, 2024 (#25 in teaser series: “Wayang” without “shadow puppets”)

 

 

Most non-Indonesians who have any familiarity with the term Wayang think of it as a form of theatre which features so-called “shadow puppets”.

Wayang kulit – the form which involves “shadow puppets” – is in fact just one of Indonesia’s several kinds of Wayang theatre.

One of them does not directly involve any puppets.

Another – the kind pictured above – features highly skilled puppetry and puppet-making, but its puppets are very unlike their Wayang kulit counterparts.

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Indonesia, 2024 (#24 in teaser series: city square, “Old Batavia”)

Published November 26, 2024 by Pelidoug

Indonesia, 2024 (#24 in teaser series: city square, “Old Batavia”)

 

 

Most visitors still refer to the pictured,  particularly well-preserved/restored precinct as “Old Batavia”.

The independent nation whose flag now flutters there prefers to call it “Old Jakarta”.

My photo’s vantage point was Cafe Batavia, on Taman Fatahillah – Batavia’s main square.

The photo looks across to what used to be the administrative hub of what was then – 18th century CE – the greatest trading centre in all of Asia.

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Indonesia, 2024 (#23 in teaser series: wooden ships…)

Published November 26, 2024 by Pelidoug

Indonesia, 2024 (#23 in teaser series: wooden ships…)

 

….are still vital to inter-island trade in Indonesia.

Not coincidentally, Indonesia has more inhabited islands than does any other nation, and many of them do not have deep-water ports.

Jakarta, of course, has a modern, deep-water port.

Tanjung Priok – that “new” port – is not merely a replacement for the “old” port.

Sunda Kelapa is still a working port; if I had pointed my camera in another direction,  I could have taken a photo that included very many more wooden-hulled  boats, plus a huge number of lorries…

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Indonesia, 2024 (#22 in teaser series: Raja Ampat panorama)

Published November 24, 2024 by Pelidoug

Indonesia, 2024 (#22 in teaser series: Raja Ampat panorama)

 

Raja Ampat’s most celebrated viewpoint is the hilltop lookout on Piaynemo (aka “Pianemo”) – a relatively small island near the southwestern end of Waigeo – the archipelago’s biggest island.

You are looking at just part of the 360 degree panorama.

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Indonesia, 2024 (#21 in teaser series: paradise glimpsed…)

Published November 23, 2024 by Pelidoug

Indonesia, 2024 (#21 in teaser series: paradise glimpsed…)

 

 

..a Bird of Paradise, at least.

The silhouetted individual is a Red Bird of Paradise, which was displaying/dancing in the rainforest canopy high above us, late in the afternoon of 14 October 2024, on Waigeo – the largest of Raja Ampat’s four “main” islands.

The silhouetted circumstance “robbed” the bird of its brilliant colours – or, more correctly, it robbed my eyes’ and my camera of their ability to discern those colours; we were looking up, straight into the sun.

Even so, you can surely see why humans have for so long hunted these amazing birds, for their feathers and  plumes.

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Indonesia, 2024 (#20 in teaser series: featherless flight, Raja Ampat)

Published November 22, 2024 by Pelidoug

Indonesia, 2024 (#20 in teaser series: featherless flight, Raja Ampat)

 

Nearly an hour after I took the previous post’s photo, “our” boat was still at anchor, the sun had recently set, and everyone on board was looking skywards.

Thousands of fruit bats roost on the nearby small island of Mios Kon.

We were watching them set off on their nightly foraging/hunting “expedition”.

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Indonesia, 2024 (#19 in teaser series; local people, Raja Ampat)

Published November 21, 2024 by Pelidoug

Indonesia, 2024 (#19 in teaser series; local people, Raja Ampat)

 

Only India, China and the United States have more human inhabitants than does Indonesia.

Very few of Indonesia’s circa 284 million people live in Raja Ampat; the archipelago is home to circa 70 thousand.

A visitor on a boat in Raja Ampat is likely to see other boats, but infrequently.

It is a real “event” whenever any local inhabitants glide by.

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Indonesia, 2024 (#18 in teaser series: entering a “sacred” cave)

Published November 20, 2024 by Pelidoug

Indonesia, 2024 (#18 in teaser series: entering a “sacred” cave)

 

 

At 4.15 pm on 11 October 2024 most members of our party entered the waters of a cave that is variously perceived as “natural wonder” or “pilgrimage site”.

Tomolo Cave (aka “Tomolol”) is on Misool, the southernmost of Raja Ampat’s four “main” islands.

Provided skilled guides are present, non-expert visitors can safely and easily swim right through Tomolo.

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