Where to stay in Indonesia
In Indonesia, quality and comfortable hotels that are fully consistent with its official “star”. There are 3 *, 4 *, 5 * hotels, in addition, many 5 * can be characterized as “deluxe”. Everything is very clean and civil in hotels, they don’t drink tap water – bottled drinking water is provided for free.
In Jakarta, cheap hotels are usually located near busy noisy streets, where it is very difficult to relax.
When a resident of a hotel invites guests to his house, he must conduct the guests, otherwise the hotel security may delay them until the owner of the room (i.e. resident) is announced. Moreover, the tourists will not be bothered and searched in the room.
SEA AND BEACHES
Most of the beaches on the island of Bali are municipal, but the use of beach equipment is usually included in the price of hotels. Nusa Dua and Jimbaran have private hotel-owned beaches. All beaches are with fine yellow sand, only in the southeastern part of Bali there is black volcanic sand, but this area is not much sought after by tourists. Sunbathing in Bali naked is not only indecent, but also illegal.
Fans of tropical tanning need to protect themselves from direct sunlight and be sure to use protective equipment: a deceptive sensation of a “dim” sun can lead to severe burns.
Little is known about the population living on the archipelago 5,000 years ago, but some experts believe that migration to these islands from the southern part of the Asian continent already existed in 2500 BC.
In the 2nd century A.D. a highly developed civilization has arisen in the territory of the present western part of Indonesia, whose cosmology, architecture and political structure were organized along the lines of the Indian.
The Buddhist state of Sri Vijaya, which emerged at the end of the 7th century in East Sumatra, established control over the strategically important Malacca and Sunda straits. This state dominated the surrounding seas for 600 years. Having built the largest ships in this region, it regularly sent them to the shores of India and China.
Meanwhile, Java has become a great island empire, since it has become possible to maintain a large population through intensive irrigated rice growing. The Hindu ruler Sanjaya was the first known great temple builder. Later, he was replaced by the Shailendra Buddhist dynasty and its rulers erected magnificent structures: Borobudur, Mendut, Kalasan and Seva.
Rakai Pikatan, a descendant of Sanjay, overthrew the Shailendra dynasty in 856 and marked his victory with the construction of the magnificent Loro Jongggrang Temple in Prambanan. However, in 930, the capital was suddenly moved to East Java. Subsequently, in the rule of Raja Airlangga, Sanskrit classics were translated into Javanese, which marked the birth of local literature.
The East Javan empire of Majapahit became the first state to span the entire Indonesian archipelago; all port cities on the shores of the Java Sea turned out to be its vassals. Majapahit reached the zenith of its power in the middle of the fourteenth century, under the rajah Hayam Vuruk and the patiha Gaja Mada, after whose death she quickly fell into decay. Control over vital coastal areas soon passed to several new Muslim states, and many of the Indianized Javanese aristocrats fled to Bali.
Muslim merchants from India and the Middle East have been visiting Indonesia for several centuries, when at the end of the 13th century the inhabitants of the commercial ports of North-East Sumatra began to convert to Islam.
The Portuguese appeared in Indonesian waters in 1509 – only 12 years after Vasco da Gama circled the southern tip of Africa, but they were not allowed into the Muslim-controlled spice trade.
Although the Portuguese never managed to dominate the region, they left a noticeable mark here. Mestizo Portuguese-Indonesian communities are now found in many coastal areas, and a significant number of words of Portuguese origin penetrated into Malay and the Indonesian languages developed on its basis. In the 16th century, Portuguese missionaries converted about 20,000 Indonesians to Catholicism.
The participants of the first Dutch expedition to Indonesia in 1596 were harassed by serious illnesses, internal strife. The expedition returned to Holland a year later with a meager load of spices and only a third of the crew. Nevertheless, it caused a feverish revival in Dutch commercial circles, and the next year another 22 ships set sail for the East Indies. In 1602, greedy merchants created a Dutch East India Company on shares and soon received privileges from the Dutch government to conclude agreements, have their own armed forces, build fortresses and wage war in Asia on behalf of the Netherlands.
