"Halo. Apa kabar?" Indonesia by seagoingJLW

I told you we love to cruise. We took a marvelous trip on the old Ocean Pearl called "The Spice Islands." We went from Singapore to Phuket in Thailand. After that we hit Sumatra, Java and Bali. We were greeted in each port by a gamelon orchestra and local dancers. Wow! What an experience.

History

Around 3000 BC Proto Malays from the Asian mainlandbegan migrating to the islands pushing the indigenous Australois peoples into insulated pockets.Around 100 AD sophisticated kingdoms were established in Java and Sumatra. From about 600 to 1100 the Buddhist kingdom of Srivijaya controlled trade through the Malacca and Sunda Straits.

From 760 to 820 the Sailendra dynasta built the great Buddhist monument of Borobudur in Java.

Around 1250 Arab merchants indtroduced Islam to coastal kingdoms. The religion spread.. From 1292 to 1453 a Hindu empire centered in Majappahit in eastern Java maintained a loose sovereignty over much of the islands. In 1512, the Portuguese reached the Moluccas (Spice Islands of east Indonesia.) In 1596, Dutch ships reach west Java, The Dutch formed the Dutch East India Company in 1602 and established a base in Jakarta (which it renamed Batavia) in 1619. The Dutch controlled most of Java by the end of the seventeenth century.. In 1799, due to the company's troubles, tthe Dutch government took over the company's possessions.

During the Napoleonic Wars (1811-1816) the British captured and governed the Dutch East Indies which were returned to Holland by treaty in 1816. From 1825 to 1830,a rebellion known as the Java War was a threat until its leader, Prince Diponegoro, was exiled to Sulawesi.

In 1870, permission for Europeans to lease land opened an era of large plantations, especially in Sumatra.

From 1870 to 1910 the Dutch gained control of the islands when they defeated the Aceh sultanate of northern Sumatra.

Bt the 1930s, oil, discovered in 1892, became the second largest export (after spice).

In 1912, merchants of Java founded the Islamic Association which developed into anational movement. Then, in 1927 the Indonesian Nationalist Party was formed under the chairmanship of Sukarno. In 1942,the Durch East Indies fell to Japan.

Indonesia, the world's sixth largest and fifth most populous nation, is no older than an August 17, 1945 proclamation. The Republic of Indonesia's Declaration of Independence signaled the end of more than three centuries of Dutch control, but it took four years of warfare before the Dutch agreed to leave the country. In December 1949, Indonesian sovereignty became a reality.

Indonesia is made up of 13.677 islands strewn across tropical seas. Many of the islands are no more than rocky outcrops and only eight per cent of them are permanently inhabited. That proportion includes most of Borneo, the world's third largest island, and half New Guinea, the second largest. Nearly 90% of Indonesians are Muslims yhus making Indonesia the largest population of Muslims in the world today. A common language, bahasa Indonesia, was derived from "market Malay" and established as the national language.

Indonesia has achieved a powerful sense of nationhood except for Irian Jaya and East Timor which were coerced into Indonesia in 1963 and 1975 respectively. The wide spread resentment of the annexations still finds expression in simmering guerrilla conflict.

Gamelon Orchestra

Indonesia is the largest archipelago in the world, consisting of five major islands and about 30 smaller groups. It is on a crossroads between two oceans, the Pacific and the Indian, and bridges two continents, Asia and Australia.

The five main islands are Sumatra (about 473,606 sq km), Java/Madura (132,107 sq km), Kalimantan, which is two thirds of the island of Borneo, (539,460 sq km), Sulawesi (189,216 sq km), and Irian Jaya, which is part of New Guinea, (421,981 sq km).

The climate is tropical. The East Monsoon from June to September brings dry weather. The West Monsoon from December to March brings rain. Transitional periods have occasional heavy rain.

There are 583 languages and dialects spoken in Indonesia. Some of the distinctly different languages are: Acehnese, Batak, Sundanese, Javanese, Sasak, Dayak, Minahasa, Toraja, Buginese, Halmahera, Ambonese, and several Irianese languages. the national language is Bahasa Indonesia.

• Pros:Each island is different
• Cons:You have to sail or fly from one to the other.
• In a nutshell:Most enjoyable. Avoid areas of political activity