Trip of Wonders to Indonesia on Instagram

My Indonesia Trip of Wonders on Instagram

If you follow me on Instagram then you would have noticed I was on Trip of Wonders in Wonderful Indonesia on an invitation of  Ministry of Tourism Indonesia.  It was an overwhelming experience in every single way. Though I had known a few things about Indonesia, I must admit I had very limited knowledge about Indonesia before my visit.  But Indonesia surprised me in more ways than one. By population, Indonesia is the largest Muslim nation in the world ( India is second largest ), but Indonesia is also home to the largest population of Hindus outside of India and they are living in Indonesia since the 8th century as per my friends in Indonesia.  Then to my surprise, Indonesia is home to the largest Buddhist temple in the world at Borobudur near Yogyakarta .

Indonesia with more than 300 languages, 17,000 islands, 3 time zones, active volcanoes, tropical rainforests, pristine islands, world’s largest lizard, arts and culture varying from Batik print to traditional puppets used for storytelling, and people with smiles warm enough to melt your heart with the love showered. No matter where I went in Indonesia I was made to feel at home, my hosts took special care to bring vegetarian food for me even on the remotest of islands inhabited by ethnic groups that till just a few decades ago had no contact with outside world.

As far as activities go we visited UNESCO heritage sites like Borobudur, did snorkeling in crystal clear waters, visited the active volcano of  Mount Merapi ( Last eruption March 10, 2014 ) did offroading on a jeep in an overflowing river, clicked most magical sunsets, stayed in fabulous hotels, walked in beautiful old towns and made friends with complete strangers. While I work on my detailed post about my Trip of Wonders to Indonesia, I could not resist but share some of the pictures I have shared earlier on my Instagram feed.  I am trying to share varied images here that cover different aspects of  Indonesia we visited, but please do remember this is just a curtain raiser and as always I will be sharing more detailed posts on various aspects of Indonesia in the coming days. So without much ado let me take you to my pictures clicked during my trip of Wonders in Wonderful Indonesia.

My first  picture of the trip represents the diverse culture of Indonesia.  Here you see some kids in traditional Islamic  headscarf of Indonesia on a visit to the Buddhist temple of Borobudur. When I told them I am from India to my surprise they said ” Namaste ” to me. But then we share a common heritage with Indonesia in more than one form. Bhasha Indonesia is sprinkled with Sanskrit and Arabic words besides words taken from, Chinese, European and local languages from various islands in Indonesia.

The 2nd picture is from an art exhibition I stumbled in our Hotel in Jakarta. While there were many beautiful pictures in the exhibition, I particularly liked this one as it is a modern painting but showcases the traditional costume of what appears like a Hindu woman in traditional dress ( but I could be wrong ) with her baby.

The 3rd image of Indonesia is from Trip of Wonders is from Bali, where I stumbled on a procession of a Hindu festival. A more detailed post on the same will follow but till then look at the picture of the colorfully attired women in the ceremony as they march towards the temple in traditional attire and floral headgear. Please do look carefully at this image clicked on the streets of Bali in Sukawati area, and the painting above, do you find any similarities ?

The 4th image is again from Bali, from the Penglipuran Traditional Village, that has maintained its Hindu roots, and each house looks like a shrine from outside.

My 5th image from Wonderful Indonesia features a farmer and his bull from a paddy field in Java. Small farmers in Indonesia still use traditional methods to plow their fields and unlike in India where we use Ox to plow fields, I found that the farmer in Java was using a Bull. I am sure it requires some skill to tame a Bull to plow a field.

The 6th image is of one of the many magical sunrise and sunsets I clicked in Indonesia.  Every sunrise and sunset in Indonesia took us by surprise and the way colors changed with every passing second was a feast for the eyes to watch.

Our 7th image is from Raja Ampat from the pier of our resort – Raja Ampat Dive Lodge. Raja Ampat is a remote area in Papua island accessible only by boats and what you see here is the pier of our resort accessible only by boat.

The 8th   image is of  a type of cookie that looks very similar to our own Naan Khatai, and why not, the Naan Khatai is believed to have first originated in Surat in Gujarat during Dutch control of the city. So there is a possibility that it traveled to Indonesia with the Dutch, but honestly  who cares as long as they are yummy to munch on. I am adding this image only to show the varied cuisine one finds in Indonesia from the simple tribal barbecue found in remote islands to a more refined cuisine in bigger centers like Java that finds its root in Javanese, Chinese, European and other influences.

The 9th image in the series is from the magical island that is formed during the low time in Raja Ampat. You need to walk in waist deep waters to reach the beach called  Pasir Timbul that vanishes with high tide.  This picture taken with my mobile can not do justice to the beauty of the surreal beauty of this island

The 10th image is from the remote tribal island of Arborek in Raja Ampat. The island is home to a small community of islanders who take pride in their culture and host visitors in their homestays. I was lucky to interact with some of the villagers who were busy painting boats, and building a homestay but more of them in coming post.

My 11th image from Trip of wonders to Indonesia is a lady whom I called ” The Tea Lady”, read the caption in the post for more details 🙂 I also like this picture as it shows the ever smiling Indonesians who proudly show their food and culture.

The last image in this curtain raiser on my visit to Wonderful Indonesia is my goodbye post while I was in Bali. It was clicked outside the swanky KuDeTa Club where Indonesia Tourism hosted our goodbye dinner. The image and the words capture my emotions at the end of ” Trip of Wonders” and  I do hope to visit Indonesia again in near future.

But like I said in the beginning, this is just an introductory post about my visit to Indonesia, you can follow the same in the coming days as I start sharing my posts about my visit to Indonesia.

I would like to thank Indonesia Tourism for inviting me to Wonderful Indonesia on the Trip of Wonders. Watch this space for more.

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