Island Travel
admin August 12th, 2008
Indonesia is the largest archipelago in the world that straddles the Equator between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. While it has land borders with Malaysia to the north as well as East Timor and Papua New Guinea to the east, it also neighbors Australia to the south, and Palau, the Philippines, Vietnam, Singapore, and Thailand to the north, India to the northwest.
The nation of Indonesia is almost unimaginably vast: More than 17,000 islands providing 108,000 kilometers of beaches. The distance between Aceh in the West and Papua in the East is more than 4,000 kilometers (2500 miles), comparable to the distance between New York City and San Francisco. Laying on the western rim of the Ring of Fire, Indonesia has more than 400 volcanoes, of which 130 are considered active, as well as many undersea volcanoes. The island of New Guinea (on which the Indonesian province of Papua is located) is the second largest island in the world.
Climate
Upon arrival and disembarking from the plane, one immediately notices the sudden rush of warm, humid air.
Indonesia is a hot country. It has no spring, summer, fall, or winter, just two seasons: raining and dry, both of which are relative (it still rains during the dry season, it just rains less). While there is significant regional variation, in most of the country (including Java and Bali) the dry season is April to October, while the wet season is November to March.
| Capital | Jakarta |
| Government | Republic |
| Currency | Indonesian rupiah (IDR) |
| Area | 1,919,440 km2 |
| Population | 245,452,739 (July 2006 est.) |
| Language | Bahasa Indonesia (official) and countless regional languages, the most widely spoken of which are Javanese and Sundanese |
| Religion | Muslim 88%, Protestant 5%, Roman Catholic 3%, Hindu 2%, Buddhist 1%, other 1% (1998) |
| Electricity | 220V/50Hz (Shuko Euro plug) |
| Calling Code | +62 |
| Internet TLD | .id |
| Time Zone | GMT+7 through GMT+9 |








