AIRFARES FROM BANGKOK

Lonely Planet Indonesia (Country Travel Guide)

With a Lonely Planet guidebook you'll get the best out of your Indonesian trip. Our 9th edition of Indonesia will take you to the best beaches and bars in Bali, through lush paddy fields in Sumatra, diving with turtles off the Gilis in Lombok and to a traditional dance in Ubud.

Lonely Planet guides are written by experts who get to the heart of every destination they visit. This fully updated edition is packed with accurate, practical and honest advice, designed to give you the information you need to make the most of your trip.

In This Guide:

Discover natural Indonesia with our special color chapter
Detailed Itineraries for planning the perfect trip
Green Index helps you step lightly on your travels

I’m back and I’ve missed all of you.

Here are the top 10 things I learned while traveling to Bali:

1) I learned that you can’t enter Indonesia if your passport expires less than 6 months (yeah, I probably should have checked this beforehand). The lady working for China Airlines in LA told me that my passport was going to expire in 5 months and 2 weeks and that I could not get on my flight. This was at 10:55pm (my flight was at 11:50pm). Therefore, my layover in LA was going to be extended. Yes, I had a small breakdown at the airport. I pulled myself together and got a room at La Quinta. I woke up early in the morning and headed to the government building in LA to renew my passport. Thankfully, they renewed my passport, I had time to spend at Santa Monica pier, and then I was off to Bali. Yippie!!

2) My second lesson learned is that the immigration officers in Bali are corrupt! Yes, I got totally scammed and paid the officer $20! I won’t bore you with the details plus it makes me look like an idiot!

3) My first destination in Bali was Kuta. I realized that I was either going to get run over by a moped or get a massage.

4) Fortunately, I got the massage. In fact, throughout my vacation, I got two massages, a facial and a foot rub. Total cost for all: $30. Cheap, cheap!

5) I learned that it is OK to have a banana, banana pancakes, banana smoothie, fried banana, banana daiquiri and a banana martini all in one day! My Bali scuba instructor offered me a brown banana (hehe) but I said no. *blush*

6) A whole family can fit on one moped!

7) Australians love Bali.

8) You can have dinner of beer, egg and fried rice for $4. Cheap!

9) The Balinese people (except for the immigration officer) are kind, warm people that would always smile and say hello.

10) This was one of my favorite trips and I am so happy that I could share this with my sister.

101/2) Monkeys are not shy (should this be on moderate?.) :)

Both Malaysia and Indonesia share Sebatik island. The northern part is part of the Malaysian Sabah state, while the southern half is part of Indonesia's East Kalimantan province. This was taken from the higher elevated Indonesian side (marked by banana trees), overlooking the Malaysian plantation lowlands.

In the last years of the twentieth century, foreign correspondent Richard Lloyd Parry found himself in the vast island nation of Indonesia, one of the most alluring, mysterious, and violent countries in the world. For thirty-two years, it had been paralyzed by the grip of the dictator and mystic General Suharto, but now the age of Suharto was coming to an end. Would freedom prevail, or was the ?time of madness” predicted centuries before now at hand? A book of hair-raising immediacy and a riveting account of a voyage into the abyss, In the Time of Madness is an accomplishment in the great tradition of Conrad, Orwell, and Ryszard Kapuscinski.