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Diary Entry: 22nd July-3rd August 2006 - Summer Turns to Winter As Lead Car Crosses Equator
Diary Entry: 4th August 2006 - Visit to Care International Indonesia's Project to Improve Child Health in the Jakarta Suburbs
Diary Entry: 8th-13th August 2006 - Belching and Fuming with a Strong Eggy Smell
Diary Entry: 13th-25th August 2006 - There's More to Bali than Kuta Beach
Diary Entry: 25th August-3rd September 2006 - Dragon Spotting with a Couple of Mantas Thrown In for Luck
Diary Entry: 21st-27th August 2006 - The wild man of Borneo has now been tamed
Diary Entry: 28th August-1st September 2006 - Black magic
Diary Entry: 2nd-5th September 2006 - Worlds Apart!
Diary Entry: 5-11th September 2006 - 'Bulls' to it!
Diary Entry: 12-21st September 2006 - Crash, bang, 1 million rupiah please
Diary Entry: 22nd-28th September 2006 - A Life On The Ocean Waves
Diary Entry: 28th September-5th October 2006 - There's Some Luvly Muck Over Here Dennis
Diary Entry: 5-13th October 2006 - One last visa run
Diary Entry: 13-21st October 2006 - The Long Drive East

Photo Album for Indonesia

East Timor

Diary Entry: 3rd-12th September 2006 - Overland and Underwater in East Timor
Diary Entry: 22nd-30th October 2006 - Taken To The Cleaners

Photo Album for East Timor

Country Highlights En Route

Lake Toba

In the midst of Sumatra's tropical jungles infested with mosquitos and urban jungles infested with smog, Lake Toba stands out as a jewel: a temperate ecological zone with cool, sometimes crisp air and quietness on demand. Lake Toba, in Indonesia's North Sumatra Province, is Sumatra's main attraction and among the most idyllic spots in Southeast Asia. The lake is among the deepest crater lakes in the world. It rests in the crater of one of Sumatra's many volcanos. The 650 square mile lake is almost 1500 feet deep. The climate is cool and dry and steep, scenic mountain slopes surround the lake.

Borobudur

Borobudur is the largest Buddhist monument in South-East Asia. Some scholars believe that the site was originally intended as a Hindu temple, but was converted to a Buddhist monument after construction had begun. The pathway up the temple spirals around the centre so that the pilgrim may view over a kilometre of bas-reliefs depicting events found in Buddhist sutras and in the Buddha's life. The form of the temple is rather unique for its age.

Prambanan Temple Compounds

Built in the 10th century, this is the largest temple compound dedicated to Shiva in Indonesia. Rising above the centre of the last of these concentric squares are three temples decorated with relief's illustrating the epic of the Ramayana, dedicated to the three great Hindu divinities (Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma) and three temples dedicated to the animals who serve them.

Krakatoa

Located in the Sunda Strait, 40 km off the west coast of Java on the island of Rakata. At its peak, Krakatoa reached a height of 790 m (2,600 ft.) above sea level. Its first known eruption occurred in 416 A.D. However, this eruption destroyed the volcano of Krakatoa, which collapsed and formed a 4-mile wide caldera. The eruption was heard from Phillippines, Alice Springs, Rodriquez Island and Madagascar. The power of its eruption was estimated to 21,547.6 atom bomb multiplied. The ash hail produced by the eruption caused obstruction of the view to the sun, so that it created a spectacular view as if the sun was almost gone.

Diving

The islands of the Indonesian archipelago stretch from the Asian mainland into the Pacific Ocean. The Bali Sea, Flores Sea, Banda Sea and Sulawesi Sea (Celebes Sea) offer some of the best diving opportunities in this expansive underwater wonderland. Straddling the equator with the Indian Ocean to the east and Pacific Ocean to the west, Indonesia boasts the most diverse waters in the world. Over 3,000 fish species and 450 species of coral, steep walls, deep water trenches, underwater volcanic mountains, World War II wrecks, and an endless variety of macro life.

Komodo & Rinca

These two small islands sandwiched between Flores and Sumbawa in eastern Nusa Tenggara are famous for their four-legged inhabitants - the ponderous Komodo dragons. The lizards can be quite fierce, and range from 20g (0.7oz) pipsqueaks to 130kg (287lb) monsters. Komodo is a hilly desolate island, but Rinca's wildlife is fairly abundant - there are several monkey colonies, wild water buffalo, deer, bush turkeys and eagles.