Hi,

I’m back in Jakarta, a metropolitan city, after quite a while.. The last time I was here was 9 months ago. Honestly, I love to be back here, probably because the journey just take 2 hours from KLIA to Sukarno-Hatta airport. I had a smooth entering process yesterday, well, unlike the previous trip where I had a small hiccups. Another reason is, it does feel at home, as Malaysian and Indonesion are alike, well, as a matter a fact, most Malaysians were from Indonesia anyway, so we are like brothers…

This time I’m with friends, so it’s more fun. We had dinner together, more about that later…
Here’s something about Indonesia…

Indonesia is composed of seventeen thousand islands that stretch over five thousand miles along the equator. The Malay peninsula and Indochina are situated to the north-west, and the continent of Australia lies due south. Northward lie the Philippines and Micronesia.

The world’s largest archipelago, Indonesia’s constellation of islands straddles the divide between the Asian and Australian continental plates. As a result, the islands offer a stunning variety of topographies and ecologies Mist-shrouded volcanoes and mountains, unexplored rain forests, thousands of miles of beaches, and endless offshore reefs support a dazzling abundance of wildlife, making Indonesia an ideal destination for adventure and eco-travel.

The great majority of the country’s constituent islands are of negligible size, but it does hold–wholly or in part–several islands that are enormous. These include Sumatra, Kalimantan (formerly Borneo, and shared with Malaysia), Sulawesi, and Java. The Indonesian state of Irian Jaya occupies the western half of New Guinea, which is the world’s second largest island (behind Greenland). The most populous of the Indonesian islands by far is Java, home to the sprawling capital city of Jakarta. Other notable islands include the exotic, popular resort island of Bali, Lombok, Catholic Flores, and Komodo, home of dragons.

There are two discernible seasons in Indonesia: the dry season, which extends from June to October, and the rainy season, which lasts from November to March. Both are hot. The coastal regions, however, are often cool, and in the mountains the air is often chilly.

The national flag of Indonesia, which is known as Sang Merah Putih in Indonesian, is based on the flag of the 13th century Majapahit empire. The flag itself was introduced and hoisted in public at the Indonesian Independence Day ceremony, on August 17, 1945. The design of the flag has remained the same ever since.

The design of the flag is simple with two equal horizontal bands, red (top) and white (bottom) with an overall ratio of 2:3. The flag is similar to the flag of Poland and flag of Singapore, and is identical to the flag of Monaco (except for the ratio). Red represents bravery, while white represents the spiritual element. There is a national song titled “Merah Putih” (Red and White).