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The world’s fourth most populace country - 240 million and counting -
is a sultry kaleidoscope that runs along the equator for 5000km. It may
well be the last great adventure on Earth. From the western tip of Sumatra to the eastern edge of Papua
is a nation that defies homogenisation. A land of so many cultures,
peoples, animals, customs, plants, features, artworks and foods that it
is like 100 countries melded into one (or is it 200?).
And we’re talking differences that aren’t just about an accent or a
preference for goat over pork, we are talking about people who are as
radically different from each other as if they came from different
continents. No man may be an island but here every island is a unique
blend of the men, women and children who live upon it. Over time deep
and rich cultures have evolved, from the mysteries of the spiritual
Balinese to the utterly non-Western belief system of the Asmat people of
Papua.
Venturing through the islands of Indonesia you’ll see a land as diverse and unusual as those living upon it. Look at Sulawesi
on a map, say what you think, and you’ll save yourself the cost of an
ink blot test at a shrink. Or view Sumatra from the air and be humbled
by a legion of nearly 100 volcanoes marching off into the distance,
several capable of blowing at any time.
Dramatic sights are the norm. There’s the sublime: an orangutan
lounging in a tree; the artful: a Balinese dancer executing precise
moves that make a robot seem loose-limbed; the idyllic: a deserted
stretch of blinding white sand on Sumbawa set off by azure water and virescent jungled hills; the astonishing: the mobs in a cool and glitzy Jakarta mall on a Sunday; the humbling: a woman bent double with a load of firewood on Sumatra; the solemn: the quiet magnificence of Borobudur.
