Indonesia

Indonesia is a collection of about 18,110 islands and is therefore the largest archipelago in the world. It straddles the equator and has the second largest tropical rain forest in the world. The only official language of this collection of islands is Indonesian, known as Bahasa Indonesian. You should learn at least a small amount amount of this language if you want to get around on the islands. You can purchase a phrasebook and translation dictionary in many shops for less than $3. Note that like in all countries, the people can be either friendly or rude when dealing with lost tourists, but the people here are mostly friendly and will help the stranded tourists as best as they can.

For most Western country citizens, an on-arrival Visa is available and it is very inexpensive. In order to get one of these on arrival however, you must have a return ticket home with you. If you do not have one, you may be deported out of the country, but this can usually be avoided by a large “fine”. The only ways to get from island to island are by small plane or ferry boat. You will want to make sure to exchange your home countries currency for that of Indonesia; the official currency is the rupiah (IDR). It is pretty easy to exchange your money there, and since you will probably arrive in Java via international flight, it is best to use one of the many locations for exchange that are on that island.

Indonesia