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You can search the blog with our simple search below, or use the extended functions of the Google search engine to search for blog articles you are looking for.
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After flying with AirAsia resulted in a slight disappointment I tried to fly with Batavia Air more often. They also have a number of new planes and offer regular fares which are attractive enough to give it a try as well. Fares are not that much different than those of AirAsia, but AirAsia just knows how to play the pricing game better.
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Every once in a while I do get to fly short distances in Indonesia. Because I don't fly to very exotic destinations which can only be reached once every few days, I often have the choice between several operators. That puts back the fun in flying a little bit, because looking for the right tickets is part of the travel already.
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Because there are still many passengers heading for the quake-struck city of Padang in West Sumatra, Mandala has added extra flights from and to the city until the end of the month to accommodate all passengers. Extra flights will be organized between Jakarta - Padang and Batam - Padang. In total some 9.710 chairs will be added with Airbus 320 and Airbus 319 planes.
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Singapore is just some 45 minutes away by fast ferry from Batam. An easy target for a day of shopping, a return trip 'new visa' or a lunch. From Singapore Batam is also seen as place to shop as prices are lower there while choice is still not that bad as well. Furthermore people can enjoy themselves with alcohol from early on the day until the early hours of the next morning.
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However the right answer was not given on blog.indahnesia.com, we will reveal what the picture was about. It was an image of one of the towers of the Jembatan Barelang on the island of Batam in the Riau Archipelago. To view the picture in our new large format, please visit the picture gallery ' Seeing is believing'.
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It is something that children do, as well as adults. For adults it is a full-time job or volunteer job and not something you just do incidentally. But that last one is what happened two nights ago. It was just after six in the evening when a Dutch friend and I were having a beer in one of the many cafe's in the Jodoh area on the island of Batam. One of the Australians that entered before we did walked outside but came right back in. "There is a fire," he said with a normal voice.
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For everything is a first time. Yesterday I was SMS-ed from the Netherlands with the request to check my email. No company asked me to do that, but my contact person in the Netherlands which can be contacted by the Rabobank in case it is needed. I checked my email right away and found out that the Fraud Prevention team of the Rabobank had blocked by credit card because they suspected that my card was used by others.
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Ever wondered if there was any cheap alcohol in Indonesia? Of course there is, but what you will find first is the locally brewed kind, varying from arak (rice wine) as well as fake branded liquor in small bottles in most parts of Indonesia to real wine - and of good enough quality as well - on the island of Bali. The wine however is not cheap with some 100,000 Rupiah (7.50 euro) per bottle or more. The locally produced and fake branded liqor (Jack Daniel's and other well-known brands) are sold for somewhere between 15,000 and 30,000 per 0.25 liter.
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It is just several minutes before half past one as Batavia Air flight 7P-577 from Jakarta is preparing to land on Hang Nadim international airport on Batam. After a nice and quiet flight that departed just a few minutes behind schedule from Jakarta, Batam is visible and the last empty cups of water and paper napkins are collected by the stewardesses.
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Hotel operators in Batam have complained about raids on their hotels by local police. They say it hurts tourism more than it improves safety or anything else. The raids started with the start of the holy month of fasting, Ramadan, but the Association of Indonesian Hotels and Restaurants' (PHRI) on the island has said that the national police is no moral police.
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Before you know it you are in another boarding room. In this case on the airport of Hang Nadim. Back to Jakarta indeed, but the Batavia Air plane has not arrived yet so the minutes of delay start to count already. In contrary to the airport of Jakarta, there are no boards with information about the recently introduced laws on the protection of passengers in case of delay. Most people don't know about the fact that they have the right to a snack and a drink if there is a delay indeed.
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Here at indahnesia.com we have been working hard to improve out services. We have installed this new fancy blog and are in progress of updating the forums as well, but outside that we would like you to take a look at the 600+ hotels we are currently offer.
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Minister of Transportation, Jusman Syafi Djamal, has told the press that he is considering asking for higher tax rates for older planes operated by Indonesian air carriers as an incentive to drive a modernization of the country's air armada. Behind the Minister's plan is the view that older aircraft are more frequently involved in "safety incidents" in Indonesia and have generally poor operating efficiencies.
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Indonesian Transport Ministry has grounded all McDonnell Douglas MD-90 operated by budget airline of Lion Airline following two accidents in two weeks, Transport Minister Jusman Syafii Djamal said here Wednesday. The accidents came as Indonesia is struggling to improve air safety, expecting the European Union to lift its travel ban on Indonesia in March or July.
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A Lion Air Boeing MD-90 late yesterday landed at Batam airport without its front landing gear extended, resulting in damage to the undercarriage and the airport having to be closed. The Indonesian airline's general director, Edward Sirait, says the MD-90, local registration PK-LIO, was on a domestic flight from Medan to Batam when the crew discovered the aircraft's front landing gear was unable to be deployed.
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I probably have to stress once again that it was broad daylight when I walked around in the nightlife district of Batam - which is better known as 'Kampung Bule' indeed. However I have to be honest that I don't know what is usually going on at night here, I could imagine certain aspects of nightlife here from stories and Googling for certain keywords of course. Not directly what I am looking for, and maybe because of that reason I just explored the area during broad daylight to see what is going on here. From the Nagoya Hill shopping mall I walked to a local warnet (internet cafe) to check some things out and to make my walk around the district.
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The first of September of this year was the official start of the Ramadan, the holy month of fasting for Moslems in Indonesia. In general this comes with all kinds of threats from - in general - radical elements in the society that some places should better shut down for the entire month or otherwise be visited by people that are not visitors or customers. Fortunately those people are not the majority nor the government in this country, thus the local government on Batam has decided that the two weeks of obliged shut-downs is to be limited to only four days; the first day of fasting, the 17th day and the days of Idul Fitri (also known as the Arabic term Eid-ul Fitr). This however is the official regulation, outside that it will still be different than people hoped for.
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Following the latest safety incident involving an Adam Air flight that slid off the runway at Batam's Hang Nadim Airport on March 10, 2008, the Indonesian Department of Civil Aviation has threatened to "freeze" the airlines Air Operating Certificate if the carrier's management is unable to quickly correct its safety management shortcomings.
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Five passengers of a jetliner that skidded off a runway on the northern island of Batam on Monday were admitted to hospital, some with neck and head injuries. One of the five left hospital later in the day after doctors said his injuries were not serious.
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The new Dutch-made warship that arrived in Indonesia last Wednesday has been taken into use earlier today when it left for the waters of Batam from the Belawan area. The first operation of the ship was overseen by admiral Sumardjono.
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Ethnic Chinese throughout Indonesia celebrate the Chinese New Year today. Many of them will bring a visit to temples for praying to their gods and ancestors. The Dharma Bhakti, Sam Njan Kiong and Amorva Bumi temples in Jakarta were filled with visitors celebrating 'Imlek', as the Chinese New Year is also known in Indonesia.
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Tourist arrivals into Indonesia dropped in 2006 by 4.1% in comparison to 2005, recording just over 4.79 million visitors, so this year at the ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF) the delegates hope to generate a more positive beat for Indonesia. The Indonesian Ministry of Cultura and Tourism and industry representatives this year will be concentrating their energies toward TRAVEX at ATF, with 49 hospitality properties and 18 tour operators.
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As the tropical monsoon clouds roll in, obscuring the towering volcanos along the Bali coastline, the pristine neighboring island of Lombok seems a world away from Indonesia's premier tourist destination. In fact, it almost is.
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ndonesian troops found detonators and 63 tons of explosive powder on a Chinese ship anchored off Batam island after it broke down in the Malacca Strait, a local police chief said.
"We are trying to find out if these explosives were legal and what they were intended for," said Brig. Gen. Sutarman, head of the Riau Islands police, adding that documents found on the ship indicated it was bound for Yemen.
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Indonesia is adding its voice to calls for Asian countries to be allowed a greater voice in international institutions like the IMF and World Bank. Indonesia also says that eradicating poverty is its national priority, something both the World Bank and IMF also want to see. So the Indonesian delegation, which has come to Singapore for the IMF/World Bank annual meetings, wants to use this opportunity to promote their country as an investment destination.
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Indonesian police will allow activists opposed to the policies of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank to meet in Batam, 40 minutes by ferry from Singapore where the lenders are holding their annual meetings. Activists were previously denied permission to hold the meeting on the island because it could hurt the political, security and investment environment in Indonesia, Anggaria Lopies, a spokesman from the Riau provincial police, said in a telephone interview today.
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A move to protest International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank policies - right at Singapore's doorstep - has been officially banned by the Batam police. Unable to stage outdoor demonstrations in Singapore during the IMF-World Bank meet next week, about 1,000 delegates from non-governmental organisations around the world had decided to hold their protest at the nearby Indonesian island instead.
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Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said he’s targeting 6% growth in the economy this year as he pledges more reforms to draw investors into projects from biofuel to infrastructure and housing.
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Signs of a thaw in frosty Indonesia-Australia relations are apparent after Jakarta sent its ambassador back to Canberra ahead of a meeting between the countries' leaders later this month. Foreign Ministry spokesman Desra Percaya said Friday that T.M. Hamzah Thayeb, who was recalled on March 24 during a rancorous dispute over Papuan asylum seekers, would arrive back in the Australian capital this weekend.
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About 10,000 Indonesian workers held a protest rally in Jakarta in a bid to force the government to scrap a proposed labor law, bringing traffic in the nation's capital to a standstill. The protest paralyzed a key road leading to the office of Vice President Jusuf Kalla, causing traffic jams near buildings housing the central bank and companies including PT Garuda Indonesia, the nation's biggest airline.
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Australia's travlel advisory that terrorist attacks would occur in Indonesia on Sunday, April 2, which was not true, constitutes part of Australia's propaganda against Indonesia, according to an observer. The travel warning is categorized as C3 rather than A1, meaning that the truth of the warning needs rechecking, Wawan H. Purwanto, an intelligence observer and a lecturer at State Intelligence Institute (IIN), said here Monday.
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Singapore is negotiating with Indonesia to seek concessions to partly manage Bintan Island in Riau Islands province by turning it into free trade zone (FTZ), which could accommodate more foreign manufacturing companies. The first round of negotiation, which looks likely to trigger controversy among local politicians, began on Batam island Saturday, with Vice President Jusuf Kalla and Singapore's Foreign Affair Minister George Yong-Boon Yeo at the forefront of the talks.
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Following a visit by legislators to Bali, Batam and Papua to gauge public opinion on the pornography bill, it's still a guessing game whether there will be major changes to the controversial bill. While House of Representatives special committee chairman Balkan Kaplale promised people in Batam there would be major changes to the draft of the bill, legislator Rustam E. Tamburaka said in Bali that "there may be some exceptions in the bill for Bali and Papua".
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Many long-term expatriate residents here cannot consider Indonesia a welcoming second home when they are barred from owning property here. "Property ownership is the core around which one builds one's life. Why should foreigners be handicapped here?" complains Robert Eskapa, a British businessman who has opened a pizza-chain in Indonesia.
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The government announced a list of the country's dirtiest cities for the first time on Friday in a bid to encourage municipal administrations to clean up their acts, and their heavily polluted urban areas. Previous governments had only made the names of the cleanest cities public.
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Three more people in East Lombok regency have died of malaria since Friday, bringing the total number of deaths in the current outbreak to nine. Two of the three latest deaths occurred in the subdistricts of Sekarwangi and Ijobalit, while the other death was in neighboring Pijot subdistrict.
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The price of premium gasoline soared by up to 500 percent in some provinces on Wednesday as the country's fuel shortage bit deeper, with the National Police stationing officers at gas stations around the country to prevent outbreaks of violence among frustrated customers.
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It is welcoming news to see that our new State Minister of Culture and Tourism Jero Wacik is looking at extending the number of countries whose tourists will be eligible for a visa on arrival, albeit a visa that costs US$25 and is only valid for 30 days. Jero says he is undertaking a survey of major entry points to see what needs to be done to improve the performance of Indonesia's queue-up-and-pay visa policy.
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On a usual early morning, around seven, I woke up from my last night in Bira, a small coastal town on the lifted coral sediments of the south-western tip of Sulawesi. It was time to get dressed, have some breakfast, which isn’t much choice here, but well, it’s Bira, a place with only a handful of people living here, compared to other places in Indonesia. Getting dressed and packing my backpack again I was thinking I would not be here for quite some time. I hadn’t planned a second trip to Sulawesi yet, so this is probably the last I would see of Bira in quite some time.
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Megawati Soekarnoputri's reelection bid received another boost on Monday after the Muslim-based Reform Star Party (PBR) decided to support her in the Sept. 20 election runoff. PBR chairman Zaenuddin MZ said in a press conference on Monday that the party had undertaken a series of discussions before deciding to throw its weight behind Megawati.
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The race among budget airlines to fly to Singapore is heating up with a third player, Jakarta-based Lion Air, joining the fray, a spokesman said on Wednesday. "Singapore is a very important market for us," Lion Airspokesman Hasyim Arsal told the daily newspaper Streats. "We believe both Singaporeans and Indonesians will benefit from Lion Air's connectivity within Indonesia," he was quoted as saying.
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Another fire swept through Harmoni Hotel in the industrial island of Batam, Riau on Monday but there was no immediate report of casualty. The fire occurred on the hotel's eighth floor and all guests had been evacuated, eyewitnesses said. The cause of the fire is still unclear. Earlier on Sept. 7, fire ravaged the hotel's ballroom on the ninth floor, leaving four people dead and 13 others injured.
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Four people were killed in a hotel fire in Batam, Indonesia, on Sunday. Police said the cause of the early morning fire on the ninth floor of the Hotel Harmoni, a tourist hotel on Batam island near Singapore, was still being investigated. They said 14 people were injured.
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Vice President Hamzah Haz declared a deadly flu-like disease a "national threat" today while Indonesia prepared to grant health officials emergency powers to forcibly quarantine and treat patients with the illness. "We must treat this as a national threat," Haz told reporters in Jakarta, the capital. "If not, this will be a new burden for all of us."
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A fugitive wanted in connection with the Bali nightclub bombings built some of the bombs used in attacks on churches in Indonesia in 2000, police said Monday.
The suspect, identified as Dulmatin, is the latest alleged link between the Bali bombers and earlier attacks in the archipelago. Last month, police said the alleged mastermind of the Bali attack, Imam Samudra, ordered the 2000 church attacks which killed 19 people.
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Terrorists are planning imminent attacks on a range of targets - including churches and hotels - in four Indonesian cities, the Canadian Embassy has warned. 'The embassy has received credible information that terrorists may be planning attacks in Jakarta, Manado, Balikpapan and Batam soon,' an embassy circular to its citizens, dated Friday but obtained here yesterday, said.
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The authorities have tightened security at airports and other key facilities across the country following renewed threats of terror attacks in the wake of the Bali bombing tragedy, police said on Monday. More than 100 additional police officers, some of them plain-clothed personnel, were deployed at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport near Jakarta to tighten security there, said airport police chief Insp. Sri Suari. The police are conducting patrols within the airport complex located in Tangerang, Banten province.
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Indonesia has heightened security nationwide amid fresh threats of terror attacks on key economic infrastructures following the Bali bombing tragedy, police have said. The increased security alert comes as intelligence reports point to further terrorist activity after the October 12 night of horror in Bali where more than 180 people were killed.
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Evi, not her real name, fell down the stairs. Or, maybe she was hit by a motorbike while crossing the street. Her claims, however, cannot hide the fact that the young woman now lying in a clinic's examination bed was badly beaten by somebody.
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A free trade deal being hammered out between the US and Singapore will include goods made in neighbouring Indonesia – and may be extended to cover parts made in other South-East Asian nations in the future, the Singapore trade minister said Saturday. The agreement, if completed, will be Washington's first free trade pact in Asia.
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The withdrawal of over 3,000 tons of Ajinomoto taste enhancers continued across the country on Sunday as six PT Ajinomoto Indonesia executives remain in detention over the controversy, concerning the use of pig enzymes in its production process. Police assisted the withdrawal of all Ajinomoto taste enhancers over the weekend, and as of Sunday afternoon seized at least 110 kilograms from several traditional markets in the capital.
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Four airlines -- Mandala Airlines, Pelita Air Service, Bouraq Airlines, and Dirgantara Air Service -- will form an alliance next month to cope with mounting domestic competition, a senior airline executive said. Head of Mandala's development division Kus Winarko said on Wednesday that the alliance was the only way the airlines could provide new destinations without adding more planes.
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As Jakarta loses control of its domestic situation, the region confronts a slowdown in foreign investment, a rise in Muslim extremism, and the threat of chaos — or even civil war — in Southeast Asia's largest country
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Thousands of Sampit's citizens, the capital of East Kotawaringin Regency in Central Kalimantan, left Palangkaraya on Tuesday (20/2) in waves. Palangkaraya is located around 220 kilometers east of Sampit. Trucks laden with belongings of Sampit people and hundreds of private cars were constantly heading towards Palangkaraya.
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Several people were injured in an explosion that occurred at the Gereja Kristen Protestan Simalungun church in Batam Sunday night. The bomb exploded at around 9:12 p.m. when around 250 people were attending an evening mass. The explosion caused panic among the congregation, who rushed out of the building. Blood was seen inside the building, Antara news agency reported.
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Minister of Health Achmad Sujudi asserted on Saturday that most Indonesian children have a strong resistance to infectious diseases thanks to various cultural and ecological factors. "Based on this fact I strongly hope that there will be no outbreak of infectious diseases such as HMFD (Hand Foot and Mouth Disease) which is caused by Enterovirus," Sujudi told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of the Healthy Indonesia 2010 ceremony at Pondok Indah Mall here.
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