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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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It has been a year ago that I used the Indonesian railroad services. That was a trip from Yogyakarta to Jakarta with a dirty, cold and old-fashioned train. Trains like that are still widely available on Java. It normally is really cold on board of one of these trains, which makes traveling with them not the best option available.
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Two orang hutans are posing for the camera in a resort for their species on the island of Sumatra. The animals are still poached while government and NGO's are making efforts to prevent the species from becoming extinct.
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A chapter of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), the highest Muslim authority, called on all Muslims Monday to not watch 2012, saying that the Hollywood movie was misleading and against Islamic belief. Produced by Sony Pictures, Roland Emmerich's 2012 is a new movie about the Mayan doomsday starring John Cusack.
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What is in the picture below? It's just a cut-out of a larger picture that will be published on indahnesia.com tomorrow, but we give you some head start to guess what the picture might be. The exact name would be perfect, but a description of what you are seeing and where the location might is okay too. We will provide more details tomorrow when this picture is published in the picture gallery ' Seeing is believing'.
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The right answer was not given this week. So what was on the picture then? The rectorate of the Andalas University. The Andalas University ('Universitas Andalas') is the oldest university in Indonesia outside of Java. The university consists of nine faculties, with most located at the main campus Limau Manis, twelve kilometers from the center of Padang, West Sumatra. The campus occupies five square kilometers, at an elevation of about 100 meters.
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What is in the picture below? It's just a cut-out of a larger picture that will be published on indahnesia.com tomorrow, but we give you some head start to guess what the picture might be. The exact name would be perfect, but a description of what you are seeing and where the location might is okay too. We will provide more details tomorrow when this picture is published in the picture gallery ' Seeing is believing'.
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This time not just one picture, but set of pictures of a well-known Indonesian woman, Julia Perez. She is known from Indonesian television, where she acts and presents. The also is a dangdut singer and also a model, as you can see below. Because of her relation with Damien Perez she was able to feature as a model in FHM and Maxim magazines in France, so she is not only known in Indonesia.
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The right answer was not given this week. So what was on the picture then? It was a phallic symbol in Candi Sukuh, a Hinduist temple in the village of Sukuh in Karanganyar regency in Central Java. The temple is located at some 40 kilometers east of the city of Surakarta on the slopes of Gunung Lawu ('Mount Lawu'). To view the picture in our new large format, please visit the picture gallery ' Seeing is believing'.
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What is in the picture below? It's just a cut-out of a larger picture that will be published on indahnesia.com tomorrow, but we give you some head start to guess what the picture might be. The exact name would be perfect, but a description of what you are seeing and where the location might is okay too. We will provide more details tomorrow when this picture is published in the picture gallery ' Seeing is believing'.
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The third picture in the now almost legendaric series. Still not much reactions, but the views compensate it all. This time an unknown lady that works as a dancer in the Skygarden club in Kuta. That's indeed Bali nightlife. This young woman it willing to dance until she drops as long as security keeps away members of the other sex.
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Picture this: A 10-meter wide asteroid hits Earth and explodes in the atmosphere with the energy of a small atomic bomb. Frightened by thunderous sounds and shaking walls, people rush out of their homes, thinking that an earthquake is in progress. All they see is a twisting trail of debris in the mid-day sky. This is what happened on Oct. 8th around 11 am local time in the coastal town of Bone, South Sulawesi.
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Allthough the right answer was not given on blog.indahnesia.com, we will reveal what the picture was about.
It was an image of a surfboard belonging to the lifeguards on the beach of Seminyak in South Bali. To view the picture in our new large format, please visit the picture gallery ' Seeing is believing'.
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A press photo of the entire second United Indonesia cabinet as they were inaugurated yesterday afternoon by president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. The inauguration took place at the Istana Negara ('National Palace') at the Merdeka Square in central Jakarta. The 34 ministers and VIP's to the government will have to work hard to make Indonesia into what Yudhoyono has envisioned for the country in the next five years. Partners of ministers are also included in the picture.
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Because the first few pictures that were published here on the blog were a big hit - little reactions but many, many views - we are continuing with the 'Sexy and Indonesian' series for now. This time it is Fifi Buntaran that is on our blog. If you are in need of more, pictures can be found on Flickr.
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Some 200 preman ('street thugs') who normally keep themselves busy with disturbing residents in the areas of Penjaringan, Cilincing, Koja and Pademangan in North Jakarta were picked up during police raids on Thursday. 172 people were processed to be fined after their fingerprints and mug-shots were taken.
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What is in the picture below? It's just a cut-out of a larger picture that will be published on indahnesia.com tomorrow, but we give you some head start to guess what the picture might be. The exact name would be perfect, but a description of what you are seeing and where the location might is okay too. We will provide more details tomorrow when this picture is published in the picture gallery ' Seeing is believing'.
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Oscar-winning Hollywood star Julia Roberts has arrived in Bali for what is expected to be a month-long filming of the Bali portion of Elizabeth Gilbert's novel "Eat Pray Love." Gilbert's best-selling autobiographical recounting of her post-divorce travels in Italy, India and Bali is to become a Columbia Pictures (Sony) film starring Roberts, Javier Bardem and Richard Jenkins.
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indahnesia.com has gathered 18 high-resolution pictures of the aftermath of the 7.6 magnitude earthquake that struck the city of Padang and West Sumatra province on September 30, 2009 late in the afternoon. The pictures show rescue work in progress but also the massive landslides that covered entire villages. Some of the images may be disturbing to some people.
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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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What is in the picture below? It's just a cut-out of a larger picture that will be published on indahnesia.com tomorrow, but we give you some head start to guess what the picture might be. The exact name would be perfect, but a description of what you are seeing and where the location might is okay too. We will provide more details tomorrow when this picture is published in the picture gallery ' Seeing is believing'.
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The regional government of Makassar in South Sulawesi has ordered it's civil servants not to download pornography at government offices. With increasing ease, porn is accessible via internet, something that Indonesians have found out as well. It is no secret that Indonesians do also use the internet to find what they are looking for.
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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 a tower on the Balongan oil refinery in the regency of Indramayu in West Java province. To view the picture in our new large format, please visit the picture gallery ' Seeing is believing'.
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Simply strange to see. Make a sexy picture of yourself, or ask your friends to make one of you, just to put this picture on your Facebook or Myspace in the hope that people are willing to give a comment on it. Many people aim at comments that are all to predictable, but short replies like "Sexy!", "Hot!" and "I would like to have sex with you!" in various phrases are all to common, also in Indonesian of course.
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What is in the picture below? It's just a cut-out of a larger picture that will be published on indahnesia.com tomorrow, but we give you some head start to guess what the picture might be. The exact name would be perfect, but a description of what you are seeing and where the location might is okay too. We will provide more details tomorrow when this picture is published in the picture gallery ' Seeing is believing'.
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People who watch television in Indonesia probably know her. She presents a TV-program on Saturdays in which she prepares good-looking meals. Whether they taste as good as they look, I don't know because I never tried it, but there is more than just the cooking in the program 'A la Chef' she presents on Trans TV that looks good. The now 29-year old Farah Quinn, married with a bule ('Caucasian'), is quite a famous tv-person for women and men alike so it seems.
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This time indeed no picture of Indonesian nature, but a building project that has never been finished. The picture was a part of a concrete pillar which eventually should have become an elevated toll road. That highway was never constructed and these pillars are lost in the landscape along Kali Malang in the regency of Bekasi, directly east of Jakarta. To view the picture in our new large format, please visit the picture gallery ' Seeing is believing'.
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What is in the picture below? It's just a cut-out of a larger picture that will be published on indahnesia.com tomorrow, but we give you some head start to guess what the picture might be. The exact name would be perfect, but a description of what you are seeing and where the location might is okay too. We will provide more details tomorrow when this picture is published in the picture gallery ' Seeing is believing'.
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Plane crashes normally are breaking news across the world because of their sudden nature and the often high numbers of casualties involved in that kind of accidents. Reporting such events - and others that are also causing worldwide news - should be handled with care. However it is not always that easy to select the information and images going with them. Making a mistake in a hurry is nothing uncommon as well.
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The Department of Public Works (PU) has said that ten days before the first day of Idul Fitri, some 98 percent of the construction and renovation works on roads is finished. It only gave information about the roads that are appointed as official mudik routes, with mudik being the 27-million odd homecoming travels to celebrate the end of the Ramadan month of fasting.
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It was a volcano indeed, but the correct one was not mentioned in the reactions, so no honor to give away this week. So what was in the picture then? It was the Gunung Api volcano in the Banda Archipelago. To view the picture in our new large format, please visit the picture gallery ' Seeing is believing'.
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What is in the picture below? It's just a cut-out of a larger picture that will be published on indahnesia.com tomorrow, but we give you some head start to guess what the picture might be. The exact name would be perfect, but a description of what you are seeing and where the location might is okay too. We will provide more details tomorrow when this picture is published in the picture gallery ' Seeing is believing'.
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Ever wondered how to order your Indonesian girl online? Well, for those who though that you have to get out of your house life has just become easier today! A website , hosted by Google, so probably not online for too long. The site starts with a lot of information about different sexual actions and eventually closes of with the way of booking; by email or mobile Indonesian phone number.
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It was indeed Danau Kelimutu that was on the picture. No prize as said before, but Anne Mieke will have the honor to have guessed the first picture. I hope I can publish a picture like this every week or so. If there are people that want to donate a picture, you are very welcome!
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What is in the picture below? It's just a cut-out of a larger picture that will be published on indahnesia.com tomorrow, but we give you some head start to guess what the picture might be. A name is enough, but a description of what you are seeing is okay too. We will provide more details tomorrow when this picture is published in the picture gallery ' Seeing is believing'.
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Abu Jibril, the father of fugitive terrorism suspect Mohamad Jibril, has said that the arrogance of which anti-terrorism unit Densus 88 executed their task. A 20-man team of Densus 88 searched the house of Abu Jibril last night. According to the father of eight children - yes the one who was pictured on this blog with a gun yesterday - they don't have any politeness in their guts.
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That terrorists are strange people might be nothing new to you, but the hype of denial is reaching new hights every single day. Fortunately for PKS member of parliament Anugerah, he was forgotten instantly when it became clear that the child of a former member of the Majelis Mujahidin Indonesia ('Mujahidin Council Indonesia', MMI) is wanted because of his involvement to last months suicide bomb attacks in Jakarta.
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Zivanna Letisha Siregar did not make it until the final 15 contestants for Miss Universe. However she lead the popular vote on the internet website with a fairly large majority, she was eventually not choosen to compete among the last fifteen. She failed to advance to the bathing suit round.
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Terrorists in Indonesia are said to have detailed plans to stage a terrorist attack on American president Barack Obama. The attack should be carried out by sharp shooters. This information was made public by a safety expert in Indonesia. Obama is expected to bring a visit to Indonesia in November this year.
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It has become clear to the Indonesian police force that terrorists in hiding are not that easy to catch. Noordin M. Top, Southeast Asia's number one searched for terrorist, was not killed in a police raid last week, but is still on the run, as he has been for the last seven years of his live.
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After sitting behind bars at Bali's Kerobokan prison for nearly eight months, a man on Interpol's Most Wanted List, 46 year-old Christian Burger, is now in France to face child sexual abuse charges. Burger, who has both French and Swiss citizenship, was placed on a plane to Paris on Wednesday, August 5, 2009, following the issuance of a letter agreeing to his extradition signed by Indonesia's President Yudhoyono. He has issued the needed letter last Monday, as was confirmed by Public Prosecutor I Ketut Sujaya, SH.
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Always wondered what a terrorist hide-out would look like? Well, it looks like any other house in the block because residents should not be aware of any strange activities of course. Terrorists prefer to blend in with the local population. The ones hiding out in the house in Temanggung that was stormed earlier today even worked the fields!
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Every once in a while you stumble upon a sign that can be very unclear without additional text. The picture below has been on my mobile phone for quite some time because I even forgot I made it some while ago. With the article about the nail-sweeping police (see related articles below) evidence of warnings come in handy.
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Formerly named photobooks, the picture galleries on indanesia.com have been upgraded to improve viewing experience for visitors in the first place with proper navigation above and below the pictures. We have also readied the picture galleries to accommodate much larger pictures, up to 700 pixels wide! A few of those large pictures have been uploaded already.
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It took a few days for the national police in Indonesia to realize that they also should put their pictures of 'bombers' they are looking for on the internet as well. They eventually did so, and their picture is below. They are the suicide bombers that blew themselves up in the July 17 attacks on the J.W. Marriott Hotel and Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Jakarta.
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Every single day - maybe excluded of some religious holidays - is demonstration day in Jakarta. The city will never be free of mid-afternoon demonstrations on high-profile locations because of all those demonstrations in one day. But the problem is, that most of those demonstrations consist of a group of less than 50 people, often paid to join their little demonstration to make it look big and have their pictures taken for a local newspaper.
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The regional police of Surakarta (Solo) in Central Java, is doing all it can to make the moving space for terrorists in the region as small as possible. Outside the roadside checkups that are organized at various locations in the area, they have also printed some 15.000 posters with pictures of fugitive terrorist Noordin Mohammad Top. They are spread in busy areas in the entire district of Surakarta.
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Indonesian police is stepping up the hunt for wanted terrorist Noordin Mohammad Top (picture below) after the bombings of the J.W. Marriot and Ritz Carlon hotels in Jakarta last Friday. Recent information shows that Noordin is most likely involved in the bombings of the hotels via the terrorist network of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI). JI is known to have ties with the terror network of Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaeda.
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What does the Indonesian government know what we don't know (yet)? When surfing on the internet I found a small article on the website of Bloomberg stating that Russian President Medvedev was showing off a coin which is said to be a possible future release. Normally those kind of 'news articles' do only make it as far as internet back-rooms where you can gossip about the upcoming New World Order and things related to that. Sometimes funny to read, but to take it seriously? No, nothing for me.
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Where it used to be falling planes that scared Indonesians, Indonesian skies are much safer these days. Yesterday afternoon a plane belonging to Merpati Nusantara with flight number MZ 761 on the route Jayapura - Biak - Makassar - Jakarta only lost one tire when departing from Biak Airport in the province of Papua. One of the left wheels of the plane which was flown by pilot Haryogi and co-pilot Eko Laksono, fell off shortly after taking of for Makassar.
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It has been quite some time ago since I last flew with Lion Air. This is caused by the fact that Wings Air is a 100% daughter-company of Lion Air. Lion Air itself is currently renewing it's fleet with Boeing planes, but Wings Air is the trash can of Lion Air. They still operate two MD-82 planes built in 1982 which are in poor condition; PK-WIL and PK-WIK are just too dangerous to fly with if you ask me. It's amazing that they didn't crash already.
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Telkomsel celebrates it's 14th birthday and has lowered the prices of their iPhone 3G models on sale in Indonesia. Prices have come down by one million Rupiah, which is a about 69 euro. Of course these phones should only be used with a Telkomsel 12 month contract. It was only several months ago that Telkomsel officially launched the iPhone 3G in Indonesia, back then prices started at 3.999.000 Rupiah for the 8GB version and 4.999.000 for the 16GB version.
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Now the East Java department of the Council of Islamic Scholars in Indonesia (MUI, Majelis Ulama Indonesia) is talking about the fact that some websites can possibly have a bad influence on young people it is time for us to select a random picture from one of those so-called dangerous websites, Facebook, Myspace, Friendster and other social networking websites.
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It just had to be done at a certain point, but it was lack of time and a wrong mood that prevented me from doing it for quite some time. Now it is finished, the results are here to see for all of you; a blog on indahnesia.com on which I hope to publish more store stories, but also typical blog items like pictures (outside the normal photobook on indahnesia.com) and others.
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Hotels offered on indahnesia.com in cooperation with Agoda.com have been upgraded to display more detailed information and pictures about the hotels and their environment. Google maps have been added in many occasions to display the location of the hotels and other hotels in the neighborhood.
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Indonesia has opened a tsunami museum in Aceh province to remember the severity impact of the catastrophe in 2004 that killed more than 230,000 people in Asia and most of them in the province. The museum displays pictures of victims and the huge damage in coastal areas of the province in northern tip of Sumatra island when a tsunami triggered by a strong earthquake devastated the area on Dec. 24 2004.
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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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At the end of last year I was able to experience how it was to fly a brand new plane as well as a very old one in just a matter of days. That very old one was a short domestic flight from Jakarta to Yogyakarta with Indonesia Air Asia, while just several months earlier I had traveled from Yogyakarta to Kuala Lumpur with Air Asia in one of the newest planes - at that moment - in use with the airline. It was the new plane that fascinated me most, while I only thought about the old one a few months later.
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It is still fairly early in the afternoon for a nice evening, but still life slowly comes out of the starting blocks. It isn't a nightclub, where the doors will be kept closed until around ten in the evening. It now happens in other locations in Jogja where preparations are made. All across the city students and young adults have created meeting points to start their Saturday evening together. One of those meeting points, to say it bluntly, is Kedai Kopi Jakal. This is the name that the place has earned already, because it is not the official name.
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Sitting in a bus is not something that I do with the greatest love. However every once in a while I will still do something that I don't want to do every single day. After the flight from Yogyakarta to Surabaya in the early morning, I didn't reach my final destination for the day - by far. But fortunately I had already taken that into account when I booked the ticket. At that time I decided to use only public transport to find my way to Malang, which was my final destination for the day.
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Yeah, the title looks like pure fraud, but that doesn't seem to be completely true though. For some time now, about one and a half year, Yogyakarta has its own ice rink for those who want to skate some rounds or just want to do crazy on two of those thin metal strips under your feel. That is at least what they say in advertisements for the ice rink. That reality is slightly different than in those advertisements, is not really amazing. However the leaflet got in a pile 'still to do' somewhere on my desk, I already had the chance to have a look what the fuss was all about.
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The police have detained two activists from the Unified People Coalition (KRB) for allegedly burning flyers with pictures of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Vice President Jusuf Kalla at the State Palace yesterday.
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With a flight in the afternoon I departed from Yogyakarta to the capital of Indonesia, Jakarta. For the first time I was to fly this route with AirAsia. It is called AirAsia here, but in fact it's a separate company that listens to the name Indonesia AirAsia. This difference is subtle, but if you know that AirAsia uses airline code AK, and Indonesia AirAsia QZ, it all becomes clear.
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Shouts of "Thank you, God!" erupted inside the Indonesian Parliament building Thursday after lawmakers passed anti-pornography legislation, bringing to an end nearly 10 years of debate.
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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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Two members from one family, mother Sumiarsih (59) and son Sugeng (43), were executed earlier this month after they had been on death row for an astonishing twenty years. They were sentenced to death in the 1980's over a murder on five members of their own family out of vengeance. After twenty years in prison, they names - and their story - reappeared in the news once again. The end of their story was clear for almost twenty years already, but it just did never materialize. Probably someone did not like cleaning his office, so these two death row candidates were only executed by firing squad earlier this month.
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Outside the use of the many thousands of - in general - old buses that are still in use today, there is a new option which was introduced just a few years ago. In 2004 these were brand new buses which were used on - then - just two routes. One route ran from north to south and back and the other one from west to east and back. The official name TransJakarta can be found on the buses, but for the rest the company is known as 'Busway'. And that is exactly what it is, because TransJakarta is too common. In the four year that this company exists hundreds of bus stops were constructed from durable materials and four more routes were organized as well. They seem to run all across the city without any logic though.
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The newest issue of stamps from Pos Indonesia is available for sale online starting today via our indahnesia.com store at eBay.com. The issue of these new stamps is related to environment care, in Indonesian 'Peduli Lingkungan'. It is a set of two stamps and a souvenir sheet with two stamps as well. The set of two is also available in a mini sheet of 20 stamps.
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Departing from the flatlands from the beach of Parangtritis I decided to head east for a little while. The small mountain road up is a very nice route with generally good road conditions. It is a trip into history a little bit with houses made of bamboo and plaid work mats as walls which you will find here in some places. There are here, at just several dozen kilometers distance from the city of Yogyakarta, still villages that don't even have access to power at all.
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In the soaring heat of the countryside just north of the southern beaches near Yogyakarta I was driving towards the east on a small countryside road. This road is the only way out for the area directly west of the Opak River which causes the area to be fairly quiet until today. There are no main roads here, no buses and trucks but palm trees, open rice fields, parked bicycles and a strait black asphalt road which seems to disintegrate into water in the remote distance because of the scorching hot sun.
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Some days you will most likely not have a full agenda so you can finally do something that has been waiting for some time. Earlier this month I had such a day, I have more than one a month fortunately, but I can not always do what I want because the weather often has to be nice as well. This time it was jack pot; a nice blue sky in the early morning and some small clouds at the time I was about to depart for a days out. My plan was to take a motorbike trip to the beach of Samas.
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In between breakfast and lunch yesterday, Indonesian lawmakers gave their support for a law that is officially named 'Electronic Information and Transaction Law'. This indirect anti-porn legislation will be effective two days from now. Because of the quick pace this new monster against (press-)freedom was pushed ahead, there is little attention for it in mainstream Indonesian media. It almost looks like something that happens every day here, but it is completely absurd that a law that has been approved yesterday will become active in a matter of days, especially a law that has as many implications as this one. In theory that is.
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Indonesia lifted a tsunami alert issued after a powerful 7.2-magnitude quake struck off the west coast of Sumatra island on Monday, the geophysics and meteorological agency said. "The tsunami warning has ended after the 7.2-magnitude quake," the agency said in a text message.
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Together we are sitting below a blue plastic cover that is used as roof for a bed and some personal possessions. That is all that Kudasi has left. Together we look back at the earthquake that struck some one and a half year ago first. It caused the death of several thousand people and tens of thousands ended up in the same situation as he is in now. He was lucky then, in Parangtritis, a village at the southern beach directly south of the city of Yogyakarta, damage was limited. Now however he became one of the victims, but not from an earthquake. It were the 'new colonials' as he describes it. It is a commonly used term to represent a government that is pushing it's own ideas forward not listening to the people they ought to represent.
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Many are waiting for the moment - unfortunately a big part of the people is only waiting for it for negative reasons - the short move made by Dutch politician Geert Wilders about the Koran, the holy book for Muslims. He wants to show the world that Islam is a religion of violence and that 'their book' - the Koran indeed - is a source of fascism in the religion. That is the very short story and I'm sure other aspects of Islam will be highlighted as well. It is expected that that won't be too positive as well, which is causing that negative feeling. Such a kind of straight-forwarded attack on Islam - or any other religion for that matter - will provoke strong reactions and these will not be limited to the area that we know as The Netherlands.
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It didn't get better when I carefully lifted the plastic flap and reached outside with my head. A driver on a motorbike which was in some kind of a hurry could hardly avoid me. In front of us a long row of red lights in the streets. Between the vehicles I could mainly see water and more nearby I heard the water gush out of the draining canal onto the pavement and the street. Ooh well, it must be raining heavily somewhere close, because it was quite an amount of water that came rushing towards us. Slowly the three wheels of the bajaj disappeared under water. I was hoping that the water would not reach too high at the end, because after over half an hour in this kind of transport, sitting becomes quite uncomfortable.
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All of a sudden I got a rush that I would be able to find a bajaj - a terrible orange noise factory on three wheels - driver who was to drive me around through these 'floods', the water was less than 30 centimeters high, so it didn't seem that terrible through my untrained eyes. My girlfriend wanted to join me as well, but not directly because she wanted to see it, but mainly because I had a stupid idea like this once again. Safety was the main reason I guess, however I would be able to save myself here. If water levels would reach high enough which was pretty unlikely given the fact that the sea was less than a kilometer away with a flat landscape - I would be able to swim home as well. That is the worse-case-scenario however, I prefer to stay as dry as possible.
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Traveling by minibus we arrived in Jakarta from Bandung with a large detour via Soekarno-Hatta International Airport we were dropped at our destination, a boarding house in Pluit, a neighborhood in the far north of Jakarta. A friend of us also stayed in the boarding house, so it seemed like a nice idea to spend several nights there, also because there was a nice shower and air-conditioning of course. Without both it would be a pretty sweaty adventure in the always sticky city of Jakarta. In this case preventing is better than having to look for a cure later on, so we preferred a room in the boarding house. After we dropped our bags we ate something, because lunch time had already passed. After lunch we had a quick look around to see where we had ended up after all.
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There are those period in which the normal life gets a little bit more exciting. It is mainly the many volcanoes which show off at the most strange times and can cause the most strange events. In the middle of 2006 it was the Mount Merapi volcano which caused people to flee it's slopes with an outflow of lava and some lahar (hot or cold mud flows with volcanic rocks), right now I am virtually half way between the Mount Anak Krakatau in the Sunda Strait and the Mount Kelud volcano in eastern Java.
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Indahnesia.com has put together a large series of pictures from the current situation around the mud flow in eastern Java. News about this big issue has died down for the biggest part, but tens of thousands are displaced and until today, the actual problem has not been solved.
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First some lightning and later with a rolling thunder from the south, a bunch of dark clouds heads towards the north. After two rainshowers yesterday afternoon it is very likely that it will rain again today. A clear sign that the wet monsoon finally will kick of. Somewhat late, but with half a year of virtually no rain at all, every single drop of rain is a gift from God for farmers and people with their own garden. Yesterdays rain was just a reminder of the arrival of the wet monsoon and also cleaned the streets from the dust that had been gathered in all possible and impossible places during the last six months.
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Dozens of people have placed flowers and pictures of their loved ones at a memorial service held on the site of the deadly Bali bombings of October 11, 2002. It was the fifth anniversary of the attack yesterday.
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It has to be said that it is somewhat strange to see when you are browsing the internet and you end up looking at a number of pictures where some women with bare breasts advertise an Indonesian cigarette-brand. In this case it was Djarum that was doing its best in Hungary to have their brand settled in the local market. Whether the clove-cigarette-producer will be able to build a brand as strong as it is in Indonesia, I can't tell, but would having women with their breasts bared have any positive impact in this entire story?
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With just over two weeks to go, Indonesia is slowly turning into a more colorful country than usual. Independence Day is coming - the 17th of August. That will be celebrated as well. Of course the red and white flags will be everywhere around, but the celebration is more than just raising a flag in the early morning. Like I wrote a year ago, cleaning is done as preparation. Things that haven't been cleaned for almost a year are now cleaned to be finished just a few days short of the 17th - so they don't have to care about it for another year as well.
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However I have been asked for it several times before, I didn't own my very own Indonesian version of the very well-known magazine for the male part of the population. Until today, because I happen to run into a brand new one today, partially hidden behind other well-known names like FHM, Cosmo and Maxim. Directly I picked the dark-colored cover with gold-colored print from the top shelf. The beautifully thick glossy cover has been sealed in a thin plastic cover; if you want to see inside you first have to pay 50.000 Rupiah for it. Free is not for Playboy, you can pick any other magazine with a more 'modest' cover; a women just as pretty as the one in Playboy, but then wearing a Jilbab to cover her long black hair.
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It is a very normal Thursday afternoon when I sit down on the veranda. A light rain shower crosses my path here after a long and humid day on which it didn't want to raining the first place. The rain was not enough to clean the humid air and so tomorrow will be another of those warm and slow days. Last year the wet season only lasted until the middle of March, but now there is still rain on a regular base. Not a changing climate, but just a slight change in ocean temperatures. As far as on the other side of the world this impacts tropical areas as well, because weather here isn't that monotonous as it looks like when you see those holiday pictures with a blue sky. For sure there is much sun, but there are clouds as well and rain of course, even during the dry season. Maybe it's just a different type of rain, more light instead of a complete tropical downpour.
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Fishermen in Indonesia have captured a rare coelacanth fish in the waters off Sulawesi. The fish, which is about one meter long, was caught in the nets of fishermen just north of Manado. It died a few hours later. Coelacanth are known to be one of the oldest species of fish in the world.
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First time to have a drink. I looked in the direction of the only warung that I could find here at the moment. I didn't really want to look for another one. Fortunately there was someone to serve, in the form of a Javanese women which sat on a bench in front of the house. Probably waiting for a customer. A bemo passed. That stopped and the driver got out. Hopefully he didn't bring any passengers, otherwise they had to wait. I wasn't the only one there when I walked into that direction. The driver ordered an iced tea and sat down. I just had picked up the nice idea to drink a coffee here. It had been a long time that I drunk a kopi tubruk actually. That is nice for a change. I found a nice spot at the one big table available.
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However it wasn't Saturday for sure, but a Tuesday, still I had the feeling that I had to take my motorbike for a nice day of traveling. Where it would bring me? At least as far as Purworejo. To my amazement and some shame I had never been there before, so that became the primary target. I at least had to go there so I could honestly say that I had been there. Furthermore there were no plans, like usual. It was already late in the morning, so it was not really supposed to become a long trip. Maybe after Purworejo it was time to find my way back. That also depended on what I would find along the way of course. Seen the distance and the road conditions it was to take about one and a half hour to get there. My modest estimation.
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It was a Saturday afternoon as any other, but sometimes I just feel the need to get out for a while. This is not always possible, but when there is a possibility and there are no other appointments in the agenda, then it just might happen that after lunch I decide to grab my stuff for a trip on the motorbike. It's not too far away, within the borders of the province of Yogyakarta, but at least I can get away from the daily life for a while. Helmet, keys and a wallet is enough. To store some of the memories I have I also bring a camera with me and within a matter of minutes I leave the area. Where do I go then? Ooh, I felt like having a drink in Wonosari, so that became my first destination, knowing that most likely it would be something in that direction, but that doesn't really matter.
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The court in South Jakarta cleared the editor of Playboy in Indonesia of distributing indecent pictures to the public and earning money from them after a high-profile trial that exposed deep differences in the nation. Chief editor Erwin Arnada argued tat the magazine was good for developing a pluralistic society, while the prosecution and Islamic hardliners who have regularly attended the trial said it 'harmed the nation's morals'.
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It was less than one week before it really happened. I was in Kuala Lumpur to settle some official stuff, and when drinking an iced tea I took some time off in the evening to visit a friend. It was getting late and however we usually only 'speak' to each other on the internet, we had some serious issues as well. Sometimes it's best to make a small joke about accidents and disasters. The people on board of the missing Adam Air plane are having a splendid time diving there, things like that, whether they are fun or not. As long as it doesn't happen in your own direct environment, you can still say things like that. I also told that I always missed such events; earthquakes when I'm away; other disasters beyond my easy reach and other things like that.
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Government prosecutors today demanded two years in jail for the editor of Playboy Indonesia for violating anti-indecency laws. They are supposed to have published 'porn' pictures in the magazine. Security was high when Chief Prosecutor Resni Muchtar told the court in South Jakarta that editor Erwin Arnanda 'damaged the nation's morality'. He has been given time until 22 March for their defense.
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In the early hours of Thursday, less than 24 hours after the Garuda Indonesia plane crashed at the airport of Yogyakarta, Adi Sucipto, the only remaining part of the airplane, the tail wing, has been painted white. The logo of the airline is not visible anymore for visitors, also because the entire wing seems to be detached now, it's logo facing the ground.
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It was a fairly normal beginning of the new year, for as far the first day of the year can be a normal one. The sun was shining here and the weather looked good for the day. Maybe a little bit strange, since we are in the middle of the wet season here so in fact we have to expect a lot of rain almost every single day now. The weather is slightly strange since there is really bad weather of the Java Sea. From Southern Sumatra until as far east at the Moluccan Spice Islands the weather is bad; very high waves, strong winds and a lot of rain are pounding the area. At first you think that that is not a big deal there out at sea, at least there will be no victims in flash floods, landslides and other misery that comes with the wet season in Indonesia.
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Quite a lot back in time, about two-and-a-half to three years already, but when I found these bills again there were certain memories returning to my mind. It's time once more to write down some of them here on this virtual paper, so I can reduce my current heap of entrance- and parking tickets and other useless prove of payment. I always keep all of them, just in case. But there is never a just in case until I find them again, like today.
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The trial of Playboy Indonesia's editor-in-chief was closed to the public Thursday, angering dozens of Islamic hard-liners who threatened to break down the courtroom doors if they are not granted access to the proceedings. Erwin Arnada went on trial three weeks ago on indecency charges and could face 32 months in prison if convicted.
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Severe flooding swept through three different provinces on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, leaving more than 80 people dead or missing and more than 200,000 villagers homeless, volunteers and news reports said Sunday. In Aceh province on the northern end of Sumatra, at least 65 people were either killed or missing in heavy flooding that swept through seven districts, said Gufron, a volunteer from the Prosperuos and Justice Party's local chapter.
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I do not have any official role within the Indonesian judicial system. But I do feel like I can provide an important advisory service in the trial of Erwin Arnada, editor of the new Indonesian edition of Playboy, who faces up to 32 months in prison for putting out a magazine with indecent pictures. I may not know much about the law or Islam, but I do know an awful lot about indecency.
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