Anyone ever come to Indonesia..?

I have been to Jakarta a few times. Went to a large mall there once, it was fairly western-ized. I wasn't really thinking about fashion when i was there.

I lived and fought in occupied East Timor for a while in the mid 1990s. Selemat pagi

I am living in Indonesia. Nice to meet you.

I, too, was in East Timor in the mid-1990s, but I didn't fight anyone while I was there!

I've been to Bandung, too. I thought that it was very nice. Pleasant atmosphere, nice botanic gardens, good historical background as the city that really gave rise to modern Indonesia (Bandung Study Club etc).

Cool. Did you stay at Villa Harmonia in Dili? Did you make it out East? We were mostly operating around the Lautem - Los Palos area in the dry season. Have you ben back, post victory? They guy I served with is now the Chief of Staff for the armed forces.

I haven't, but I've heard nice things and plan to go one day. For a first-timer, is Jakarta the place to go, or Bali?

I'd avoid Jakarta like the plague. Hot, dirty, crowded, not many sights. Yuck. Bali is the place to go and spend at least a blissful week. Paradise on earth, but only as long as you stay in the non tourist areas. Sanur is tourist hell. Other places that are cool to visit is Mount Bromo and Borobudur.

Justin, I was there in 1996, and there was a large sign above the Governor's Palace - which was illuminated at night - which read in Bahasa "Celebrate the 21st anniversary of integration!" I didn't notice many people cheering... I haven't been back since that time. I haven't been back to Hong Kong since "independence", either - I'll have to get around to having a look sometime. In a mildly interesting coincidence, one of my friends worked at a Brisbane law firm with a chap by the name of Jose Texeira, who had arrived in Australia with his family as a refugee in 1975. Texeira returned to East Timor after independence and became reasonably senior in the government there. I don't know what's happened to him know, though, as he was an acolyte of Mari Alkatiri and thus he may now have falled out of favour. I got as far east as Baukau when I was there, and spent a couple of weeks wandering around East Timor. I also spent an interesting few days in the Oecussi enclave. When in Dili, I stayed in the Hotel Dili. It was quite run down but retained a few echoes of more prosperous, colonial days when Dili and the surrounding areas was used as a vacation spot by the Portuguese. The rooms were large and cool, and there was even a semi-derelict, wooden outdoor dance floor, sparsely illuminated by coloured lightbulbs in the evening. Of all the places I went in Indonesia over the course of several months of island hopping, two really stand out - the island of Flores (to the west of Timor and to the East of Bali, in the Nusa Tenggara group) and the city of Yogyakarta on Java. There were many other wonderful places and amazing experiences, but those two really stand out. Highly recommended.

Well, Jakarta for business and shopping and bali for a vacation (beaches and mountains). You'll gonna love it.

I have an opportunity to go to Jakarta in December. But my family on the mainland of the mainland of the United States are all in Panic mode. In like of recent events, What are others thoughts on this trip. I have friends that are working there as teacher in a large Private school south of Jakarta. Thanks for your advice. Robert