The Republic of Indonesia is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia comprises 17,508 islands. With a population of around 230 million people, it is the world's fourth most populous country, with the world's largest population of Muslims.

Indonesia is a republic, with an elected legislature and president. The nation's capital city is Jakarta. The country shares land borders with Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and Malaysia. Other neighboring countries include Singapore, Philippines, Australia, and the Indian territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

The Indonesian archipelago has been an important trade region since at least the seventh century, when the Srivijaya Kingdom traded with China and India. Local rulers gradually adopted Indian cultural, religious and political models from the early centuries CE, and Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms flourished. Indonesian history has been influenced by foreign powers drawn to its natural resources. Muslim traders brought Islam, and European powers fought one another to monopolize trade in the Spice Islands of Maluku during the Age of Discovery. Following three and a half centuries of Dutch colonialism, Indonesia secured its independence after World War II. Indonesia's history has since been turbulent, with challenges posed by natural disasters, corruption, separatism, a democratization process, and periods of rapid economic change.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesia

Bestriding the equator and bridging the Indian and Pacific Oceans, Indonesia is a vast, dazzling tropical archipelago of over 13,000 islands that stretches between Malaysia and Australia. The nation’s natural diversity is simply staggering, taking in snowcapped peaks in Papua, sandalwood forests in Sumba, primary jungle in Borneo and shimmering rice paddies in Bali and Java. Indonesian coral reefs are among the world’s richest, harbouring four times more species than those in the Caribbean, while the surf scene here is world class by any definition.

Right now, following a succession of natural and human-provoked disasters, there are far fewer travellers in Indonesia compared to other parts of Southeast Asia. But the nation’s reputation as an unsafe and religiously intolerant nation is unjustified – personal safety is far less of a concern compared with most countries in Europe or the Americas, and most Indonesians are incredibly hospitable.

More a continent than a country, Indonesia is the largest, most culturally diverse and perhaps most challenging nation in Southeast Asia to explore. So if you’ve come in search of dragons in Komodo, orang-utans in Kalimantan, a volcano to climb or just the perfect beach, Indonesia is the place to live that dream.

People of Indonesia

Religion
If Indonesia has a soundtrack, it is the muezzin’s call to prayer. Wake up to it once and it won’t come as a surprise that Indonesia is the largest Islamic nation on earth, with over 220 million Muslims (88% of the total population).

Time
Indonesia has three time zones. Western Indonesia time (Sumatra, Java, West and Central Kalimantan) is seven hours ahead of GMT, central Indonesia time (Bali, South and East Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Nusa Tenggara) is eight hours ahead, and east Indonesia time (Maluku and Irian Jaya) is nine hours ahead.

Money
The unit of currency in Indonesia is the rupiah (Rp). Coins of 50, 100, 200 and 500 rupiah are in circulation in both the old silver-coloured coins and the newer bronze-coloured coins. Both 1000Rp and 25Rp coins exist but are very rarely seen. Notes come in 1000, 5000, 10,000, 20,000 50,000 and 100,000 rupiah denominations.

Credit Cards MasterCard and Visa are by far the most widely accepted plastic cards.

Don’t expect to pay for a meal in a warung with plastic; generally it’s only top-end places that accept credit cards.

Exchanging Money
After years of turmoil the rupiah has been relatively stable for several years; check out the latest rates on www.xe.com.

US dollars are the most widely accepted foreign currency and have the best exchange rates, euros are second best.

Soekarno, often referred to as the founder of Indonesia, must have pondered long and hard when faced with the task of welding together a nation from tens of millions of Javanese (with millennia of elaborate cultural traditions), longhouse-dwelling tribal Dayaks, Sumabanese animists and the Saudi-devout Muslims of Aceh. His solution, founded on five principles of nationhood known as the Pancasila, maintained that loyalty to the state should supersede ethnic and religious divisions, and this philosophy remains crucial to understanding what makes Indonesia tick today.

Weather Information for Jakarta

Ref: http://www.worldweather.org
Remark: Climatological information is based on monthly averages for the 30-year period 1961-1990.

Indonesia is hot and humid all year round, with wet and dry seasons. In coastal areas the heat is usually less oppressive, and it can get downright chilly in the high mountains at dawn.

Generally, the wet season starts later the further southeast you go. In North Sumatra, the rain begins to fall in September, but in Timor it doesn’t fall until November. In January and February it rains most days. The dry season is basically from May to September. The odd islands out are those of Maluku, where the wet season is the reverse, running from May to September.

Getting there

Air
Jakarta and Denpasar in Bali are the two main hubs, but there are also useful international connections to Medan, Palembang and Padang in Sumatra; Solo, Bandung and Surabaya in Java; Manado (Sulawesi), Balikpapan (Kalimantan) and Mataram (Lombok).

Malaysia
Kuala Lumpur has good connections with Jakarta and Denpasar. Air Asia often has the best prices (from US$40 one way) and also serves other cities in Indonesia including Bandung, Solo and Palembang; or try Malaysia Airlines. Batavia Air operates the short hop between Pontianak and Kuching in Borneo. Garuda Indonesia has several alternative routes including KL to Surabaya.

Singapore
Apart from the numerous links to/from Jakarta and Denpasar, SilkAir flies to Solo, Palembang, Medan, Surabaya, Mataram, Balikpapan and Manado. Garuda links Singapore with Manado, Medan and Surabaya.

Sea
Malaysia
Most sea connections are between Malaysia and Sumatra. The comfortable, high-speed ferries between Penang (Malaysia) and Belawan (near Medan, Sumatra) are one of the most popular ways to reach Indonesia. There are also ferry connections between Dumai (Sumatra) and Melaka (Malaysia); Pulau Bintan (Sumatra) and Johor Bahru (Malaysia); and Pulau Batam (Sumatra) and Kuala Tungkal (Malaysia).

Singapore
Ferries link Singapore with Pulau Batam (S$18) and Pulau Bintan (S$25), both in Sumatra.

Getting around
Air
About a dozen airlines fly internally within Indonesia, some flying to just a handful of destinations on ancient prop planes; others, including Air Asia, use modern Boeing and Airbus aircraft.

Many Indonesian airlines have a history of operating with poor safety standards, and maintenance levels are not what they should be. The airlines with the best reputations are Air Asia, Merpati, TransNusa and the national carrier Garuda (though this airline has had accidents in the last few years). Adam Air has a particularly poor safety record and had several of its aircraft grounded by the government in 2006 after a series of accidents.