Wed 26 Aug 2009
Indonesia plans to invest approximately IDR93.9 trillion (US$9.4 billion) on infrastructure projects in 2010 including bridges, ports and roads, Reuters reported a senior planning official saying on Friday. The funding, which is considerably higher than the IDR70 trillion seen in 2009, will pave the way for Southeast Asia’s biggest economy attract foreign investment.
Wed 26 Aug 2009
Indonesia can not blame Malaysia for using “its icons,” like batik and Rafflesia flower in its tourism campaign because the country feels to have a sense of belonging of the icons, a minister said on Tuesday.
”Some of them feel that they are part of Indonesian culture because we are from the same root. We also live side by side. They also inherit things that Indonesians have,” said the Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda here.
That’s why, he said, (more…)
Tue 7 Apr 2009
An airport on Biak island of Papuain the easternmost of Indonesia, strategically located on the edge of the Pacific Ocean will soon be reopened for international flights, a provincial transportation official said on Friday.
The head of Papua transportation office Soleman Wairo said that a number of international airline companies had requested the restoration of the airport’s position as a stopover point for flights on the Bali-Honolulu-Los Angeles route, the head of the (more…)
Wed 11 Mar 2009
Gyrating her hips to traditional gamelan music on a makeshift village stage, Indonesian folk dancer Sri Wulandari ignores the leers and wolf whistles of the drunk men below as she plucks grimy rupiah notes from their outstretched hands.
Her nightly routines rage into the wee hours in villages across West Java province but the 30-year-old dancer said the excited punters respected the golden rule of “look but don’t touch.”
“The men say naughty things and ask me to marry them but I’m a professional (more…)
Wed 11 Mar 2009
PT Grand Uway Development will open a 15 hectare integrated tourism and business resort in Batam, Indonesia, to be managed by Aston International.
According to a Jakarta Post report, the IDR1.5 trillion (US$124.5 million) development will feature a large water park, a condominium hotel and convention centre with a capacity for 6,000 people. Construction the resort will begin this April and is expected to be completed in 2011. A soft opening is expected to take place in December 2010.
Sat 27 Dec 2008
“REMEMBER those?” I ask my 9-year-old son as we drive through the Javanese countryside. We are three abreast on a two-lane highway alongside a cement truck and a motorbike, all of us competing to pass a colorfully decorated bicycle rickshaw.
“They’re called becaks,” I say, surprised that the word had come back to me after all this time. “But when you were little, you thought they were called ‘big cats.’ ”
He cringes, as he often does, (more…)
Wed 24 Dec 2008
It’s hard to think of anywhere in the world that, mile for mile, has more luxury spas and resorts than Bali. Nor anywhere where they are more prolific than in Nusa Dua, a gated beach development on the southern tip of the island, built in the 1970s. So any new addition to such a glut would have to be pretty impressive to earn its keep.
The St Regis Bali Resort, which opened in September, is certainly impressive. As part of Starwood Hotels’ most prestigious brand – which also comprises the (more…)
Fri 21 Nov 2008
The small colonial-style house Barack Obama lived in as a child has turned into a tourist attraction since the US President-elect rose to fame. Now, according to an AP report, the owner of the house in a suburb of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, is tempted to sell-up.
One businessman has reportedly already approached 78 year-old owner Tata Aboe Bakar, about buying the property to turn into an Obama-themed bar.