It's just a stone's throw to breathtaking beauty

By Mehru Jaffer

Come summer and bags are furiously packed as people look for rest and recreation in places far away from the monotonous routine of an office and home. The mood is to experience a different climate, cuisine and cultures for a change. As more and more people are able to afford regular vacations, a countless combination of tours around the world are available today from a cruise on rivers to safari, and trips into fascinating mountain tops.

While Indonesians long to travel outside the country, expatriates use the same opportunity to see a little more of their breathtakingly beautiful host country. Bali, the last paradise on earth, remains the most popular destination while the Ramayana ballet performance on a night with a full moon on the premises of the Prambanan temple is a great attraction to visit the royal city of Yogyakarta in Central Java.

But if short on leave and tall on longing, it is not such a bad idea to start in the vicinity of Jakarta itself for a night or two away on one of the isles in the Seribu (Thousand) Islands.

Scattered in Jakarta Bay and easily accessible within an hour or two, Bira island especially is a virtual paradise despite all the destruction of coral reefs surrounding the island.

The largest of all the resort islands, there are advantages in Bira that are not available on the other islands. Built for golfers, the undulating landscape of Bira is carpeted with finely manicured grass, circled by a footpath where it is possible to ride a bicycle at sunrise or walk around the island with its talcum powder-white beaches kissed constantly by waves that are sometimes blue and sometimes green.

"Helmut Kohl, former head of Germany, has visited here for a game of golf," informs Dadang Tony.S, marketing executive, with great pride.

Former president Soeharto -- who has a home on Bira Kecil, the smaller island opposite -- has also been here to practice the sport, as has BJ Habibie, his successor.

Eko, a recent graduate from a local university, spent a weekend at Bira along with three friends. While there he hired a wooden boat from a local fisherman who rowed him a little away from the shore. Eko soon pulled on his dive gear and disappeared under the sea to find a whole, new world of technic colored plants and creatures.

"It is like an endless painting down there, just a few minutes away from Bira," exclaimed Eko on surfacing back to land holding the most beautiful shaped shell in his hand. Although he did admit to feeling a little frightened of the many octopuses swimming past him, he was nevertheless delighted with his short trip into the watery kingdom.

For those who are not into water sports, the resort island has a tennis court and offers boat trips to nearby atolls like Kebayoran China that will transport the visitor to a world of picture postcard beauty. An early morning walk around the island means witnessing an entire orchestra of rare birds and perhaps a glimpse of the biawak, the shy monitor lizard, cousin of the more famous Komodo dragon.

On the western tip of Jakarta is the isolated National Park of Ujung Kulon, an exciting destination for all nature lovers. Ujung Kulon is said to be a slice of what all of Java must have been just a few centuries ago before intensive human settlement converted the dense tropical forests into a concrete jungle.

Rich in wild life, Ujung Kulon is an annual destination for hundreds of students of the Jakarta International School who live in the wilderness for an entire week getting acquainted with nature. "Both the staff and students look forward to an enjoyable educational experience each year," says Stephen Meade, the middle school activities director.

Banten World Travel helps you to further discover some of the remaining grandeur of the ancient sultanate of Banten, also in West Java, and its surrounding areas. There are day tours from Jakarta that include sightseeing in the old city, diving at Ujung Kulon, golfing in Cilegon, trekking in Tanjung Jaya and fishing in rustic south Bantenese environs.

Traditional Banten is a five-day, four-night tour with trips to the Baduy hamlets that have kept alive their megalithic culture to this day.

Excitement is added to the trip as a short trek through hilly footpaths of the Kendeng Mountain range is rounded off with an overnight stop in a traditional bamboo house.

Beyond Merak and Cilegon the salty sea breeze becomes even more tangy along miles and miles of shimmering shoreline. Among numerous hotels, a popular overnight stop is the privately owned Sambolo beach bungalows available on long-term lease for comfortable, hardwood, grass-roofed accommodation with an attached kitchen. To barbecue fresh fish in the middle of the curved beach, lit up by a full moon and to the accompaniment of music made by the waves at high tide, is an experience of a life time.

Once satiated with the sea, there is always the towering volcanic massif containing some of the most beautiful scenery of another kind to the south of Bogor. The narrow winding road built nearly 200 years ago across the 1,450-meter pass known as Puncak (meaning summit) is an attractive but crowded weekend resort. The idea is to leave the maddening crowd behind and to bifurcate into the side roads along the Puncak Pass for that special peace and quiet.

An overnight stay at the HB Garden guest house at the foot of Mount Salak surrounded by relics from the ancient kingdom of Tarumnegara and a mineral water source in the center of a rain forest not far from the city of Bogor is yet another pleasant get away from all the heat and dust of Jakarta. However, if tight on time even one afternoon on the grounds of the picturesque Melrimba Gardens is enough to revive the spirit for a while.

Before a leisurely walk in the mist covered gardens on the slopes of the Puncak Pass, a meal at the various food courts known as Sendok Garpu on the premises itself is a must, especially for traditional Sundanese food. For the youngster of today there is also some pasta and burger meals to choose from.

Actually, the traveler within Indonesia is faced in the end with quite a baffling choice of destinations, each one more exciting than the other.

To make life for the holiday seeker easier, tours have been divided into five categories, namely Leisure Holiday, Culture and Special Interest, Adventure and Ecotours, Overland and Stopovers, by most travel agents.

Delmayuzzar, marketing and product development at Satriavi, says that over 25 years of experience in dealing with both international and domestic tourists enables the travel agency to help travelers get the most out of their time and money with the flick of a finger.

To facilitate travelers further, Satriavi has online reservation arrangements with Garuda Indonesia and offers unbelievable deals, including airfare and accommodation together with the best hotels in the country.

Another way of journeying through Java is by rail. Starting in Jakarta, Java on Rail takes in Bandung, Yogyakarta, Surakarta (Solo), Surabaya and Banyuwangi then on to Denpasar in Bali by a short overland journey.

Stimulating Sumatra is a 11-day/10-night program from Medan in the north to Bukittinggi in the heart of the Minnagkabau highlands in the west.

There is definitely no lack of choices here, as a trip if you like, into the strange world of the mysterious Toraja people is a rare adventure in itself made all the more eerie by a visit to the haunting tombs. Then there are the Komodo dragons to meet, temple ruins to marvel at and the Batak and Dayak tribes to encounter.

So go away by all means even this holiday season to the far off wonders of Paris, Rome, New York and South Africa, but do keep in mind that the 17,508 islands here, home to 336 ethnic groups some of whose way of life has continued unbroken for more than 5,000 years, is just round the corner from where you stand.