Spending a year in the U.S. makes me dream about the more connected Indonesia. Even though Americans is not like European who are the majority of them have traveled abroad, the majority of Americans do ever travel to another state. It is common to see Americans have visited more than three states. How about Indonesia? Hmm...
Indonesia is the biggest archipelago country which consists more than 17,000 islands. Yes! 17,000 islands. It is considered as an obstacle for Indonesians to be connected and being united. Some people have never been in the other province. It is not really common to know some Indonesian have traveled to more than three provinces. I don't have exact numbers for this, but I think commonly Indonesians have traveled to one other province. People need to afford an airplane ticket to go to another island which costs a lot of money. People can drive, but of course they need to go to the ship once they arrive at the harbor to cross the sea. Indonesia has a higher population density than the U.S., so we can find more traffic jam along the way. It does take a lot of time for Indonesian to travel to another province.
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| Medan to Malang: 2824 km or 1754.7 miles It takes approximately 56 hours driving from Medan to Malang (includes taking ferry) |
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| Chicago to Los Angeles: 3242.8 km or 2015 miles It takes approximately 29 hours driving from Chicago to Los Angeles |
From the pictures above, you can see that travel from Medan to Malang takes more time, even though the distance is closer than Chicago to Los Angeles.
Indonesia is so diverse, I want to see the other sides of Indonesia. There are more than 300 ethnic groups and 700 local languages in Indonesia. From the demographic we can see that:
Even though the majority of Indonesians are Muslim, there are some parts of Indonesia where Islam is not dominant.
How about the ethnic groups in Indonesia? Hmm...
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| Source: Wikipedia |
I live in Medan, fourth biggest city in Indonesia. I have been to four other provinces Aceh, Jakarta (The capital of Indonesia), East Java, and Bali. All of them are different! I didn't only discover new place, but new cultures and customs. The differences are always fascinating me, the differences make me learn to be more tolerant and open-minded. I am wondering if Indonesia is more connected, people must be more tolerant and appreciate differences. As Indonesia's motto says : Bhinneka Tunggal Ika (Old Javanese)/ Berbeda-beda namun tetap satu (Indonesia)/ Unity in Diversity (English). Tolerance in Indonesia is good, but it's not wrong to improve it, right? How can you be tolerant with the foreigners if you can't be tolerant to the others who have the same nationality? We should value Individualism by not forgetting the connection with others.
Here are some destinations in Indonesia that are not really popular yet, because one of these reasons:
- It is hard to access
- Very far from the airport
- Very far from big city
- Local residents can't speak English well
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| Parai Beach, Bangka Belitung source: katadia.com |
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| Lake Toba, North Sumatra source: royaltravelo.com |
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| Wae Raebo Village, Flores, East Nusa Tenggara source: visitkomodotours.com |
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| Tana Toraja Regency, South Sulawesi source: amazing-indonesia.com |
Of course, there are many more!
Notes:
- Some numbers are not in the exact numbers.
- The rest information are gotten from Wikipedia and Google Maps
