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Java is the political, geographic and
economic center of Indonesia. With an area of 132,000 sq km it is a
little offer half the size of England, but it's population is twice as
large at 128 million. With such vast human resources, Java is the power
house and dictator of Indonesia.
Java present vivid contrast: wealth and
squalor, majestic open country and crowded filthy cities, quite rural
skins and bustling modern traffic. The main cities can be offer
whelming, but rural Java is astonishingly beautiful. A string of high
volcanic mountains runs trough the center of the island, a smoking
backdrop to fertile green fields and terraces. Reach volcanic soils that
have long been the secret of Java's richness extend North to the flat
coastal plain and the shallow Java sea, wild the south coast front the
crashing waves of the Indian Ocean.
The Hindu Buddhist empires reach their
zenith in fertile Java and produced the architectural wonders of
Borobudur (picture) and Prambanan. When Islam came it absorbed rather then banish
existing influence and Java is a blend of cultures and religion. The
ready Indonesian images of Wayang shadow puppets, batik and court
dances exist along side the muezzin's call to the mosque.
Java is a long and narrow island,
conveniently divided into three provinces: West, Central, and East Java.
It also includes the special territories of Jakarta - the teeming
capital, which is rapidly becoming a megapolitan - and Yogyakarta a centre
for Javanese culture and one of Indonesia's premier tourist
destinations.
West Java, home to the Sundanese people, has
places of interest like Bandung in the Sundanese heartland, the court
city of Cirebon, the beach at Pangandaran, famous Krakatau and the wilds
of the Ujung Kulon National Park.
In the Central Java, temples and royal
cities plot the rice and fall of the Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim
kingdoms, from which the present - day court cities of Yogyakarta and
Solo have involved. Java is crowded with people, but there are isolated
places where you can find your self out of sight and sound, such as
Dieng Plateau in the beautiful central highland.
In East Java, spectacular Gunung Bromo
(2392m) volcano is as wild and desolate as you could hope. Of the coast,
Madura holds to its independent traditions, and East Java's highland
have some of Java's best hills resort and hiking opportunities.
Bromo is the best know pick, and often the
whole area is simply referred to as Mt. Bromo, but it's only one of
three mountains that have emerged within the caldera of the ancient
Tengger volcano, and Bromo is flanked by the picks of Batok (2440m) and
Kursi (2581m).Farther south the whole supernatural mounts cape is
overseen by Gunung Semeru (3676m) the highest mountain in Java and the
most active vulcano in this highland. The whole area has been
incorporated as the Bromo - Tengger - Semeru National Park.
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