Tag - Java

Cycling Java’s Secret South Coast

Escaping Jakarta Cycling out of Jakarta is pure madness: the surging crush of motorbikes and buses, trucks and taxis, all racing and suddenly braking through impossibly slender streets. We dive into the mayhem before we lose heart, hoping like hell that nobody clips us..... . .

Java’s Secret Pleasure Palace

Imagine an extravagant castle full of luxurious bathing pools and rooms built for pleasure that was so secret you could only enter via a hidden underground passage tunnelled beneath a lake. This was Indonesia’s Taman Sari about 250 years ago and it was here that..... . .

Is Borobudur the world’s best Buddhist site?

It has been rocked by earthquakes, pillaged by treasure hunters, bombed by terrorists and pummelled by volcanic eruptions, yet the single, largest Buddhist structure on earth endures. This is Borobudur: a 1200-year-old Mahayana Buddhist temple that rates as Indonesia’s..... . .