Water, Water Everywhere Indonesia is the world's largest archipelago – 3231 miles of around 18,000 islands (no-one's really quite sure); home to 240 million people speaking 500 or so languages. And at the heart of it all – from flooded paddy fields on volcanic slopes to the sapphire seas surrounding low lying atolls – is water.
Meet Jungle Jim It's not all beaches and reefs in Indonesia though – the lush jungles of its larger islands have fascinating tribal cultures and stunning wildlife, not least the endangered orangutans of Kalimantan and Sumatra. One of Man's closest relatives, these gentle creatures live to around 40 years old and use their long arms to swing around the forest canopy.
Enter the Dragon Komodo National Park may be a little more out of the way, but it's well worth a visit – its home to the rare Komodo dragons, the world's biggest lizards. Here and on neighbouring islands are the only places to see them in the wild, with only four to five thousand remaining, so naturally they're a protected species.
Volatile Volcanoes Indonesia's volcanoes are some of the world's most active, and include Mount Merapi and Gunung Bromo on Java, and Gunung Agung on Bali (when it erupted in 1963, locals believed it was the anger of the gods). Most famous, though, is probably Krakatoa, which literally blew itself apart in 1883.
