Indonesia

The world’s largest Buddhist temple, Borobudur is a majestic 9th-century mahayana monument. It consists of nine stacked platforms, six square and three circular, topped by a central dome. It is decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues.

Located off the northwest tip of Bird’s Head Peninsula in West Papua, Raja Ampat is an archipelago comprising over 1,500 small islands. It is widely considered to host the richest marine biodiversity on Earth, making it the ultimate destination for divers and snorkelers.

A UNESCO World Heritage site, this park is the only place on Earth where you can see the Komodo dragon in the wild. The park encompasses three main islands—Komodo, Rinca, and Padar—along with numerous smaller ones, offering some of the world’s best diving and the stunning Pink Beach.

Prambanan is a 9th-century Hindu temple compound dedicated to the Trimurti—the expression of God as the Creator (Brahma), the Preserver (Vishnu), and the Destroyer (Shiva). It is the largest Hindu temple site in Indonesia and one of the biggest in Southeast Asia.

Spanning from the eternal snows of Puncak Jaya — the highest peak between the Himalayas and the Andes — down to the mangrove fringes of the Arafura Sea, Lorentz National Park is a continent’s worth of ecosystems compressed into 2.35 million hectares. A UNESCO World Heritage site, it shelters glaciers, alpine meadows, montane rainforests, and lowland swamps, each a stronghold for species found nowhere else: tree kangaroos, long-beaked echidnas, and the elusive bird-of-paradise. For the indigenous Asmat, Amungme, and Nduga peoples, this landscape is ancestral territory, their cultures intertwined with the forest’s rhythms. Exploring Lorentz demands expedition-level preparation — permits, porters, and a tolerance for relentless humidity — but the reward is access to one of Earth’s last great wildernesses, a place where nature still writes its own rules.

Dramatically situated on the edge of a 70-meter-high cliff overlooking the Indian Ocean, Pura Luhur Uluwatu is one of Bali’s six key spiritual pillars. The temple is renowned for its spectacular location, traditional Kecak dance performances, and its resident colony of mischievous monkeys.

At the southeastern tip of Java, Alas Purwo National Park unfurls as a mythic landscape where dense tropical rainforest meets rugged coastline and the legendary waves of G-Land. The park’s name, meaning “First Forest,” hints at its place in Javanese cosmology as the island’s primordial wilderness. Here, herds of banteng (wild cattle) graze on the savanna of Sadengan, while elusive Javan leopards and dholes prowl the canopy. The coastline is a mosaic of pristine beaches—Plengkung’s world-class barrels draw elite surfers, while Pancur’s white sands invite quiet contemplation. Mystical caves such as Goa Istana and Goa Padepokan harbor ancient Hindu relics and serve as meditation sites for kejawen practitioners. Between the forest and sea, the park feels like a threshold where nature’s raw power and Java’s spiritual heritage converge.

Rising from the Sunda Strait like a phoenix, Anak Krakatau — ‘Child of Krakatoa’ — is a living testament to Earth’s volatile creativity. Born from the cataclysmic 1883 eruption that erased its parent, this active volcanic island has grown through successive eruptions, its black‑sand slopes strewn with volcanic bombs and steaming fumaroles. A boat journey across the turquoise strait delivers you to a lunar landscape where you can hike to the crater rim (≈1.5 hours round‑trip) and peer into the smoking vent, feeling the planet’s pulse beneath your boots. At night, the glow of incandescent lava often paints the clouds orange, a spectacle best witnessed from a tent on the beach. The surrounding waters harbour vibrant coral gardens, making this a rare fusion of geology and marine biodiversity.

Known as the ‘Mother Temple’ of Bali, Pura Besakih is the largest and holiest temple complex on the island. It sits over 1,000 meters up the side of Mount Agung, Bali’s most sacred volcano, and comprises at least 86 individual temples.

Deep within the caldera of Mount Ijen in East Java, a surreal phenomenon defies the ordinary: flames of electric blue leap from fissures of molten sulfuric acid, casting an otherworldly glow across the crater’s acidic lake at night. Known as ‘blue fire’—or ‘Api Biru’ in Indonesian—this rare spectacle draws adventurers on a pre-dawn trek across volcanic terrain, where sulfur miners still carry heavy loads of yellow ore down steep paths in conditions that belie the ethereal beauty above. The crater itself—Kawah Ijen—is the centerpiece of a vast volcanic complex, its turquoise lake (the most acidic on Earth) shimmering eerily under starlight before dawn paints the caldera walls in hues of rose and gold. This is raw, primordial Earth at its most dramatic and unforgiving.