I just travelled Indonesia for a month. Most of the popular attractions.

It’s not a good fit for this old backpacker.

Aside from major city train / bus service, tourists end up taking a lot of personal vehicles. Bad for the environment. Terrible for traffic jams.

Ride sharing apps like Grab and GoJek are essential as there are no alternatives in much of the nation.

Indonesia is ideal for young invincible backpackers who love to ride scooters through dangerous traffic. While chain smoking. Adrenaline junkies.

Instead of touring, I’d recommend picking one spot you like. Rent a place for a month. Concentrate on a few things: scuba, snorkelling, health & fitness, yoga, surfing, writing, reading, partying, …. Whatever you’ve always want more time for.

Don’t travel very far.

I’d like a month in the Gili Islands, for example.

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The culture tourists face is (mostly) men, (mostly) chain smoking.

Every young guy in Indonesia dreams of getting a scooter. And then enough money for fuel and cigarettes.

While it’s easy and quick to move between Bali, Lombok and the Gilis, island-hopping elsewhere often involves a flight, bad bus, or lengthy boat journey.

To be fair, there ARE a number of island chains where you can jump between islands on a short speedboat or long-tail-boat ride. The Banda Islands and Kei Islands in southern Maluku are compact and a breeze to travel among, while it’s also easy to move around the Karimunjawa Islands off Java, the Togean Islands off Sulawesi, the Banyak Islands off Sumatra and Raja Ampat off Papua.

That said — I’ll be returning to Jakarta soon for the World Gymnastics Championships.