Sumatra has potentials to become world woven cloth tourist destination

Sumatra Island has great potentials to become world tourist destination and woven cloth research area due to its great number of traditional woven cloth production centers, a spokesman said.

Such impression was disclosed by 15 world woven cloth collectors originating from United States and Canada after visiting several traditional woven cloth centers in West Sumatra and North Sumatra recently, the "Sumatra and Beyond" travel bureau director Ridwan Tulus told Antara here on Saturday.

The 15 world woven cloth collectors were participating in a tourist visit package called "10 days from west to north textile tour Sumatra" which was conducted by the "Sumatra and Beyond" from August 27 to September 5, 2008, he said.

The collectors showed high interest to buy the traditional woven cloth and even expressed their wish to make the woven cloth display in textile museums in their countries, Ridwan said.

They expressed a feeling of amazement particularly on the Sumatra`s traditional woven cloth production mechanism, but yielding high quality products, he said, adding that the foreign collectors promised to return to Sumatra in a larger group.

The traditional woven cloth production centers are available among others in Sawahan Padang, Canduang, Agam regency, Pandai Sikek and Tanah Datar regencies in West Sumatra. 

In addition, in North Sumatra including the Batak`s traditional Ulos

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Russian and Chinese couples on a honeymoon in Bangka

A number of tourists from China, Taiwan and Russia became interested to spend their honeymoon at the Parai Tenggiri Coastal Resort in Bangka known for its beauty, and international class hotels.

Director of the Bela Wisata travel bureau San San said in Pangkalpinang on Monday that the tourists from the three countries, who often enjoyed their honeymoon in other countries, came from Bali with the assistance of local travel agencies.

He said that some 120 young Russian married couples have already arrived in Bangka to spend their honeymoon there, besides 50 Chinese couples, and 24 couples from Taiwan.

He added that most of the young married couple stayed in Bangka to spend their honeymoon for three days and two nights, especially in the Parai Tenggiri coastal resort and exotic Sungailiat.

Marunda: Make our beach a tourist attraction, locals say

Residents of the coastal area of Marunda, North Jakarta, are urging the administration to develop Marunda Beach into a high-quality tourism destination to boost the local economy.

One resident, Ami, 30, said Marunda Beach had a lot of potential to become a popular recreational area.

"I've been dreaming of enjoying an Ancol-like recreational area in Marunda Beach. Yes, I want it to be developed into something like Ancol, which is cleaner and has more facilities," Ami told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

Jakarta, which has 23.7 kilometers of northern coastal area, has only Carnival Beach in the Ancol complex as a recreational beach. Entrance to the beach costs Rp 12,000 a person. Those with vehicles have to pay Rp 12,000 more for a car or Rp 10,000 for a motorcycle.

According to the North Jakarta municipality, only 1.7 kilometers is still owned by the administration. The rest is owned by companies, including PT Ancol Pembangunan Jaya.

"It actually has a lot of potential. Here, people can enjoy the beach, swimming and fishing as much as they like because it's free.

"Marunda also had some historical attractions, such as the 348-year-old Al Alam mosque and Rumah Si Pitung or Pitung's House (a Betawi hero during the Dutch colonial era)," she said.

Krakatau Journal: An island paradise that can kill you

I've come to the epicenter of the disaster zone 125 years later. The original Krakatau had blown itself to pieces in 1883, leaving behind three crescent-shaped island remnants. But in the middle of the underwater caldera that has formed is a curious new sight: an island that appeared out of the sea before our very eyes.

Anak Krakatau--literally "Son of Krakatau" in Indonesian--is a reincarnation of the original Krakatau volcano. Since the son's fitful birth in 1930, this faraway piece of rock, sandwiched in the strait between Java and Sumatra, has earned a reputation among academics as an ideal laboratory for observing how life begins, endures, and sometimes perishes in an island ecosystem.

During its heyday in the 1980s and early 1990s, research conducted here on the 400 plant, 50 butterfly, 30 bird, 17 bat, and 9 reptile species, among other animals, came to define much of what we know about island biogeography and ecological dynamics.

Eruptions throughout November-the most violent in over a decade-recaptured the world's attention, with news of 3-kilometer-high ash fumes, showers of lava bombs, and blasts that rattled the windows of houses on the shores of western Java, some 40 kilometers away. Anak has remained active ever since, with eruptions this January, April, June, and July.

Full article by Jerry Guo