Indonesien

Together with Angkor Wat in Cambodia and Bagan in Myanmar, Borobudur ranks as one of the great cultural icons of Southeast Asia. Looming above a patchwork of bottle-green paddy fields and slivers of tropical forest, this colossal Buddhist monument has survived volcanic eruptions, terrorist attack and the 2006 earthquake. The last caused considerable damage, but thankfully this most enigmatic of temples has remained undiminished in scale and beauty.

The contents of Sulawesi are as beguiling as its shape. Just as this splay-limbed tropical island was formed by the complex and sometimes violent connection of tectonic plates, its fascinating social fabric is the result of the complex and sometimes violent connection of ethnic groups, religions and ecosystems.

Tanjung Puting is the most popular tourist destination in Kalimantan, and for good reason. A near guarantee that you'll see free-roaming orang-utans, combined with a storybook journey up a winding jungle river, gives this adventure world-class appeal. And though remote, the park is easily reached via direct flights from Jakarta and Surabaya.

If Jakarta is Java’s financial and industrial powerhouse, Yogyakarta is its soul. Central to the island’s artistic and intellectual heritage, Yogyakarta (pronounced ‘Jogjakarta’ and called Yogya, 'Jogja', for short) is where the Javanese language is at its purest, the arts at their brightest and its traditions at their most visible.

Sumatra's northernmost province, Aceh is both a fiercely proud and prosperous region. It's blessed with rainforests that feature incredible biodiversity, as well as pristine islands popular with beachgoers, divers and surfers alike. However, over the years, this western tip of the Indonesian archipelago has grabbed headlines for all the wrong reasons. Earthquakes, tsunamis, civil war and sharia law are the main associations people have with Sumatra’s northernmost state. With the reconstruction from the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami long completed, post-tsunami Aceh is slowly healing the social wounds incurred by the natural disaster and the previous civil war. Still, while the guns have been laid down and a degree of autonomy has been granted to the province, there are occasional blips on the road to peace, and a prevailing belief in the rest of Sumatra that the people of Aceh are keen to spread their conservative Islamic ways across the whole country.

Papua’s second-biggest city, Sorong sits at the northwestern tip of the Vogelkop. It’s a busy port and base for oil and logging operations in the region. Few travelers stay longer than it takes to get on a boat to the Raja Ampat Islands, but Sorong can be interesting for a day or two, and there are some worthwhile destinations in the surrounding region.

Flores, the island given a pretty but incongruous Portuguese name by its 16th-century colonists, has become Indonesia’s Next Big Thing. The serpentine, 670km Trans-Flores Hwy runs the length of the island, skirting knife-edge ridges, brushing by paddy-fringed villages and opening up dozens of areas few tourists explore.

'Relaxed' is how people most often describe Lovina, and aside from the pushy touts, they are correct. This low-key, low-rise, low-priced beach resort town is a far cry from Kuta. The waves are calm, the beach thin and overamped attractions nil.

Trekkingäventyr, surfing och orörda vidder. Indonesiska Lombok är ännu lite av ett oskrivet blad. Carl Larsson och Jenny Möllerström bor deltid på ön, här är deras bästa tips!

Nusa Dua translates literally as 'Two Islands' – although they are actually small raised headlands, each with a small temple. But Nusa Dua is much better known as Bali's gated compound of resort hotels. It's a vast and manicured place where you leave the chaos of the rest of the island behind as you pass the guards.