Java, Java, Java...The name alone never fails to conjure dozens of images in my head. Images of rumbling volcanoes, tumbling rice paddies, crumbling temples. Images of coffee plantations shrouded in mist. Of graceful dancers, shadow-puppets and mythological epics. It conjures the sound of the gamelan wafting through the Sultan's palace. Modern Java offers all of these things, of course. But that is only half the story. This long, thin island, only two-thirds of the size of Great Britain with over twice its population, is at the heart of 21st-century Indonesia, its seat of government and economic powerhouse. An island of polluted metropolises, traffic-clogged highways, impoverished shantytowns and filthy waterways, of churning factories and neon-lit shopping centres. Mobile phone ringtones and modern pop compete with the centuries-old gamelan here. Home to some 125,000,000 people
... read more