Planning your trip (EX; ES)

Dates

The Indonesian School Year is similar to the USA, starting late July to late August, with a month long break beginning around Christmas, and resuming in February to late June. There is some variation in start and end dates across the country.

Indonesians observe Muslim, Christian, Buddhist and Hindu religious days, so there are a lot of Holidays. Holiday names may be misleading. For example, Nyepi of Balinese Hindu New Year is a day of complete silence with lights and electronics turned off. No Balinese person will work on this day or she will risk bad karma for an entire year. All flights to Denpasar Bali will be cancelled. Most tourists leave Bali during this day. Idul Fitri is also a mammoth Muslim Holiday which in it’s intensity is like American Christmas and Thanksgiving in one. It’s at this time that Indonesians generally return to their family homes for the holiday. During the week before and after the three day observance, no meaningful work can be done. On the Eve of Idul Fitri expect a 3 hour car ride to become 24 hours and a $50 flight become $500. On the bright side, Jakarta is empty with no traffic. Many holidays are based on alternative calendars such as the Java Calendar, the Balinese Calendar, or the lunar calendar, so they will move throughout the year.

With this in mind, it’s essential that your first step in planning a trip is to google ‘Indonesian Holidays’ and see which ones may be taking place during your proposed trip. Then you should contact your hosts to determine how significant any holiday ay be and how it will effect your trip.

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