Indonesia Trip

Indonesia Trip 2024 - Sumatra, Java and Bali

By Declan Chandler

The end of term 2 and first week of the holidays were a busy couple of weeks for our 2024 Indonesian Study Tour Crew! Composed of students from years 10-12, our team of 17 students and three amazing teachers travelled to Indonesian in order to immerse ourselves in the rich culture and truly test out our language skills. It wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that we experienced the extremes of Indonesia - throughout our two-week trip, we spent time in the lush rainforests of Sumatra, the bustling city centre of Yogyakarta, and, of course, the tourist hot-spot Bali. Our trip to Indonesia was an incredible experience for all involved, and we have all taken much away from our time overseas. 

Having the chance to feed and wash some elephants was a favourite moment for many, as was hiking through the Sumatran jungle, following the elephant’s lead. After cooling off in the picturesque rivers and trying all sorts of unique fruits like durians, we trekked through the jungle yet again, and were lucky enough to see orangutans and monkeys up close!

In the busy city of Yogya, we saw many famous landmarks, including the Borobudur temple, the Sultan’s Palace, and the Taman Sari royal ‘water castle,’ and worked on our language skills at the Wisma Bahasa language school. We also had the opportunity to experience genuine Indonesian culture by tasting some traditional Indonesian cuisine, including martabak manis (a really big, chocolate pancake), and tried our hand at traditional crafts like batik (wax dyeing) and silver weaving. Finally, Bali saw us bartering with the locals (in Indonesian!), watching a kecak fire dance at the Uluwatu temple, and indulging in the tourist staples like Waterbom park. 

I found this trip super beneficial for my cultural understanding and language skills alike. Seeing the language I have only ever studied in a classroom be used properly in the real world helped deepen my appreciation for it and seeing how the people of Indonesia live their daily lives helped build my understanding of their culture, customs, and religions. The biggest thing I took away from the trip was the differences between our culture in Australia and how culture affects the life of Indonesian people. I have returned home with a new appreciation for the traditions and customs of Indonesia. 

This trip was an incredible experience for all of us, and we are extremely grateful to our three fabulous teachers, Bu Maddy, Bu Hollie and Pak Fanning, for all the work they put in to make this trip possible. I would highly recommend for anyone interested to go on this trip. Terima kasih banyak!