The Indonesian national flag is called "Sang Saka Merah Putih." As provided for in Article 35 of the 1945 Constitution, the flag is made up of two colors, red on top of white. Its width is two-thirds of its length, or two meters by three meters. It is hoisted in front of the presidential palace, of government buildings and Indonesian missions abroad. The first flag was courageously flown amidst Japanese occupation forces on the day Indonesia's independence was proclaimed. Since then it has been hoisted at Independence Day commemorations in front of the presidential palace in the capital city of Jakarta. This historical flag, or "bendera pusaka," was flown for the last time on August 17, 1968. Since then it has been preserved and replaced by a replica woven of pure Indonesian silk.   Dialling codes From the UK – 00 62 From Indonesia to the UK – 00 44 http://www.dialcodesplus.com/

Languages

• Official language is Indonesian (‘Bahasa Indonesia’ that translates to simply language of Indonesia)
• It is a standardised dialect of the Malay language, and was officially defined with the declaration of Indonesian independence in 1945; the two languages remain quite similar.
• It has 200 million+ total speakers and is spoken widely in West Timor also.
• Although Indonesian is the official language it is often spoken as a fluent second language. Some Indonesians prefer to use their regional dialects as their first language, spoken at home and in their local communities. Examples are Minangkabu, spoken by a total of 6 500 000 million people in West Sumatra (an Indonesian province on the Island of Sumatra) and Western Riau, and Javanese, spoken natively by 75 500 000 million people in the central and eastern regions of the island of Java.
• Formal education and nearly all national media however are written in Indonesian.
• English is now recognised as an acceptable business language.

Geography

• Indonesia an archipelago situated between the Indian and Pacific Ocean.
• It is a large archipelago comprising of 17 000 islands. From east to west the country spans 3200miles and from north to south 1200miles.
• Its capital Jakarta’s Geographic coordinates are 6 08 S, 106 45 E.
• Areas  = 1 919 440sq. km
• Land = 1 826 440sq. km
• Water = 93 000sq. km
• The country has a variety of land borders 2830km (East Timor 228km, Malaysia 1782km, Papua New Guinea 820km)
• Coastline 54 716km
• It is a mountainous country (highest point 5030m, Puncak Jaya) and is prone to earth tremors. It also has more active volcanoes than any other country.
• Indonesia’s climate is tropical, its hottest months are April and May reaching 24 – 31 C
• The coldest months are January and February with temperature lows of 23 – 29 C. These are also the wettest months with an average rainfall of 300mm.
• Mangrove swamps line the coast and rainforest is main vegetation on the island, although many larger inhabited islands have been cleared considerably by logging.

Times zones Indonesia Due to the area Indonesia covers the time zones vary from GMT/UTC + 07:00 hours - + 09:00 hours. The capital Jakarta’s time zone is GMT/UTC + 07:00 hours.