1. Suramadu Bridge The Suramadu Bridge (Indonesian: Jembatan Suramadu), also known as the Surabaya Ma dura Bridge, is a bridge with three cable-stayed sections constructed between Su rabaya on the island of Java and the town of Bangkalan on the island of Madura i n Indonesia. Opened on June 10, 2009, the 5.4-km bridge is the longest in Indone sia and the first bridge to cross the Madura Strait. The cable-stayed portion has three spans with lengths 192 m, 434 m and 192 m. Th e bridge has two lanes in each direction plus an emergency lane and a dedicated lane for motorcycles. The first toll bridge in Indonesia, fares have been initia lly set at Rp. 30,000 (US$3 in 2009) for four-wheeled vehicles and Rp. 3,000 (US $0.30) for two-wheelers. The bridge was built by a consortium of Indonesian companies PT Adhi Karya and P T Waskita Karya working with China Road and Bridge Corp. and China Harbor Engine ering Co. Ltd. The total cost of the project, including connecting roads, has be en estimated at 4.5 trillion rupiah (US$445 million). Construction was started on August 20, 2003. In July 2004, a girder collapsed, k illing one worker and injuring nine others. Work on the bridge halted at the end of 2004 due to lack of funds, but was restarted in November 2005. The main span of the bridge was connected on March 31, 2009, and the bridge was opened to the public in June 10, 2009.Within a week of the opening, it was discovered that nu ts and bolts as well as maintenance lamps had been stolen and that there was evi dence of vandalism of cables supporting the main span. 2. Batik Batik is cloth which traditionally uses a manual wax-resist dyeing technique. Du e to modern advances in the textile industry, the term has been extended to incl ude fabrics which incorporate traditional batik patterns even if they are not pr oduced using the wax-resist dyeing techniques. Silk batik is especially popular. Javanese traditional batik, especially from Yogyakarta and Surakarta, has specia l meanings rooted to the Javanese conceptualization of the universe. Traditional colors include indigo, dark brown, and white which represent the three major Hi ndu Gods (Brahm?, Visnu, and ?iva). This is related to the fact that natural dye s are only available in indigo and brown. Certain patterns can only be worn by n obility; traditionally, wider stripes or wavy lines of greater width indicated h igher rank. Consequently, during Javanese ceremonies, one could determine the ro yal lineage of a person by the cloth he or she was wearing. Other regions of Indonesia have their own unique patterns which normally take th emes from everyday lives, incorporating patterns such as flowers, nature, animal s, folklore or people. The colors of pesisir batik, from the coastal cities of n orthern Java, is especially vibrant, and it absorbs influence from the Javanese, Arab, Chinese and Dutch culture. In the colonial times pesisir batik was a favo rite of the Peranakan Chinese, Dutch and Eurasians. UNESCO designated Indonesian batik, as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heri tage of Humanity on October 2, 2009.In return of the acknowledgment, UNESCO dema nded Indonesia to preserve their heritage. Batik or fabrics with the traditional batik patterns are also found in several c ountries such as Malaysia, Japan, China, India, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Nigeria, Seneg al, and Singapore. Malaysian batik often displays plants and flowers in basic pa tterns. 3. Facebook Facebook is a global social networking website that is operated and privately ow ned by Facebook, Inc. Users can add friends and send them messages, and update t heir personal profiles to notify friends about themselves. Additionally, users c an join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region. The website's name stems from the colloquial name of books given at the start of the academic

year by university administrations with the intention of helping students get t o know each other better. Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook with his college roommates and fellow computer science students Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes while he was a student at Harvard University. The website's membership was initially limited to Harvard students, but was expanded to other colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy League, and Stanford University. It later expanded further to include any u niversity student, then high school students, and, finally, to anyone aged 13 an d over. The website currently has more than 300 million active users worldwide. Facebook has met with some controversy. It has been blocked intermittently in se veral countries including Syria, China and Iran,although Iran later unblocked Fa cebook in 2009. It has also been banned at many places of work to discourage emp loyees from wasting time using the service. Privacy has also been an issue, and it has been compromised several times. Facebook is also facing several lawsuits from a number of Zuckerberg's former classmates, who claim that Facebook had sto len their source code and other intellectual property. A January 2009 Compete.com study has ranked Facebook as the most used social net work by worldwide monthly active users, followed by MySpace. 4. Kecak Dance Kecak (pronounced [?ket?ak]) is a form of Balinese music drama, originated in th e 1930s and is performed primarily by men. Also known as the Ramayana Monkey Cha nt, the piece, performed by a circle of 100 or more performers wearing checked c loth around their waists, percussively chanting "cak" and throwing up their arms , depicts a battle from the Ramayana where the monkey-like Vanara helped Prince Rama fight the evil King Ravana. However, Kecak has roots in sanghyang, a trance -inducing exorcism dance. Kecak was originally a trance ritual accompanied by male chorus. German painter and musician Walter Spies became deeply interested in the ritual while living in Bali in the 1930s and worked to recreate it into a drama, based on the Hindu Ra mayana and including dance, intended to be presented to Western tourist audience s. This transformation is an example of what James Clifford describes as part of the "modern art-culture system" in which, "the West or the central power adopts , transforms, and consumes non-Western or peripheral cultural elements, while ma king 'art' which was once embedded in the culture as a whole, into a separate en tity."Spies worked with Wayan Limbak and Limbak popularized the dance by traveli ng throughout the world with Balinese performance groups. These travels have hel ped to make the Kecak famous throughout the world. Performer, choreographer, and scholar I Wayan Dibia cites a contrasting theory t hat the Balinese where already developing the form when Spies arrived on the isl and. For example, well-known dancer I Limbak had incorporated Baris movements in to the cak leader role during the 1920s. "Spies liked this innovation," and it s uggested that Limbak, "devise a spectacle based on the Ramayana," accompanied by cak chorus rather than gamelan, as would have been usual. 5. Gamelan Music A gamelan is a musical ensemble from Indonesia, typically from the islands of Ba li or Java, featuring a variety of instruments such as metallophones, xylophones , drums and gongs; bamboo flutes, bowed and plucked strings. Vocalists may also be included. The term refers more to the set of instruments than to the players of those inst ruments. A gamelan is a set of instruments as a distinct entity, built and tuned to stay together instruments from different gamelan are generally not interchan geable. The word "gamelan" comes from the Javanese word "gamel", meaning to strike or ha mmer, and the suffix "an", which makes the root a collective noun. Real hammers are not used to play these instruments as heavy iron hammers would break the del icate instruments.

6. Sydney Opera House The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre on Bennelong Poin t in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was conceived and largely built by D anish architect J?rn Utzon, who in 2003 received the Pritzker Prize, architectur e's highest honour.[1] The citation stated There is no doubt that the Sydney Ope ra House is his masterpiece. It is one of the great iconic buildings of the 20th century, an image of great beauty that has become known throughout the world a symbol for not only a city, but a whole country and continent. The Opera House was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site on 28 June 2007.[2] It is one of the 20th century's most distinctive buildings, and one of the most famous performing arts centres in the world. The Sydney Opera House is situated on Bennelong Point in Sydney Harbour, close t o the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It sits at the north-eastern tip of the Sydney cent ral business district (the CBD), surrounded on three sides by the harbour (Sydne y Cove and Farm Cove), and neighboured by the Royal Botanic Gardens. Contrary to its name, the building houses several separate venues rather than a single opera theatre, the two main venues, the Opera Theatre and the Concert Hal l, being housed in the two larger sets of shells. The Sydney Opera House is a ma jor presenting venue for Opera Australia, The Australian Ballet, the Sydney Thea tre Company and the Sydney Symphony, as well as hosting many touring productions in a variety of performance genres, and is a major tourist attraction. It is ad ministered by the Sydney Opera House Trust, under the New South Wales Ministry o f the Arts. The Sydney Opera House is a modern expressionist design,with a series of large p recast concrete 'shells',[3] each composed of sections of a hemisphere of the sa me radius, forming the roofs of the structure, set on a monumental podium. The b uilding covers 1.8 hectares (4.5 acres) of land, and is 183 metres (605 ft) long and 120 metres (388 ft) wide at its widest point. It is supported on 588 concre te piers sunk as much as 25 metres below sea level. Its power supply is equivale nt to that of a town of 25,000 people, and is distributed by 645.5 kilometres (4 01 miles) of electrical cable.[citation needed] The roofs of the House are covered in a subtle chevron pattern with 1,056,006 gl ossy white and matte cream colored Swedish-made tiles from H?gan?s AB,[4] though from a distance the shells appear a uniform white. Despite the tiles' self-clea ning nature, they do require periodic maintenance and replacement.[citation need ed] The Concert Hall is located within the western group of shells, the Opera Theatr e within the eastern group. The scale of the shells was chosen to reflect the in ternal height requirements, with low entrance spaces, rising over the seating ar eas and up to the high stage towers. The minor venues (Drama Theatre, Playhouse, and The Studio) are located beneath the Concert Hall, as part of the western sh ell group. A much smaller group of shells set to one side of the Monumental Step s houses the Bennelong Restaurant. Although the roof structures of the Sydney Op era House are commonly referred to as shells (as they are in this article), they are in fact not shells in a strictly structural sense, but are instead precast concrete panels supported by precast concrete ribs. 7. The Eiffel Tower The Eiffel Tower (French: Tour Eiffel, [tu? ?f?l]) is a 19th century iron lattic e tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris that has become both a global icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world. The Eiffel Tower, which is the tallest building in Paris, is the single most visited paid m onument in the world; millions of people ascend it every year. Named after its d esigner, engineer Gustave Eiffel, the tower was built as the entrance arch for t he 1889 World's Fair. The tower stands at 324 m (1,063 ft) tall, about the same height as an 81-story building. It was the tallest structure in the world from its completion until 19

30, when it was eclipsed by the Chrysler Building in New York City. Not includin g broadcast antennas, it is the second-tallest structure in France, behind the M illau Viaduct, completed in 2004. And while the Eiffel Tower is a steel structur e, and weighs approximately 10,000 tonnes, it actually has a relatively low dens ity, weighing less than a cylinder of air occupying the same dimensions as the t ower. The tower has three levels for visitors. Tickets can be purchased to ascend eith er on stairs or lifts to the first and second levels. The walk to the first leve l is over 300 steps, as is the walk from the first to the second level. The thir d and highest level is only accessible by lift. Both the first and second levels feature restaurants. The tower has become the most prominent symbol of both Paris and France. The tow er is a featured part of the backdrop in literally scores of movies that take pl ace in Paris. Its iconic status is so established that it even serves as a symbo l for the entire nation of France, such as when it was used as the logo for the French bid to host the 1992 Summer Olympics. The metal structure of the Eiffel Tower weighs 7,300 tonnes while the entire str ucture including non-metal components is approximately 10,000 tonnes. Depending on the ambient temperature, the top of the tower may shift away from the sun by up to 18 cm (7.1 in) because of thermal expansion of the metal on the side facin g the sun. As demonstration of the economy of design, if the 7300 tonnes of the metal structure were melted down it would fill the 125 meter square base to a de pth of only 6 cm (2.36 in), assuming a density of the metal to be 7.8 tonnes per cubic meter. The tower has a mass less than the mass of the air contained in a cylinder of the same dimensions, that is 324 meters high and 88.3 meters in radi us. The weight of the tower is 10,100 tonnes compared to 10,265 tonnes of air. More than 200,000,000 people have visited the tower since its construction in 18 89, including 6,719,200 in 2006, making it the most visited paid monument in the world. 8. Lake Toba Lake Toba (Indonesian: Danau Toba) is a lake and super volcano, 100 kilometer lo ng and 30 kilometer wide, and 505 meter (1,666 ft) at its deepest point. Located in the middle of the northern part of the Indonesian island of Sumatra with a s urface elevation of about 900 meter (2,953 ft), the lake stretches from 253?N 9831 ?E? / ?2.88N 98.52E? / 2.88; 98.52 to 221?N 9906?E? / ?2.35N 99.1E? / 2.35; 99.1. It s the largest volcanic lake in the world.[1] In addition, it is the site of a su per volcanic eruption that occurred about 74,000 years ago,[2] a massive climate -changing event. The eruption is believed to have had a VEI intensity of 8. This eruption, believed to have been the largest anywhere on Earth in the last 25 mi llion years, may have had catastrophic consequences globally; some anthropologis ts and archeologists believe that it killed most humans then alive, creating a p opulation bottleneck in Central Eastern Africa and India that affected the genet ic inheritance of all humans today. Most of the people who live around Lake Toba are ethnically Bataks. Traditional Batak houses are noted for their distinctive roofs (which curve upwards at each end, as a boat's hull does) and their colorful decor. Lake Toba offers a nurturing environment for fish such as the tilapia mossambica , aplocheilus pachax, lebistes reticulatus, osphronemus goramy, trichogaster tri chopterus, channa striata, chana gachua, clarias batrachus, clarias nieuhofi, cl arias. sp., nemachilus fasciatus, cyprinus carpio, puntius javanicus, puntius bi notatus, osteochilus nasselti, lissochilus sp., labeobarbus sora, and rasbora sp .[17] Many other types of plants and animals live within the boundaries of Lake Toba. Flora organisms include various types of phytoplankton, emerged macrophytes, flo ating macrophytes, and submerged macrophytes. Fauna include several variations o f zooplankton and benthos. 9. The Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China (simplified Chinese: ??; traditional Chinese: ??; pinyin : Ch?ngchng; literally "long city/fortress") or (simplified Chinese: ????; tradit ional Chinese: ????; pinyin: Wnl? Ch?ngchng; literally "The long wall of 10,000 Li (?)"[1]) is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in northern China, bui lt, rebuilt, and maintained between the 5th century BC and the 16th century to p rotect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire from Xiongnu attacks during va rious successive dynasties. Since the 5th century BC, several walls have been bu ilt that were referred to as the Great Wall. One of the most famous is the wall built between 220 206 BC by the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang. Little of t hat wall remains; the majority of the existing wall were built during the Ming D ynasty. The Great Wall stretches from Shanhaiguan in the east to Lop Nur in the west, al ong an arc that roughly delineates the southern edge of Inner Mongolia. The most comprehensive archaeological survey, using advanced technologies, has recently concluded that the entire Great Wall, with all of its branches, stretches for 8, 851.8 km (5,500.3 mi). This is made up of 6,259.6 km (3,889.5 mi) of sections of actual wall, 359.7 km (223.5 mi) of trenches and 2,232.5 km (1,387.2 mi) of nat ural defensive barriers such as hills and rivers. Before the use of bricks, the Great Wall was mainly built from Earth or Taipa, s tones, and wood. During the Ming Dynasty, however, bricks were heavily used in many areas of the wall, as were materials such as tiles, lime, and stone. The size and weight of t he bricks made them easier to work with than earth and stone, so construction qu ickened. Additionally, bricks could bear more weight and endure better than ramm ed earth. Stone can hold under its own weight better than brick, but is more dif ficult to use. Consequently, stones cut in rectangular shapes were used for the foundation, inner and outer brims, and gateways of the wall. Battlements line th e uppermost portion of the vast majority of the wall, with defensive gaps a litt le over 30 cm (one foot) tall, and about 23 cm (9 inches) wide. 10. Tanjung Benoa Tanjung Benoa, or the Benoa peninsula just north of Nusa Dua has become much bus ier over the years and has a wide range of accommodation including prestigious r esorts like 'The Conrad'. Benoa peninsula is a scenic 5 kilometers of coconut pa lms and fine sand. The area is the almost exclusive home of luxury hotels, priva te villas, fine restaurants, open-air cafes and water sports facilities. The res ort has become busier over recent years with more hotels Bali Resort and Spa joi ning impressive resorts like the Aston Bali. The shape of the beach, also makes Tanjung Benoa perfect for water sports with no shortage of shops catering to mar ine sports enthusiasts. Right at the tip of the peninsula is the quiet port of Tanjung Benoa, with its v illage like alleyways and rows of traditional fishing boats and yachts. Offshore "Turtle Island" is the site of a sacred sea temple. Tanjung Benoa has something for everyone -especially if we are a water sport fun. Snorkeling, diving, winds urfing, water skiing, powerboats, banana boats and reef fishing. (The reef is ju st 200 meters from the shoreline at the northeastern tip)