Baliem Valley Festival
Keren Su/China Span/Getty Images
The Baliem Valley Festival shines a spotlight on an off-the-beaten-path part of the country, Indonesian Papua. To get to Baliem Valley, you'll need to climb up the Jayawijaya Mountains on the island of New Guinea, stopping when you reach a magnificent valley up in the clouds.
During the Festival, Baliem Valley's tribes put on their best traditional garb, and perform Papuan cultural traditions, including pig-racing and spear-throwing contests. The biggest event – a mock war held over two days – involves about fifty warriors in full battle dress, fighting it out as the strains of Pikon music wafts through the air.
Beyond watching the festivities and eating the local food, travelers can put on the traditional koteka (penis sheath) to better experience the Papuan way of life!
Festival date: Aug. 6 - 8, 2020
Advertisement
Bandung Great Sale
Mike Aquino
Bandung, city of volcanoes and colonial buildings, is known primarily for its cheap clothes shopping, drawing from the abundance of clothing factories around West Java. The factory outlets churn out cheap but genuine branded clothes all year round, but the city turns the bargains up to eleven during the Bandung Great Sale.
Taking place for a full month between September and October, the Bandung Great Sale brings together the city's many factory outlets, malls, and dining outlets for the singular purpose of low, low prices on everything. Not even hospitals and meatball soup carts are immune!
The factory outlets, mainly located down Juanda, Riau and Setiabudi streets, draw thousands of visitors from all over the region (Malaysians fly straight from Kuala Lumpur to Bandung for the sale).
Festival date: 2020 dates TBA