Looking through the aircraft window, it is hard to believe I am flying above
the fourth most populous country in the world. Below stretch scenes so
unspoilt and Technicolor in their intensity that they seem more Pixar
creation than crowded planet. In the distance, dozens of tiny, amorphous
islands ringed by white sands then turquoise shallows appear to float in the
sea. Lurid green forests extend to the horizon – but of the 240 million
people living in Indonesia, there is no sign. There are no roads, no towns,
no harbours, just hundreds of miles of virgin Earth.
