To those of our readers who may be induced to visit Java, we would tender a few words of advice.
If it is intended to compress a tour of the principal places we have noted into a fortnight's holiday, travel, if possible, to Sourabaya, and go first of all to Tosari. After a few days there, Djocjakarta should be made the headquarters for a two or three days' inspection of the Buddhist ruins, and then Bandoeng could be made a halting place while a decision is arrived at as to whether Sindanglaya, Soekaboemi or Garoet is to be visited next before going on to Buitenzorg and Batavia. We recommend this course because there is a more frequent service of steamers between Batavia and Singapore, and by ascertaining the sailing dates while at some of the Preanger health resorts one is able to time one's arrival at Batavia and so avoid the heat of the seaport.
We have painted Java in rosy colours because we found it beautiful, the people companionable and the conditions agreeable. It is possible that others may go over our tracks without deriving a tithe of the enjoyment.
No one should travel unless he has a genius for travel and a ready adaptability to prevailing conditions. He should bear in mind that it is he who is the odd piece in the machinery, and that unless he adjusts himself to the other working pieces he will only have himself to blame if things do not run smoothly. If Java is visited in the right spirit, we have not the least doubt that the traveller will be delighted with all he sees and experiences, and will come away with an assured conviction that it was no exaggeration which styled the island "The Garden of the East."
Transcriber's Notes:
Inconsistencies in the hyphenation of words preserved. (court-yard, courtyard; over-night, overnight)