The Great Outdoors
Fatahillah Square Kota Tua (Old City), North Jakarta Once notorious for its criminally-neglected historic buildings, whose roofs were prone to...
Rat’s Tail Soup
Around the corner from my hotel in the Cambodian city of Phnom Penh is a small Indonesian restaurant. Having lived...
In Praise of Pedestrian Tastes
Daniel Pope prods his proletarian fork at a few Indonesian favourites. “Food, glorious food! Hot sausage and mustard! While we’re...
Never the Trains Shall Meet
Not long ago, any authentic Indonesian model railway set required dozens of tiny model passengers perched precariously on the roofs...
Public Transport: Masochism for the Masses
Daniel Pope endures and occasionally enjoys Jakarta’s improving public transport options. Travel these days is absurdly easy. Just flip open...
The Malls That Ate Jakarta
When humans eventually colonise Mars, it’s a toss-up what they will build first. If they’re Chinese, they might put up...
The Tastes of Paradise
Anyone who has set foot in Indonesia will be familiar with these local versions of products that expatriates learn to...
Going at Home and Going Away
I had only been back in the UK for a day and already I was in a public lavatory watching...
Street Reminiscing
Khao Sarn Road, Bangkok; Street 172, Phnom Penh; Jalan Jaksa, Jakarta. The list of famous and cheap backpacker streets in...
Baguettes and Rice
Throughout my twenty years of teaching EFL in Indonesia, we – that is my noble fellow teachers and myself –...
Lost In Bali
Daniel Pope recalls a new year that didn’t begin well I am a mobile technology geek. As well as carrying...
Return of a Friend
Jakarta’s Jalan Jaksa was once a great place for making odd, surreal and semi-imaginary friends, as Daniel Pope recalls. When...
Crossings
Daniel Pope remembers some of his international comings and goings. In 1986, while the cold war was still going on,...
Indonesian Critters
You don’t need to watch a scary movie to make your flesh crawl, as Daniel Pope explains. A fellow English...
The Imposter
Daniel Pope muses on how sometimes it’s better to tell fibs when you want to fit in with the culture....
Marching Orders
An army marches on its stomach and so does an English teacher, as Daniel Pope found out. Despite my earning...
Medical Anomalies
When well-off people in Indonesia need medical treatment, they often head off to Singapore. Daniel Pope thinks he knows why....
Fun With Weapons
Daniel Pope contemplates whether a foreigner could get away with murder in Indonesia. My local hangout in Jakarta in the...
Jakarta, Rattle and Roll
Not long ago, I watched Dawn of The Planet of the Apes in 4-D at a Blitzmegaplex cinema complex in...
Making the Possible Impossible
Any foreigner who has dealt with a government department in Indonesia—whose offices maintained a 1960s atmosphere of clattering typewriters and...
Getting to the Other Side
The safest time to cross the street in Jakarta can be when the city is at maximum danger level, as...