Have the Guts to Eat from the Street
There are two kinds of people in Jakarta: the ones that eat street food and the ones that don’t. ...
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The Bargain Tree Hunter
If you plan on walking into a department store this week and dropping Rp 3.2 million on a six-foot tall...
Deck the Malls
Criticising Jakarta’s shopping malls for their ostentatious Christmas displays is too easy. We can feel sickened by the crass commercialisation...
Uneasy Money
Gambling, like prostitution and corruption, is an age-old vice that is part of Indonesia’s culture. Despite being criminalized in the...
Darryl Patton: Godfather of the Expat Bars
Darryl Patton, 1941-2011 Englishman Darryl Patton was the innovator behind many of the early expatriate bars in Jakarta, pioneering much...
Treading in Jogjakarta’s Ancient History
Jogjakarta and its Hill of Stones Anyone with but the flimsiest knowledge of Indonesia will know the pivotal role Jogjakarta...
Jakarta Air Pollution: Not all Doom, Gloom & Catastrophe!
In 1994 there were an estimated 1.38 million vehicles (cars, motorcycles, lorries and buses) in Jakarta. 27 years later in...
Health Remedies
As the dry season turns wet and the rains come knocking on our doors (and, in my case at least,...
How Indonesia’s Spices Unrolled the Map of the World
As Indonesia prepares to celebrate 66 years of independence it is an appropriate moment to turn the clock back 560...
Tanamur: Long Gone but Not Forgotten
“Every dog has its day” goes the old saying. Yes, that’s certainly true for Tanamur – a good number of...
Dancing in the Street
Busking is an activity that can be witnessed in any number of the world’s cities. London, for example, is particularly...
Managing Jakarta’s Traffic
Jakarta Traffic should be added to the certainties of life like death and taxes. It’s the number one thing all...
Climbing the Less Well-Known Peaks of Indonesia
As editor of the not-for-profit hiking website Gunung Bagging, I have spent the last few years exploring countless mountain peaks...
Finding and Booking Flights on Your Phone
School holidays are nearly upon us and I am sure you are busy planning for a trip somewhere. I...
Batavia – A Chinese Town Under Dutch Rule
No-one knows when the Chinese first hit what was to become Jakarta. Certainly, when the Dutch first arrived, in 1596,...
Presidential Art
Complex, contradictory and politically brilliant, Engineer Sukarno, the first president of the Republic of Indonesia, was a renowned lover of...
Religious Affairs Indonesia Moving
Easter recently came and went and so, with contrition on my mind, I took myself along to the Easter Sunday...