I discovered my travel notes of our first big trip to Flores. They don't diverge too much from my earlier post based on photos and memory, but they add more detail and depth. I forgot most of the people we met along the way with the exception of the friend we visited. Most importantly for me, my memories of Flores conveniently erased frustrating details. Re-reading the journal entry surprised me 30 years after the event. I was happy to revisit the "lowlights" of the trip

Brian and I took a long weekend to travel to Central and East Java to visit local friends' we made in Jakarta in their village as well as a beautiful beach we heard about. The trip also allowed us to explore some more far-flung temples that few people visited. This is a piece I wrote directly after returning that fills in many gaps in the earlier blog posts. 1996 Yogyakarta Whump! What a hard landing, the final insult from Merpati Airlines after a two-hour wait in the poo

Bali 1995 In the pre-internet days, I was sent an Op-Ed from the New Yorker written by a woman who spent a holiday in Bali with friends living there. The focus was on how "strange" she felt living with people who had servants (a very guilty pleasure). I largely agreed with her take on the experience and wrote my own response. (I have edited and updated it) 1995 It is a hot summer day in Jakarta, but then again, every day is a hot summer day as there is little variation in

September 2014 Kota Station was completed in 1929. It represented an era where the Dutch were finally starting to take their colonial...

September 2014 One of my all time favorite street foods from the Indonesia years was "gorengan" (literally, "fried stuff"). I always...

April 1997 One of our favorite places in Indonesia was the Minang Highlands around Bukittinggi, West Sumatra. Brian and I had fallen in...

Taman Fatahillah main dining room Sate down to the lobby. September 2014 Cafe Batavia was a total sensation in Jakarta in the mid to...

Bakalan, Central Java. March 1997 My friends in Bakalan, right on the border of Central and East Java, told me that there would be a...

Candi Sewu, Central Java, Indonesia. April 2016 The Prambanan Plain under the ever-erupting Mt Merapi in Java is strewn with temples. ...

Kapuas River, Pontianak. February 1997 Equator Monument, Pontianak. February 1997 (with Irfan my ex-student) The start of the Big...