Category Archives for Indonesia
What is Ubud Like? A Few Perspectives
Embarrassingly for someone who writes for a living and has spent months in Ubud, I spectacularly failed the other night to answer the question “What is Ubud like?” Because the answer really does depend on your perspective. So here are a few perspectives on Ubud, the Balinese town where Elizabeth Gilbert found the “love” in [...]
Bali — A GREAT Place to Lose a Child
When it comes to places to lose a child, I can confirm that Bali beats the hell out of Bulgaria and the UK. It’s not that I make a habit of losing children. Admittedly, I did once misplace someone else’s in the course of a sleepover. And I once inadvertently left my own child on [...]
The Friday Photo: Ready For Some Beach
The beaches in Kuta, Lombok, where we learned to surf, are some of the prettiest I’ve seen in Indonesia — even including the wonders of Pulau Derawan and Morotai. But the Middle East, where we’re headed next, has some amazing beaches, too. And, right now, I need me some of that.
I have a bunch of funny motorbike stories from our trip across Indonesia and Timor Leste that I never got time to write up. Here’s a few of them. The Time I Drove Our Motorbike Into The Hotel Bar On arrival in Dili, Timor Leste, we were kind of knackered. There’s something about a challenging [...]
Our Last Hurrah
All of a sudden, as we load up the bike and bump out of the coffee plantation and over the waterfall bridge, it feels as if we’re in a hurry. We’ve been meandering across Indonesia and around Timor Leste at a more or less leisurely pace these last few months. We’ve covered well over 5000k [...]
Before we can escape the lake of farts for the coffee plantation, there is, as ever, the little matter of our motorbike. After our ordeal getting up here, it is a) low on gas and, b) as I discover, with the assistance of a small-to-medium crowd of helpful chaps, almost completely out of oil. A [...]
I once ordered “fried p*ss” instead of “fried potatoes” in a restaurant. And, on presenting a landlady with her key, I announced, “I’m so sorry! Here’s your cat!”. So I’ve had my adventures with the Indonesian language. And, my Bahasa still isn’t pretty. All the same, if you’re thinking of getting off the beaten track [...]
Z Versus the Lake of Farts
After our trials and tribulations getting to Ijen, the mountain refuge feels, well, gooooood… Basic, sure. But basic in a good, sweet, simple way. We’re aiming for a 4am start to climb up to Kawah Ijen, the sulphur crater lake we childishly call the “lake of farts”, with its dazzling views over the volcanoes of [...]
The Road to the Lake of Farts
Frankly, on arrival in Bali I feel like kissing the ground, Pope-style. Or, as Z puts it, “Civilisation! We’re back in civilization.” We have a lovely few days. Catch up with friends. Go to Waterbom. Develop a disturbing addiction to stuffed chilli peppers at what purports to be a Greek restaurant. Shop for a new [...]
Time For A Travel "Plan" Rethink…
We’ve crossed five Indonesian islands to get to Kupang, and had to abandon our mission to Papua. Clearly, it’s time for a travel “plan” rethink. One of the odder elements of being a one-child, one-parent family is that we tend to negotiate quite a bit. There’s only two of us in the party, after all, [...]
