The Friday Photo: Yi Lady Smoking
We met this lady from the Yi tribal minority catching the cable car up to Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, outside Lijiang, China, to tend to...
Tagged: tribes
The Friday Photo: Kayan Woman, Borneo
I photographed this lady from the Kayan tribal minority in Sarawak, once an independent kingdom, now Malaysian Borneo, during our big trip upriver there last...
Because I Want A Skyline
“Why go to Kupang?!” Z asks, rhetorically, standing skinny in his Simpsons PJs. “Why go to Kupang?! Because we’ve been in Kefa long enough. I’m...
My Father, The Headhunter
Kores holds his father’s weapons proudly in his hands. A short, broad machete, wrapped up in ikat cloth and string, and two crude wooden spears....
On the Up in Flores
It is a bright, sunny day and a beautiful ride. I’m starting to feel that the jinx that has befouled our overland mission from Bali...
King of the District: Part 2
Governor Hein’s clove cigarette fizzes hypnotically, dipped in the incense, and from the utter darkness the ancestral Moro talks the Tobelo language in an old,...
The King of the District: Part 1
Governor Hein’s people pick us up early. 9.30pm, not 10. It’s a big, slick, maroon people-carrier, a Toyota, I think, not quite as pristine as...
A Country Wedding
In the dirt yard, by the communal sleeping platform her family have built outside their wooden home, Biasri, eighteen years old and five months gone,...
One Man and His Dog: Death of a Serial Killer
It happened during the second gold rush they had, here in Eastern Halmahera, in Indonesia’s Wild East, back in the 90s. When parties of twenty...
Tales from the Moluccas #2: Happiness on the Riverbank
Lima has just discovered clothes. Three months ago, in fact. Compared to the itchy bark loincloths he used to wear, they’re remarkably comfortable. An excellent...