Tales from the Moluccas #3: Ibilihi’s Nutmeg
We pick up Ibilihi from his home on a narrow strand of yellow beach, backed by jungle sprouting out of coral cliffs, where he lives...
Category: Adventures
Machete Lessons for Beginners
It would be fair to say that watching one’s nine-year-old son improve his machete skills while 8-12 hours from *any* form of medical care, however...
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...
Expedition Outfitting in Pidgin Indonesian*
The scene? In and around various shopping establishments in Kota Ternate, the de facto capital of Indonesia’s Spice Islands, and home to more English language...
When Travel Becomes Time Travel
Tomorrow we embark for Pulau Halmahera, one of Indonesia’s Spice Islands, where we will travel back in time. Our aim? To experience the nomadic hunter-gatherer...
Rafting the Maiting River
We spent our last day in the Tana Toraja whitewater rafting. An activity, which in the mind of the child, now forms a kind of...
Buffalo Soldiers: Living for Death in the Tana Toraja
“Are funerals like this in London?” asks my new Torajan friend. The dead man’s drum-shaped coffin emerges from the matrimonial bedroom where he has “slept”,...
Climbing Mount Kinabalu
Dali would have loved the summit of Mount Kinabalu, the highest peak between the Himalayas and New Guinea. Granite towers, horns and cowslicks protrude improbably...
Zorb Balls and Sky Coasters
Thinking of taking the kids to Thailand this year? One of the huge benefits of the general nervousness right now is the instant availability of...
Spirits of the Forest
The sheer complexity of the ecosystem in protected, mature forest, from lichens spinning their symbiotic webs across old bark to the chaos wild pigs wreak...