Dear Indonesia – we need to talk

Dear Indonesia Firstly, so as there is no misunderstanding, let me state quite clearly that I love you, sincerely and deeply. Rarely have other places in the world treated me so well but a few issues have come up in our relationship that I need to talk to you about, so I hope you will understand. Do you know what pavements are for? I think it is instructive in this instance to use the American term sidewalk, as it conveys…

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The torture never stops

As if the gore splattered meat market in Tomohon wasn’t enough fun, the extra curricular entertainment of cock-fighting is also available for your edification, so I put on my sports correspondent hat to check out a match for you. It is popular throughout south-east Asia and is well over a thousand years old in Indonesia, so hardly a cultural practice to be ignored. If you only watch for a few minutes in the early stages, you could be forgiven for…

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Indonesia on wheels

Quite what has inspired Indonesia’s love affair with small wheels will probably remain a mystery but it seems as though the country has embraced the modest wheeled vehicle like no other. Many countries have their iconic forms of transport: jeepneys in the Philipines; decorated trucks in Pakistan and the London Bus, just to name a few, but Indonesia has adapted bicycles and motor bikes to perform a whole range of functions. You won’t get very far, anywhere in the country before…

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Kolorful Kalimantan

As its new year I am sure you all need a bit of colour to cheer you up, particularly after some of my more gruesome posts recently. If you are languishing in post-Christmas poverty, having mortgaged your soul to pay obscene heaps of food and booze to wash away the pain of regular employment, let me at least offer you a hint of sunshine. After a few weeks in Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo, buildings back home are going to seem rather…

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To live and die in Toraja

Warning: animal lovers may find some of the images distressing    In the lush hills of Tana Toraja in central Sulawesi the most important part of life is, without doubt, death. It is an event which calls for a great deal of time and expense and is firmly rooted in ancient traditions, despite the majority of the population being Christian. The piety of the Torajans disguises the fact that Christianity is largely a very recent arrival: attacks from Muslim lowlanders (which…

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