Sep 21
As we stood on the edge of a grassy square facing Palenque’s Temple of the Cross, Bama and I suddenly heard an eerie growl from the nearby jungle: a long and guttural roar, disturbing enough to make anyone stop in their tracks. Read more
May 31
It took Bama three trips to get the shot he wanted of the pagoda-like meru at Bali’s most iconic Hindu temple, Pura Ulun Danu Beratan. Persistent rain, not unusual given the fickle weather in the island’s north-central highlands, had dampened his first two visits years ago. Now, he stood transfixed at the postcard-perfect scene before us: bright blue skies with scattered wisps of cloud over Lake Beratan, the temple’s famed meru appearing to float on its calm, mirror-like surface. The dark palm-fiber roofs of both towers had been recently rethatched, and beneath their eaves, lustrous gold-painted wooden carvings shimmered in the early morning light. All was quiet. Read more
Apr 26
My first brush with Turkey (now officially Türkiye) happens out of pure necessity. En route to Mexico, Bama and I may be genuinely fatigued after stepping off a long-haul flight, but the idea of holing up in an overpriced airport hotel and doing absolutely nothing is out of the question. Not when we have 20 hours to spare in one of the world’s great historic cities — and the only one to straddle Europe and Asia. Read more
Apr 15
How far would you go to visit a dream destination? It seems surreal now, sitting in our living room with the suitcases unpacked, to think that we’ve spent the past two weeks in Mexico. Just a few nights ago, Bama and I completed a marathon two-day slog that began halfway across the world. My seatmate on the 16.5-hour flight between Mexico City and Istanbul (with a stopover in Cancún) couldn’t believe we were in Istanbul for a 16-hour layover before the 12-hour flight back to Jakarta. “That is such a long journey,” she exclaimed in wide-eyed shock. “¡Qué horror!” Read more
Feb 19
Squeezed into the middle seat in the back row of a Singapore Airlines jet, between Bama and a cheerful Indian doctor vacationing from the U.S., I look out the window at a jungle-shrouded Malaysian island rising from the South China Sea. The moving map on my PTV screen identifies this as Tioman: from the air we spot a pair of sharp, near-vertical granite monoliths known as the Dragon Horns. It’s barely 30 minutes into a two-hour-plus flight when our plane climbs above layers of cloud, the earth’s surface gradually disappearing from view. Read more
Sep 27
Long ago, on the lush, volcano-studded island of Java, there lived a princess by the name of Roro Jonggrang. Not only was she ravishingly beautiful; legend has it that the young maiden had a sharp intellect. Roro Jonggrang happened to be the daughter of the fearsome king Prabu Boko, a man so tall and powerfully built many believed him to be descended from giants; some say he was a fierce warrior who had a reputation for cannibalism. Not content with the territory and riches he already had, Papa Prabu declared war on the neighboring kingdom of Pengging and promptly launched an invasion. Read more
Mar 27
On the shelves of a tall bookcase in my parents’ living room, you’ll find a hardcover titled Wonders of the Ancient World. I leafed through it many times as a child and read the book well into my early teens, with many lazy summer afternoons spent engrossed in the tales and pictures of faraway places I could only dream of visiting. What I remember most clearly from that volume is a full-page photograph taken in Petra, Jordan – specifically of the famed rock-cut tomb known as the Treasury (al-Khazneh). Read more
Nov 30
“Arrakis is Arrakis, and the desert takes the weak.” —Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, Dune (2021)
One thing I love about good movies is the way they can transport us to far-off places, whether real or imagined, for a much-needed dose of escapism. Bama and I recently watched Denis Villeneuve’s epic adaptation of Dune, the 1965 science fiction novel by Frank Herbert. Neither of us were familiar with the book or the complex fantasy world that it spawned, but we found the film visually stunning and thought-provoking in equal measure (could there be a future where computers and AI are banned?). Much of Dune is set on Arrakis, the inhospitable desert planet that happens to be the universe’s only source of Spice Melange – a valuable, life-extending psychedelic drug that enhances human intelligence and makes interstellar travel possible. Read more
Aug 1
Five years ago this June, Bama and I embarked on an unforgettable week-long adventure across the island of Flores. It remains one of my favorite corners of Indonesia and not just for its astonishing natural beauty. Here, in a predominantly Muslim nation, the Catholic faith brought by Portuguese missionaries mingled with tribal traditions; the rugged landscape held megalithic villages that seemed nearly as old as time itself, perfectly formed volcanoes, and superb coffee made with local arabica beans grown in the mist-laden highlands. At the end of our journey lay Labuan Bajo, a sleepy fishing village turned tourism boomtown, where a glorious sunset bode well for an overnight cruise around the UNESCO-listed reefs and islands of Komodo National Park. Read more
Mar 28
It was a blanket of thick cloud that set the scene for our early morning arrival into Australia’s largest city. Heralding the end of a seven-hour overnight flight from Jakarta, this gloominess suggested that much of the day would be spent indoors, though it barely dampened our excitement as the waters of Port Jackson came into view. “Look!” Bama gestured from his window seat toward the span of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the nearby Opera House: two landmarks I had longed to see ever since I was a child. We descended past the skyscrapers of the Central Business District, gliding lower and lower above the rooftops until the inner suburbs gave way to warehouses and the wheels hit the runway. We were in a new country, a remote outpost of the Western world – and a far cry from the place we had left just the night before. Read more
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