For the final two weeks of my study trip, I’m in Java, which is an incredibly important island as it is the host of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta (although not for much longer), and as such is quite politically powerful within Indonesian government. I’m spending a week in Yogyakarta, which is something of a study […]
The past few days, I had this as my view (all for about $25/night): I realise, typing this now, that it doesn’t look like much – in fact, it looks rather like a dead garden at the front with the bin – but the main point was actually that I had this beautiful view of […]
“Are you filming a vlog?” Asks Ryan, also known as Ray to his friends (and after sharing a meal, I was now on Ray-terms with Ray). “No,” I responded, “why do you ask?” Ray proceeded to tell me that he thought Banda Aceh had a lot to offer for tourists, but that there’s not much […]
Before I had travelled to Bali, I played in an Balinese gamelan (traditional ensemble) in Canberra. Friends there often expressed a sense of regret or sadness about the current state of Bali. “It used to be a beautiful, natural island,” they would say, “but now it has become overrun with resorts and tourists”. They would […]
Hi everyone, I’ve been very sick this week unfortunately so only a very short blog post from me. Unfortunately I came down with some kind of illness on Monday and so I spent most of this week resting up. I was even worse yesterday but once again I seem on the mend (though I recall […]
You’re probably wondering what it is I’m doing in Indonesia (or maybe you just thought I was having a great holiday). The truth is that I am doing fieldwork here. To most people, you probably have a vision of some Indiana Jones-esque archeology expedition when I say that, but real fieldwork is nothing like that […]
I’ve been in Bali for about ten days now. It is actually my first time being in the country of Indonesia – before being involved with gamelan (the traditional music commonly found in Java and Bali), I had no experience with Indonesia at all. I’ve slowly been playing catch-up as a result, now being about […]