Elementary Matrimony in Jogja
Weddings Magazine – October 2004 I’ll start with a disclaimer. I am an American and while moderately acquainted with Indonesian culture through books and …
Travel Photo Of The Week
Posting from Kupang, West Timor. This shot was taken in Temkessi, an indigenous village high in the mountains. Something about her is …
Rote’s Second Wave
Travel & Leisure Southeast Asia Magazine – April 2010 Diego Arrarte hangs up his cell and accelerates his moderately dented late-model Toyota …
Balance in Bali
It’s sunset on the rooftop at the hip new Anantara Seminyak. Beautiful, moneyed Javanese and Bali’s euro-glam collection of expats cozy up …
Finding Bliss on Bali – Yoga, relaxation and belonging
Evocative sounds filtered through the open-air yoga pavilion as I completed a sun salutation at Bali’s Como Shambhala Estate at Begawan Giri: the sunset song of tropical birds, the rolling thunder of the Ayung River, the faintest chant originating from a Hindu temple…
Becoming Lombok
It looks like Heaven needs a good rain. Its outskirts could not be dryer. There are a few struggling tobacco plots in the parched brown hills. One abuts a compound of lean-to thatched bamboo shacks with satelite TV.
Here are some other things you didn’t know about Heaven. You get here via a narrow dirt track, which feels more like a trench. Some of the drops are so deep, I actually grunt as the car [yes you can drive to Heaven] lurches forward. Skateboarders will be pleased to hear that Heaven is equipped with an expertly molded, concrete half-pipe. Oh, and I should also mention that Heaven is actually right here on planet earth. In Lombok, Indonesia.