Take an ambitious businessman drunk on being so close to power, a media baron who uses his political acquaintances to strengthen his own newspaper’s position, the highly idealistic radical who talks of empathy with the common worker with his middle class friends all the while telling said workers their leaders know best, and a civil [...]

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At first sight Bengkulu seems an odd place for a trading post. It’s situated on the west coast of Sumatra, maybe three quarters of the way down the mammoth island. Head due west and you won’t hit landfall until north of Zanzibar in West Africa. For the East India Company, that early London based multinational [...]

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Nearly half a millennium before the world, slowly getting connected by grainy black and white TV images, was entranced by antics of Yuri Gagarin, Neil Armstrong and various cute animals in astronaut outfits there was another race that captured peoples’ attention. Instead of the moon though and the vanity of nations it was spices and [...]

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Bangkok’s new international airport may look like the result of a kindergarten class having too much free time with the meccano but getting there and away is a breeze. A rail link connects with the centre of the city and from there access to the inner city mass transit systems that have been developed over [...]

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An old photograph of ‘Indo’ girls (mixed European and Indonesian) in Batavia The early days of the expatriate in South East Asia, back in the 16th and 17th centuries were fraught with danger and the unknown. Never knowing when a passing ship would call in and take them home and consumed with a fear they [...]

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Zheng He is renowned today as a great explorer, honoured by both Chinese and Muslims throughout South East Asia. But while his name may be familiar, details of his exploits remain less so. In the early 15th century, while Europe was slowly emerging from the Dark Ages and Native Americans were unsullied by claimants to [...]

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Jogjakarta and its Hill of Stones Anyone with but the flimsiest knowledge of Indonesia will know the pivotal role Jogjakarta has played. In culture, in rebellion, in battling invaders the Kraton has been at the heart of the Javanese story. And Stamford Raffles is a man forever linked with Singapore despite the fact he spent [...]

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In 1602 eight early British expats were dropped off in what is now known as Banten Lama by the first voyage of the East India Company. They were told to make money and promised that yes, someone would return soon to pick them up. By the time the second voyage called into the harbor, at [...]

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There isn’t a lot of green space left in Jakarta. Perhaps more than people realise, but still very little. What remains is worth preserving, not just because it looks nice and provides a few photo opportunities, but because it can become a vital resource in educating children. Muara Angke is home to a tiny sliver [...]

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Back in the middle of the 17th century, Jl. Pangeran Jayakarta was one of Batavia’s hottest addresses. It was a wide, spacious boulevard so beloved of colonials who delighted in replicating their European idyll in the tropics. Today the road at first glance is as nondescript as many others in Jakarta, but it does have [...]

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