During one period of my years in living in Jakarta, a favorite activity was my weekly visit to Pak Trisno, an elderly antiques dealer and former journalist with a prodigious knowledge born of a long lifetime of reading in several languages. On one occasion, during Ramadan, I dropped by about an hour before sunset. When [...]

Read the full story

It was Christmas Eve 1984, and, just like I did every year in those days, I was running around the shops at the last minute desperately trying to find gifts for my family that might loosely be described as “thoughtful”.  As I was about to head home, mission kind of accomplished, I realised I had [...]

Read the full story

  Elbow Room, not the one in London’s hip Shoreditch, but the one in Jakarta’s hip Kemang is a place to chill out, unwind and get some ‘elbow space’. As soon as you enter you feel unbound inside its dark purple walls, with colourful Moroccan-style cushions plumped on sofa seats and long lamp shades hanging [...]

Read the full story