I’ve been visiting Bali since 1976, when Kuta was a handful of guesthouses and electricity only reached the airport. Fifty years and millions of visitors later, the island has changed — more traffic, more crowds. But the gamelan still plays, offerings still appear each morning, and the sunset still draws everyone to the beach. Here’s how I navigate it now.
Three days in Yogyakarta: Borobudur, Prambanan, a jeep ride up Mount Merapi, the Sultan’s Kraton, and a Ramayana ballet. Java’s cultural heart, fully lived.
The train swayed and the wheels clacked as we pulled out of Gambir Station in central Jakarta. Gradually, the gloss of prosperous commercial buildings gave way to a lower profile, both in form and affluence. Structures flattened and paint peeled as vendors shouted and vehicles pressed forward with all the speed of a tortoise in …
Jakarta surprised us. After decades away, I expected a chaotic megacity to endure before the “real” Indonesia began. Instead, we found world-class museums, a walkable neighborhood, excellent food, and a city that had quietly transformed itself. Two days turned three skeptics into Jakarta fans.
Bali is just the beginning. After nearly 50 years exploring Indonesia’s 17,000 islands, here’s my practical guide to Java, Sumatra, Sulawesi, Flores, and beyond — plus real itinerary combinations for one week, two weeks, or longer.
One 23-inch carryon spinner suitcase and one backpack are all I need for a trip to the tropics, whether it’s for a week or a month. I can include a dressy outfit or two, several sundresses, beach wear and athletic gear for hiking or the gym. For this particular trip, I was headed to Waikiki …
For a visitor from the U.S., the first steps onto the tarmac in India can assault the senses. Humid air, a cacophony of sounds, vivid colors and the odors of a thousand sources can be overwhelming. It helps to have a plan to tackle a country so large and diverse. Here, I’ll share our one-month …
The best way to describe the harvest is that it was “the harvest that wouldn’t end”. Would it never end? That was the recurring question—the topic that came up in the Big House, the grocery store, the pub and any social gathering. “How long are you going to be here?” was the question our new …
It may be obvious from the vast amount of time between postings, but my best laid plans to post regularly have gone by the wayside. This is both good and bad. The good news is that once we got on a roll I simply didn’t have time to compose a readable note, though Twitter was …
Hong Kong is such a small island but boasts an endless number and variety of world class restaurants, and every kind of eatery you can imagine, from bakeries to dim sum to international cuisine. There’s also a lot to do, and not all of it involves shopping, though there are plenty of opportunities for that …