Category Indonesia

Borobudur at Dawn
I DO NOT REGRET spending a total of $50 (40 for the ticket, 10 for the taxi) on the Borobudur Sunrise package, even though it’s almost twice the regular cost of admission, and here’s why: It’s literally unrepeatable. The much-vaunted experience is monopolized by the Manohara research group, which I know very little about but […]

Photo Essay: The Nearly Abandoned Theme Park of Surabaya, Indonesia
NOTHING ONLINE INDICATES that Ken Park, a huge swath of land in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest city, is actually abandoned. But you’d be blind to think it isn’t. There are signs for hotels that don’t seem to exist, enormous dollhouse-style corridors devoid of people, restaurant stalls left unattended. And it feels even emptier because of how […]

Conversations Over Coffee at the Santi Agra Visata, Bali
THE BEST PART of the Santi Agra Visata coffee plantation is not the coffee, nor is it the stunning view of the sloping valleys of crops and wildlife behind their backyard picnic tables. What makes Santi worth a visit is the refreshing honesty of its owner, Wayan, a young Balinese man with gelled hair and […]

Welcome to the Bali Show
“IF YOU WANT TO SEE REAL BALI, Ubud is the right place,” our driver, Lemon, told us en route from the airport. It’s not like Kuta in the south, he explained — “That is not my culture,” he said, shaking his head at the notorious northern party beach — but a genuine place overflowing with […]