Staying in a village can really put you in the moment–for a multitude of reasons–and that’s exactly what happened when I spent 3 weeks living/teaching in Tiakar Guguak, part of Payakumbuh, Western Sumatra, in Indonesia, recently. It was quite an experience, one that was full of mostly pleasant surprises. For one thing, the contrast between…
I’d love to share my ‘top 5′ destinations or highlights of my 8-week stay in Indonesia, but…it’s hard to narrow it down so much. So, I’ll instead share 15 in one post, including 30 photos…and hope you get a sense of what my experience there was. Enjoy! Payakumbuh, West Sumatra 1. Living in a Minangkabau…
Today’s photo is of a rice paddy in Bali that I spotted off to the side of a bumpy dirt road leading to Pasir Putih, aka, the “secret white sand beach”. It caught my eye because of the reflection of the sky and the sense of peace it conveys. It was near several rice terraces,…
Today’s photo, shot on an iPhone, is of a lovely child—I Gede Dillon—whom I met here in Amed, Bali (Indonesia) several days ago. He’s 6 months old…and half Balinese, half British and 100% adorable! I’ve had so much fun getting to know him and photographing him that I just had to share one of his…
Today’s photo is of one of the Buddhas and bell-shaped ‘stupas’ at Borobudur, the Mahayana Buddhist monument in Central Java, Indonesia. With approximately 500 statues of Buddha, it is one of the largest Buddhist monuments in the world. The monument, which was built between AD 780 and 840, resembles a mandala–a wheel-shaped symbol of the…
I took this photo of ‘Rama’ and ‘Shinta’, the famous couple in the Ramayana Ballet, during the dance-drama performance on stage at Prambanan Temple–with the nearly full moon in the distance. It was a nice way to end the day, which began with a visit to Borobudur…
The minute I saw this Indonesian (Batak) man, I knew I wanted to take a photo. Maybe a few. Not only was the guy handsome, but he looked cool. And different somehow. For a moment, I wondered if he was an Asian film star. Had I seen him on the big screen at an arthouse…
Lake Toba, as seen from Samosir Island (N. Sumatra, Indonesia), is today’s travel photo. The lake, which is nearly the same size as Singapore (100 kilometres long and 30 kilometres wide), is the result of the eruptions of a ‘super volcano’ that occurred about 70,000 years ago.
It’s not every day that I attend a kindergarten party/celebration–especially in a village in Sumatra! So I shot many photos (and some video), which I’m sharing so that you can get a sense of what it was like to be there…
It’s morning and I’m sitting on the porch, sipping my coffee and eating bakwan (fried vegetables). The birds are chirping and the roosters are still crowing. And Eti, the friend/teacher I’m staying with, is in her PJs, off-white with small teddy bears, and sweeping the porch and the yard with a handmade broom. Her hair…
