Visiting Jakarta, Indonesia, in the late 1990s, the sense of impending doom mixed with hope that the future might improve life for the people of the fifth largest nation in the world. I spent time at the old capital of Batavia. Here are my observations. Also attached are travel essays on Yodgykarta in Central Java....
Read More »

Passengers gawked from the Twin Otter as the only female pilot flying Royal Tongan Airlines circled Neiafu, the capital of Vava’u in the Kingdom of Tonga’s far north. We were looking at flat-topped Mt. Talau which oversees one of the safest and prettiest harbours in the South Pacific, aptly named the Port of...
Read More »

Rohindra parked the tourist bus near the town hall of Old Batavia, the Dutch colonial capital of Jakarta. I was the lone tourist on the bus, a sign of the bad economic times that have led Indonesia into growing political turmoil.
Read More »