For my final night in Bandung I had a little farewell at my friends Aisah and Vincent Wolfard’s home in Dago Atas. I brought a hefty plastic bag of my favourite Indonesian cuisine, Manadonese, or more appropriately Minahasan – the ethnic group of North Sulawesi, which I bought at a restaurant around the corner from […]

Nasi goreng is Indonesia’s national dish but I’ve lived here for ten months and only eaten it a handful of times and only ordered it twice. The archipelago’s culinary creations comprise so much more than fried rice! The vertiginous variety required diligent study when I arrived in Bandung, and as a series of dot points […]

What do you want to be when you grow up? Naturally being born and bred in the desert and living roughly equidistant from every Australian coastline I was obsessed with the ocean. A marine biologist! Almost every winter and summer holiday when my brother and I were kids Dad Tetrised the back of the Hilux, […]

I asked desert sister girl Ronja Moss and her husband Shaan Reza Ali about Ramadan on Facebook on June 27: “Hello sayang [darling]! I am assuming you and Shaan are fasting for Ramadan? It begins tomorrow here. Sama dengan Oz? [Same in Oz?] I am thinking I might join in! Though I don’t think I […]

As printed in Readers Forum, The Jakarta Post, July 10 (sans un-usual editing): I left the taxi with a beaming smile. The driver’s parting salutation, after our spirited conversation and my Sundanese thank you of “Hatur nuhun Pak”, was “Ayo Jokowi!” It was all I needed to launch into the day feeling completely confident. I […]

I reckon my biggest contribution to my host org, the South East Asian Ministers of Education Organisation Regional Centre for Quality Improvement in Teaching and Education Personnel in Science (SEAMEO QITEP in Science) (breathe in now), was shortening its acronym to SEAQIS. I recently spent a week in Bogor, a city of just over a […]

May 30 Selamat pagi/siang/sore/malam semuanya! I know, I know, it’s been ages. I’ve been slack. But I won’t waffle on any longer – I’ve gotta hot foot it home as one of my beloved Bandung storms is about to break. Yes! Much love everyone, Julz xx ___________ Telkomsel is Indonesia’s Telstra equivalent and on May […]

March 20 Selamat pagi/siang/sore/malam everyone, Here is my third piece. I failed to stick to my self-imposed fortnightly Sunday deadline, but have had a few weekend adventures recently rife with writing material so I’m aiming to get back on track. A colleague just proffered a bulging plastic bag lined with newspaper containing es lilin (lilin […]