The truth be told, the restaurant scene in Banda Aceh isn’t much to write about. There is definitely lots of good local food, but very few nice restaurants. Owing to the insurgency that dragged on for years, and then the…
Chieng Fa
Southeast Asia Travel Journal
Blog Archives
Remembering the 2004 Tsunami
Eight years ago today, at the very hour I’m posting this, one of the worst natural disasters to hit Southeast Asia in recent memory struck. The huge earthquake which was centered just off the coast of Aceh province in Indonesia…
First Impression: Pulau Weh
I’m just finishing up a week on Pulau Weh, a relatively unknown little island at the far western tip of Indonesia, just a short ferry ride from the big island of Sumatra. The place is perhaps most popular with scuba…
Photo – Prambanan in Color
Today I’ve got one more photo, filtered to give it a rather post-nuclear coloring. This is the Prambanan, a complex of thousand year-old Hindu temples just outside of Yogyakarta in Central Java, Indonesia.
Photo – Komodo Sunset
Today’s picture is of a sunset, taken on my last trip to Komodo in 2010. The picture was taken from our boat, the Mermaid II, which was anchored in a bay off Gili Lawa Laut, a small desert island off…
Photo – Sikidang Crater
Today’s photo is of the Sikidang Crater on the Dieng Plateau in Central Java, an easy day trip from Magelang (Borobodur) or Yogyakarta. The crater isn’t your typical volcano, it’s more like a rough scar on the landscape, spewing sulfurous…
Photo – Candi Sewu, the Other Temple at Prambanan
Today’s photo is from my archives of a trip made last year (2011). It’s of a temple called Candi Sewu, which is within the huge Prambanan complex just outside Yogyakarta in Central Java, but most visitors never bother to see…
Solo: Not Just for Day Trips
I’m just back from a trip to Central Java. Although I’ve been to Yogyakarta briefly on business a few times in the last few years, it’s been nearly 10 years since I last visited some of the main tourist sights…
Off The Map – Flores, Indonesia
"Sorry, we’re out of that." Be prepared to hear that a lot if you visit Flores, especially if, like me, you visit in September, just after the peak season of August. Flores is one of Indonesia’s 10,000 or so islands,…
Bali Hotair 2010
Hopefully I’ll be forgiven for thinking Bali Hotair 2010 was some kind of political gathering when I first heard about it. In truth, it’s a kiteboarding competition, now in its fifth year. This year’s event runs from July 2 to…
