In the Mood For Kopitiam
Kopitiam, or Chinese coffee shops, are important to the lives of millions of people in Southeast Asia, but for Vema Novitasari of Surabaya, they have played a more particular role in her life.
Read MoreFinding Myself (and Others) in a Yogyakarta Coffee Shop
Wahyu Nur Cahyo was reluctant to open up to people. Then, amid pandemic loneliness, he began to visit Dasmu Works cafe.
Read MoreMount Sumbing Was Instagrammable. The Journey Up It Was Not.
The plan was for a family holiday – with my sister and her family, my parents, my younger brother, my grandmother, my uncle and his family, plus me and my husband – to the slopes of Mount Sumbing…
Read MoreNight at the Mosque
One rainy dusk in Yogyakarta, a young man stops in for the Maghrib prayer and gets more than he bargained for.
Read MoreWhy Do Equatorial Trains Have Antarctic Temperatures?
A frostbitten night crossing Java.
Read MoreThis Is What An Escape To The Country Looks Like In Indonesia
Asef Saeful Anwar on relocating to the foothills of Mount Merapi.
Read MoreYogyakarta: Minimum Wage, Maximum Toil
For Amanatia Junda, Yogyakarta is a place of cultural and intellectual vibrancy and expansive political dreamings, but not everything about the city is rosy.
Read MoreIt’s Hard to Make Counselling Sessions Feel Like Safe Places In Bali
Made Ayu Dyah on the difficulties of seeking mental health care in Denpasar.
Read MoreOnline Learning In The Javanese Countryside Isn’t As Easy As Turning On Zoom
The school where I teach is in a small village on the outskirts of Pemalang, a city of around 1.5 million people in north-central Java. The road I take to get there, while asphalted, is only around three metres wide, pothole-riddled, and flanked left and right by rice-fields…
Read MoreThe Kost of Freedom
Young people in Indonesia commonly think of living in a kost, or studio flat, as the essence of freedom. Vema Novitasari wonders: are they right?
Read MoreAprilia From The Block
East Jakarta in late afternoon. The roads were chock-a-block with commuters. The chaos on Jakarta’s roads was the first thing that struck me when I moved there. I spent most of my time in the national capital stuck in gridlock…
Read MoreMasbagik, The City That Never Sleeps
Masbagik is where I call home. Like all homes, it’s a storehouse of old memories. When I was young, maybe three or four years old, my…
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