City Love Companions

I always thought that the only way to get to Bali is on a seaplane. I had this very detailed fantasy in my head. We land, I walk off straight into the water because it’s only knee-deep. I grab my girl and we get escorted to the shore by a bunch of those tropical swimming pigs. We settle down in our cosy bungalow sipping fresh coconut water. The dream. That’s what people show you; the bamboo huts and beach resorts. There is so much more to Bali and it is mostly ignored by mainstream tourism. People arrive at the Ngurah Rai International Airport, it’s about 13km south of Denpasar. That’s the criminally underrated capital of Bali. Ironically, this might be one of the few places on the island not tainted by the tourists. This is where you can meet the locals and see how they live their...

Jakarta isn’t a city that makes the best first impression. Not even the second-best impression. Indonesia’s capital is a rapidly growing city, but not in a good way. Its population is estimated at around 10 million people. Locals say it doubles during mornings when people commute to work. That is a lot of people in a place with terrible infrastructure. Think about all the garbage they generate. The administration has no means of processing all that waste. It has flaws and issues of its own. See, Indonesia declared independence in 1949 and went through a streak of lousy governments. Most presidents were involved in some kind of a scandal, but Suharto was in a different league. That guy was allegedly the most corrupt politician in modern history. He established a military dictatorship an...