Archive for May 2022
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
I opened Google, searched my name. The search results should show the real me, I thought. I scrolled down the page, skim-reading the titles of articles with my name on them. Then I let out a huge sigh…
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
‘Bro – what are the rules on using witchcraft to make an out-of-favour mosque more popular?’ This question – a joke, yes, but encapsulating something serious, too – I heard on a video with the tongue-in-cheek name ‘Lost Youth Short Talks’…
Read MoreWhy Do Equatorial Trains Have Antarctic Temperatures?
We’re sitting next to each other on hard, straight-backed seats, the type that can’t be adjusted at all. No problem if you’re only sitting for a few minutes. But if you’re on a train travelling all night and you’re trying to sleep, this type of seat is hell for your backbone. You can try valiantly to shift your body left or right, but neither direction is much help…
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