We woke up at 4 a.m. to leave Bogor before rush hour. Our taxi picked us at 5 a.m. and we reached Jakarta Airport within an hour. After 4 long days in Indonesia, our trip had finally begun. Given the distances and time constraints, we opted for a private tour (Backyard Travel) of Java —…
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After spending a day in Jakarta, we headed to Bogor for the next leg of our trip. Getting There It takes about an hour to reach Bogor from Jakarta. But, you can add an extra hour and a half when the traffic builds up. We left Jakarta at noon and missed its infamous rush hour…
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The minute we boarded the flight to Jakarta from Hong Kong, I was amazed by the cultural diversity of the people onboard and felt welcome by their smiles. We clubbed our trip with Basil’s conference (in Bogor) and our route would take us through an exploratory journey of Java (from Jakarta to Surabaya via Yogyakarta). …
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Two months back, I watched Sofia Coppola’s ‘Lost in Translation’ for the second time. I couldn’t make it to the end of the movie without escaping moist eyes and feeling a sense of loss. If you’ve ever lived away from a place you call home, or spent months away from family, or just followed your…
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Steering your way through Tokyo’s Monday morning rush hour can feel like a Herculean task. I was a bit rusty and had forgotten how to make a 100 metre dash for the train. Jimbocho Station was swarming with office-goers who knew precisely how to walk without stepping on someone’s toes. It was strange to witness order…
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Mori Art Museum is located in Tokyo’s upscale Roppongi Hills. It’s not too difficult to find, given the number of signboards and maps that are placed at regular intervals. A winding staircase (with a glass facade) in Mori Tower, one of the tallest buildings in Tokyo, leads to the main ticketing area. I bought a combined ticket for…
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Monjayaki in Asakusa By late evening, once the shutters of tourist shops are down, Asakusa resembles a ghost town with deserted alleyways — occasionally lit by an array of yellow lanterns. It’s hard to distinguish one alley from another in the dull street light. It’s harder to stay focussed on the route when there’s so…
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Escape from Seoul In January, Seoul was hit by a cold wave and I desperately needed a break. Tokyo’s weather report recorded temperatures above 0 °C and that was good enough for me to accompany Basil on his business trip. The weather played spoilsport on the day of our departure and our flight was delayed by…
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“It is impossible to escape the impression that people commonly use false standards of measurement — that they seek power, success and wealth for themselves and admire them in others, and that they underestimate what is of true value in life.” ― Sigmund Freud I was raised (not born) in a city and until my twenties,…
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“As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.” ― Albert Einstein I’ve always found probability theory to be intriguing. It puts a new spin on understanding the world we live in. Nothing is absolute or can be…
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