Betty Loves Blogging

From the category archives:

Indonesia

Pulau Weh… paradise

June 2, 2010

I could write a lot about Pulau Weh or Sabang, which is off the tip of Aceh province and is Indonesia’s most western point. But the pictures tell the whole story. It’s a quiet tropical paradise with amazing snorkeling and diving. It’s pretty easy to stay in the little bunglows in the jungle by the [...]

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I’m baaaaaaaack

June 1, 2010

(My darling friend Ani at the left at her amazing 25th birthday bash) Swanky birthday parties in Sydney art galleries complete with drag queens. Fattoush and hummus and sausages and pies until one’s brain explodes. A whole aisle of cheese in the supermarket. Hearing my brother and dad talk footy while my mum watches Home [...]

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Aceh’s delicious dishes

May 27, 2010

I wrote a little bit earlier about Aceh’s absolutely delicious coffee shop snacks and some delicious Aceh food that I ate in Jakarta. But I ate even more Acehnese food in Aceh (derrrr obviously) and WOW ZOMFG it truly is one of my favourite cuisines in Indonesia. The top picture shows a serving of ayam [...]

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‘Pulau Weh… it’s alright,’ local resident says

May 25, 2010

We went to the ‘hot springs’ in Pulau Weh, but the water was so dirty and algae-covered none in our group of travelers would actually get in. This little guy jumped up next to me on a wall we were sat on looking out to the coast (photo a little blurry because camera threw a [...]

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Searching for Sumatran Orangutans

May 23, 2010

I’m getting behind on blog… so much to write about. We’ll get back to Aceh soon, but now I’m backtracking to writing about Bukit Lawang in North Sumatra, where I went searching for Sumatran orangutans in the wild. It’s easy to arrange a hike in Bukit Lawang… people start trying to coerce you into one [...]

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Welcome to Banda Aceh… and its coffee shops

May 18, 2010

Aceh. You’ve heard of it, surely? It’s famous for quite a few things. 1. Tsunami. In the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, just a bit over five years ago now, some 70,000 people in Aceh province lost their lives and the capital Banda Aceh was pretty much totally trashed by the earthquake and huge wave that [...]

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Cool rooms for cheap — Indonesia and Malaysia accommodation recommendations

May 15, 2010

Zen Inn, Padangbai, Bali I’ve been backpacking around Indonesia and Malaysia for 2.5 months now, so I’ve stayed in my fair share of cheap but clean guesthouses, dirty losmen, flashpacker hostels and wherever else one can rest your head for (ideally) less than $10 a night (no airports or train stations though, like I did [...]

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Cats and kids: stories from a kitchen of good curry

May 14, 2010

I was on one of my walks through Tuk-Tuk, the town on the peninsula of the island in the middle of North Sumatra’s majestic Lake Toba, when I decided to stop for some lunch. There are so many cafes in the little town and during quiet season most of them are empty. Nearly every house [...]

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Why hello Lake Toba, you really are pretty, aren’t you?

May 14, 2010

I’ve just returned to Medan from spending three days at Danau Toba (Lake Toba) in North Sumatra, which is a five hour car trip from the city. Wow. It’s the world’s largest volcanic lake, set 900m above sea level, and in the middle of the lake is an island the size of Singapore. So I [...]

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Ion Singapore Food Court

May 10, 2010

Every visit I’ve made to Singapore in the last 1.5 years has usually involved visa runs for Indonesia. We would meet our agent at Wheelock Place, and across from there, a huge shopping mall called Ion was under construction (above). However, on this visit, it was finally open for business… and it is a rather [...]

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Depot Family Masakan Cina Warung, Surabaya

May 9, 2010

The food at this little warung right outside my hotel in Surabaya was so good, I would feel guilty if I didn’t write about it. Depot Family Masakan Cina, on Jl Ganteng Besar, just outside the Pavilojoen Hotel (which is an excellent budget option in the city) is simple delicious. I went there on multiple [...]

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Kaaaaaaa-ching

May 9, 2010

Singapore’s new Marina Bay Sands Casino. I went to have a look because I heard it was ‘really cool’ with ‘amazing architecture’… yeah it was alright. But at the end of the day its just a place where people go to piss their money against the wall. And being a Singaporean casino, there were so [...]

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Bits and bobs

May 8, 2010

Contrary to popular belief, I am doing some freelancing on the road. It’s the type of freelancing I would class as “hardly investigative”, but it’s been keeping me occupied and badly paid, just like if I had a real journalism job. So here’s a few links to some recent writings. 1. Remember, ages ago, I [...]

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Women’s problems

May 7, 2010

This is Ibu Herwati. I interviewed her when I went out to the site of the Sidoarjo mudflow disaster (which I will write more about later…). Ibu Herwati lost her house to the mud, is yet to receive full compensation and now works selling DVDs to disaster tourists showing the mud slowly engulfing the villages [...]

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Tea right at the source

May 6, 2010

Mount Lawu, around 30km from Solo city in Central Java, is covered with farmland and tea plantations along its plunging valleys. Women pick the leaves that are just right from the plants, working hard long days outdoors, scrambling up and down the slopes carrying their pickings on a basket on their back. Along the roads [...]

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