Boy, Hanoi

Floating Sweet Dumpling

My body is powdery white and round
I sink and bob like a mountain in a pond
The hand that kneads me is hard and rough
You can't destroy my true red heart 

Ho Xuan Huong

Man on a Bicycle, Kolkata

"There is a handful of places in my life that don't seem to change and Calcutta is one. It is the constant you come back to, against which you measure the changes in your life, the changes in the place you come from."

Kim Cheng Boey, Between Stations

Boy, Jakarta

The Act of Killing should have won the Best Documentary at the Oscars but lost out to continuing ignorance of Indonesia & its history in the west. There is also a need to examine the US & western powers role & encouragement in the policies leading to the Indonesian killings in the mid 1960s.

The Lowy Interpreter blog has a good piece on the impact of The Act of Killing in Indonesia.  

The Economist also has a fine article.

Daughter & Father, Jakarta

Joanne Sharpe at the Lowy Institute blog has a series of informative posts on Indonesia's growing middle class:

• Part 1: Meet Indonesia's Middle Class
• Part 2: Jakarta's Two Cities
• Part 3: Votes & Voices
• Part 4: Where Fashion Meets Religion

Playboy Lady, Jakarta

We bought some rice from a warehouse in Jakarta Selatan. Outside the depot, I bumped into this lady.

Lady, Jakarta Timur

In early February, we visited East Jakarta where 1000s of people had been made homeless due to flooding which covered 17.7% of Jakarta's total area & reportedly killed 12 people.