Are you in this photo? Photo courtesy of unsplash.com/NOWJAKARTA In case you haven’t noticed, the traffic situation in Jakarta has worsened over the first two months of the year rather than improved. It is now as bad as I have ever seen it. There are jams, delays and diversions every day, caused by—well, everything—from floods,

Travellers have always wanted to be sure that the hotels they use are as safe and secure as possible. Their concerns have traditionally been related largely to fire and petty theft, but in the light of recent global events and changing attitudes, plus the ease of access to increasing amounts of independent information and guest

This month’s issue is about ‘love’ and I will leave my young and romantic editorial team to talk about romantic love and even platonic love in its various forms, according to them! I want to talk about our love for our country. Every formal gathering here starts with a usually rousing rendition of the National

It must be wonderful to own a gym. Every day you get to accompany ordinary people on their journeys from floppiness to fitness, and you get to witness individuals achieving their goals using nothing but willpower, tenacity and your expertise. Best of all, you sell more annual memberships in January than any other time of

With every 1st January there is always the idea that “maybe this year will be different”. We hope, dream and pray that our lives will be that bit easier or better, but what do we DO to make that happen? Somehow, we seem to let the opportunities that we want, go. Somehow, we end up

Munich, the capital of Bavaria and the third largest city in Germany, is home to the Oktoberfest, one of the biggest drinking sessions on Earth. Despite its name the Oktoberfest actually starts at the end of September and lasts for 16 days up to and including the first Sunday in October or (since 1994) until

I was 18 years old when I went to what is quaintly known in England as “the Continent” for the first time. “The Continent” means mainland Europe, and the part of it I went to was Calais, France. I was so excited about my first trip abroad that I could hardly sleep the night before.

I love the word ‘chaos’. It has a myriad meanings but starts back in Greek and Roman mythology, where it refered to the state preceding the creation of the universe or the ‘gap’ created by the original separation of heaven and earth. In Hesiod’s “Theogony”, chaos was the first thing to exist. For him chaos

It used to be thought that you learned everything at school. Building blocks and alphabet in kindergarten, English, Math, History and Geography in primary school, then into the languages, the differentiation, the coding at secondary, then unless you went to university, that was it. You were educated – for life. Then it became “mandatory” to

A few years ago I was hosting shows in Kuala Lumpur for British comedians Mike Best and Steve Gunn. After the last show we fought the temptation to party and went to bed early because we had a very early flight to Jakarta the next morning. Photo illustration by Eric Nopanen. Unsplash/NOW!JAKARTA Just before dawn

It was dawn, a bleak, grey morning was appearing out of the eastern sky. It had been a dark night, despite the full moon of Passover. Dark in the sense that many temporal and divine rules had been broken. Temporal, when Jesus was tried before the High Priest in the hours of darkness, without real

Welcome to crunch month, when the country decides who will lead it for the next five years. The debates are over, the pollsters are making money – sorry – predictions and forecasts, everyone has become an expert on government, on the economy, the leaders, the powers behind the thrones, the spouses behind the powers, the