Bali

January 8, 2018

Mountain Views

HECTOR’S DIARY His regular diet of worms and other non-religious experiences THE CAGE Bali Jan. 8, 2018 IT was rather lovely, we thought, that Mt Agung should choose to see out the old year and bring in the new with another minor eruption. It placed immediately in perspective the claims of various luminaries in Continue reading

Australia, Bali, Books, Environment, Global Politics, Music, NGOs, Ubud, USA

Adagio for Strings, Andrew Ford ABC, Chinese tourism, Donald Trump, George W. Bush, Idiot Aussies (and others), Platoon, Samuel Barber, Weird shit
January 4, 2018

Degrees of Idiocy

HECTOR’S DIARY His regular diet of worms and other non-religious fare THE CAGE Bali Sunday, Dec. 24, 2017 Degrees of Idiocy THE President of the Republic, Joko Widodo, familiarised here in the Indonesian way as Jokowi, has just visited Bali. Miraculously, the beaches appeared clear of the middens of muck that despoil them year round, Continue reading

Bali, Bureaucracy, Environment, Indonesia, Lombok, Travel, Volcanoes

AlIikai, Amanda Zsebik, Christmas, Happy New Year, Indonesian Island Sail, Mt Agung
December 4, 2017

Born Free

HECTOR’S DIARY The Cage, Bali Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2017 His regular diet of diet of worms and other non-religious experiences THERE is a release, of sorts, in being relieved of the duty to write for a publication. You’re freer to write what you really think, in the patois of your choice, in Continue reading

Bali, Charity, Global Politics, Indonesia, Lombok, NGOs, Tourism, Writing

Climate change shamans, Cyclones, Deadlines, Donald Trump, Garuda, I’m an Angel, Lombok, Rain dances, Royal liaisons, Sex pests, Solemen Indonesia, Truman Capote, Volcanoes, Whingeing Aussies and Others
November 27, 2017

Turd World

HECTOR’S DIARY Bali Advertiser, Nov. 8, 2017 WALKING out of a restaurant without paying the RP3 million (around US$250) you owe is against the law anywhere. It’s foolish, among other things including selfish, dismissive of others’ rights, and a low act that reflects very poorly on the perpetrators. Mostly those who commit such acts Continue reading

Australia, Bali, Books, Festivals, Travel, Ubud, Ubud Writers and Readers Festival, Volcanoes

Bali Advertiser, Barnaby Joyce, Janet DeNeefe, Monte Monfore, Truman Capote
October 12, 2017

Living with Vulcan

HECTOR’S DIARY Bali Advertiser, Oct. 11, 2017 ONCE upon a time, the activity of a volcano in a distant domestic backyard from which one is temporarily absent would have been something relayed at intervals by news reports, or not at all. Its inactivity ahead of anticipated action would have been even harder to detect Continue reading

Bali, EU, Travel, Ubud

Autumn lunches, Information/Misinformation, Mendicants, Mt Agung, UWRF 2017, Vasco da Gama
August 17, 2017

Just Cruising

HECTOR’S DIARY In the Bali Advertiser Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2017 THE cruise market is big and likely to grow further, so it makes sense for Bali to have the capacity to effectively service this element of the tourism trade. The port of Benoa is the logical place to site the infrastructure required, and it Continue reading

Bali, Economic Development, Indonesia, Tourism, Ubud

ARMA Museum, Chinese Tourists, Earthquakes, Independence Day, Ines Wynn, Intercontinental Bali, Jazz, Land Titles, Local Radio
August 12, 2017

Red Sales in the Sunset

HECTOR’S DIARY His regular diet of worms and other non-religious fare The Cage, Bali Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017 WE had a little giggle this week when we read that the Minister for National Development Planning, Professor Bambang Brodjonegoro, had wondered why more Australian investment was directed to Mexico than to Indonesia. Mexico, as he Continue reading

Bali, Foreign Investment, History, Indonesia, Indonesian Law, Politics, Public Administration, Social Development, Writing

Bambang Brodjonegoro, Biku, Donald Trump, Malcolm Turnbull, Periplus, Samasta Jimbaran, Telephone transcripts, Tim Hannigan, Willard Hanna
July 19, 2017

Who Let the Dogs Out?

HECTOR’S DIARY Bali Advertiser Wednesday, Jul. 19, 2017 EATING dog is something we would never do. It disgusts us, for all sorts of reasons. We also understand that this is largely a cultural issue. Eating man’s best friend is not generally a practice of people whose conditioning originates from what is now Europe. Continue reading

Animal Welfare, Bali, Bureaucracy, Fine Dining, Food, Indonesian Law, NGOs, Tourism, Ubud

Animal Welfare, Chris Salans, Dog meat, Farewells, Kerala Ceramics, Life-saving coffee, Lloyd Hassencahl, Marathons, Mozaic, School aid, Sky News, Tom Hickman, tourist cuisines
July 12, 2017

Belt and Braces

HECTOR’S DIARY His regular diet of worms and other non-religious fare The Cage, Bali Wednesday, Jul. 12, 2017 DONALD Trump made a remarkable speech in Warsaw ahead of the economic summit he attended later in the historic Hanseatic League city of Hamburg, where he demonstrated exactly why the Group of 20 is now the Continue reading

America, Australia, Bali, Global Politics, Health

Brexit, Coffee, Donald Trump, English verbs, G20, Hamburg, Homosexuality, Joan C. Williams, London Daily Telegraph, Luwaks, Malcolm Turnbull, Mark Steyn, Nick Cater, Robert Menzies, Sappho, Sky News, Warsaw
June 28, 2017

Statuary Declaration

HECTOR’S DIARY His regular diet of worms and other non-religious fare Candi Dasa, Bali Wednesday, Jun. 28, 2017 TEN days in the blissful zephyrs, beside the azure briny you get in the better parts of the archipelago, can do you a power of good. Such a break provides time to read books – or Continue reading

America, Australia, Bali, Books, Bureaucracy, Crime and Punishment, General Interest, Indonesia, Tourism

David Nicholls, El Kabron, Four Seasons Sayan, James Grippando, Kiran Desai, Music, Rose Madder, Titian

About Me

Former journalist now confined by age and indolence to blogging about this and that, now from Western Australia, previously from Indonesia (that’s the 8 degrees in the title) and before that, Queensland. I don’t do a newsletter so ignore that prompt below.