Jakartass Home thoughts from abroad. Alien thoughts from home.

It's been a while since I gave a plug to fellow commentators on life here in the vast richness (and poverty) that is Indonesia.

These, in no particular order, are a few I think are worth bookmarking, which I'll do some time.

Grinch slouched into Indonesia in early 1999 intent on committing journalism. Fell in love with the country and a special someone. A decade later the Stockholm Syndrome has truly set in and [he's] a willing, complicit hostage to this great country, with a wife and newly arrived (Jan 14) twins. Which is not to say that [he's] surrendered the critical faculties and prejudices honed to a fine point by firelight over many long Canadian winters in a cave above Whoville. For all the stunning advances since Suharto left, the list of people and things Indonesian that piss [him] remains long, offering fertile soil for commentary and, hopefully, humor.

Jesse Hession Grayman, is currently Research Coordinator at the Center for Peace and Conflict Resolution Studies at Syiah Kuala University in Aceh.

He has two Master’s degrees from the University of Michigan in 2001, an MA in Southeast Asian Studies, and an MPH in International Health Epidemiology and has yet to complete his PhD. Meanwhile, he writes lucidly about the complexities of – erm – Peace and Conflict Resolution in a province few of us ever get to visit, and elsewhere in Indonesia.

Tatterscoops are colorful scoops of a mix-marriage couple, ex-nomads, with one toddler in tow. A place where the slightly Americanized wife channels her mundane sometimes knotty thoughts on mommyhood, toddlerhood, living back in her home country (and in Jakarta), occasional traveling loaded with photographs from her aperture challenged fingers.

Marc Ulyseas in Ubud writes Poems & Essays about the Paradox in Paradise.

He has seemingly ignored the negative stuff about Ubud, named Asia’s best city in the 2009 Condé Nast Traveler Readers Choice Awards, which the Jakarta Post has published recently.

Ubud used to be my bolthole of choice – but that was 20 years ago before it became over-built up. Shame really.

Indonesia Anonymus, infrequent posters but always worth reading when they do, have recently carried a series of posts – Journey Of A Broken Heart – about the travels of one of their colleagues across Java by public transport.

They say that travel broadens the mind, and it certainly did his. Highly recommended.