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The opening of Port Cities: Multicultural Emporiums of Asia, 1500 – 1900 at the Asian Civilisations Museum was tremendously successful, with more than 300 guests attending and having a whale of a time. Thank you very much everyone who was … Continue reading
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Here are the highlights of my talk on Old Batavia (Jakarta). The full talk may be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oD81C_LExjo Do come for my next talk on Friday, 30th Oct. Details to follow…
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The second in the Tales of Asia series journeys to Jakarta, the capital of the modern nation of Indonesia. For almost 300 years, however, Jakarta was Batavia, one of the oldest port cities in the region, founded by the Dutch in … Continue reading
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I’ve been silent for some time now… That’s because I’ve been preparing for an epic series of 5 talks on 10 historic port cities in Southeast Asia. The talks shall feature histories and images from my book, The Romance of the … Continue reading
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Oud Batavia lingers today in a few isolated neighborhoods in Jakarta. The greatest concentration of historic buildings is to the North, in what is now known as Kota, or “City.” Here lies the old administrative and commercial heart of colonial … Continue reading
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So the question is this: how does one re-create something that is no longer there? The Hotel Des Indes was the oldest and the grandest of the Grand Hotels in Southeast Asia, having been opened in the 1860s. It was … Continue reading
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Jakarta was a weird one. I debated for sometime whether or not I would actually visit it – since the fundamental criteria for it being part of the Grand Tour was missing: Jakarta’s Grand Hotel – the Hotel Des Indes … Continue reading
Dream Of A City 