Kopi Dulu: Caffeine-Fuelled Travels Through Indonesia: Caffeine-fuelled Island-hopping through Indonesia

A fascinating in depth description of travels throughout Indonesia. Entertaining and informative with thoughtful references to past and present visits to many of the islands. The author manages a broad sweep revealing different cultures and the challenging terrain he has covered yet threading through is his humour and personal asides. Take your time to read and enjoy the journey.

I live in Australia and have been to Indonesia on vacation a handful of times. Bali, of course, but other places too. That doesn't make me better qualified than anyone else to comment on Mark's book, other than I read it with a keen interest because Indonesia is a country I want to visit more, and I was keen to find out what else there is. I can't imagine there's anyone better able to write a book on travel through Indonesia than Mark. He knows the country like very few people do, and his love for the country weaves its way through the whole book.Indonesia is a vast country with an incredible diversity of peoples, languages and cultures, not to mention its incredible geography. How then do you write a travel book about it? Well you need to choose your subjects carefully and pick highlights of the myriad opportunities open to you. Mark does this very well. His focus is very much on remote Indonesia and the people who still live there. Mark seems happiest walking through a jungle and sleeping in his trusted hammock, rather than enjoying 5 star breakfasts in a swanky hotel in Bali. This is where his book shines, it reads like a Boys Own adventure with tales of jungle, creep crawlies, volcanoes and wild animals, and this is where the book gets my 5 stars from. Yes, he's only scratching the surface, but blame Indonesia for that because it offers so much more than a single book could ever do justice. For your first book on Indonesia Kopi Dulu makes an excellent choice.