Journal

What I'd tell a friend.

Notes on the islands, written the way I'd answer the question over coffee — long enough to be useful, opinionated enough to be worth reading.

10 pieces · Lombok & Bali

Featured · Guide

Lombok, from someone who grew up there

Everything written about it is written by people who stayed four nights. Here is the version from the other side.

2 September 2026 · 6 min read

Guide · 4 min

What to do with a day like today

Bali has about five kinds of day, and each one is good for something. Reading which one you've been given is most of the skill.

Guide · 4 min

The island before seven

About a quarter of the places that publish hours are open by seven. If you're up early, that quarter is the whole island.

Consulting · 6 min

Two weeks on the floor in Canggu

A high-end property with beautiful reviews and a problem nobody inside the building could see any more.

Guide · 5 min

Where the chefs eat

Search results are a report on where Bali ate last year. The interesting places haven't been reviewed enough to show up.

Guide · 4 min

The warung list

The best value on the island is a room with eleven reviews, a 4.9, and a bill under Rp 125,000. Almost nothing will show it to you.

Guide · 4 min

You can't choose coffee in Canggu by stars

Twenty-six of the forty cafés here clear 4.7. When everything on a street is excellent, the rating has stopped being a recommendation.

Guide · 3 min

What's still open after midnight

About five per cent of places here serve past midnight, and thirty of them are in the same two neighbourhoods. Late-night Bali isn't a secret. It's just very small.

Trip · 5 min

Batur before it was light

A day everybody does, rebuilt for two people who did not want to do it the way everybody does.

Guide · 7 min

Bali and Lombok: how to split a week between them

They are ninety minutes apart and they are not the same holiday. Here is how I decide which days go where.