Tag Archives: Indonesia

Welcome to Jang Island, Telunas writers!

The visitors.

There’s a lot of interest in the visitors. They don’t have many on Jang Island.


We are expected.

On the rough jetty between rickety stilt houses, a guard of honour is forming. Kids from the Jang Island school beat out a deafening rhythm on hand drums as our open pancung boat pulls up and we file ashore.

Twenty students, two teachers and a visiting Australian author have come to do a writers’ camp at Telunas Beach Resort, in Indonesia’s lovely Riau Islands, a couple of hours across the water from Singapore. Each morning we set off on a different adventure. Each afternoon we gather back at Telunas to discuss and write about our experience.

There is never a shortage of material. Continue reading

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GONE FISHING – back soon

All quiet at Telunas Beach.

All quiet at Telunas Beach.

I’ll be out of town again for a few days, leading a writers’ camp at lovely Telunas Beach in Indonesia’s Riau Islands.

It’s one of my favourite places, and one of my favourite favourite jobs. There are no roads on Sugi Island, and few inhabitants, all of them very friendly.

My phone won’t work and I don’t expect to have an internet connection. Not much happens there, but I’m sure we’ll find plenty to write about.

Back next week to tell you how it went.

Cheers, Richard

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10 SLICES OF LIFE

Zeeland, The Netherlands. The shirts read ‘Blijf Jong’ (‘Stay Young’). I’m trying, I’m trying!



Time for another collection of my snapshots of life from our travels around the globe. The world is an amazing place.

My theory is that you can point the camera at pretty much any collection of faces, crop the photo judiciously, and end up with something interesting.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Continue reading

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BEYOND BATAM – Indonesia’s Riau Island villages



The archipelago of 3000 islands south of Singapore has become one of my favourite places on the planet. I’ve visited them at least once a year for the past seven years.
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BRAVO, TELUNAS BEACH!

Watching the sun go down at Telunas Beach.


I was really pleased to read this week that Telunas Beach Resort has been chosen in TripAdvisor’s Travelers Choice 2012 awards as the Number 3 in Asia and Number 17 in the world for the ‘All-inclusive Resort’ category.

This is extraordinary when you consider how many resorts there are. Heaps of them. It’s an amazing achievement for a place which started with absolutely nothing but a beach in 2004. I’ve watched it grow since I first went there in 2005, and I am in awe of the work the team have done. Continue reading

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OUT OF OFFICE AUTOREPLY – back soon

Telunas Beach - not a bad office to go to work in.



I’ll be working from my other office for a couple of weeks, and may be out of cybercontact some of the time.

Yes, I really will be working, running writing camps for high school and elementary school students from Singapore. Continue reading

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