Description
A young New Zealander arrives in Indonesia in 1964 and is held at gunpoint at Jakarta airport with her Balinese husband and 13-month old daughter. Unable to cash in their travellers cheques due to the country’s anti-capitalist stance, they struggle to finance their onward journey.
Finally arriving in Bali, they live with her husband’s noble family and Jan must adjust to the ways of the place. The 1965 coup sets all hell loose and they survive through the aborted 30th September Movement, which triggered massacres nation-wide as Suharto came into power. Pregnant with her second child, Jan was eyewitness to the killings of 1965 as the family went hungry for months.
In 1969, Jan and her husband opened one of Bali’s first Travel Agencies, Jan’s Tours.
Gylda Lang –
I absolutely loved reading this book, was totally fascinated and felt so many emotions tight until the end. A most wonderfully written autobiography