In Jakarta to edit a painful human rights report on Timor- Leste, the author sought relief by hanging out with ordinary Indonesians and enjoying the excitement of discovering the everyday activities and places that they find commonplace.

Over two stormy wet seasons he learned how to cross a Jakarta street and live to tell the story, catch a glimpse of Jakarta's rich but neglected colonial past, navigate men's toilets, sink into sleep after a cream bath, read the Koran and much more.

Both playful and serious, the book is a celebration of the author's all too brief encounters with the people and places of one of the world's megacities too often obscured by sorrows of one or other kind.