DEAR Readers,

By the time you read this the world’s largest sporting event will be over and a new country will be able to say it has the best football team on the planet. Regardless of who wins, it has been wonderful to witness the friendly rivalry and good-natured competition between supporters of all nations as they watch the games in various venues around Jakarta and across Indonesia. It is also wonderful to see so many Indonesians getting behind their favourite teams, and taking part in the wonderfully unifying event that is the FIFA World Cup. Congratulations to Croatia, France or England, whichever one turns out to be the winner after we have gone to press.

From August 18 until September 2 Jakarta and Palembang will be hosts to the 18th Asian Games and we hope that this competition will be met with the same enthusiasm as the football world cup by sports fans across Indonesia and around the region and the world. The event will feature 462 events in 40 disciplines and this will be the second largest Asian Games since the first event in 1950. Look out for our reviews of this event in coming issues.

Inside this issue Kenneth Yeung puts condensed milk under the microscope in his Scams in the City column, and his Top 10 this time around lists some of the most notable Indonesian blasphemy cases. We also have some interesting pieces for those of you feeling the need to explore the more remote regions of Indonesia with or without children. I think it is fair to say that no matter how often we write about the many and varied attractions Indonesia has to offer, we will never be able to cover everything. We hope you enjoy the areas we touch upon in this issue and you can look forward to more of the same in coming issues. We should all be grateful to be living in this fascinating and diverse nation and it would be remiss of us not to bring as many of its wonders as possible to your attention.

Happy reading!