Leaving Indonesia

JAVA, SUMATRA, SULAWESI . . . these words don't exist just to make the drinks at your favorite café look more exotic.   After teaching at a university in Sumatra, Kevin Lee set out to cross Indonesia by land, a distance wider than the continental USA.  He funded his travels by selling pearls on streets along the way.  His trip took him through a city nearly washed away with one wave and a neighborhood by one drug. He spent time with sectarian rebel leaders, artists and an old man who fought a war in the '50s with American weapons that fell from the sky.  This book is his attempt to understand the history, people and soul of Indonesia.