polyprincess' VirtualTourist Home Page

I guess the beginning is a good place to start...I was born in Sydney Australia to an Indonesian dad and an Irish-Australian & Indonesian mum (confused yet?)

Spent the first 10 years of my life in various suburbs of Sydney then went off to a great little nickel mining town called Soroako in South Sulawesi (Indonesia). If you ever get the chance - visit it! Up in the mountains on the shores of a beautiful freshwater lake - the ideal location for a wild 10 year old that loved the water!

At age 13 we moved to Balikpapan in East Kalimantan, from nikel to oil. That was an upgrade and a shock after living in a place that took 30 minutes to walk from end to end...WOW!! Big smoke!

It was interesting as an oil boom town the city was a bit hodge-podge with walled communities of the oil companies looking like mini-californias complete with Community Centres that had pools, tennis courts...you get the idea - great fun even if a paradox to the outside suburbs...

Another 3 year stint saw us move to Jakarta - the sprawling, noisy and excellent (if you're local) capital of Indonesia...This city saw me out to the end of highschool (which I did in local schools so I'm bi-lingual :o))

Then at 18 back to Oz - CULTURE SHOCK!