Chriswan Sungkono

Writer's Biography

Chriswan Sungkono has been writing reviews and travel stories since 2003. After obtaining a university degree in Engineering Physics, he now pursues a career as freelance writer. Currently a staff writer-come-editor in a national lifestyle magazine, he spends most of his free time travelling around Indonesia, his native country that he's so interested in exploring. His hobbies include tasting new foods, scuba diving, and dreaming of visiting Tibet and New Zealand.

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Featured Travel Stories

Kawah Putih, Indonesia: The Ever-changing Faces - of the Mountain-Sea
- Story by Chriswan Sungkono
- 8th Online Issue

The pale-green water lies dead in the mountain hole,
Looking for a way out, a lower state
To flow into, but be it far and be it near,
The water’s surrounded, from departing denied.
In this giant pit, amidst hordes of rock,
The rain accumulates.
Today, a yesterday’s landscape is submerged, in a sea
Of sulfur. Deep down, the holes that yield
Earth’s everlasting heat must, against the cold liquid
Shards of those shattering clouds, endlessly vie.
For now, the power of rain prevails.
Still it is foolish to boast the permanence of things,
For to the mountain, this flood is a mere passing.
Drought will return and reign, and salvation it’ll offer:
The water will levitate, like migrating fairies, or spirits,
And the face of this mountain-sea shall change again.

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Semarang, Indonesia: A Celebration that Beat Them All - Story by Chriswan Sungkono
- 4th Online Issue

Through the flooding crowd and their loud babbles, I work my way to the bridge. Its sides are bedecked with huge banners and colorful lamps. At the end of the narrow walkway that leads from the bridge is Tay Kak Sie, one of the oldest Confucian temples in Semarang; gladly welcoming its visitors that come by in the thousands. This, I think, is far too festive an evening to be brushed off as a common one. The 600th year of China’s admiral Zheng He’s voyage to Asia, is all this hysteria, this majestic celebration, is about.

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Lombok, Indonesia: Tasting The Princess’ Hair - Story by Chriswan Sungkono
- 3rd Online Issue

Princess Mandalika was distressed, her heart heavy and weary. At the arena, all the princes that came to woo her had shown their ability in archery so brilliantly. And as Mandalika’s father, King Kuripan had stated before: whoever shoots perfectly would win her daughter’s famed beauty. But since nobody would give up, they began to kill each other. Never had Princess Mandalika thought that her beauty would eventually become the cause of the massacre in her father’s court.

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