Horst Henry Geerken was born in 1933. After studying engineering in Germany and the USA, and also making a field visit to Turkey, he worked for the US Government in the USA for two years. He then spent the years 1963-1981 as Resident Engineer in Indonesia, and has visited almost all the countries of Asia, getting to know the region extremely well. In 1963 he arrived in the relatively new Republic of Indonesia, which was at that time going through a period of upheaval following the end of Dutch colonial rule. Political disturbances accompanied his first professional steps in this tropical paradise. This lively book is both informative and amusing, describing many of the memorable events that occurred in both his private and professional lives.