FAR aloft, perhaps 300 feet, mastheading, as it were, a flock of seven perhaps eight Christmas Island frigate birds wheeled effortlessly, their sentinel eyes beading the waters of Jakarta Bay beneath them. Captivated by their poetry in motion, I watched for as long as I could as our little wooden ferry ran on towards the north shore of Java and the village of Tajung Pasir, Banten province.

My friend D