LOVE led Australian Nicholas Herriman to turn himself into an expert in Indonesian studies. The 38-year-old lecturer on anthropology at La Trobe University, Melbourne, had years ago fallen hard for the beach at Pelabuhan Ratu, West Java.

Like many Aussie boys, Nick liked to surf after high school, 18 years ago. He spent six months living on the south coast near Sukabumi, West Java, in 1994. Unable to speak a word of Indonesian, but armed with a po