The Ramadan fasting month has come to an end. My wife, and hence her family are Muslim. I’m what is known in Indonesia as a ‘KTP Muslim’ – it says so on my identity card and that’s about as religious as I get. I did try the fast and lasted three days but I also joined in most of the ‘buka puasa’ (break fast at sundown) and some of the early morning saur.

I’m not a big fan of the call to prayer. Every corner of every kampong has a mosque and yet drive on any major road in Java and you will undoubtedly pass boys and girls in their Muslim dress standing by big gallon drums waving fishing nets collecting money for the building of yet another new mosque. And no mosque is complete without the biggest locally available loudspeaker which is always turned on full volume and invariably pointed in the direction of where I happen to be ‘trying’ to sleep. Actually I’m so used to the noise that I can sleep quite comfortably, even during Ramadan when the prayers run non-stop accompanied by the beating of drums and firecrackers that are set off to ‘remind’ people that it’s time to wake up.