That's the problem

Photo of 'great minds' in Jakarta, March 2008.

Globalized World: Grocery shopping in Jakarta

Photo from Jakarta, March 2008.

Tropical medicine

Gin Tonic or what you need to do when 'a mosque' invades your home.

Photo from Cafe Batavia (click on Café Tour when following the Cafe Batavia link), Jakarta, February 2008.

Watch the fishermen

Photos from the caldera lake of Maninjau, West Sumatra, March 2008.

Pool umbrella

Need to travel...

Photo from Jakarta, March 2008.

Mosquitoes best friend

Photo of a small but highly effective gecko, Jakarta, March 2008.

Street repair collection

He looks like a follower of Abu Sayyaf but he is just asking for donations to finance road repair. Due to extreme weather conditions, wrong material and corruption, roads in the Philippines are often in shabby conditions.

Photos from a national highway somewhere in Camarines Norte, Luzon, May 2007.

P.S.: Don't drive there at night...

Why Monday?

Happy working week....

Photo (taken on a Sunday) from Bukittinggi, West Sumatra, March 2008.

Guarded by Women

The Minangkabau, a Muslim tribe in West Sumatra, is still truly matriarchal. Traditionally bride and groom are being brought into their new home by the heads of the two families. The couple is dressed in beautiful clothes trimmed in gold. The bride is wearing a highly ornate headdress which makes her taller than the groom (didn’t weight them, but it also seems that she might be even heavier than the groom with all that gold). Minangkabau means ‘victorious buffalo’, female I suppose.

Photo from one of the villages close to the caldera lake of Maninjau, West Sumatra, March 2008.

Pleasure climb?

Climbing at Angkot Wat in March 2006.

Stoned Buddha

Hope Buddha is having a good trip.

Photo from Angkor Wat, Cambodia, March 2006.

From the mall, or to the mosque?

Photo from Payakumbuh, West Sumatra, March 2008.

Turning ads

Is this one also a stomach turning ad?

Photo from Bukittinggi, West Sumatra, March 2008.

Men first! Why?

Isn't it high time to question common practise and tradition?

Photo from Bukittinggi, West Sumatra, March 2008.

Fun in Paradise

Photos from Harau Valley, West Sumatra, March 2008.

It hasn't met ...

... the stick insect hunter yet.

Photo from Jakarta, March 2008.

Birthdays and the World Trade Center

Happy birthday, Qualli!

Buildings might change, but not you.

Photo from New York, September 1997.

Will it fly?

Photo of a fish dish, Jakarta, February 2008.

Moving in

Imagine what happens when a shipment arrives in a 40ft container and the streets are too narrow or better the electricity lines and tree branches hanging too low for the container to pass. Snail pace, a driver close to amok, long lines of impatient drivers waiting to go through... Half an hour for fifty meters. And in the end, you just stop wherever possible to reload the goods on a smaller vehicle.

Photos from Jakarta, March 2008 (thanks Allah the Great and Almighty ... for the sunny weather).

Kaki lima in the rain

Five footers (or kaki lima) are small food stalls whose owners walk a fixed route every day to sell their wares. Every stall has its own specific sound, either a beat on a piece of wood, a yell or a bell. In this way everyone knows what dish is walking past! Even in strong tropical rains you get your food.

Photo from Jakarta, April 2008.

Abundance of water, I guess

Photo from Harau Valley, West Sumatra, March 2008.

Jesus Christ Superstar

Since having to listen to several muezzins every day and NIGHT here in Jakarta let's watch the other fellow who had some harsh days at Easter. It's all about marketing and competition, I guess.

Photo from Pampanga, April 2007.

News from Indonesia's Swiss Alps

Moo, moo?

Photo somewhere close to Gunung Malintang, West Sumatra, March 2008.

When loudspeakers and guitars don't sell...

... you still have stools and bananas.

Photo from Payakumbuh, West Sumatra, March 2008.

Happy family: Mother and son

Mother (the one with the white tent around herself) and son enjoy the flow of the river.

Photo from Bamiyan, Afghanistan, September 2006.

Old houses never grow

Photo from Singapore, March 2008.

Buddha doesn't care

Does Buddha care when being used for such profane activities as a restaurant? It does not look like he does... I'm not quite sure about Moses, Jesus and Mohammad...

Photo from Singapore, March 2008.