Jos takes photos

Sulawesi - Indonesia It's hot It's really hot. Then there is water And you're young and it's terrible hot So, suddenly your in the water It's cool, pleasantly cool But soon it's boring So you learn yourself a trick Jumping backwards You feel proud  and it's fun Someone is coming It's a stranger from another land And you know a trick You learned yourself Proudness made you yell  Mister look! Before you know, you'll be all wet (on the internet)

While traveling I have seen many of these bag men and women. They carry all their possessions with them in bags. Why, I wondered, would anyone live a life like that when I met the first one. Through the years I have stopped wondering. So many reasons, so many sadness, bad luck, sickness and sometimes a free choice to live a homeless life,  without the certainty of a salary, insurance, good medical care. And here in the streets of Blitar I saw one sitting  on the sidewalk. These people are not beggars, although they look like them. They mostly are not drinkers or drug addicts, but the way they live makes them look like them. This guy seems not to be bothered that I talk to him. They sometare and than it’s better to leave instead of pushing. He smiled at me and by speaking to him I noticed he had trouble with his voice. But then I realised he was talking about Budhha. Luckily my partner speaks some Bahasa Indonesia and with her translation it must have been Do not dwell in th

Strolling in the evening through the streets of Blittar greeting many people and some of them replied with more than the usual “ Samma Samma “. One of them asked me where I came from.  “Belanda, Holland” I replied as so many times before. It was a surprise to me that he answered in Dutch by saying “ Goede avond” * He told me that his mother was Dutch, but she died long ago unfortunately at young age. His sister also died when she was young, so it was just he and his dad. He tried to explain that he was proud he could still speak a little Dutch. It makes him think about his mother and the happy days of long ago. And meeting Dutch people gave him the possibility to remember those days *when he and his sister were still together with their father and mother. By saying goodbye I asked him if it was all right to take a picture.  “Natuurlijk”, zij hij “ met alle plezier “.* Mijn naam means my name. Goede avond means Good evening. Natuurlijk, met alle plezier means of course

There’s a lady sitting next to me. I notice some writing on her green bag she was carrying.  Was it because I was in a strange place, travelling and maybe therefore more curious and less shy?  Don’t know but before knowing I said :”Hope you don’t mind but I would like to read your bag”.  She looks surprised, not a wonder with such a strange question.  To break the tension I  quickly pointed at the printed writing on her bag, that said “Live is a story you can travel”.  “Could be” she replied.  “There must be more important things in live, don’t you think?”, I replied. “Water” she said, that’s the most important thing in life, water”.  Surprised by her answer my mind turned in to full speed. Of course, water must be the beginning of all that lives.  When I made her part of my smart thoughts she looked at me with a compassionate look  and a gently starting smile. “Oh, no” she said; " I’m a swim champion and training for the Olympic Games in 2020. Therefore for me it’s water

Amsterdam It took some or maybe to much time but it’s roadrunners time again! This time it’s up to Indonesia. Why? Because we like Asia as a travel around area and we haven’t been ther since 2012. We are also not getting younger so it might be a now or never situation and we choose the now side. Writing this while we are on the airport waiting for the long flight. Nothing interesting to see in these long waiting rooms. So tomorrow we will be in Yogyakarta according to plan. We're leaving from Amsterdam so of course we took the change to take a short visit at the capital of  The Netherlands. Many hours later we are in another waiting room, this time in the early morning at the airport of Singapore. Different airport, different waiting room, but same waiting. Reminded me of some years ago very popular T-Shirts with “Same Same but different” printed on. Yes, I bought such a T shirt too, cheaper than cleaning and some money for the vendor. Another flight and