On my way to Bandung, I stopped in Jakarta for 3 days. Downstairs from my hotel was this japanese style cafe which served japanese comfort food. Pasta, omurice, and desserts.

It was comfy and quiet, and the food was excellent, so I just hang out there to work.

Everything I tried was good, but the omurice with tomato sauce and the parfait were super delicious.

As I walked around to discover Bandung, I ran into a ceremony for Indonesia independence Day.

I try to look inside the park, but it's so crowded, it's impossible to get in or even see what's going on.

All of sudden, a guard tells me and a group of indonesian to come with him. He opens a backdoor and tells us to get in the stands.

Turns out there were empty seats in the grandstands and I guess they wanted those filled.

So, as a tourist walking in there randomly, I found myself in the grandstands, with Bandung politician and military officials...

I think they were pretty close to ask me to do a speech as the Belgian ambassador !

That was a fun moment.

The local public transport in Indonesia is called "Angkot". It's like Jeepneys in Philippines.

The problem is... you kind of have to be a local to know where they go. They are no stops, they just pick up and drop off on demand. They have a route number, but the route detail is not visible.

You give money to the driver when you get out, but they don't speak English, so I just looked at what other did and tried to give the same amount. I think there are 2 fares: short ride and long ride, and it seemed to work most of the time !

In many places, people tune their bike to make it noisy, but nowhere have I heard it as bad as in Bandung.

At any given moment, there will be one of those nearby.

It is really hard for me to understand how people can be so careless about the inconvenience they cause to others.

One day I found an ant colony in my backpack.

They was no food in the bag, apparently they liked the foam piece.

My kind of place. Not fancy but you could see they do things the right way.

Fresh quality ingredients. A lot of vegetables in the sandwhich. Good vinaigrette. Pretty perfect for me.

There is something about getting a library card that makes you feel like a local. It's one of my favourite things to do.

Unfortunatly, this library was far from my apartment. 1 hour and a half of Angkot.

I like how people leave their shoes outside.

On Friday, prayer day, the library closed for 2 hours at lunch. You had to exit the room for 2 hours ...

Cat countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan
Dog countries: Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines

Sometimes a bit hit or miss, but you gotto love the vege, organic & local focus.

Shakes were delicious.

This is what brought me to Bandung !

A few years ago, while taking an online class about Chinese culture, I learned about "the spirit of Bandung".

In 1955, 27 countries, recently freed from colonialism, met in Bandung, to discuss their place in the world.

In the middle of the cold war, they refused to pick a side. They chose mutual respect and dialogue. They refused walls, they chose bridges.

Today, the hegemony of the West is collapsing before our eyes. The ex-colonial countries, who maintained control over the world's economy and institutions for 50 years after the end of colonialism, are finally losing their dominance, and the spirit of Bandung is more alive than ever.

BRICS is building a world where everyone has a place. A world where countries might not always agree, but discuss like grown-ups, not bullies, and respect each other. A world where humans believe in a shared future, and accept a responsibility to make things work together.

It all started here, 60 years ago, in Bandung.

This guy sleeping with his kid was actually pretty awesome. I saw him 3 or 4 times. He was homeless but he was always happy and kind, and he was taking good care of his kid. You could see he really loved his kid and his kid really loved him. It was touching to see.

Some were more painful to watch. Those walking around digging the trash for recyclable items, carrying them on their back all day.

I saw a lot of hard working people in Indonesia.

We like cheese in Belgium, but I had never seen this ...

This mountain in the distance, visible from my balcony, looked like a good place to hike, so I to rented a scooter and went for it !

It took 2 hours to get to the foot of the moutain. Traffic was crazy but super fun.

While riding up the hill, I passed by a ram fighting event. I had never seen that before. Not my favourite thing to see, I find it a bit cruel ...

I keep going as far as I could with the bike, then leave it on the side of the road and hiked for about 2 hours up and down.

On my way back, the scooter would not start, but thankfully, a local helped and I could ride back home !

In Bandung, as in other Indonesian major cities, you see these guys regulating traffic.

They are not policemen tho, they are just regular joes doing this for money.

They pick a place where traffic regulation is needed, like a place with a left-turn across incoming traffic (well, since people drive on the left, it's actually a right turn across traffic), and they do their thing. Everyone follows their guidance, because man, without this traffic regulation, it would be hell in some of those places.

I had a cluster headache episode in Indonesia.

Thankfully it was not too bad and I was able to get an oxygen bottle in my apartement, which was a nice relief.

To make things easier, I decided to extend my visa for 1 more month.

At the immigration office, I was not allowed to get in wearing shorts, but the guard was kind enough to give me a traditional indonesian cloth to cover my legs. There were very few foreigners and I think I was quite a sight in the office !

In all my travels, I had food poisoning 4 times. 2 of them happened during this trip !

One time, I got a lemon juice in what seemed to be a popular local shop. A guy talked to me for 10 minutes, the ice melted, and I drank it. Not very smart. It got me pretty sick for 2 or 3 days.

The other time, it was a pre-cut mango from a street vendor in a small street. That mango must have been there (cut open) for a while in the sun, not smart either. 2 - 3 days of solid stomach pain again. Now I understand why people advice to buy the fruits uncut !

1 year after my trip, this train line was replaced by a new high speed rail built by China.

While the West is busy figthing wars to preserve their interests across the globe, China is making partnerships with 140 countries to help them build infrastucture that improve people's lifes.

It took 5 years to build the 150km line of tunnels and bridges across the hilly terrain. Travel time between Bandung and Jakarta was cut from 3 hours to 45 minutes. They are now 60 daily trains between the 2 cities, up from 30 before the high speed line.