Although the previous posting was supposed to be the last one, I still want to give some practical information about the new blog and its location.

The URL for the blog is: http://photo.ruditheunis.com/index.php?option=com_jd-wp.

The rss feed for the new site is: http://photo.ruditheunis.com/index.php?option=com_jd-wp&feed=rss2.

Also, please visit my website regularly, because it is updated much more than before.

The last few weeks, this site has had some major changes. Not only he layout changed, but I also embedded a gallery and a blog into it.

The gallery makes it easier for me to upload images; actually, the whole site is designed to change the content at a blink of the eye (a long blink). It will allow me to make the site more dynamic. Because of the new gallery, the old one at http://fineart.ruditheunis.com will be offline very soon.

As the blog is now integrated into the site, the old blog will become obsolete. It will still exist, but no new posting will appear on it after this one. Please, if you have a RSS reader linked to it, change the feed to the new site.

The forum site is closed down. The forum was not used anyway.

I hope this site will become better in time as I will try to add useful information about traveling and photographing.

Any suggestions or remarks, please let me know.

The end of the Ramadan has come and the Muslim community is celebrating.

The celebrating started yesterday evening, after sunset: from the mosques, prayers where send into the air and people set off fireworks all over town. Occasionally a horde of people on motorbikes would pass by, making noisy ‘music’ with trumpets, drums, and tooting their horns. All these festivities lasted until well over midnight.

Lebaran (as it is called here) is also a holiday period, where most villagers ‘mudik’ (go back to their home town to celebrate with their family). Non Muslims flee Jakarta to take a quiet holiday in Bali or other parts of the country or world. Compared to normal days, Jakarta is very quiet now.

Those who stay in Jakarta will probably have to survive without a maid or driver during the holiday period. This turns out good for the restaurants, because their business will grow considerably during this time, as maidless families don’t want to cook for themselves. For these families, the holiday period is a thrilling experience, because it is never sure when and if the maid is coming back from her home town; in many places, you see different maids after Eid ul-Fitr.

For me, one of the nice things of working in a country that has many official religions is, that you get many days off.

Last week I overheard this conversation and although it sounded strange to me, it is commonplace in Indonesia.

I was sitting in the Starbucks coffee ‘house’ at Taman Anggrek. At the table next to me, a western guy (West European I think) was talking business with two Indonesians (Chinese). They where talking rather loud and in English, so I did not have any problem understanding them.

One of the Indonesian guys was making a proposal, and the conversation went like this:

The Indonesians started laughing, but the European guy did not seem to share the happy feeling.

Social Justice for the entire Indonesian population it is called, or tactical funds. If you do a big project in Indonesia, there is bound to be a big portion to be reserved for these funds. 20 to 25 percent is not much, and the bigger the projects, the more people will be wanting to profit from this social justice, making the percentage higher, and in the end, resulting in much more expensive projects. Although it is called “Social Justice for the entire Indonesian population”, I think it is only a small portion of the Indonesian population that benefits from this system.