Only the lonely no more? You sound and look like Covid has rested the travelling bones so the old life is breathing happy visions of the new, Ralf. Life can be like that. Looking forward to how this eventuates in your coming blogs. Shortly before Covid hit, a Dutchman who our daughter met in Byron Bay 5 years ago and has been in an international relationship with her, emigrated to Australia to be with her. Covid has prevented us visiting or being visited by his large Dutch family but Denise is getting expert at cooking some cracker Dutch delicacies...and I'm wandering around with an Amsterdam jacket covering my chest. Will His Dudeness be a lone traveller no more? As we all know the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything is 42. What is your Answer to the Ultimate Question? Sorry if this is too deep!
Answer to the ultimate question? 42 was a pretty good guess at the time, but it's actually slightly higher than that. They rounded it down, which works most of the time, but not always. The true answer lies behind the decimal points... As for my lonely wanderings, it also lies behind the decimal points. I will still be travelling on my own at times, and with Jenni at other times, and no doubt with my mum at yet other times, and with friends at... Well, you get the drift.
I hope I have answered your question satisfactory, but I probably haven't and that is also life!
Why thank you! Yes, there is something fascinating about going to the edge of anything, be it borders of countries or the top of a mountain, or in search of the source of a river. It's human I guess, it's why we explore, trying to find that edge and then see what is beyond it.
Tomok I have posted this in the "Rock Art of the World" thread in the Photography Forum. This is a thread that has tremendous potential as there are so many examples TBers come across out there. Check it out.
Layers of plastic A lasting memory of the Bromo volcano area of Java and my time with the Tengger people was walking down narrow alleys cut between their built up fields of vegetables etc. The cross-section of the sides of these fields were layers of plastics protruding from the soil metres thick! Naturally I took some photos as it was a disturbing site,indicating plastics discarded over many years. Like you I tried to ignore it and exclude plastic waste from my pics. The soils were rich in potash from the volcanoes, humus and bacterial breakdown but alas the plastics endured, were not breaking down and were there for the long term.
Plastic everywhere I understand Indonesia has recently banned recyclables being exported to it by Australia as has China. Our Prime minister has declared that we should be responsible for disposal of our own rubbish and not ship it overseas. We had a TV series a couple of years ago that has been repeated called "The War on Waste" that was a hard hitting expose. It included putting trackers in some recyclables to see where they went and most became rubbish overseas. This indicated those countries were purchasing the items from us but not taking recycling seriously so further polluting their own countries. Attitudes are changing in Australia but it is slow. There was a ban on single use plastic bags in our supermarkets last year but consumers complained it was inconvenient so now they provide less biodegradable plastic bags for 15 cents and multi use bags for 99 cents.!!! We always take our own bags when shopping and so do many others. Some hotels & bars do not provide plastic straws but resistance by groups like McDonalds is strong. Every year there is a day devoted to cleaning our beaches by the public that has been going on for a number of years but of course the plastics float in from elsewhere such as Indonesia or by Aussies who do not clean up after themselves. Attitudes must change as EVERY fish in Australia contains some plastics that the fish have consumed, which we then eat and digest. I fear it is too late!!!
It's a stubborn problem Mostly because humans are stubborn animals who have difficulty changing their ways or accepting inconvenient truths that mess with their point of view and their way of life. But let's remain optimistic! There is change! Countries are banning plastics, countries like India and Kenya! So fear not! Instead continue setting the good example.
Plastic waste It's really quite sad. I surprise myself at how quickly I can start ignoring the rubbish that lines the streets in some countries, where as even a scrap of paper on the ground at home gets pounced on and put into a bin. Our double standards are painful to acknowledge...
Double standards Our double standards are more serious than that unfortunately. Where do you think the difficult to recycle plastic of Europe goes? We send it off to countries like Indonesia and China (until China closed its borders to our plastic trash, about a year ago). And what to think about our carbon footprints!? Now that is a double standard I am struggling with. I love travelling, but travelling, at least if you fly, like me, has a huge carbon footprint. How to square that? It's a dilemma. My own little solution is to not fly short haul anymore as much as I can. Even though it's cheaper (which is completely ridiculous of course) than the train!
I feel your pain. It is a struggle to ignore all the plastic in paradise, but sometimes a necessary mechanism to cope. I get seriously depressed seeing it all, but I can’t say it will stop me from traveling. I just try to pick up as much trash as I can along the way.
Yep, it's not always easy to ignore... But not travelling won't solve the problem either. I always hope I can help by setting an example. If they see me not throwing things out the window, perhaps it will make them think. Even if only one in a hundred changes their habit, it is at least a start.
Yellow Can't help noticing that the mosque on Penyenget Island is bright yellow which being a bit of a picofmosqueophile seemed a tad unusual. Then the stilt houses had more than a splash of bright yellow. Pray find out why Ralf...or is "yellow" another Dutch word?
Coldplay Perhaps they were inspired by Coldplay... Yellow is not a Dutch word, but wortel is... however wortels tend not to be yellow but orange, and they are orange because the Dutch invented the wortel ;)
Pride I feel so happy in reading your article. This's so awesome. I hope that it will be your unforgatable journey being in my town. We'll be waiting for your next trip here again someday.
Home and Away
Bob Carlsen
Yes...
Jenni has a much better eye than you! Her pictures are beautiful.