Starbucks; where I have a thousand names across the world. Here, in Indonesia, Benny➡️pen.

Mr. 🖋️ is actually a great name for a writer though 🤔

So far, I'm loving Java! Everyone is so friendly and very patient with my Indonesian!
Here is a quick sample of a bunch of places I've visited in Jakarta, Bandung and Yogyakarta.
One thing that's different to other places I've been is that I'm addressed as "Mister" a lot. Not "Mr. Lewis"😊

Another way I'm using AI with my language learning; using AI generated images to help me with mnemonics. "Wortel" (carrot) is a hotel made of carrots in the middle of a war

I got a couple of requests, so here's the example prompt I use with AI for mnemonics. After the first prompt, I simply write "Now X for Y" (X is target language word and Y is translation).

The result then gives me 3 word association examples, in languages I speak.

A week or so into my stay in Bali, and I've settled in and gotten into my routine!
Eating healthy, exercising often, and studying Indonesian during the day most days.
It's just one of those places in the world I know I can buckle down and focus, while also living healthily!

Hello from Indonesia 🇮🇩; my home for the most of the first half of 2025!

I'm in Canggu/Bali first, which is very busy but has lots of creature comforts.

This is so that I can buckle down and do two things exclusively for the next 2 months; study Indonesian and write a large chunk of my next book!

Story of my life

My first days of 2025 were in Luxembourg, my 48th country visited!

Amazingly, all public transport throughout the entire country (not just the city); all buses, trains, trams etc. are completely 100% free! I've definitely never seen that before!!

I've had the worst cough since I arrived in Bangkok. It didn't feel like the virus kind of cough, so I looked into it and I've found the culprit. Red-level air quality alert here.

My small-town lungs weren't built for a place like this because of its #airpollution

Where Luxembourg🇱🇺, Germany🇩🇪and France🇫🇷 meet, you have a village whose name you may have heard of, where an agreement was signed that led to the creation of the 𝕊𝕔𝕙𝕖𝕟𝕘𝕖𝕟 𝕫𝕠𝕟𝕖!⁠

In a few hours the #schengenarea is expanding to include Romania and Bulgaria!

This is my THIRD triple-border of the year!

Another map; this time of all my 2024 travels!

I visited 7 countries in South America, travelling 29,000km mainly by land and river; bus from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, and by boat the entire length of the Amazon River. And I concluded visiting every state of Brazil.

Not bad at all!

Copacabana on a cloudy day 🇧🇷

The waves in this iconic footpath represent the meeting of the Portuguese Tagus River and the Atlantic Ocean originally placed in Rossio square in Lisbon.

My own personal Brazil: One (or more) photo(s) of me in every single state of the country, placed in that state's location on a map!⁠
⁠
It's an honour that this "gringo" got to visit all 26 states of his favourite country in the world! You can bet that I'll be back again many many times more!⁠

This Photoshopped pic of me I made 11 years ago came up in my Facebook memories for how I feel about giving up #languagelearning materials 😁

Just another quiet day in Rio...
#Botafogo

After a whole year of South America travels, I finally made it back to #Rio. I'll be walking up to this epic view for the next 3 weeks!!

I have now officially visited every single state of the world's 5th largest country!
Spending a week here to get to know it, and then I can relax in Rio for my final 3 weeks in #Brazil after this intensive 2024 of very deep travels!

No fim de semana palestrei no #poliglotar sobre a aprendizagem de línguas.
As minhas bandeiras: 🇮🇪🇧🇷🇩🇪 Esperanto, Cat, 🇪🇸🇫🇷🇮🇹🇨🇳. Adorei conhecer a comunidade #poliglota no Brasil!!
#langsky