Another one bites the red dust

The cold was hardly bearable. We went from the tropics of Indonesia straight into the unforgiving Perth winter. We were forced to make our way through the harsh and barren landscapes of the southwestern part of Western Australia, with the quick dropping as low as 22 degrees during daytime. At some times it made it up to 28, allowing our bodies to defreeze a bit and function normally.

So we made it to Australia, Perth as mentioned, and went straight away into to little-Ireland, a.k.a. the Northbridge area of the city, where we hoped to find a place to lay our heads. Since we arrived 7 a.m. in the morning with most receptions closed, we had already walked quite a bit before passing several places that all turned out to be fully booked. Those kind of circumstances lead to hasty decisions, so we signed in at the first place that had a bed available. Dresscode in this hostel was jumpsuit and shirt of your favorite whatever-sport team. There were more restricting rules on the wall then paint and when we were sitting down in the lobby downstairs and the police arrived to look for some people who beat up somebody that morning we decided to spend the rest of the day looking for a different establishment.
We found a very nice one where we would reside for the next two and a half weeks.

The main attraction of Perth is still the Faber-Hay family and since they one had gone +1 six weeks before our arrival it was a great moment to meet up with our dear friends Jasper and Jen. First contact was made with the Don which resulted in a decent friday afternoon session, just like in the good old days in Nijmegen. A couple of days later is was time for a full reunion and an introduction to the newest member of the family, their beautiful baby girl Keira.

Apart from those meetings we had a general idea of looking for some work in Perth to enhance our travel budget for Australia, but after trying for a week or so we changed our focus from finding a job to finding a car, not feeling like hanging around in Perth too long just looking for work. With enough cars on offer we soon bought an old van that seemed in reasonable shape. Things get very uninteresting now, but since it had Tasmanian plates and we had to register it in WA it had to be examined, so after 2,5 days of going through that bureaucracy (the car luckely only had some very minor things that had to be repaired) we were ready to get the show on the road.

We did have a great time in Perth in those 2,5 weeks. There were many lovely people staying at the hostel to hang out with. With some of them we made a little trip to the pinnacles, a weird gathering of stones in a desert landscape, and we visited beautiful sand dunes. Flo and I visited lovely Fremantle, strolled through the botanical garden and Jasper took us around town which included showing Flo her first kangaroos.

We left our hotel room to start camping life, getting on the road up north. First night sleeping next to the road we were welcomed with thunderstorms, a good introduction.

Slowely we made our way up to the first big attraction, the Kalbarri national park. On the way we stopped in Leeman, nice little coastal town, Geraldton, the biggest town in west - W.A, and at a pink lake, but it was mostly just nice to be on the road, driving through vast desert landscapes, dining under the stars around a campfire and waking up to beautiful sunrises.

Kalbarri national park had some beautiful gorges, but it would take a 50 kilometer return trip on an unsealed road to get there. We thought we would manage, but with our car shaking like we were driving in Fred Flintstone's car, we were praying to the aboriginal Gods (and cursing ourselves) the whole way, hoping that this little trip wouldn't mean the premature end of our car. We survived the way into the park and were rewarded with some very nice views. Unfortunately it did mean for me a reunion and for Flo an introduction to my and everyone who as ever visited Australia's outback's nemesis, the bush fly. Working in groups, constantly trying to get into ears, mouth, nose and eyes, these little helpers of satan are very well capable of ruining an otherwise amazing trek. War was declared, but being outnumbered we soon retreated to the car, already looking forward to the shaky way back. Our four wheeler did make it unharmed back to the sealed road, proving its reliability. Mixing staying next to the road and sleeping in caravan parks, visiting little towns and making kilometers during the day, we made our way up to the next supposed highlight, monkey mia, part of the shark bay area, a world heritage site.

Wild dolphins are offered food there every morning so we stayed overnight to hope to witness that the next morning. After spending an evening talking to a very drunk old South - African who loved to take pictures of roadkill, we woke up to find it raining for the 43th time in the last three years. Combine that with a strong wind and we were standing there waiting in the cold and rain for dolphins that apparently had taken a day off. Slight disappointment, although the Emu's that come out of the wild to look for easier food on the inhabited regions this time of year, kept us entertained for a bit as a concellation.

Next up was coral bay, a popular beach town where we stayed for a night or two before heading out to Karijini national park, which turned out to be the highlight of the Australian chapter of our journey so far.The trip there was already promising, with landscapes getting more interesting by the meter. On the first day in the park we made a brilliant walk through a gorge with stunning natural pools on both ends. A elderly couple (travelling pensioners make up for about 80% of the people you meet when you are doing the camping trail on the west coast) had offered us to take us to other gorges that were only reachable over dirt roades, since our experiences of combining our car with that type of road weren't to positive. So they very kindly drove us and themselves around for half a day, waiting for us when we ventured further then they could. On one of the treks that made for a somewhat tricky, but therefore even more amazing walk (climb) that once more ended at a beautiful natural pool. This time we took a little dip, although the temperture of the water made it a very short one (I'm talking about the duration of the swim here).

Very happy with our trip there we left Karijini through the termite tower filled lands on to Broome. This popular getaway town sports a pretty nice beach, but as every town in Australia so far we felt a big lack of atmosphere, something we somehow had hoped to find in that particular place (15 years ago bands would play there on the beach with fireshows, BBQs and campfires, and you could camp right on the beach. None of that is left). We did set our minds to finding work again, but since Broome in the end is not a bad place to hang around if you are working there is a lot of competition and relatively low pays, so we went 250 k's further up north to Derby, where apparently no one wants to work and pay is good. So, there we are now, finding the place boring like many others, but not too bad to be and Flo nailed a job already, so it's going to be town life for the coming months.

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Indonesia part II

And so the Indonesian experience continued. Simple equation: Smog x notbeing able to find much interesting to see= short stay. Still I enjoyed walking through the little streets in the Jalan Jaksa area of Jakarta in the morning, seeing Indonesian life waking up. We had safely arrived there after a flight from Padang. During the multiple double digit bus journeys in Sumatra I was already looking forward to the Javanese train system which would drastically enhance the comfort of transportation. The 8 hour train journey to Yogyakarta reveiled where all that rice comes from. Yogya (for friends) is discribed als the soul of Java, and the area where we found accomodation was already quite atmospheric. After a first day of looking around we rented motorbikes to go to the famous Buddist temple the Borobudur on the second. We were warned not to go on the weekend, but you cannot always plan that out (especially if you plan very little anyway). So we went in computer game mode again, navigating our bikes through the busy traffic and made it safe to the Borobudur. The warnings were right, it was Busy. Still it was a great experience walking around the complex, studying all the very detailed carvings. Most people were on the photogenetic top where it all kicked off with people wanting to take pictures with us and it never stopped. We went back through Yogyakarta to see another temple, a Hindu one this time, the Paramban. Pretty calm there and very impressive as well. The rest of the time we visited some sights within the city, chilled out at our guesthouse and Flo and I had some great sushi for her birthday.

We had already booked a flight from Surabaya to Lombok and figured it was an easier accesspoint to mount Bromo that we still wanted to visit but time was getting scarse, so after our arrival there we booked a taxi right away to drop us off there. After a weird drive with our narcoleptic driver we arrived at Bromo for sunset, which was beautiful. Surabaya wasn't the most inspiring place, highlight (once more) was the amazing seafood we had in front of the beautiful colonial times villa we had a room in. And we visited a kretek (strong Indonesian cigarettes with cloves in it) factory were you can see 200 people making cigarettes like someone is holding a gun against there head, which is like watching a movie being played on twice the speed. The next day it was straight off to the airport from where a propellered plane took us to Lombok. The idea was to see at least one of the three Gili islands before exploring Lombok, so we stayed one day in Sengigi (I wouldn't recommend that place) before taking the boat to Gili Trawangan. Gili Trawangan felt a bit like going to Mallorca or some place like that, overdeveloped without any cultural awareness. I got my 'padi open water' diving permit two years ago and had never taken a dive ever since (the Netherlands and Switzerland aren't really known as top dive spots), so even though I really wanted to take a dive I was a bit hesitant because I would be a bit rusty to say the least. In came Adam, who was still honoring us with his company since we met him in Sumatra. He is a dive master and worked in Lombok as an instructor before and in all his kindness had offered me to take me out on a dive under his experienced supervision. It was the ideal way for me to get back into it and be able to forget some stuff without dying right away.

We had seen enough of Gili Trawangan and wanted to check out what life was like on another Gili, so Flo and I (Adam was going back to Lombok to see his girlfriend) hopped over to Gili Meno. Life was very different there indeed. Thanks to Ela's (Flo's twin sister) tip we got a great bungalow in the interior of the island, where it was very tranquil. The people of Meno keep control of their own island. Land can be bought, but what people want to build on it has to pass a commission of islanders. And they don't trust the police, so there is none to be found (and isn't necesarry). Nice aspect of all the Gili's (even still Gili Trawangan) is that there is no motorized traffic, only horsecarts and bycicles. We enjoyed the beautiful beach, great snorkelling and on our last night a great evening with amazing fireshows and numerous shots of ricewine.

Even though Meno was a little paradise we still felt the need to make the circle round so again spend 10 minutes on a boat to go to the last on the list, Gili Air. Bit more then Meno there, but still very nice. Scored the best bungalow of our trip there where it was nice to relax at the veranda, we enjoyed the BBQ fish, hung around in the oldest bar of the island (the guys behind the bar showed some effects of longtime barkeeping on a tourist destination) and walked around the island.

Having spend 10 nights at the Gili's we had to make a choice between exploring Lombok or Bali and it became the second to at least get a little idea of the apperently very different culture on Bali. We got on the local boat to Bali, went through the hassle of getting transport at the harbour and got to Ubud, which we had chosen as base camp to explore the island. Ubud sounded nice on paper, it being the cultural capital of Bali with loads of art. Can't say it was a punishment to be there, but Ubud has a poshness that I'm not looking for when I'm travelling (or anytime for that matter). We made a nice little walk on the north side of town where some nice rice paddies are situated. Next day we rented a motorbike once more and headed up north to look for some mountains. It was mostly a lot of driving and not so much seeing anything except for a nice view of two of those mountains. Sumatra's sceneries had spoiled us too much already for Bali to be any competition.

After spending a night in a place that's not really worth saying anything about (Kuta) our two unbelievable months in Indonesia were over. We left the country flying to the land of Oz, promising it we would see eachother soon again.

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Saya suka Indonesia!

So it was time to cross the canal over to Indonesia. My position on the boat from Port Klang near Kuala Lumpur wasn't the most comfortable ever, but the on board entertainment kept me amused for a while.The first 10 minutes of the first movie showed about everything that I personally wouldn't select for an head scarfed crowd like this one. Protests soon erupted after which we continued with some more suitable Islamic R 'n' B singer with some well rhymed English lyrics. After that was over, the DVD of choice was an Indonesian metal band (my favorite was 'the devil wears batik') being played at a level that seemed to blow up the speakers. I'm really curious how these selections come to be.

We squeezed ourselves out of the boat and stumbled straight into the most hectic border crossing I have ever experienced. The port is known as a popular place for smuggling, which explained all the cops and militairy. At security our passports were greeted with a smile and some practising of English sentences. If that was hectic, the swarm of taxi drivers that ambushed us subsequently was even worse. After Thailand and Malaysia I had to get a bit used to these more Vietnamese/Cambodian scenes again and just coming off the food poisoning I wasn't really up for it mentally and physically, but I did kind of enjoy the realisation that Indonesia was going to provide for some more 'lively' travelling again. Considering the transport I must say I soon longed for those two previous countries. It also soon became clear that English language skills are not that well developed in Sumatra, but my 'camping - Indonesian' (to use a Dutch expression in an unusual way) seems to be sufficient for simple negotiations and conversations. We managed to crawl out of the beehive and find a comfortable taxi that would bring us to Medan, the 3rd largest Indonesian city and capital of Sumatra, 6 hours away. The jury has yet to reach it's final verdict, but it's clear that Indonesian is gonna be a competitive candidate for the title of 'most insane driving in South - East Asia', probably leaving top of the league competitors like Cambodia and Vietnam in its tracks. Though up to a certain extend I do understand that when you're playing the whole Guns n' Roses discography there are some moments that you feel like kicking the pedal through the bottom of the car and driving American Football style through traffic, spending most time on the wrong side of the lane and ducking back to your own 3 meters before huge trucks. It does explain though why Indonesia has one of the worst records of people knockin' on heavens door after having a nice little drive (of which we would witness at least one example later on).

We spend one night in Medan and walked through the city the day after that, apart from a huge mosque, some old colonial era Dutch buildings and a 1001 night-style sultan's castle was mostly another busy, traffic filled Asian city. Together with our fellow passengers who included a couple hundred crickets (which wasn't too bad since I thought I had cockroaches walking over my feet all night) we were catapulted up to Banda Aceh over night.

Banda Aceh is the capital of the Aceh region, a troubled region that suffered horribly during the 2004 tsunami, losing 190000 of it's people, and has seen a lot of political unrest wirth seperatist forced wanting independance from Indonesia. But the people smile and the Sumatrans love to have a chat and if they don't speak any or little English will just start whole stories in Bahasa Indonesian or a local dialect. Very friendly people.

We hung out with some of them waiting for the ferry to take us to Pulau Weh, the island 25 kilometers of the coast.

I can be short about Pulau Weh. very beautiful and the most active thing we did during our 5 day stay was snorkeling a bit in front of our resort. Highlight there were an octopus and a lion fish (Naked Gun connaisseurs will know that one). We looked straight down on the turqouise water from our bungalow, the food was good and the hammock fitted just nicely. Already a bit tired from the hassle that is trying to find reliable transportation without being ripped off we arrived in Bukit Lawang after a ride with some scetchy individuals. The plan was entering the Mount Leuser national park (which BL is an entrance port to) from an other spot, but that seemed to be a bit too difficult to arrange at the bus station in Banda Aceh.

Bukit Lawang is most famous for it's treks to see some of the approximately 7000 wild Orang Utan's that are believed to still roam in mount leuser NP, 200 of them rehabilitated from the local rescue center. Besides that it's a great spot to relax along the gushing river, sipping a avocado shake (I build up a horrible addiction to them).

At night the tour guide's hang out in one of the local restaurants and entertain the people and themselves with western classics on guitar. On of them, a funny Bintang-bellied guy, took us on a 2 day, 1 night trek into the jungle. We saw 5 female Orang Utans, all with babies, and one male on the first day. Although all the ones we saw once had been in the center (therefore feeling a bit less need to hide deep in the jungle and are easier to find) they are indeed wild again and it is wise to keep a distance, but some of them came up very close. Great experience. Satisfied with our monkey count we arrived at our camp near the river, which made for some great refreshing swimming. The next morning I woke up to a group of macaces raiding the camp, running of with our supply of fruits. We spend that day doing a short but pretty challenging trek to look for black gibbons, but they had the day off. On a raft made out of tubes we floated back to the village.

After underwater discovering and jungle exploring it was time for a new discipline. We encreased our elevation going up to Berastagi, a little town in central Sumatra that's in close proximity to two vulcano's, of which we would 'climb' one. After walking up on a paved road till about half an hour to the top things actually started to look like a vulcano landscape which was pretty impressive. From this vulcano sulfer gasses (with the infamous rotting egg smell) erupted, with the bright yellow materialized sulfer around the openings. It was great to walk around there for a while, we filled our lungs with sulfer and headed back down.

Sumatra once was a popular destination for travellers, but somehow (I could write an essay on that but won't bore you more then you already are) tourist numbers we send dwindling at one point. You never feel there's more then a handfull of other travellers around in the places you visit. This becomes very apparent in Lake Toba, our next stop. Once full of tourists it has a surplus of accomodation and restaurants, now hoping to get some guests once in a while. The place is absolutely gorgious.

The Bataks, as the local people are called, have a history of distrust for strangers. In the old days that would result in neigbouring villages fighting eachother and subsequently having eachother for dinner. That may explain for a bit of a different vibe coming from the people compared to the rest of Sumatra, but still enough smiles came our way as we drove and walked around the island. Every corner we took on our motorbike would reveal an amazing panorama. The Bataks have beautiful traditional houses and on their graves that you see all around the island they have mini versions of those houses so the dead have a house to live in. Or a little church, since this is Christian territory. It's definitely one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited in my life.

Of course we stumbled into another town again during a nationalholiday, so this time in Bukittingi it proved to be harder to find decent accomodation then to find an Indonesian man who isn't a chain smoker. By then we had joined up with our English friend Adam (G) and together we fled town the next day for the tranquility of lake Manangau, a 1,5 hour drive by local bus. We set straight back into Lake Toba mode, hanging out at our lake side bungalow, watching fishermen float around (in their boats that is), seeing beautiful sunsets. Of course we rented a motorbike and of course got lost somewhere we didn't want to be.

I did a quick assesment of my Bintang intake and concluded it was 0,0, so the dry announcement from the guy working in the bar we were sitting that there was an eathquacke going on in must have made some sense. Things indeed felt a little shakey. Everybody was already gathering outside like people are instructed to do in those situations. It lasted for a couple of minutes, went back inside and when we were booking a flight from Padang to Jakarta half an hour later the situation repeated itself. The tv showed pictures of people panicking and fleeing in the forementioned Aceh region, because the gouverment had send out a tsunami warning. We kept half an eye on the news the rest of the day and it soon became clear the thankfully water was going to stay put.

Bukittingi is a mountain town that is surrounded by a couple of nice attractions. Lake Manangau done, climbing the local volcano isn't the smartest thing to, but there was still some good stuff in store. Bukittingi has one of the most accesable parks to see rafflesia flowers in it's proximity, and giving up on a couple of possibilities before we were sure to get in on this one. It was pretty accessable indeed, were it not for me thinking the flower would be in some garden, but we had to take a trek through the jungle so I was cursing myself all the way for my choice of footwear, which were flipflops. We saw one that was just opening and one that was blooming for a couple of days. Everyone who has seen the 'bucketlist' has seen Jack N.'s character drinking only the most expensive coffee in the world. Coming back from seeing the flowers we got a little lesson about that particular type of coffee that is produced in that region on a big scale. The coffee beans are eaten by a wild cat, ferment in it's stomach and after it has done his business somehere locals collect it feaces, get the beans out of it and grind them. We had some of it and it was a nice coffee indeed. Since we're still in Indonesia, orders can be made. After that we navigated our bikes through the mad Indonesian traffic to the Harau valley, which was absolutely worth the visit. Beautiful countryside surrounded by steep cliffs.

We got a taxi to Padang, which proved to be the not so interesting place we expected, so the next day we fled to Pantai Bungus, a 45 minute drive. There we relaxed for a couple of days and did a snorkeling trip to a beautiful island. After a couple of nice days it was time leave Sumatra to get our flight to Jakarta. By now, Flo, Adam and I have left Java already and are kicking back on the Gili's. I'll tell you all about that the next time. One things for sure: Indonesia has been absolutely Amazing so far, exceeding my already high expectations.

For proof that all of this (and more) really transpired, follow the link below
(if I can get the pictures up)

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On the animal trail in Borneo

And Borneo it was. At least the Malaysian part of it. We started off in Kuching, a relaxed, modern city with enough to see and eat (who would have thought a fern could be so delicious). It's worth visiting for a few days and functions as a basecamp for exploring multiple nearby parks. First one we went to was the Semenggoh Orang Utan sanctuary. In this park Orang Utans that have been saved are rehabilitated into the wild. They pretty much live like wild Orang Utans but because the forest does not always provide for enough food fruits are layed out twice a day to give them the opportinuty to grab some snacks. For a very small fee tourist are allowed into park to witness this. Since it was the fruit season and therefore there is enough fruit in the forest you have to be lucky and we were, we saw three young Orang Utans. It's the thing that comes closest to actually seeing them in the wild.We watched them for about an hour, exchanged names to become Facebook friends and went our seperate ways.

{David Attenborough's voice] The proboscis monkey is a fairly rare species of monkey that only can be seen on the island of Borneo. Locals refer to them as 'Dutch monkeys' because they reminded them of the colonists with their hairy arms and faces, big, sunburned noses and fat bellies. [/David Attenborough's voice].

Whilst watching these amazing animals hopping from tree to tree in Bako National park I must say I indeed saw a stunning resemblance with some people back in the Lowlands.

By boat and bus, Bako national parkis an easy visit from Kuching and absolutely worth it. I guess it's a bit of a boring read if I sum up all the animals we've seen in the two days, one night we spent there, but I'm gonna do it anyway. The forementioned proboscis monkeys, silver leaf monkeys, macaces (a.k.a. burglars and thieves), bearded boars, two pit viper snakes (personal highlight), a flying lemur, a kingfisher, swallows nesting, a centipede, some spiders and I'm probably forgetting a couple more. Apart from the wildlife there are some really nice treks where you can see 7 different types of vegetation (including meat eating plants) and we stumbled upon some nice beaches.

Since going over land would take about two days we flew to Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Sabah, the northern province of Malay Borneo. We wanted to climb mount Kinabalu, but that was ridiculously expensive. Flo had read about some nice beaches way up north, so we took a bumpy taxi ride to Kudat, not really knowing anything about that place. While looking for a hotel room in the pooring rain an English bloke named Howard passed by in his car and informed us about his 'jungle camp' way up on the tip of Borneo. Because we had no idea where we wanted to go we took his card and checked his place out online that evening. It looked like a very nice place so we called him and he picked us up the next day. Howard is doing things the sustainable way with an ecologically friendly resort and investing in projects for the local community, the Rungus people. The accomodation is a replica of an original Rungus longhouse and it was a nice experience to stay there. Visiting beautiful but very touristic places I have often wondered what it would have been like to have visited those places before mayor touristic exploitation hit those area's. Although the Sabah tourism board is really trying to promote 'the tip of Borneo' as a tourist destination and, besides Howard's place, there are, as far as I could tell, 3 other places you can stay, things are still pretty pristine there with several beautiful empty beaches where it's a huge coincidence if you bump into another tourist. We had a very nice time with the other people staying at Tampat do Aman hanging out at the restaurant, having a bonfire party and watching sunsets at the tip of Borneo, where the South Chinese sea clashes with the Sulu seas. We discovered all the beaches on foot and by bike, seeing the daily activities of the Rungus people and hanging out with local fishermen. There are big plans for the region to be 'developed' more, and since it seems inevitable I hope Howard's and other people's quest to protect the area from the big contractors will be succesful.

Two flights later we're back in Kuala Lumpur. Delayed by some bad food we're planning on taking a boot to Sumatra soon. The kick off to the Indonesian chapter of our trip.

Malay days

I was surprised I had actually slept a bit. After all, we were laying on the ground in a cave, animals that probably inspired many horror movies in every little dark corner of it, a porcupine roaming around, bats sprinkling us with guano and there was a decent chance to be woken up by a leech feasting on one's eyelid. Taman Negara is supposedly the oldest virgin rainforest in the world and we had spend 8 hours trekking through it that day, half of the time in the pouring rain, ankle-deep in the mud, the whole time under attack by an army of blood thirsty insects and 8 more hours of that awaiting us the next day. We wouldn't have missed it for the world. Although not that well prepaired (I only brought the clothes I was wearing), Flo and I had had the enlightened idea of wearing long pants and tucking them in our socks. It left us looking incredibly fashionable and the hungry mouths of the leeches unsuccesfully searching for a meal. Other, misinformed, members of our group were less fortunate, with the little basterds ending up in necks, armpits and belly buttons. That group was a great bunch of people who made the experience even better.

Before getting welcomed to the jungle we had spend several days in Penang where we endulged ourselves in this foodie Mekka. Being the multicultural place that it is, it brings together several Asian cuisines with a Malay twist to it. Apart from checking the main place Georgetown out, I remember my previous visit mostly from donating liters of sweat to my clothes every second of the day and was happy to find the humidity being much lower. Besides filling our bellies, we checked out some other parts of the island and went to the botanical garden. The Chinese were still celebrating their new year so we joined in on that a bit and we heard there was a two day Tamil festival going on. With Penang having a big Tamil community it was something to check out. And let's be honest, who wouldn't like to see men with spikes pierced through their cheeks and countless hooks in their upper bodies. Since that was an important part of it. It was interesting to watch the colourful procession go by and a good place to, again, try lots of food. The second day of the festival we didn't go, but found out that the Tamil boys like to get in the mood with some Scottish delicacies and are happy to share. With an American guy we met that night we set off on some more exploring the next day before jumping on a bus to the Cameron highlands, home of amongst others, the famous postcard tea plantations. Above all it was the place where we would meet up with the lovely Carmen, yet another friend from Switzerland who decided to honor us with her company.

Tioman: turqouise water, friendly people, monitor lizards, fruit bats, 80's rock and 3 for 2 Hoegaarden. Still exactly the place we remembered falling in love with two years ago. Minus one, our trekking group all had the idea of heading for Tioman after Taman Negara so together we ventured down to Tioman to change trekking shoes for flipflops, trekking for beach lazing and leeches for sandflies. We had an amazing time hanging at the beach and our bungalows and it was absolutely brilliant to see a seeturtle three times while snorkeling. The boys from the Pusaka restaurant provided for great company in the evening and we had loads of fun. The group became a bit smaller every day and after a week it was our turn to leave for Kuala Lumpur. Some guys from Borneo we met in Tioman convinced us to come over to Borneo, so that's our next destination!

Back in Asia

Well, looks like I've decided to dust off my old travel blog after all. And as you've all concluded by now, the language has changed so a broader spectrum of nationalities can fall asleep whilst reading it. Hope this isn't too much of an inconvenience. I know you're all linguistic wonders.

Flo and I arrived in good old smoggy Bangkok on the 6th of January to set off on some new adventures in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia and whatever other countries will fall victim to our unquenchable thirst for exploring. Through some incoherent scribbling and a couple of overexposed pictures I'll try to share our experiences for the coming period, however long it may turn out to be. If you feel the need to comment on our antics, the 'reageer' option (free Dutch lesson included) will reveal a box where you can drop some words in your language of choice. We'd be honored.

Our first month of travelling has been mainly about visiting places that at least one of us had been before (and liked) and meeting up with friends. After a day in Bangkok we headed for Kanchanaburi, where I spend a little under two weeks in total last time. We had a great time again in this easy going little town with beautiful surroundings, even though the soul had been literally removed from the My corner bar where I had such an amazing time on my last visits. Shared beers, food and a motorbike trip to the Erawan falls with Michal, a nice Polish guy, during our 4 day stay. We jumped over to Ayuttaya in the morning to look at the temples (where some of the damage from the floods was still visible) and headed off on a sleeper train to Chiang Mai in the evening again. High season usually means walking around a lot looking for a bed after arriving in a place and Chiang Mai proved no different. After a long search we ended up in a not to comfortable place later nicknamed 'the prison', but managed to improve our situation drastically the next day. After two days we were very happy to welcome four dear friends (Ste, Michelle, Ramona and Timmy) from Switzerland who we would team up with for a week or two during their holidays.

The next day the 'Pai Angels' (est. 2011) rode off on their first trip. Pai was not surprisingly our destination. Apart from seeing rival motor gangs fleeing town on our way up, it's a bit of a tricky road with loads of curves, a vertically parked truck we encountered underway as a clear proof. Pai was still it's lovely little self with it's relaxed atmosphere, great live music and long nights at the bamboo bar. I still don't know how I've managed to leave the town after only two days (because of the limited time of the Swissies we were on a bit of a scedule) instead of the two weeks last time. Most have been something similar to the way the A-team used to get B.A. on a plane. Only thing I can remember was Timmy and Ramona doing that much radical stunt driving on the way back that their back wheel collapsed so we had to arrange a private police escort to a militair checkpoint to figure out how to get them home. Two rides on the back of a pickup later and they were home safe and sound in Chiang Mai. We spent the rest of our days there walking around, having nice food (especially at Flo's friend Eings'), some drinks and going up the Doi Sutep hill on the last day. Our four companions had already booked flights, busses and boats to Ko Panghan and we, being cheapskates, followed by taking two trains, a bus and a boat.

Ko Pagnan is best known for it's once spontanious, now for many years already very commercial, but still infamous full moon parties. The moon was going through one of it's darker periods while we were there, and we hoped to get a bit more of an authentic feeling at the accompanying black moon party. Unfortunately this one has turned into a little cashcow as well, and I personally wasn't too disappointed that Flo and I didn't go in at the end. We had a nice bungalow at the beach and we really enjoyed relaxing with our group, hanging out and talking nonsense. All good things come to an end and we were sad to say goodbye to the Swiss contingent, them even more I guess cause barbaric, arctic conditions were awaiting them. We took the ferry back to the mainland and a bus was so kind to bring us to Krabi. For some reason I didn't see too much of that place last time, which is really a shame since it has so much to offer. We drove to a nice hotspring, where we enjoyed to compagny of busloads of other tourists, walked up 1200 something steps in the blazing heat up a hill to a temple (fabulous to see some American tourists walking there bare chested, wonder if they would walk into a church in Alabama like that as well) and rode between the beautiful limestone cliffs to go visit an old friend of Flo's who has a reggea bar on a beach. No better Thailand feeling in my humble opinion to lay in a bar on the beach listening to some reggea sounds, holding a Chang and watching the sunset.

Golf karts driving people around on an 1 km by 1 km island, buggies being dragged through the sand, bulldozers on the beach to build up yet another resort and at one point I thought a gym membership was mandatory to get access to the Island. Ko Lipe was not really what I expected. Damn me for having the Ko Lipe description I read 5 years ago in a travel guide in my head. Mother nature did another great job on this beautiful island and the locals are really friendly, but I'd hoped it had 'developed' a bit differently. Personally the only reason I managed staying so long was because Ko Lipe had won the bid for the 2012 world championships sunbathing, with the Swedish girls team winning it by a landslide. I have a lot of respect for people who can be less active then a koala during 24 hours.

I once read that the southern provinces of Thailand are not the safest places in the world. Didn't read enough about it though to get the full picture, but several thousands of people have been killed in that region during the years because of bombings and shootings. Two popular spots for attacks have been Hat Yai and public transport in the whole Pattani region. Sorry to say that I didn't check the current situation online, but after staying in not to interesting Hat Yai for a night, the fully armed militairy officers (and a lot of 'civilians' with walkie-talkies) in our train wagon and, not over-exageratting, 20 of those same guys at every station we stopped, at least were a witness to some thorough precautions to what might possibly happen. We did make it safely to some border town which name I cannot remember, and walked over the imaginary line into Malaysia.

Didn't do our homework on this one as well. Idea was going to the Perhentians after first making a stop a Kota Bharu, which sounded like an ok stopover for a day or two. I did read something online about it being possible to visit the Perhentians in this period, but that turned out to be false. Still the monsoon season, no boats going and all hotels still closed. What I'll remember most about Kota Bahru is some teacher apparently giving an assignment to a whole school to interview foreign tourists, since we were interviewed multiple times during the day including being filmed and photographed all the time. I had ideas about organising a press converence to cover them all at once. Although it can be a bit of a inconvenience while you are trying to explore a city, they were the sweetest kids and gave us little presents and Malay candy. Having to change our plans we decided to head over to the other side of the country to go and see, smell and taste all the flavours of Penang. The way there was already worth it, our local bus taking us through the mountains which provided for beautiful scenery. So, there we are.

News is reaching me by telex about people home in Europe snowed in, eating food from cans by a candle, whilst yeti's are scavaging outside.

We will try to catch some warm air in envelopes and send them by express mail to you all.

Take care all, thanks for reading.

Aan al het goede komt een eind..

Angkor Wat? Nou, dat is de meest beroemde van de overblijfselenuit het tijdperk vanhet machtige Khmer-volk van weleer. In drie dagen ben ik daar met een gehuurde tuktuk-chauffeur langs alle indrukwekkende bouwwerken getuft, het kwik op braadhoogte. Dat moet een flinke klus geweest zijn destijds. Groot, gedetailleerd, ingenieus. Ongelofelijk hoe men dat voor elkaar heeft gekregen. Een bezoek aan iedere tempel staat jammer genoeggarant voor een vooropgezette aanval van hordes kinderen wiens papa en mama liever zien dat ze spulletjes slijten dan naar school gaan. Helaas voor hen heb ik in deze fase van mijn leven geen behoefte aan een panfluit met kraanvogel opdruk, een zijden tafelkleed of 13 armbanden voor een dollar. Kan op weinig sympathie rekenen van de kids. Ik kan ook met trots melden dat de gevleugelde uitspraak 'kijken, kijken, niet kopen' van de Costa del sol zijn weg naar Cambodja heeft gevonden. Na enkele dagen in het verder weinig boeiende Siem Reap was het tijd om Thailand maar weer eens te enteren. Het leek me gezien de temperaturen gepast om zo snel mogelijk mijzelf naar zwembroek-oorden te begeven, geografisch gezien was Ko Samet de meest gunstigste optie. Op dit kleine, fraaie vluchtoord voor Thai met geld heb ik me gedurende een kleine week bezig gehouden met het lezen van enkele boeken op het strand, een stapavond met wat Thaise gasten, een tourtje naar enkele omliggende eilanden en het eiland zelf rondwandelen. Bijzonder weinig dus. Aangezien ik nog altijd niet erg goed ben in weinig doen en Samet me wat begon te vervelen moest ik even kijken wat ik met mijn resterende dagen tot aan vertrek ging doen. Een verre bestemming zou twee volle dagen reizen inhouden en leek me niet echt rendabel, dus besloot ik de cirkel maar rond te maken: terug naar Kanchanaburi waar mijn Thaise avontuur voor mijn gevoel echt begon een kleine zes maanden geleden. Maar daarvoor moest ik eerst weer even naar Bangkok. Aangemeerd op het vasteland wist de mevrouw van het reisbureau te melden dat er harde actie gepland stond die dag en we even moesten kijken hoe we de stad inkwamen. De rookpluimen stegen op boven de stad terwijl het minibusje erin knalde. Eenmaal weer in het toeristenhart was het erg rustig en zat al het bar-, restaurant- en winkelpersoneel aan de buis gekluisterd om te zien wat er zichiets verderop afspeelde. De reactie van de mensen in het eettentje waar ik een van mijn laatste Pad-thai verorberde leek tevreden toen op tv de leider van the redshirts weggesleept werd. Een busje naar Kanchanaburi was snel gevonden. Het is nog steeds het relaxte plaatsje met de mooie omgeving die ik destijds achterliet. De bar van een Duitse kameraad van de leuke tijd in december staat er ook nog steeds, waar het ook nog altijd goed toeven is. Een vriend van hem werkt in een rustplaats voor olifanten 40 kilometer buiten de stad en daar hebben we een dagje rondgehangen. Biertje gedronken aan een meertje terwijl de olifanten er in rondspeelde en ze daarna uitgelaten in het bos.

En toen zat het geheel er bijna op. Nog twee dagen Bangkok waar sinds kort nieuwe ruines te bezichtigen zijn. Als opstandige vulkanen daarna geen roet in het eten strooien bevind ik mij over enkele dagen weer op Nederlands grondgebied en kan ik aan mijn herintegratie beginnen. Het was fantastisch, een geweldige tijd. Maar het wordt ook geweldig om vrienden en familie weer te zien, en er liggen weer een hoop andere leuke dingen in het verschiet. Iedereen bedankt voor het lezen van dit weblog en het achterlaten van veelal briljante reacties. Ik zie u allen snel weer. Het wordt een mooie zomer!

"It's a holiday in Cambodia!"

Na met pijn in het hart afscheid te hebben genomen van het fijne Ko Chang was het tijd voor mijn 'Holiday in Cambodia' (voor de punkconnaisseurs onder ons). De Thai-(S)Cambodjaanse grensovergang was bijna komisch te noemen. Een klein kantoortje gevuld met louche types die tegelijkertijd je visum voor je 'regelen' en je goedkope sloffen sigaretten proberen te verkopen. De enige die een uniform draagt biedt je snoepjes aan, waarschijnlijk om de vijf euro die ze besluiten bovenop de officiële gage te gooien te compenseren. Na de afgelopen maanden in rijkere landen te hebben gespendeerd was weer duidelijk te merken een straatarm land te hebben betreden. Een straatarm land dat nog altijd herstellende is van de Amerikaanse oorlogsmisdaden in ZO-Azie en de walgelijke Khmer Rouge periode erna. Paard en wagen en ossenkarren zijn hier nog gewoon in gebruik, bedelaars alom (veelal -1 ledemaat) en de toerist is weer een lopende portemonee voor sommigen. Eerste halte was Sihanoukville, het enige strandoord dat Cambodja rijk is. Weer zo'n oord in Zuidoost Azië waar je hartverwarmende romances ziet ontstaan tussen jonge Aziatische meisjes en pensioengerechtigde withuiden met overgewicht en brakende tieners in de avondbranding. Voordat ik te emotioneel werd van al dat moois snel het toneel verlaten en de express naar Kampong gepakt. Dat beviel een stuk beter, hoewel het niet heel speciaal te noemen was. Korte trip met de brommer naar Kep gemaakt, waar onder andere een hoop verlaten villa's te spotten zijn uit het tijperk van de rooie Khmer. Andere verlaten gebouwen zijn waar te nemen, na een gebrek aan conditie aantonende klim, op de top van Bokor mountain, tevens een nationaal park, Een geheel verlaten stad wel te verstaan. De mist maakte het echt tot een spookstad en vergalde tegelijk het veronderstelde fraaie uitzicht over de omgeving. Bokor is een prachtig natuurgebied waar nog veel wildleven moet rondhuppelen. Daar heeft natuurlijk niemand wat aan, dus gelukkig heeft de Cambodjaanse regering het park verkocht aan een Chinees bedrijf dat al druk bezig is om het geheel met de grond gelijk te maken. Mocht u dit gebied over een jaar of 2 willen bezoeken kunt u zich op de top heerlijk in de watten laten leggen in een vijf sterren hotel, zonder het gevaar dat er een wilde tijger het stoombad inwandelt. Vooruitgang noemen we dat.

Heerlijke Cambodjaanse inhakers begeleid door videoclips waar een jongetje en meisje samen romantisch een maïskolf oppeuzelen onder een bloesemboom (om maar een voorbeeld te noemen) vormde traditiegetrouw het entertainment in de bus, ditmaal naar de hoofdstad Phnom Pen. Het gaat straks wennen worden als ik in een Nederlandse stadsbus zit en we hoeven onderweg niet te stoppen om een band te verwisselen. De voornaamste 'attracties' van Phnom Pen zijn bezoeken aan de hoofdstedelijke overblijfselen van de uitspattingen van Pol Pot en z'n vrinden, 'the killing fields' en de S-21 gevangenis. Een stuk geschiedenis dat het Cambodja van nu nog altijd voor een groot deel bepaald en nog zeer actueel is aangezien de (nog levende) verantwoordelijken nog altijd niet berecht zijn. Ik zal geen geschiedenisles gaan geven voor mogelijke gene die geen flauw benul hebben waar dit over gaat, maar ik heb er in het verleden het nodige over gelezen en het was indrukwekkend om op deze plekken rond te lopen., hoewel het altijd moeilijk blijft voor te stellen hoe het écht geweest is. Bijna alle Cambodjanen die ik gesproken heb hebben familieleden verloren in deze tijd. Phnom Pen is verder wel vermakelijk. Het toeristengebied heeft een leuk relaxt karakter, maar dit gaat binnenkort op de schop en zal daar dan waarschijnlijk wat aan moeten inleveren. Leuke afsluiter van een avond gehad met wat Cambodianen in het guesthouse die vervolgens beschonken het meer indoken om op kikkers te vissen. Is wat anders dan een bezoek aan de snackbar na een avondje stad.
Op dit moment zit ik in Siem Reap om de befaamde tempels uit het Khmer tijdperk te bewonderen. Het einde van de trip nadert gestaag, ik heb nog enkele weken om te genieten van dit geweldige stukje planeet. Mag ik alle lieve kijkbuiskinderen weer bedanken voor het lezen van dit gezwets en het achterlaten van onzinnige berichten.
Gegroet!