Page 3 of Elton Travel Blog Posts
Puente Centenario (Centennial Bridge), second bridge over Panama Canal
Hello everyone, Where shall I start? Well I bought new contact lenses but they didn’t arrive yet. They are hard contact lenses and the one for my right eye is special. They are being made in Mexico and sent by courier. It costed me less than the half the price compared to The Netherlands, which is a good thing. I also went once to the ophthalmologist to check my eye pressure, everything was fine! I already got my money back from Delta Airlines, and after all I lost only about € 30. They didn’t charge US$50 because of cancelling the ticket and I also got back the money I paid as tax, which was € 67. The best thing was that I demanded them to pay me back in Euro’s, which they did. I got the ... read more
Caldera - Chiriqui, Panama
¿Xopá? ¿Todo bien? Whenever you hear people greet each other with “xopá or que sopá” you know they are Panamanians. They like to say things the other way around and they have many unique words which I’ll be teaching you during my stay in Panama ;). “Que sopá” comes from “Que pasó”....it’s a way of saying hi, more like “what’s up or what’s going on”. After a long, busy and “expensive” week in The Netherlands I finally arrived in Panama last Saturday! In The Netherlands I managed to visit some friends and family and I was glad to see them all after more than a year. These visits took me to The Hague, Spijkenisse, Schiedam, Rotterdam, Tilburg, Winterswijk and Arnhem. The weather was generally not very good and it was “cold”!!! At that time I was ... read more
Thai entertainers in the hotel lobby
Hello there, Finally I arrived in The Netherlands safe and well today, after being stranded during a week! It was a very long, stressful and tiring week! I also got a cold in Bangkok, which only made the whole situation even worse. Cathay Pacific previously booked me for Sunday, but the protests at the airport kept on going so I couldn’t leave Bangkok on Sunday. The situation became worse. There were protesters also at the government building in the city, which they occupied since August. There was a grenade explosion there, which killed one and left about 50 injured. Then the protesters left the government building to join the other protesters at the airport. Both airports, Suvarnabhumi (international) and Dong Muang (domestic) were closed due to the protests. The protesters increased their presence at the airport ... read more
Petronas Twin Towers - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Good day, I wasn’t planned to write this blog but because of what’s happening at the moment here in Thailand I decided to do so. First of all, I flew to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia after I left Philippines. Kuala Lumpur is the capital city of Malaysia and has about 8 million people. It’s of of my favourite cities I’ve been to in south east Asia. I got there in the afternoon and spent more than 24 hours, awaiting my flight to Bangkok, Thailand. I went out into the city for a while, visiting the China Town, the Menara Tower and the Petronas Twin Towers. The first time I was here, 3 years ago, I visited the twin towers during the day only. It was the first time I saw them at night and they are ... read more
the Philippine flag
Good day all, Welcome to Republika ng Pilipinas (Republic of Philippines)!!! I spent a total of 12 days in this beautiful country. The Philippines consist of more than 7.000 islands with a total population of about 90 million, excluding the ca. 1,5 million Filipinos working overseas. The currency is the Philippine Piso (PHP). US$ 1 = PHP 49 and € 1 = 62 PHP during my stay in the country. The president here is a woman, called Gloria Arroyo, who is in power since 2001. Philippines once had the second largest economy in Asia after Japan, but since dictator Ferdinand Marcos came to power in mid 1960’s the economy only went worse and worse. Today it’s growing at a fast pace again and belongs to one of the NIC’s (Newly Industrialized Countries). Ninoy Aquino, a politician ... read more
Angkor Wat temple, Cambodia's pride
Good morning / afternoon / evening / night everyone, My trip in Cambodia (“Srok Khmer”) is over, a small country in Southeast Asia where there is finally peace after three decades of war, genocide, executions, starvation, famine, coups, diseases, political instability etc. Finally, finally the Cambodians are living in peace and they welcome you with a smile on their face...they seem always happy, just happy to be alive. About 14 million people live here. Cambodians generally don’t have much, it is a very poor country and you’ll notice that straight away when arriving here. But still, even being very poor, the people always smile and have fun with each other on their own way. Today Cambodia still has a lot of landmines lying unexploded, which every now and then explodes somewhere in the countryside leaving someone ... read more
local women at the market in Hoi An
Good day all, now my trip in Vietnam is coming to an end, next is Cambodia. After l left Hanoi I went straight to Hoi An, which is in central Vietnam. Hoi An is a little, but charming town....many old buildings, there is a big (bit smelly) market and the roads are full of holes. There is not a lot to do in the city, but there is something about it that I liked. Hoi An used to be an important trading harbour from ca. 1500 to 1900 but never grew into a big city. The place has only about 100.000 people and is visited by most tourists travelling through Vietnam. The riverfront is filled with dozens of bars and restaurants. Many small family-runned restaurants can be found all over town, as well as many craft ... read more
three little Vietnamese boys in their village outside Sa Pa
“Sin chao” everyone (“Hello” in Vietnamese), I’ve already been in Vietnam for a week now and everything is going fine! The good thing is that everything is cheap here. After I’ve been paying very high prices for everything in Australia, these low prices are a good relief. A couple of words to describe Vietnam the way I’ve seen it so far: “Cheap, chaotic, beautiful, charming”. Overall my experience here has been good so far. I’ve been a little bit sick for a couple of days though, I got a cold but it’s all better now. I might have got the cold due to the air pollution here in Hanoi. The currency here is the Dong: For 1 US$ you get about 16.650 Dong and for 1 € it’s about 21.250 Dong. When I left Sydney, Australia, ... read more
White Heaven beach, Whitsundays, Queensland
G’day everyone, After almost 11 months (47,5 weeks to be exact) my work & travel trip to Australia has come to an end. It was a great experience and I’m happy that I decided to came here and do it. I visited all states and territories of Australia including their capital cities (except the Australian Capital Territory with the capital of the country, Canberra). I met many nice people, less nice people, and made good friends with a few of them. I’m going to leave the country with mixed feelings. On one hand I’d like to stay longer because I enjoyed being here, on the other hand I can’t wait to be in Asia where it’s so much cheaper to travel and there is more culture. “Are you coming to Australia once again in the future?” ... read more
Perth, capital city of Western Australia
G’day y’all, Well....our trip in Western Australia finally came to a safe and happy end. Overall we had a good time, I can’t complain....although there were a few annoyances along the way. I mean, you can expect that when you travel with 4 other people you don’t really know, and especially when there is a Frenchman among them. I hate to generalise, but I have to say that many many French people have this arrogance in their blood....some of them have it a very little, others have it a lot!!! BUT, it was great doing this trip with all of them. Alexandre is a good guy, it’s just sometimes his “French arrogance” really comes up and it pisses us off (except his sister of course). He really likes to do things “his” way without even consulting ... read more
Countries I've been to 
