Daniel and Tanja have been travelling a few months through the world and decided to get married in Thailand ... they told who ever wants to come can join us, at first they thought maybe 5 or 6 people come, we ended up with 17 ... Sjoerd (who i joined for the national marine park trip) had Daniel's wedding suit custom made in Bangkok and as icing on the cake he had the exact shirt and pants made for the boys, which of course came as total surprise to tanja ... i will summarize the day, the rest u can view on the pictures After my horrible unjustified holding by the Thai police i barely was in time for the dressing of the kids ... we took a longboat to a beach on the east coast ... read more

One more comment about Cambodia which really had an impact on mi ... I kept wondering why there were so many hospitals and medical centers and then i realized ... I'd say at least 30% of locals my age are missing a hand, a foot, an arm, a leg are scarred all over their bodies, a cruel reminder of the khmer rouge regime, nor was there anyone who spoke french, all of them died at the killing fields ... i first wanted to go south to phom phen and learn more about this history, however the flight from there to Koh Samui (biggest island on southeastern thai coast) was gonna cost me at least 500 euros, so i opted to travel back by bus to bangkok and take the night train to southern thailand from there ... read more

d ese I've discovered a new way to explore ... the bycicle ... and that coming from a Dutchie... not only does it take mi to places i would never end up while going for a walk, the exercise is doing wonders to mi body and soul ... so instead of going to Angkor Wat on my first day i decided to explore the town. A few km from the hotel i stopped for my first temple visit. A few buddists were playing chanting music on local instruments and as i relaxed in a lotus position, i felt an overwhelming sensation of letting go of everything ... somewhat the purpose of this trip ... within minutes of quiet the tears moistened my eyes, i somewhat felt like a fool, however i kept breathing deeply and soon ... read more

Trying not to spend loads of money i try to do most of my travels by land and or sea, thus figured out from my Lonely Planet travel 'bible' that i could take the bus from Bangkok to the Cambodian border. The 10 minut taxifare cost as much money as my 4.5 hr bustrip to the border. However the way it was described it seemed easy, however when i walked into the bus terminal there was not one english word to be found. After hitting about 6 booths and everyone saying 'ok, it's ok, there... u go there ... i believe i found the right ticket booth. However upon purchasing the ticket again it was in the Thai language. The good thing is there were arabic numbers and thus i found the way to a quite ... read more

The 12+ hour flight 'flew' by with all the latest feature cartoons (HappyFeet 2, Shrek 3, TinTin) and some sleep in between. Had booked a hotel thru internet, not a clue where was heading, however picked area closest to airport, which turned out to be the business district, a Las Vegas looking neonlit strip with nightclubs, massage parlors and tall buildings. Not interesting looking at all but then i noticed two young kids appearing from a small alley and in i went... within 50 feet i ended up in a hidden slumb, little huts without walls or windows, laundry hanging across the tiny paths. Families hugging together over lunch. While stepping over the dogs and cats which clearly had taken over the remaining area i zigzagged my way through this contrasting aread to end back into ... read more

As this is the first time i'm going to be traveling to many places all by myself i have decided to take a backpack instead of a suitcase ... of course way heavier than i thought, i put it on a chair and while i was balancing myself straight, my dog Poo (who happens to be a small calf ...) brushed by mi ... not used to having such a load on my back, i fell over and the backpack got pinned between the floor and myself ... i looked like a turtle, limbs flailing around ... with difficulty i turned over, somehow got myself up again (with the load) and walked straight to my suitcase with wheels ... and that's how i've decided to travel... read more

So i made a great mistake by trusting my research on payment/money prior to my departure ... i'm buying dollars with my euros to then exchange it again into cambodian ril ... however it's best to have ril, as depending where ya wanna buy bottle of water it can cost approx $1 (which is about 3,800 ril), but the moment u get away from the tourists (which obviously i try with the bycicle) you can get same size bottle for 800 ril ... 15 minutes from the busy section of Siem Reap i found myself between tin plate shacks and bamboo huts and was in heaven. I found a little path leading to a tempel complex where i got to talk to a young monk who invited mi into his humble one room home. We talked ... read more