Jean-Marie Akkerman
... what ever next!J M Akkerman
47 y.o. man, travelling, adventurous and fun seeking people, in search of local cultures, good food, cool company whilst discovering the world. Will use this blog to update any travels I do throughout the world. I am very keen in Muslim & Buddhist cultures. I am keen to show that where ever one goes, people are kind and interesting things are to be discovered.
In all places one finds crime and hassle, it is not culture related, but individual person and poverty related. Through my previous travels going round the globe in the year 2000, where fear for Islam was still non-existant, I discovered that people, mostly, are pleased to meet, talk and share.
I, Jean-Marie am a well travelled man either due to my work as a circus artists (trapeze artist) and director or just for the fun of it. I am HIV positive and registered disabled due to Peripheral Neuropathy, but I don't allow these issues to change my travels and adventures, I still try it all although I have to keep my HIV drug intake under control and constantly take the medication at the same time as I usually do In London, so that means often waking in the middle of the night to take my pills! but that is little effort for still being able to travel.
I have generated a map of the countries visited on here. Went round the globe backpacking in the year 2000.
Visited Countries Map
Travel Blog Posts
La-Yesera and Granada in Andalucia, Spain
Published: March 7th 2012Europe » Spain » Andalusia » Alhama de Granada
September 27th 2011
had a great holiday in real Spanish country side, staying next to an embalse, lake from a dam and really rustic and beautiful with great welcome, staying in little appartments that are clean and stylish, nd the welcome and service are unique! see www.la-yesera.com curvy countryside roads to get to Granada and visit the Alhambra, but make sure you book in time! and great places to eat and still the old style tapas at which you still just order a beeer and you get a free bite of food at no costs...the Spain I remember from my childhood growing up there! beautiful place, great, culture, nature, food, guest house, lovely drives, sailing or cnoaeing, fishing, cycling, horse riding, boar hunting...real Spanis country side, absolutely beautiful!... read more
November 8th 2010
Discovering Lumba-lumba Diving Well as for travel blogs go this one isn’t a very adventurous one, as first I arrived here ill nd healing nd secondly because I am rather exhausted of a hard year off ill health and hard labour, so as my hosts are in charge, I have been allowed to do little but rest! Which is not a complaint but well the opposite, Roel and Juud the Owners of Lumba-Lumba diving in Manado, have built this resort from scratch, each plant, bungalow, stone, electric cable or piece of wood has been deliberately placed to ensure that this place brings to their customers what they would like to receive where they to be guests at such a resort, which means that it is almost spotless in the running, looks and service provided. I ... read more
November 6th 2010
Here I am in Manado, after a long journey from London that started on the 3rd of November 2010 at 6pm from my home and arrived finally at my destination on the 6th of November at 5pm local time. Due to the tube strikes in London, I decided to take a cab to Paddington station to make it faster, but then heard on the TV that traffic was a stand still on that road, so asked the taxi driver how much it’d cost instead to go all the way by cab and the difference would have been about 5pounds, so I went for it. All went well and got there by7,30pm, check in on Singapore airlines was fast and good, I was given a window seat and I felt exited to fly on one of the ... read more
Corruption in Paradise - the bad ways of Kenya
Published: October 26th 2008Africa » Kenya » Coast Province » Lamu
October 25th 2008
Hello again; Here comes my final page of this journey! As always, not all is great in Paradise on Earth! as we had a great time in Watamu, relaxing on the beach, feeding the family of our guide Mansuri, buying meat (they hardly ever have proper protein) fisn, rice, fruits and vegetables. We also have been feeding the staff of our guesthouse, and Mansuri the same food as we've been having such as kilos of garlic prawns grilled by me, full fishes, and on the last night to please GianLuca, we had 4 Lobsters for about £6 Sterling! with salads and vegetables and coconut-rice! Gianluca finaly passed his paddi which we celebrated with food and beer as well! the Tuskers (Kenyan-beer) are about 75 shillings from the supermarket here! We smoked some marihuana that Mansuri was ... read more
October 19th 2008
Hello again! well not really gone to see the animals! things changed plans on the evening of my last blog! I realised that I had forgotten one of my HIV pills, ones that need keeping in the fridge, so I had to instead of going to the natural park and see animals, instead we made our way straight to Watamu, as I needed to go to a Hospital to try and get the pills I am missing. So we made our way by tuktuk to another part of Mombasa and got there a bus that brought us for 200shillings to a crosspoing on the high road, and from there a matatu to the village itself. We got welcomed by a gorgeous guy talking to us straight away in Italian, everybody suddenly was at it! a couple ... read more
October 15th 2008
Jambo all; well here I come with another update! Last time I wrote, I was meant to have a meeting with someone from Dance4life that evening, but regrettably that person never made it, his bus from Mombasa arrived later then expected, and didn't have my number of the hotel to call me so we missed on it. The next day he was meant to meet me, as he went to a HIV/AIDs conference in town, but as I had not heard from him, I just waited to find out and decided to call him on the afternoon, on Saturday to meet in the evening, which we agreed to for 7,30, at 8,30 still no news of him so I called again and he said 9, which didn't happen either so I got really angry as I ... read more
October 11th 2008
Well here I am, day 1 of a new adventure! I arrived very early this morning, at 6am, but we were given the wrong time by captain so for a while I though I was an hour latter! an 8 hour flight from London straight here which was totaly trouble free, in spite of having to pass passport control with syringes in my hand luggage as I need to inject myself blood thinners on long flights. Check through at this end was rapid as well as I had gotten my visa before hand and 80% of other people in my flight were without so a long queue on their side I passed in 10 minutes, and luggage arrived fine as well, the usual rip off money exchange, but still the rate was higher than I expected, ... read more
From Arabs to Berbers to Touaregs in 3 days
Published: December 17th 2007Africa » Morocco » Marrakech-Tensift-El Haouz » Marrakech
December 11th 2007
Cascades d'Ouzoud - Atlas Mountains - Sahara Desert...what a dream! Well day 3 in Morroco, and we get up early to have breakfast on the Jamaa el-Fna, check out of our hotel and make our way to the new city to pick up our rental car. It all went smoothly, we got into the car and drove off east the road to Fez, to get of in the direction of Demnate, we regret not having bought the morrocan lonely planet, but at least we're glad that we took note of what all the people were saying about sites to visist and where they were to decide what wee can achieve or not, naively so, as we were soon to find out. Once in Demnate we were told that there were two different waterfall sites but ... read more
Marrakech:l'Arnaquech (Marrakech: rip off"ech")
Published: December 17th 2007Africa » Morocco » Marrakech-Tensift-El Haouz » Marrakech
December 9th 2007
Well, here we are again, traveling through another country. We arrived in Marrakech on the 9th of December, with a Ryanair flight for only £37 return which was incredible! The tittle of this page comes from a comment that a Touareg person told me, they called Marrakech "L'arnaquech" in the far south of the country, as people are constantly trying to rip off the tourists. Passing though the borders was allright, quick enough except for the fact that there was no one there to mention that we had to fill up a certain border form before getting to our turn at passing it, but once we found out we managed not to loose our space on the queue to get through. My HIV drugs were not questioned, and we just got on with it. As ever, ... read more
March 3rd 2007
Well we're back at home and inspired for new things and other travels, but not for a while we need to earn money now to be able to leave again, still the memories of cold Istanbul will keep us going for a while. First coming to mind are the birds and the cats, the sky of Istanbul was full of birds, from storks in the Gulhane Park that belongs to the Topkapi Palace to the flight of seaguls lit at night over the spires of the blue mosque! to sparrows, asian doves, comorans and ibyses all part of the scenario. At dusk the sky would fill with the flight of birds, not exagerating, in their thousands over the hills, mosques and waterways of the city, what an amazing image that was! The mosques, city filled with ... read more
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