Some years go fast, my 30th has passed without pit stops. Yet one year in Asia has been a year of pit stops all over the place. What did we do again? Hong Kong for Phd aftermath relaxation, Hanoi to visit a friend, Buddhist studies in Kathmandu, an amazing trip through South Korea, boredom in Taiwan, brother visit in Hong Kong, funeral in Holland, lack of inspiration back in Hong Kong, work in Bangkok, and now, one year later, a holiday in Laos. Wow Laos. Life is tropical, slow, friendly and relaxed in Laos. Vientiane, the capital has been officially selected [View Full Entry]

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Contrast and travel tiredness in Taiwan How fed up can one be with noodles, rice and sweet bread; that’s what we are contemplating these days. Travel tiredness comes and goes in waves, it doesn’t seem that much related to the country we are in, it is just part of having all the freedom you ever longed for and then being tired of playing the tourist every day. Taiwan is not yet a very popular tourist destination, yet that might change. The Portuguese used to call this island Ilha Formosa, ‘beautiful island’, and that’s what it is. The first and for [View Full Entry]

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Entering the unknown The lonely planet warned us already: “Almost everything you’ll experience in Korea is going to be different.” For once, they were right. It might have been our mindset coming from Nepal, it might have been our luck in meeting Korean friends who took us to visit their country, it might just be the country and its people themselves, but Korea has been different from everything we experienced so far. It is seven months ago that we ‘hit the road’. We are seven months, four countries, eight flights, three beaches, seven langua [View Full Entry]

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Lies, Damned Lies, and How Much Should Obama Lie? So Nepal got us thinking about wars once again. It seems impossible to avoid wars these days. Yet with the American elections coming up there seems to be a choice between “definitely war and maybe a chance of no war”. (Although, I heard they have not been able to fix those voting machines yet, that's gonna be manual counting again ;-).) Personally, I think “maybe no war” is preferable above anything on the other side of the continuum. Yet it seems that McCain is doing quite well which makes me wonder if [View Full Entry]

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Riots over Hindu Culture You would think one gets some understanding of the culture of a country after spending four months in it. Of course, to a certain extent we did. Yet Nepal remains surprising. Although the war between the military and the Maoists is finished, it ain’t over yet… Strange things keep happening in this country. The Maoists are now in power and the Young Maoists are bored. These young boys used to be recruited from poor families in villages to form the Maoist army. They are out of job now so they keep themselves busy by stirring things up [View Full Entry]

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Two months of hard work but back to bizznizz Thirteen hours can last forever. Especially when waiting for a next plane at flashy Bangkok airport. Kicking off our shoes to stretch our legs on three chairs, listening to dodgy music, freezing under the air con and practicing patience does not prevent us from being utterly bored. Then again, the airport is high class, modern and full of expensive duty free shops, all selling the same. We decide to pay 8 dollars for two coffees at six in the morning. A celebration because we made it through the night. The coffee tastes [View Full Entry]

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Farewell Hoi An Our last days in Hoi An have been real fun. The temperature here is going up every day. In other words: it is burning hot! What else to do than heading for a cool swim regularly... We found a nice quiet stretch of beach in Hoi An for our regular daily dip. Cruising the land on our motorbike (read: scooter), playing in the waves, drinking a Saigon beer and avoiding the sun was about all we did. Lilli managed to become a semi-pro in playing the local card game. This increased her status amongst the renters of our [View Full Entry]

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Vietnam is growing on us Traveling in Vietnam is not about feeling free to do as you like. It is not about meeting the locals, having a cultural dip, engaging in conversation. No, traveling in Vietnam goes by organized tours. If you want to see old Champa ruins, take a bus tour. If you want to visit Ha Long Bay, take a bus-boat-kayak-resort-boat-bus back tour. And, not to anyone’s’ surprise, we do not feel like touring the country by organized tours. Therefore, frustration has been growing. Our most frequently asked question is how to get off that beaten track. Our m [View Full Entry]

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I have a vague memory of the moment I first encountered my koesjdoek. It was at my grandmothers’ place. My grandfather just passed away. I remember sitting on her bed upstairs. How I ended up with his old satin pajama I don’t know but as soon as I felt it I was sold. It was so soft, so fresh… a perfect koesjdoek! My grandmother was happy to offer it to me since it used to be my grandfathers pajama jacket. It would make a nice remembrance… it did! So what makes a koesjdoek a good koesjdoek? A koesjdoek has to be [View Full Entry]

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Hanoi TOOT So we thought Hanoi would be a bit of countryside after spending almost a month in Hong Kong. We got it wrong once again ;-). Compared to Hong Kong, Hanoi is a mania of noise, dust, filth but above all: scooters. Allmost everyone in this city (we're talking 3.5 million inhabitants) moves around by scooter. Rome is nothing compared to Hanoi. And of course, Asia style, they horn whenever possible. I'm coming your way: TOOT TOOT, I'm gonna run you over: TOOT TOOT, I'm faster than you: TOOT TOOT, I know you've seen me but i can't help [View Full Entry]

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