Scrolling through the comments on my recent Facebook posts takes my thoughts for a wander. We all tend to share the highlights of our existence on social media. For some of us that’s an amazing meal, a night out with your dearest friends or, as it is for me lately, public recognition of the crazy […]
Roots
Walking back from the airport to my bike, I see monkeys playing on the roof of a nearby building. The streets are dominated by small motorbikes, little white Suzuki Alto taxis and big, black smoke producing, busses and trucks. This place is so different from where I come from, so different from where I grew […]
Your Mum says…
Imagine you’re about 4 years old. You walk down a crowded street in the city, holding your Mum’s hand. You pass someone walking on crutches, point at the person and say: “Mum, why is she walking with sticks?” If you are born in a western country your mother will likely respond along these lines: “Common […]
Unknown dangers
“You have to watch out when you go to Sumatra. Especially in the south there are really bad people” says the nice man living on Java, one island down from Sumatra. When arriving there I’m extra careful, make sure to not ride close to dark and watch the bushes for bandits jumping out. “Watch out, […]
Mario kart
The road entering Cambodia lead through some forest and was almost deserted. A truck in front of me was sticking to a roughly 50 km/h constant speed as I approached him, but when I started overtaking, without any warning or use of indicators he decided to swing to the left. I hit the brakes hard […]
Language of Motherly Love
It is a special and interesting experience everywhere I go, talking to older people and especially old ladies. It happened in every country on this trip through Asia. The script is similar every time. You meet, smile, greet each other according to local standards and then they start talking. Most of them in their local […]
The Sunbed Revelation
We all know them, and most of them have them somewhere. The pictures of the 2 sunbeds with the umbrella on the deserted beach or the jetty extending over the water with the sunset behind it. The pictures you buy at Ikea or some other middle priced department store. You stare at them in your […]
Sumatra
It’s been a while since I simply wrote a post about being a tourist, about the places I visited and the people I met. So it’s about time I think. Sumatra is the biggest island I crossed in Indonesia. The south is full of agriculture and palm oil plantations. To save some time, so I […]
Fear? Fear less!
About a week ago I met a French girl, Margot. She is travelling on her own and has been on the go for a few months. She decided to do a project while travelling and is making a short documentary about girls travelling alone. We immediately had hundreds of things to talk about and when […]
It hit me
“Bromo is closed” the lady told me. The famous volcano in the east of Java was throwing clouds of ash in the air. Coming from the Netherlands, where hills are rare, mountains don’t exist and volcanos are viewed upon as a completely alien concept, to me this was very exciting news. It wasn’t allowed to […]