Twisted Fairytale

Amsterdamned

2010-03-05T06:50:00.000-08:00

People!!! Three months ago i was still diving in the beautiful waters of Thailand, and now -i hardly survived the winter after eight months in the sun- i am starting a fulltime job on Monday. I'll become Online Copywriter for the website www.cheqqer.nl. I will be responsible for all the content of the website and i am looking forward to the job! This is a travelwebsite and as we all know: i love to travel. I'll work close to Schiphol and that could be dangerous; i could take an unexpected flight to somewhere some day ;-)

So yes, things have changed and well, i have to get used to it, but: i am happy living in Amsterdam now. Hope you guys are happy too. Trying to keep this blog alive besides all the other duties i have!

X Loes

Still on Koh Tao...

2009-10-26T22:28:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!!

It's been a while again and in the meant time the mummy and daddy already traded the white beaches on this bounty island for beautiful cold and rainy Holland!!! We've had an awesome time and i am happy they finally saw what i am all doing here! Well, of course i wouldn't be me without the next adventure already happening: i spent my night two days ago on oxygen in the hospital...HAHA. Well, it's pretty difficult and complicated to explain, but i'll try to: when diving you can reach your limits, there's tables and computers that tell you about how long you can stay at which depth. Well i didn't exceed my limits but i had too many dives in a few days i think. So i got nitrogen bubbles under my skin and that's called: Decompression Illness. It isn't life threathening but it can be if you're not alert and careful. So i am fine now, only have to stay out of the water for a few days now. And that's when i thought: I might as well get my tattoo done...

And so i did. It covers my arm untill the elbow and i love it. It's pretty big and it's a phoeninx; stands for: eternal life, ultimate freedom, feminism and overcoming big troubles in your life. Sounds like me huh?? Pictures soon!!! X

More random Koh Tao pics, wih MUM AND DAD!!! :-)

2009-10-12T07:00:00.001-07:00

Dive pictures! Finally!

2009-09-27T02:23:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

Here some pics; on our deep dive we had to take 'pressure sensitive' objects with us, so that's why we have a bag of crisps and a condom and a banana in our hands HAHA!! XX

WOWWWW

2009-09-26T07:59:00.000-07:00

Hello boys and girls ;-)

I'll start making another excuse about the pictures: still dont have an under water camera because they are so f**king expensive. BUT: this one will do for now, and our instructor went diving with us last week and he got a camera, so we have to steal his card and copy the pics, I'll do that ASAP!!

We've done some pretty cool stuff lately. Besides studying and having lectures, we dive and dive and dive and we have to assist courses for beginning divers. That's a lot of fun and then I see how funny you look when you go diving for the first time :-) Besides assisting we're also busy spending money for other courses we wanna take ourselves, and so we did our Nitrox Deep Specialty. I will try and explain you what that is: when you dive, u usually dive on 'air', that means normal air without added oxygen, that means you'll get more nitrogen in your blood after diving. Nitrox, also called 'Gucci-gas' means you can extend your limits, you can stay longer at a certain depth than you can with normal air. It's all quite a bit complicated, I didn't think there was so much into diving, but we're really learning the inside outs here for sure.

Our deep dive was till 40 metres and that is the deepest you can go as a 'recreational diver'. More than 40 metres means you'll go tec diving and that means 4 tanks instead of 1, plus loads of extra money for the course. I would love to do tec diving one day, but it is really expensive and also pretty dangerous when you do it wrong. We were on 40 metres and got 'nitrogen narcosis'; that means too much nitrogen in your blood and you get a bit giggly, as if you're drunk. Really funny. Koh Tao is now still beautiful for diving, but soon the monsoon will start and that means: RAIN RAIN RAIN. So the plan is to go to Australia then and come back here in the good season.

Peeps, i will steal the under water pics as soon as i can and put them on here! Thanks for reading!! :-) HAPPY DAYS

HAPPY BUBBLES

2009-09-15T05:52:00.000-07:00

HI everyone!!!

I have been toooooo busy lately to write you guys. What d'you think about that?? Being on a great trip and being too busy; that is really the weirdest thing in the world huh?? So, I'll give you a quick update without pictures, because we haven't bought an under water camera yet. And so you can guess what we're doing out here. DIVING :-) We started our Dive Master course 1.5 weeks ago. That means we're busy STUDYING, working and diving...and uh, of course going out a lot as well. This island is really a bog soap serie you know, everyone knows everything about each other...that's funny but it also sucks sometimes :-) Diving really is the cooles thing in the world, still. Well and something not so funny happened; for this course we have to be surface cover sometimes; that means you have to stay on the boat to make sure everything goes alright on board and pay attention to all the divers. The day i had to do that, i was seasick; that was the first shit thing, and the second was: everyone came up the water with the biggest smile ever...and they had seen a whaleshark!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! For the people among you guys who don't know what that is: PLEASE GOOGLE IT, because it is amazing! But the horrible thing was: everyone was diving, exept from me, cos i had to stay on the boat...and so i didn't see that massive giant awesome fish...FUCK!! But, we're gonna stay here for a few more months and maybe even work here as a diver...see how plans can change!! I didn't even know i was gonna go diving at the beginning of my trip, and now i am becoming a professional. Within six weeks Sjan and I will be qualified as a professional diver and we can find a job in diving...we're really addicted, excited and we LOVE this. And the best thing is: mummy and daddy are coming to visit me and i am gonna teach my dad how to diiiiiveeee! How awesome is that!! :-) Thanks mum and dad, for coming to visit me, i am looking forward to it!!!!! Under water pics coming soon! :-)

Angkor Wat PICS and back at Koh Tao!!!

2009-08-31T03:56:00.000-07:00

Heeey people!!

Finally a good connection and here the belated pics of Angkor Wat, like I said: the biggest temple in the world! It was a hot and long day and i told you already i am never really impressed by buildings, but, make your own judgements please! Well, not much to say; we went to Bangkok, stayed for a few days and did some shopping for clothes. They're very cheap there and since the colors of my clothes start to fade a little, i thought i could do myself a favor and buy new ones! Now we're on Koh Tao again, and we'll start our Dive Master in two days!!! For two months I'll be here now and i even have a Thai phonenumber now (tell you next time since i don't know it haha) so i can send cheaper texts! So ppl, i'll have only dive stories for the next weeks, hope u'll like it!! We're gonna buy an underwater camera too some day, so that will be funny pics!! Hope you're all well.

See ya next time, kiss, Loes

Angkor Wat

2009-08-24T03:38:00.000-07:00

Sooooooooooooooo people, we went to Angkor Wat, the biggest temple in the world and on the World Heritage List. It was quite impressive but still, i don't get hot or cold from just a building. We had a funny guide who was dancing the whole time. Just only a short message cos i can't upload the pics until we get to Bangkok. That will be the day after tomorrow. Internet isn't fast enough here so i ask for your patience now!

X

Cambodias Killing Fields

2009-08-21T03:04:00.000-07:00

It’s dead quiet here. The sun is hot and the day has only just begun, but here there is no sign of the usual life in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Even our Dutch friends don’t dare to make a sound, while they usually are noisy. But these are the Killing Fields. This is the place where, only some twenty years ago, the mass grave of about twenty thousand people got discovered. The history is horrifying; people got transported from everywhere, especially from the S-21 prison, to stand here, on this very place, to get killed brutally, hands tied on the back.

Cambodia, April 1975. The Khmer Rouge, their leader, Pol Pot, mirrors Hitler. They have taken over the country and decided to kill everyone who’s supporting the old government. People are taken away from their families, not even knowing what’s happening and get killed or have to work in camps. They haven’t done anything wrong. Here, on these fields where thousands of people got killed only forty years ago, we stand quietly, staring at the skulls. We decide to go to the S-21 prison afterwards, and that is an even more impressing event. On the pictures below you see the iron beds on which prisoners got chained. On the floor they got tortured to death, forced to confess something they hadn’t done; betray the government. Many many died on these floors, the same floor as we're standing on right now. Cold chills run down our spines as we, terrified, look at hundreds of portrait pictures, taken of people who were meant to die in this place. You can see fear in their eyes...This place, the S-21 prison in its original shape, now is a museum.

Two million Cambodians got killed during this war that lasted four years. Every single Cambodian has lost someone during this war. Everyone. And yet they are the friendliest people we’ve ever met.

Besides this impressing day we got to see enough of Phnom Penh; we went to the local football match, which was very funny. We went to a water park that was very dirty, also very funny. We went to some clubs where the whores were obviously seeking Western men, not so very funny, and we went to markets and bars. And a lot of this under supervision of our nice Cambodian friend and owner of our hostel, Jimmy. Cambodians are friendly, great, nice people, and when you walk through a city as Phnom Penh, you see only smiling faces, knowing that their lives must actually almost certainly have been destroyed years ago.

Also we took a tour in the slums, just as in India, where, just as in India, the children came running after us, dying to pose for the camera. Very nice. And I have seen the famous Doctor Scott, who seemed to come directly from an English comedy. I’ve now got pills for amoebes, some parasite. But don’t worry, i am fine.
Cambodia impressed already and will do even more after we’ve seen the Angkor Wat Temple that is on the World Herritage List and must be a magnificent building.

You’ll hear from me soon :-)

MUD

2009-08-12T04:52:00.000-07:00

Just to show you guys how our scooter ride on the island was :-) Very adventurous!!

X

The coolest family in Vietnam!

2009-08-07T00:55:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!!

What do you wanna hear first, The War Museum or our crazy night out? Well, the museum was quite impressive, but the usual stuff of course. In Hiroshima and Nagasaki we went to the atomic bomb museum and here to the war museum, both the times the Americans thought they ruled the world again and destroyed Japan and Vietnam. What you see in these museums are pictures of horribly disabled people, pictures of soldiers killing people and of course the weapons they used. It's always impressive and always a moment in which you again think how lucky you can actually be you've never been through all this. But it also felt like something too distant from me to tell you a lot about. We're gonna try to find some books to get some more background information.

Then, about our extraordinary night out, I have to explain a bit more. Albert Jan Nguyen lives in Holland and is Dutch-Vietnamese. I know him since i was fifteen, we have had the best times together working in the supermarket!! HAHA. He's got a lot of family in Vietnam and told me to visit them if i could. Well of course i went there with Sjan. The first night his uncle and ant were a bit shy, and his cousin, Thy, took us out for dinner. I think they are a pretty rich family in Vietnamese standards. Thy wanted to pay everything and we tried to refuse, but it didn't work. Then Hoa, Alberts ant, invited us for dinner and dancing the next day, our Dutch friends were welcome too. So we went there the next day. But Hoa didn't cook for us, like we thought, no, we were to get in a taxi and we stopped at a very chique restaurant. Too bad we had the proper backpackerslook, we felt kinda misplaced. The dinner must have been very expensive, and was very nice. They paid...and after that we went to a very expensive hotel, as expensive as Hilton for example, to go to a club where a band was playing. The drinks were way too expensive and we decided to drink slow. Again, they refused our offer to pay as well, and so we had the most expensive night out without spending money. But the money doesn't matter at all. This, again, is something to think about. Would you, you Dutchie, would you take four complete strangers out for dinner and dancing and pay everything for them when they would claim to know your cousin who lives miles away??? No, exactly, you wouldn't, I wouldn't. But they are so friendly, so different. Once again this is a lesson to learn, and this time we learned the nice way :-)

Miss Saigon!

2009-08-04T22:57:00.000-07:00

Hellooooo dear friends!

It seems to bring bad luck, this trip, because i have been sick AGAIN! Just a regular flu, or it might be some parasite or so I got in India, who knows. Anyways, we arrived in Saigon, also called Ho Chi Minh City, in the south of Vietnam and i immediately stayed in bed for a good two days. But, i am happy and better again now, so no problems. I survived AGAIN! Hahaha. The pictures need some explanation i guess. The picture with the woman, that's the picture of our cleaner in the hotel in Saigon. Since I stayed in bed and the rest (see the pics below) went out to do cool things without me, i was there when she came in to clean the room. Vietnamese don't speak English, they don't even understand when you ask the bill in the restaurant. But, since we were in the room together, i thought i might as well try to have a conversation with her. And it kinda worked. The picture i took is after i painted her nails red. HAHA. I was trying to explain i am from Holland and she understood because she said: 'too cold!' Then she started to tell me a story, it was a sad story and in the most simple english ever, but she made it funny as hell. She said her husband did boksing, so i thought she meant the sports boksing. But she stood there, in our room, and tried to immitate her husband beating someone, and we were both laughing. But in the end i understood she meant her husband practised his boksing skills on HER!! And so she left her husband, with her two children she came from Hannoi to Ho Chi Minh. After telling me that she started cleaning the room again and that's when i started painting my nails and she was totally entertained. So i offered to do it for her as well and she loved it. After that i took the picture. It was very nice, I think i made her day!

The pictures below were taken in Nha Trang, on the coast. We agreed to do a drinking game with our good friends Bob and Bram, a card game, and we bought the most horrible local alcohol. Local whisky, rum and gin...mmmmm...funny enough Sjan, who doesn't drink that much, was the one who had to drink all the time. The game is just good or bad luck, and i had the good luck for once. We went out clubbing to a club with only Vietnamese, was very funny. More pics i can't show you yet, since i spent most of the time in my hotel room, but from today on i'll be in the game again!

X

Happy happy! Vietnam

2009-07-29T00:37:00.000-07:00

After a few days of being completely off the road because of our anti malaria tablets, we’re kinda sane again, back to the normal craziness. Man, it has been hilarious, scary, horrible, impossible, our Lariam madness. Because that is what it was. Beside the fact this was kinda our own mistake (we should’ve taken these pills three weeks before entering malaria area) i wish i could find the dude who ever invented this stupid medicine, to either lock him up in a room with thousands of malaria infected mosquitoes (because those horrible fucking creatures are the actual reason for our madness in the first place) or give him a few Lariam pills, so i could personally put him in a psychiatric hospital. Of course we DID do it wrong and we SHOULD have been smarter, but i can’t really blame it on us completely. Because we didn’t know when we would enter malaria area, we decided to use the easier option, which was seriously even written on the front of the medicine box and said: ‘If taking Lariam three weeks before entering malaria area is NOT possible, then take three pills, in three days’. And so we did, and so, according to our personal doctor, that was the stupidest thing we could have done, and no, we didn’t get away with it. We basically took an overdosis Lariam, which resulted in a crazy state of mind. What i am writing now must seem quite hilarious to you all, but i tell you: we haven’t laughed about it that much. We have been in every state the past few weeks, except from happiness, which should be the regular state to be in. We have been crying (because i didn’t understand the card game anymore), we have been laughing (not because of funny things, but just hysterical laughing, that comes quite close to being the biggest freak in the mental hospital) and we have been grumpy, sad, and especially very depressed. Anyway, you’ll never believe me until i’ll tell u myself one day, and until then, you could look ‘Lariam side effects’ up on the internet and see, with terror in your eyes, that i am not making this story up.

Well, been there done that, i would say and shit, how happy we can be this is over now. The doctor told us never to lay a finger on this medicine anymore, so we don’t.
Happy this is over, we’re in Vietnam now, enjoying the beach, beautiful weather and palm trees, like we deserve for sure. We’re in Nha Trang, Vietnam, right now. We arrived two days before in Hue, also Vietnam and after an easy border crossing (however, the guy took a long time to find out it was ME in the picture on my passport) and we stayed only one night. I immediately loved Vietnam, as soon as we crossed the border. It was so beautiful to see the landscape, close to the sea, with the mountains on the background. Well, today we hurried to Nha Trang, again a 13 hour bus ride. We hurried because Bob and Bram, the two Dutch guys, were already waiting for us there for a week! Haha! But, this bus ride became one of the saddest for me...after four hours, after the first break, i accidently found out they kept a very young puppy dog in the luggage storage room of the bus. When i first saw the little animal, in a little box, in between all our luggage, in the dark and without fresh air, i was too shocked to think straight. But when i sat back in the bus i immediately thought: it needs water. The next stop, i waited for it impatiently, i hurried out the bus, horrified to see no one even cared to open the door for the little dog, just to let in some fresh air for example. Nothing of all that and i was strucked, it hit me that i was apparently the only one who cared. So that became my mission for the day, seven hours long; giving the dog water every stop. It didn’t always work, there was only one guy who kinda understood me, the rest was just laughing, staring at me with a mixture of amazement and entertainment; look at this foreign girl trying to save a DOG! They don’t care about dogs here, so they thought it was quite funny I cared to give it water. And the whole day i could only think about the dog, every bumping road i felt sorry for the poor animal and anyways, the dog was there, in the hot storage room, for at least 24 hours. And i knew, that if i wouldn’t have noticed the dog, there would have been no one who would have given the dog water. No one. And it made me very mad, but i know there’s nothing i can do. People here don’t grow up with respect for animals, i’ve seen that many times. Sjan and Loes tried to tell me i did everything i could to save the dog, but when i had to say bye to him, knowing that it would have to travel another twelve hours, i started crying. Yeah, crying, haha. The guys who wanted to bring us to our hostel looked quite puzzled, seeing this foreign girl, crying, with a big backpack on her back. But sure, the dog survived because of me. And I don’t even wanna know what is gonna happen to this dog, they’ll probably sell it on the market or so. So, God bless the dog, and God give the people who don’t care their well deserved punishment! Well, people, this was it, I am gonna enjoy the beach! Pics soon!!

Sabai Dee!!!

2009-07-21T01:54:00.000-07:00

Sabai dee! That’s how they say hello in Lao, where we are now. After a twelve hour bus ride from a little village just at the border, we arrived in Luang Prabang. First plan was to go by boat, that would have cost us two days and uncomfortable seats, as we heard from many people. The bus was cheaper, faster AND more comfortable so the choice was easily made. It was a ride through hell though, for people who are car sick, people like me. But, this time i prepared myself and bought Prima Tour pills for only twenty cents and they even worked! Some people in our bus got sick anyway though, and i can tell you, it can’t have been a nice trip for them.
As we zigzagged our way through the mountains of Lao, the wish to lend you guys my eyes, once again crossed my mind. I would have loved to share the moments with you when we could clearly see the rain forests, the banana tree plants on the hills and the incredible green rice fields. The rice plants, as you might know them from TV maybe, are tall and thin and have an amazingly bright light green colour. So imagine a few high hills, covered with rice plants, and you know how beautiful our view was. The view, unfortunately, was through dirty bus windows and we drove fast, from sharp curve to sharp curve, hoping there wouldn’t be another car coming from the other side. Actually the road might have been quite dangerous, but i have experienced so many dangerous traffic already, that i didn’t really care.

Something else that is really interesting and not so nice really: the side effects of our anti malaria medicines Lariam. You’re suppose to start taking pills three weeks before you enter malaria area but you can also take three, for three days in a row. It’s well known that Lariam has horrible side effects, such as depression, panic attacks, fever, and that kind of shit. Since i tried them in Holland already and they agreed with me, i didn’t think i would have any problems. But here we are, taking those pills for three days now and yesterday i started to feel sick. We all felt a little light headed, like being drunk or so. It started to get worse yesterday night, but in a good way though. We were playing cards and suddenly i didn’t understand the game anymore and i started to tell stories about long times ago, and we laughed our asses off really, especially i did. But this morning i felt kinda sick again and yes, you could describe it as a little depression. Luckily we only have to take them once a week from now, and i hope i’ll not have any problems with it anymore. So don’t worry, i am only becoming a bit more crazy than i already was. Enjoy the pics!!

In the jungle the mighty jungle...the lion sleeps tonight!

2009-07-16T22:43:00.001-07:00

Cutting plants, cooking on self made fire and using a waterfall as a shower; our trekking was back to basic!! It was awesome, the real jungle like you would imagine a jungle to be. Paths were slippery -maybe from rain, maybe from dripping sweat- and steep. We had to climb up and downhill, through banana tree forests and we had to walk through little rivers. It was hot, it was amazing, it was beautiful and very primitive. It was Thailands jungle!

Our first day we started kinda late, with a group of six, us three and three Spanish guys. We went elephant riding and i was always the first to say i didn’t wanna do that because i know these animals aren’t made for it. But it was included in the price, so we kinda had no choice. After that we started walking for a few hours, it was PEANUTS compared to our trekking in Nepal. Of course it was a totally different environment; you can’t compare the Thai jungle to the Himalaya mountains, but as we walked on further we started to talk about Nepal and we started wondering about how we actually ever survived that trekking. So, relieved this one wasn’t a torture, we arrived in the first village, where two deaf guys welcomed us. They had an amazing energy, were super happy, even though they couldn’t speak to anyone. They started laughing and drinking whiskey, they wanted pictures of us and they were very sweet. They smelled horrible though, hadn’t taken a shower in ages i would guess. They were about 25 years old and brothers, they would never know a language, and they would never know anything else than the village in the mountains. That’s such a weird thought. Sitting there, surrounded by the children of this village, who don’t even speak Thai, but some tribal language from their own tribe, this thought crossed my mind several times: what a different life. Those people don’t have electricity, we cooked our meal on self made fire, together with our guide, who told us how to prepare a proper Thai meal. So, no electricity, pigs and chickens kept for a living, and a hundred people in a village, living a life far away from the rest of the world. It was interesting, nice, and amazing. At night we burnt candles, since there was no light. Then the children came to sing songs, wearing traditional clothes and looking a bit shy. After that we went to bed. A fucking hard bed, really big though, and a square mosquito net to protect us from the insects. The night went by easily, sometimes we heard dogs fighting but we had a good sleep.

Next day we walked for four hours and arrived in a village with only one family. They had no shower, the huge waterfall close by was our shower! It was awesome, we had to take our soap with us into the river, really back to basic. We slept in a hut, and the two children of the family were little bastards. People here don’t treat animals like pets, they just keep them for their living. So the little girl was killing butterflies all the time and she was chasing the pigs with katapults. I got mad at them several times, but i knew i couldn’t do anything about it. This is just how these children grow up. And they grow up the hard way, living the jungle life. They knew how to cook, how to use a big knife, they climbed a tree in a blink of an eye and they shoot the katapult like professional hunters. Amazing to see. They were only about eight years old, walked barefoot the whole day and weren’t afraid of anything. It is impressing to think about their future; they will have the most primitive life people can have. On the last day, yesterday, we went river rafting, wasn’t that special but nice to see for once. The trekking was NICE, we got to learn a lot about the people in the villages in Thailand and that’s the main thing! But also happy with our fresh washed clothes again, we are still in Chiang Mai now and we leave tomorrow to go to Laos. That will be a big adventure again, so i’ll keep you posted!
X

Chiang Mai

2009-07-12T06:16:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

Just a short message from Northern Thailand. We arrived in Chiang Mai today, after a few mad days in Bangkok, with a few mad Dutch guys! We first left Bangkok for Sukothai, where we biked around a bit, we got kinda lost as well on that tour haha. There is an old city in Sukothai, with temples and stuff, but it wasn't even interesting enough to take a picture of really. See the amazing picture above though, it gives you the right impression.

The day after Sukothai we left and went to Chiang Mai. Luckily we arrived on a Sunday because there's a huge market here today where you can buy anything from hand made dolls, food, and whatever else, things we don't even have a name for in Holland. We went to a food market and there was SUSHI!! YES!! But just when we were about to start eating, everyone stood up from their chairs and didn't say a word anymore. It were looooaaads of people standing suddenly and the national Thai anthem was playing out loud. Whatever was going on, it must have had something to do with the unlimited love the Thai have for their king and queen. Their pictures are EVERYWHERE and they are soooo ugly too! We would not even expect our grandmothers to have a picture of Beatrix, well, here in Thailand everyone loves the king and queen too much, whatever their reasons! We arrived in the hostel today and immediately a girl, Julie, convinced us to do a trekking. We kinda HAD to book immediately, she wouldn't even show us our room (which we fucking booked in advance) before booking our trekking. Well, so we did, and we're gonna walk around in the jungle for three days, not tomorrow but the day after. NIIICE!!!

Oh yes and then there is something else. Something that’s been bothering me for all those weeks i am gone already and i haven’t even shared it with u guys yet. They are just little problems you would say, but after a while they become a big issue. They make you look like you’ve been bitten on by rats and they make you feel like crazy every day and night. They aren’t called Sjan and Loes, they are called MOSQUITOES!! I hate those little fuckers. Sjan and I, we call them whores, because they’re always women who bite you and as well they go from one to the other ;-) But well, the story is that i’ve been covered with little bites since Nepal, since our trekking. The ones from the trekking aren’t gone, no, in fact, they are scars now and will never go away. I have never thought of my legs as the ugliest part of my body, but since those little fuckers want only my legs, they look disgusting right now. And the little beasts are smart too. Of course we all have Deet with us, the cream you should use to try and hold them back from you. Unfortunately it doesn’t really help and all the little spots you forget, even if it would only be one toe, they notice it and so they bite you there several times. I HATE THEM!

So, enough complaints i would say. After all our life isn't that bad here ;-) Bet you have a lot more to complain about!

X pics next time!

Hello and Goodbye

2009-07-06T18:48:00.000-07:00

Our Advanced Diving course was even more fun than the diving certificate course we did. In our Advanced, we went night diving. That is reaaaaallly different and funny, because you need a torch of course and we've seen different fish than during the day.

We did a deep dive as well, 30 metres, and that was the funniest dive we've ever had. When you're 30 metres or deeper, you can get 'nitrogen narcosis', which means you are only laughing and giggling and everything is funny, it's a bit like you're drunk. Of course this can be dangerous as well, because you won't pay as much attention as you should, but we had our instructors looking after us. Before the dive we did a finger game and our instructors wanted to do that game at 30 metres depth. I thought nitrogen narcosis wouldn't happen to me, but when we were 30 metres, i suddenly started laughing and couldn't stop anymore. Sjan as well felt a bit weird and she was trying to tell me something with her hands, but that, as well as the finger game, i didn't understand anymore. We had the funniest instructor anyway, Carsten, from Germany and he always wears a batman hat under water, very funny. So the Advanced Diving was a lot of fun and guess what: we planned our whole route now. First we're gonna do South East Asia and then the plan is to go back to Koh Tao in September and do the Dive Master course there in six weeks. We can't wait to go diving again!!! We also, besides diving, had mooooore fun. Going out in the few bars the island knows was really nice. We went with Steen, a Danish guy and Andre, the funniest German ever. We already AGAIN had problems to say bye...but this time it woin't be for long, since we're going back.

Well, I told you a little bit about going to Malaysia and back, to extend our visa. That is the only way you can get another visa for Thailand for free, so we thought it was the best plan. We went from Koa Sok, the National Park (which we haven't really seen because we were running out of time, wasn't planned properly) to the border, Hat Yai. From the border we went to Malaysia and that's where the adventure started. We had to go ACROSS the border, so go IN and OUT Malaysia. First time we only went OUT of Thailand and walked back immediately. We tried to enter Thailand (Sjan already passed the border). When the guy saw my passport he was laughing: 'you need to get a stamp guys, so go ACROSS the border, go IN Malaysia and back'. Sjan was called back by the guy and he put a 'CANCELLED' stamp in her passport. I would say that is the funniest stamp you can ever get. Shit, we thought, we would have to walk about 20 minutes with our backpacks to the Malaysian border and back. So we went one by one; first Sjan, then i went. We both got our stamps and were really happy. We walked back to the Thai border and the guy laughed again: 'you also need to get OUT OF Malaysia again'. OH MY GOD! We got in Malaysia and FORGOT to go OUT as well, so we had to go back there, AGAIN. This time we went together and after getting our stamps, we couldn't walk further anymore. Two Thai guys on a scooter saw us and gave us a ride, ON THE SCOOTER WITH OUR BACKPACKS! Very funny. Finally we got across the Thai border again, and we went back to Hat Yai, where we spent the night and took a bus to Bangkok the next morning. We arrived here yesterday night and we're back in the same guest house.

It was a weird adventure. After all we spent about an hour in Malaysia and about too long in between those countries. But hey, we can say we've been to Malaysia ;-)

X

Still diving and more diving!!

2009-06-29T03:58:00.000-07:00

YEAH!! We made it!!! We have our diving certificate!!! Tonight we're gonna watch the movie! We've really seen Nemo today!! Was sooooo cool, just like in the movie but even better! The fish are beautiful! But sometimes annoying. There is a blue striped one named 'cleaner fish' and it's definitely a cleaner because it bites you a bit, cleans your skin. That's very good for it but it feels like a needle sticking in your legs! Of course we're sooooo addicted now we are starting an Advanced course tomorrow. That means we're gonna do five more dives, pretty expensive but we're gonna go night diving too. Now we've only dived till 18 metres, after the advanced we can dive till 30. And we really are thinking about going for the Dive Master class as well, which means you can accompany professional divers on dive lessons for groups, you can be a sort of a teacher. It's a months training and as well again pretty expensive, but we're planning to save up some money after working in Australia and then come back to this island to do the Dive Master. Pfew, a new hobby, very very nice!! We're really addicted now...haha. Below some pictures of us (we had a little storm on the boat so i got seasick of course...) and the other pics are from the other island, when we were driving scooter on sandy and difficult roads as you can see! So, plans changed again, because we actually wanted to leave this island tomorrow, but we're gonna stay for the Advanced course!! GREAT!!! See you next time!!

Blub blub,

Loes

FINDING NEMO IN THAILAND!!!

2009-06-28T05:37:00.000-07:00

What we say, we do...so, we started our diving course a few days ago!!! And i have to say, IT IS AWESOME!!! It's Discovery Channel and Animal Planet in one!! Just like you see it in the movies! The first real dive we did today, together with our exam, 50 questions about diving. It is actually more difficult than we thought. Your ears can hurt a lot and you have to know about decompression sickness, the same thing as altitude sickness, what you can get in the mountains. There is a whole table which calculates how long you can stay under water, and how many metres. If you stay longer, you can die. That's bad huh?? But, luckily we have a great instructor, Kenzji, from Japan. He did around 6000 dives in his life and is one of the best 20 instructors in the world. He's a real good teacher. And diving is much fun, we're doing boat dives, which means you go on the boat to a beautiful spot and then dive there. Tomorrow we're gonna do our final two dives (18 metres), and they'll make a cool movie!

Diving is not just jumping in the water and see the fish. It's about setting up gear (which takes time and is the shit part of diving HAHA) and about knowing what you're doing. It can be very very dangerous as well, and you have to exactly know where you're diving, with who. You have to learn the under water signs because of course you can't speak under water and that is really shitty. Sometimes i wanna tell Sjan something and that just doesn't work. It's hard on your body too; though diving doesn't make you a star swimmer ( I already am of course ;-)), it takes a lot of your energy. You can dehydrate faster than normal and because of the depths you can get a headache quick. I also had some problems with my ears, but for the rest, man, the fish were beautiful. The greatest colors, the weirdest shapes, it is a whole new world we're discovering. We're planning to do an advance course too, and maybe become dive master, that is one step higher than advance again.

Our senses are triggered, our hunger for adventure as well; we might skip the farmers work in Australia and do a whole course to become a diving instructor (which cost money and takes several months). But that is only just a plan for now; first we go diving in Bali and Australia, and if we really like it for more than a hobby, we're gonna do all the other courses. But this island, Koh Tao is a whole new inspiration. Everyone is talking about diving, there are people who became dive masters and everyone knows about fish. And besides all that, this part of Thailand is one big party, so if you question yourself: where the hell is Loes, is she having fun? YES!!! I AM!!!

About the pics?? They're on the way, under water pics i can't give you, but tomorrow after we finish we'll have some free time to take pics of this beautiful island. And sweet people, while you are working, we're deep in the sea, finding NEMO and tomorrow getting our official diving certificate so we can dive everywhere in this world without an instructor!!! After that, party, and after that, back to the other island, Koh Pagnan to PARTY!!! HALF MOON PARTY HERE WE COME!!!

So, the answer on the question: 'do you miss holland?' NOOOOOOOOOOOOO...!!!

Kho Pagnan, a little paradise

2009-06-22T03:20:00.001-07:00

A little while later, but here I am. After a week in Bangkok, we arrived in Kho Pagnan this morning, an island in South Thailand and as you can see, it is beautiful. These pictures are from the view we have from our bungalow we stay in, blue sea and white beaches all over!! Tonight there is a Black Moon party; this island is well known among tourists for the Full Moon parties. Since we have to pick up Loes, Sjans sister, on the 8th of July, and the Full Moon party is on the 9th here in Kho Pagnan, we decided to do the Black Moon, which should be exactly the same, but without the moon ;-) The bus ride to Kho Pagnan took 12 hours and after we had to take a two hour boat. We are planning to do all the islands in two weeks and we wanna do a diving course, which Thailand is the best for, and as well the cheapest. Though, we still have to figure that all out.
Bangkok, our week there, was nice but weird too. The tourists were only drinking, the craziest things happened in the street we were staying in. There were Thai girls with ugly, white and fat tourists, they only want their money of course. And again, we bumped into this guy, Tjerk, a Dutch guy, who we met in Shanghai two years ago. This already happened before as you know, with Daniel, so we wonder what is gonna happen next. We also met two other Dutch guys, Bram and Bob, who we didn’t know before and spent two nice nights out, watching people and having fun. We are gonna meet them again, most likely, because they’re gonna do the exact same countries.
We see Bangkok as ‘Salou of South East Asia’, which isn’t really a compliment. We were happy to leave that faceless city, without it’s own character. We still are homesick; homesick of Nepal. We decided to go back there, maybe this trip, maybe another one, but we will go back. Hopefully we’ll get to know the real Thai culture as well, because there is no chance you’ll find that in Bangkok. Oh yeah, we ate cockroaches and caterpillars, fried ones. They have all street food in the street we were in, that’s one nice thing, and they also had fried insects, which we tried with the Dutch guys. I ate the head of a huge cockroach and it was horrible. The texture was mushroom-ish, the taste was indefinable. Haha. But at least we tried! Well people, there is a lot to do on these islands, we’re gonna rent motorbikes and we’re gonna get tanned, hopefully! Bangkok wasn’t worth to take pictures of, these islands definitely are, so next time you can expect more. These are just an impression, we haven’t had time yet, we just arrived an hour ago! Thanks for reading and see you soon!
X

We miss Nepal!!!

2009-06-15T21:02:00.000-07:00

Sad, because we left on a jetplane... Travelling is awesome, but saying goodbye is one part i’ll never get used to. Of course we had some nice last nights with our local friends. Everywhere, in every bar we came, we knew people by now, and that was a funny feeling, the locals totally accepted us as one of them. But of course the time came to say goodbye. Two days ago we had our last live concert and the day after, yesterday, we left for the airport, which wasn’t that easy by the way, because there was a strike going on, as always in Kathmandu, so there were no taxis at all. Our hotel manager walked us all the way to a tourist bus station, but we arrived there and there were no buses of course. We took a cycle rickshaw, can you imagine that poor guy with all our bags??? Luckily, when the guy just started riding, the bus came and we jumped out of the rickshaw (we gave the guy money anyway, it was a nice try). At the airport one of our boyband friends came to say bye, very nice and sweet! Then the plane was delayed and after a two hour delay we finally left. Both of us were staring out the little windows, and the big surprise was that we could see the Mount Everest from there. That was incredible, just awesome, seeing the white mountain tops coming out the clouds. At that moment we were both sure: we’ll come back to Nepal. To see our friends, but also to see this beautiful country again. I think, of all the countries i’ve been to, Nepal is one of the most impressing when it comes to nature. But also our friends made saying goodbye hard; it is weird to see how you can get close to people you only know for three weeks. We’ve laughed with them (Kishor, one of the guys, showed us his ID and his birthday is in 2039. We started laughing out loud but then found out the Nepalese year is different, it is 2066 right now HAHA), we’ve been amazed by them, we’ve been hearing their stories and got to see the life of Nepalese people from very close, and i consider that as something very special that a lot of tourists will never experience. And that is what makes us feel kinda lost in Bangkok now. Everything is noisy, we are staying in the most touristy part of Bangkok, Khao San Road, there is loud music everywhere, girls in short skirts, as well tourists as locals, it’s very hot again here (and it rained non stop last night!!!), our friends are gone and there is no way this is the same as Kathmandu, the friendly, amazing, beautiful place we were used to now, after three weeks. In Kathmandu there are more hippies, but there is also a very healthy culture; people go to Nepal to experience its beautiful nature as well. In Bangkok the tourists are only here to show their bodies and drink lots of beer. Usually we would like that and I am sure it’s not gonna take too long for us to just tune in again, but for now we feel kinda homesick for Nepal...Nepal, we’ll miss you! BUT, despite all this, we’re of course ready for our next adventure, here in Thailand. Next time we’ll hopefully be more down to earth.

X

More dead bodies!

2009-06-13T01:28:00.000-07:00

Today we went to the cremation burning place in Kathmandu, where they do the same as in Varanasi, burning bodies. There were a few differences though; where in Varanasi and the rest of India, women aren't allowed to experience the burnings, here in Nepal they are. We could even take pictures! So, finally, people, enjoy this. We've seen dead bodies again, for me already a bit familiar, but for Sjan it was the first time. They light the fire from the mouth, that's because Hindu people believe the soul lives from the mouth, very interesting. They cover the body in white and ornage clothes and flowers and then burn it, on a big pile of wood, as you can see in the picture. We also saw Sadu Babba's, Nepalese hindu men, who want to be free from the circle of life. In Nepal people believe in reincarnation. Some people can choose to not believe in it, and become Sadu Babba's, which means they will not have another life after this life. They are only smoking weed hahaha and that's legal for them, but they have to give up much; they can never see their friends or family again. On one picture you see a Suda Babba, the one with the white hair. It was very interesting what the guide told us about this burning place. In one pic you see the cockroach, the biggest ones in the world, although you can't see it from the picture, but they are huge and they can fly. Sjan and I are scared to death with them, they also show up in the barwe always hang out with the band guys. They're horrible!!! The band guys are still playing every night and still telling us interesting stories about their culture, like they have arranged marriages and stuff. They also tell us about all their girlfriends, twenty each, which is very funny hahah. In two days we'll have to say bye to them, too bad!!! Travelling is all about saying hi and bye, sad sometmes! But, we're happy to go and experience Thailand, whatever that is gonna bring us!! Thanks for reading, kisssssss!

Leaving on a jetplane!

2009-06-09T22:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we said bye to Brian, sad, but without tears because we'll see him again one day!!! We had a nice last night here with Brian, of course with the band guys. Kishor, one of the band guys, sang the song: 'Leaving on a jetplane' for brian. We're still hanging out with them every night, also yesterday night, thinking of Brian and missing our friend, because he was a good travel partner!! Brian, note for you: our trip is already really different without you, having a guys company is better than two girls alone...listen to the following story:

We had to extend our visa for Nepal, so we went to a tourist office to do that. The guy who worked there took us apart and we found that strange already. First we didn't have enough money for the visa and our private driver for that day (arranged by our good Nepali friend were we booked the gtrekking haha), gave us some money, 7000 rupees!!! That is 60 euros...that was a weird thing, someone just giving us money (we paid it back of course). Then the guy from the office told us we had to follow him. We thought our passports would be ready by now, but what happened was a whole different story; he took us to a tea house, sat down and started talking about Nepal and his sister, in the meanwhile smoking ten cigarettes. We thought this was more than weird, but it would become even weirder: he told us to come with him in a taxi to Pokhara, around five hours away, where his sister lived. He wanted us to meet her, AHA, for real...he wanted something different and we decided to say: yes, we'll come with you, because we didn't have our passports back yet. So, the moment he gave our passports back and wanted to leave with us, we ran away, leaving the guy far behind...it was a weird day for sure...So Brian, this is what happends when you leave two little girls alone in Nepal...what were you thinking, booking your ticket back??

We have been thinking about you, for sure. I hope your flight has gone fine, though it mnust have been a hell!!! Well people, today we're going for a ride on the motor of our Nepalese boyband friends, let's hope they're not gonna be too cool for skool, so we'll survive!! Hahhaa, but we're always up for adventures, so you'll hear our new stories soon, next time accompanied by pics again!!! :-)

Hangin' out with the locals!!

2009-06-07T02:43:00.000-07:00

Hiiiiiii dear friends and family!!!

First of all, thanks for all the b-day wishes and the money i got from some people!! AWESOME!!! Well, to update you, after our trekking we didn't do a lot besides going out every night...we made friends with a Nepalese boyband, sooooo funny and it's really cool to hang out with them every night. Locals are always interesting, because they tell you stories about their country. It was funny, on my birthday we went to a club with two of the band guys, the ones in the picture, and suddenly one of them told me to be careful with dancing...he said the guys who live in the club area, have the first rights on the girls, and if i dance too sexy they'd have to accept a fight with those guys...amazing huh?? Funny how it works! Well, they're funny anyways, they play guitar and sing, we made good friends! We see them every night!

15th of June we'll fly to Thailand since we can't go to Tibet...it would be a group tour to Tibet and would cost us a fortune...too bad!! But more adventures to come, where ever we go!! well guys, thanks again and see ya soon! X

Nepal, on top of the world!!

2009-06-02T23:20:00.000-07:00

‘You don’t have to be experienced AT ALL!’ they said at the trekking bookings office. But they didn’t tell us we had to climb 3200 steps in 7 hours...Well, day one started with a 7 hour bus ride to Pokhara, the place where you can already see white mountain caps, for your information, Nepal is 17% flat and the rest is mountains, Himalaya. It was a nice city, Pokhara, but we only had a few hours to explore it in the end. The next day started early, our first hiking day would start at six in the morning. We walked for four hours and well, my legs already started to hurt at day one. The scenery was beautiful though, we passed waterfalls, lakes and little villages where people live lives like they did ages ago,very primitive. The first village we stopped and stayed over night was Tikedungha. It was very cosy, people where very friendly and our guide, Narayan, a Nepali guy, deserves some more of my words in this blog. He was awesome from the first beginning, he’s a tall guy and very skinny, but he walks up the mountain as if it was just nothing. While we were sighing and tired of walking, he always remained fit, but most of all patient. As i was the slowest one of course, he made sure i never walked alone. He always walked behind me to keep me company. You have to understand, it might sound like nothing to you guys to climb a mountain but i seriously never did something like this before in my entire life. It was amazing but exhausting. We needed to drag each other through it sometimes and luckily we all managed, even though we were very tired, especially on day three, to keep laughing. Sjan and I were making jokes because i was so slow, and that is the only way to do what we have done. Our guide as well said this was one of the hardest trekkings, because we climbed at least two kilometres in three days, and that is a lot. It takes energy and a strong mind. You really get to know yourself doing this kind of stuff. So, our first night we heard some amazing stories Narayan told us about the country. After playing chess with him (he won all the time), he told us about his village and family. He’s got three sisters and a few brothers who all work on the land in a village up the hills somewhere in Nepal. He himself decided to move to Kathmandu, Nepals capital city, because he doesn’t wanna work on the land anymore. Their culture is so different, in Nepal they work, just as in India, with the caste system. He is from a higher caste and he told us the marriages in Nepal are arranged and you can’t marry someone from a lower caste, because then your family will not accept you anymore. Girls get married very young. Life in the villages, as we noticed through the days, is hard and primitive, but over all people are so happy and friendly. Narayan told us that when someone gets sick, they need to carry that person all the way down to Pokhara, because there is no car, nothing out there. We actually saw it happen as well, a group of people carried this sick girl down and it would take them at least five hours to reach the hospital. Some people die even before they arrive there. It is sad, but that’s life there. People live from the land, they don’t need money, that is amazing, we can’t imagine that. But there is danger as well; sometimes tigers come up and attack all the goats living on the land of the people. Narayan also told us he almost never sees his parents; he has to take a five hour bus ride and a five hour walk. Can you imagine that?? We can’t. It was damn interesting what he told us, he seemed a very intelligent guy, someone who doesn’t take life for granted and wants to try new things, even though he has little money. He also didn’t know what gay people are. We somehow came to that subject and he seriously said: ‘i’ve heard about it on tv, but i don’t believe it, we don’t have it in nepal’. Our mouths fell wide open hearing that. Just to let you guys know what a different life these people live.
Besides the awesome stories about Nepal, Narayan also told us our second day of walking would be a seven hour climb up stairs. That shocked all of us quite a bit, but we started this now so we had to finish. There is no way to explain you guys how hard day two and three were. We indeed had to climb stairs for 7 hours, as i mentioned, 3200 stairs. Just TRY to imagine how that was...it was hard, so hard, when i think back of it now i can’t even believe i made it in the end. But, as i said, a lot of breaks and a lot of forced smiles got us through it. We were exhausted when we arrived in Ghorepani, a little village at 2800 meters high. It was cold, but the view was well worth it, since we could see the mountain cap of the Annapurna mountain. Himalaya has a lot of mountains, and of course Mount Everest is the highest one with its 8848 meters. We didn’t have the luck to see that one though, this season is kinda the worst for trekking since it can be coudy sometimes. Well, we had dinner in Ghorepani, then played some chess and another weird Nepali game, the guide Narayan still by our side. Of course in the mountains you have danger of altitude sickness, lots of people die from it every year climbing the mount Everest. You feel it at the height of 3500 meters, but since we climbed 1000000 meters in one day, we all had a headache and we felt a bit feverish. Day three would be as hard as day two and we weren’t looking forward to it anymore. We were suppose to get up at 4.30 if it wouldn’t be cloudy, to go to the highest point we climbed, 3200 meters. But it was cloudy, so it wouldn’t make sense to go there anymore. We slept until seven and then climbed to the highest point anyway, it was amazingly beautiful, but again the stairs killed us, my legs hurt, i had blisters, and a big headache. But again we were strong enough to pull it off, we thought. After a six hour walk we took a break, and after that Sjan couldn’t go any further anymore. It would be two more hours to reach the village where we were supposed to stay that night, Ghandrung. Instead we decided to stay in Tadapani, because Sjan felt sick. There were some Spanish people we met all the time and they happened to stay there as well, so that was very nice. They gave Sjan pills and luckily we all felt better the next day, the last day. And that last day was hard too, going down the stairs all the way, it kills your legs. After a 7.5 hour walk we finally made it to the finish and we were sooooo relieved! It was awesome, definitely worth it, but very hard. Without our guide we would have never made it. We felt so weak, the guide was still not tired at all, we felt foolish that we were so tired after a four hour walk, while people climb the Mount Everest and we really couldn’t. But i guess we’re just not used to this, walking is fine, but climbing stairs for seven hours is not so nice anymore. But, after all, this was an awesome experience, i would never do it again, but i am so happy we did this. It was the most beautiful thing i’ve ever seen. Seeing the white mountain caps is an amazing feeling, it is so breathtaking, i didn’t know i would be so impressed by it. Day four was very clear as well so we had the chance to see all the white caps, just awesome. Nepal is an amazingly beautiful country, it is impossible to describe how it feels being here, but feelings like this, that’s why you go travelling.
Another strange thing about travelling is the people you meet. I am gonna tell you my last story now and it is pretty impossible, but it really happened. We went back to Kathmandu after the trekking, again a seven hour bus ride and we stopped along the way. There, in a restaurant, Sjan suddenly said: Loes, do you see that guy over there?? I am like: yes i see him...and he turned out to be the Australian Daniel Cliffton we met 1.5 year ago in Shanghai. How is that ever possible????? It was so weird and so nice to meet him, he now is in the same guesthouse as we are and we went to a nice bar yesterday where another weird thing happened: remember the henna we did in Dehli?? There was a girl from America in this hennashop in Dehli and she was now as well sitting in the bar we were in Kathmandu. The world is soooo small!
Well people, that is it for now, it was a long story after a long adventure. Tomorrow is my birthday and i hope you’ll all drink a bit of beer for me!! And for the ones who want to give me something, the only possibility is to write down my bank account number once again ;-) 170230252
Love you all and i hope everything is well over there!! We’re gonna stay in Kathmandu for a while and we’ll see what we do after that!
X

>

Kathamandu

2009-05-27T04:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we took a flight to Nepal, and we arrived in Kathmandu in 1.5 hour! That's for sure a better option than a bus, 36 hours! It was a good flight, we even got food! My first Indian meal I ate on the way to Nepal, hilarious! Well, let's tell you about Kathmandu. We didn't take pictures yet but that will happen soon, since tomorrow we're gonna be doing a five day trekking in the mountains of Himalaya! It's gonna be awesome, although the season isn't the best now; it can be cloudy and rainy, but hot. We'll see how it goes! The guy from the bookings office told us we don't need to be too experienced and that is great, because i never climbed a mountain before! Nepal looks different, the people look more mongolian and the country is much cleaner. Yesterday we went to a bar where they had live music, the first time in ages we've heard music in a bar, so it was great to sing the Red Hot Chili Peppers together with some very drunk English dudes! We didn't explore Kathmandu yet, since we'll have one more week here after the trekking. Okay guys, I'll not be checking my email untill the 2nd of June, almost my BIRTHDAY (4th) so, wish me good luck and you'll hear from me soon!

X

Taj Mahal; touch my hole

2009-05-24T02:52:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!

Here my next blog with a few more pics than last time. Have to say though, we’re still lazy. Since Sjan is here we only stayed in our hostel street, and during the day it is too hot to go out, so we sometimes even stayed in the hotel for a few hours.

Well, we have a story though, about yesterday. We went on a ridiculous trip, a trip no single traveller ever wants to do, but we didn’t know it before. We booked this daytrip to Agra, where the biggest attraction in India is, the Taj Mahal, and we left early in the morning yesterday. In the bus we slept a bit and listened to music but the bus ride took longer than expected; they told us it would be 4 hours max and we arrived three hours late. That was the first disappointment. Second one was that this bus trip turned out to be a proper tourist tour, a tour single 58-years old do to meet people, if you know what i mean. We went to everything but the Taj Mahal, we saw a fort and a few temples but we didn’t get in anywhere, because for tourist it’s 300 rupees, for locals it’s20. That isn’t racism at all of course. Our main goal was to see the Taj Mahal, and eventually we only had half an hour there...and we paid a lot for it. At the entrance Brian had to go back, all the way to the lockers, because we weren’t allowed to bring our ipod inside. That’s the weirdest thing we’ve ever heard and we didn’t know it before, so knowing it could have saved us time. So finally Brian got back and we could go and see the building. It is very impressing, let me tell the story. The Taj Mahal is built by an emperor (don’t ask me when) who lost his wife while she was giving birth to their 15th child or something like that. He was so sad that he decided to build this monument for her. The stone is all perfectly white and really beautiful. It was impressive to see this building but unfortunately we couldn’t get all the way in, since we lost a lot of time at the entrance. After we got back in the bus it was around 6 o’clock pm. We were told we would be back in Delhi at around midnight. But, what we didn’t know was that the tour didn’t end yet, we were still gonna see temples and stuff. All the Indians loved it, we were so tired of this trip, didn’t wanna see any more buildings. And finally, at three o’clock in the morning we got ‘home’, in our hotel in Delhi. This was a day trip that took 21 hours, instead of 8 or so. But despite all this, and all the annoying people trying to get money from you, we had a good laugh about this ridiculous trip, because that is what it was. We should have known before...
Next story is Nepal. We have to fly there since all the trains are full for the next three months. A bus would take 36 hours and after yesterday we don’t feel much for that anymore. Our plan is to fly out on the 26th of May, in two days already. So, i’ll keep you updated and i might write my next blog in Nepal!!!

Delhi with SJAN!!!

2009-05-20T22:51:00.000-07:00

We picked up my partner in crime: SJAN!!! This morning very early (how could she book a flight that early!!!) we took a taxi to the airport and everything went smooth. No delays, Sjan rolled out after half an hour with a red face and very excited to see us! Very nice! We booked a room, kicked Brian out and now we're sleeping there together. Still amazed by the cows on the steet, we walked around a little bit and our main plan is to plan a route for the next couple of days. Brian needs to be in America around the 10th of June so we have to go to Nepal by the end of May.

Dehli is, not as we expected, a nice city, full of nice little stores and rooftop restaurants with amazingly good food. We're staying in a guesthouse, where we arrived yesterday as we first had another hotel (of course too expensive). This guesthouse is fine and we're gonna stay for two more days probably, then head to Agra, to see the main attraction: Taj Mahal.

Too lazy to take pics yet, i'm sorry, next time i'll do a better job. Just to let you know we arrived safely!!

X

Varanasi, Very Nicey, Very Nasty

2009-05-17T07:26:00.000-07:00

Alright then, here I am again. You expect another crazy story, right? Too bad, because to be honest, we didn't really do much anymore. I have been sick, finally, well, I didn't like it of course, but i am quite surprised it happened after a whole month! Thought I'd get sick after two days already! We met some nice people in the hostel though, we have been talking to them every night, because there is nothing else to do here than just hang out in the hostel. Of course we have been walking around, but as soon as you get out of the hostel, you think: hey, let's go back. Because the streets are so narrow, everything smells SO bad. I can't compare it to any other smell ever, and i can't explain it either. It is some combination of cow shit, rotten bodies, and weird Indian curries. It's unbearable really, and besides that, the city is of course one big mess! Pigs running around, people are everywhere, and because there are no sidewalks, everyone, tuk tuks, monkeys, cars, cows, goats, pigs, people, children, walks on the streets. Haha, i kinda like the indian choas though, sitting in a tuk tuk makes you wonder how they do it. This indian kid told us that they believe there is someone up there, who controls the whole traffic. Well, there must be, because it would be impossible to survive in Holland.

Tomorrow we'll leave for Dehli, an overnight train, and a few days later we're gonna pick up Sjan, who managed to arrive at 6.30 in the morning! Thanks babe!! ;-) No, i am looking forward to it!!! Can't wait, she agreed with buying Leerdammer cheese for me!!!! JOEHOEEEE!! Ok, people, next time i'll have interesting stories again...however, this city is still interesting, but for me it's already normal to see dead bodies on the streets...I'm sorry for that!!

X

The Ganges!

2009-05-12T23:21:00.000-07:00

Hello my dear friends!

Lonely Planet claims to be the holy bible for travellers. Though i don’t really agree with that, it is right about Varanasi. This is what they say about the place we’re in now, most likely the most impressive place in India:

Few places in India are as colourful, charismatic and spiritual as the bathing ghats lining the Ganges in Varanasi. The city of Shiva is one of the holiest places in India, where Hindu pelgrims come to wash away a lifetime of sins in the Ganges or to cremate their loved ones. The city is the beating heart of the Hindu universe, a crossing place between the physical and spiritual worlds, and the Ganges is viewed as a river of salvation, an everlasting symbol of hope to past, present and future generations.

Well, we knew this before, but now we’ve seen it with our own eyes. We went to the burning ghats, the place where people burn their loved ones, in public. That is a very weird experience and standing there, we found an Indian guy who told us all about history and why they do this. We sat there talking to the guy for at least an hour. He told us only men can burn their deaths, because of what happened in history. Some queen from the past died while burning her dead husband; she jumped in the fire as well. Since that time, women aren’t allowed to go to any funeral. They can watch it only from a distance. In this place, Varanasi, when you marry, you pray to queen Shiva that the wife dies earlier than the husband, just because they believe that’s good luck. People from all over India come to Varanasi to die, since this is the place that offers ‘moksha’, liberation from the cycle of birth and death. That, of course, means, freedom from reincarnation. You’ll never see a family member cry. The guy told us that’s because people in India believe that when you cry over a loved one who died, his or her soul will never be totally free from earth. They can only be sad inside.

You can imagine that hearing all this was quite impressive, especially because we could see the dead bodies everywhere. Not even covered with blankets or so, you could see the whole body laying on wood. They cover it with oil or petrol and then start burning, while cows and water buffaloes still surround them. It takes a while before the body is burnt and it’s so weird to see this. You’re not allowed to take pictures, however, we’re gonna try that tomorrow, because the guy told us you have to pay for it. That doesn’t matter, i would love to take pictures of it, even though Brian thinks it is disrespectful. That might be but i guess my journalism spirit shows up on moments like this, i want to take pictures! So we’re going back to that place tomorrow, hopefully you can after that see the pics!

After the guy told us everything a few other guys came to talk to us, very funny. Actually, the burning of those people somehow isn’t that depressing. Impressing, not depressing. However, the other guy told us as well that in the building above us, are around seventy women waiting to die. These are people who are sick and don’t have families. Their last wish is to die in Varanasi, but no one takes care of them. They’re just lying there, side by side, waiting to die. We couldn’t get in the building, don’t think i would have wanted to either. Well, the other guys where funny, because they made us smoke tea leaves, like they all do in India, nothing special, just tea they smoke. But he told us as well we could smoke weed, use coke and hash and everything we wanted. Of course we don’t do that, but this brings me to the next subject: in our hostel, and everywhere in Varanasi, people are as high as a mountain. They just smoke weed the whole day. We have the proper hippies in our hostel and they nothing else than smoking, pretty funny, and Brian and I are happy we’re just normal, do something during the day instead of very lame reading a book in the hostel. The hostel itself is really nice, actually the first time we meet other travellers. It has a rooftop restaurant and yesterday a monkey jumped from the roof on our table and ran away, luckily, because all the monkeys here are HIV and rabies infected. Haha. Nice huh?? Well, only in India!

We did a boat trip already, a Ganges boat trip, quite impressive as well, since we went to two burning places. The guy was kind of a guide and he was drinking the water! The Ganges water, if we would drink it, we would get really sick, but they are used to it. He showed us the most horrible thing ever seen: on the other side of the Ganges we saw a dead body, already half eaten by dogs. Some people of higher castes in India are holy and holy thing can’t be burnt. That means, holy people get thrown off a rock in the Ganges and they get eaten by dogs and birds. On this boat trip we also saw a few people throwing a dead child in the water. A child is considered a flower, and flowers are holy, so they can’t burn the child, but they throw it in the water as well. We saw people swimming in that river, drinking the water. It is so weird, they consider this river as the holiest place on earth, even though they’re surrounded by dead bodies. It was quite impressing and i tried to take as much pictures as i could, but it was getting dark and the boat made me lose my balance sometimes. So, hope you enjoy this first impression of Varanasi!!

Varanisi, Very Nicey

2009-05-10T22:19:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!

No pictures yet, since we just arrived in Varanasi, after a 22 hour train ride. Man! What a challenge was that again! It was really hot and this time there were no children bothering us, no this time Brian got all the attention, from Indian men. Very funny. They all wanted to talk to him and touch him and it got pretty annoying after a while. I was just staring out the window with my Ipod on, so no people bothering me! However, there was one guy staring all the time...but I'm used to that already.

This city is gonna bring us a new experience, since this is where the famous Ganges is. People burn their death family and friends there, drink from the water, cook with it, and there are even dolphins swimming in the Ganges. So very divers, but i think we're not gonna risk a dive in there! Well, later i'll tell you more, with pictures of course, this lil blog is just to let you know I'm still alive!

X Loes

Puri, a friendly place!

2009-05-08T23:39:00.000-07:00

Dear people!

Here I am writing on our last day in Puri. It already again feels like years ago we arrived here! We spent every night with the Dutchies and one day we went to the biggest lake in Asia, by scooter. That was much fun and as you can see on the pics, we were surrounded by water buffalos. Every day we have breakfast in the same restaurant and we eat dinner in another restaurant. This morning we met two Indian guys who told us Puri is actually a really holy place, one of the most religious in India. Of course the Indian religion is partly based on Karma, what you do to people, you get back. In Puri they apparently have one the largest kitchens in the world, near the buddhist temple (where you can't go if you're not a buddhist). In this kitchen they cook every day for 35000 people, because no one should be hungry in Puri, the Indian guys told us. I think he also said that it was free at first, and now you have to pay a small amount of money for the food. That big kitchen is runned properly and that's because the richer people in India believe in 'good karma'. They donate enormous amounts of money and believe that if they do good, they get good things back in life. So how cool is that, free food, purily based on your religion! Imagine that in a Western country! So, this is our last day, the only thing we're gonna do is read and eat :-) Tomorrow is gonna be a long long day in a hot, overcrowded train, but I promise you I'll have crazy stories again when we arrive in Varanasi! Alright people, see you next time!!

Puri rocks!!

2009-05-06T05:13:00.000-07:00

After two days in Puri we decided to leave our paradise hotel. It was too chique for a backpackers budget. With tears in our eyes we checked in the hotel of our Dutch friends, who we see every night. We go to the same restaurant every night, because it seems to be the best one and finally I can eat something else than bread there. India is still funny, in ‘our’ restaurant the power gets cut off every now and then. It’s just the Indian way of saving energy, but it’s the weirdest thing ever. It happens like three times a day and sometimes you’re in the middle of sending an email or so, and then it’s: sorry guys, you can come back later! The hardest thing about the jokes with the power is our fan doesn’t work anymore and immediately sweat drips off your face. But in a way we’re used to the heat now, though we can’t do a lot here during the day. The only bearable thing to do is renting a scooter, like in Goa, to get catch the breeze in your face. And that is what we did today. It was a miracle we found the place we wanted to go to, Brian on the scooter again, cows, monkeys and dogs everywhere on the road. We’re still celebrities, the children run out of every house and every corner of the street when they see us, what gives me a good opportunity to photograph them, as you can see. We didn’t swim in the sea yet, we’re planning to do that tonight. Puri is a nice little place, beautiful nature and friendly people. We’ll stay till Sunday, then we head to Varanasi, a 22 hour train ride. First we wanted to do Darjeeling as well, way up north, but we figured, since we have to pick up my best friend Sjan in two weeks, we won’t have the time for that. We really are exhausted from crossing the country and wanna do it easy, especially cos it’s still 10000 degrees here.
The Dutch guys spent an evening in our room last night and we watched a Bollywood movie, awesome, sooooo funny. It’s even more fake than The Bold And The Beautiful and the women and children get hit in the face every ten minutes. It is impossible that Indian people like this, but apparently they do, because Bollywood makes even more movies a year than Hollywood. Haha! Well, we’re gonna swim in our Bay of Bengal, and eat some fresh seafood after. Miss you all guys!! Wish I could make you see through my eyes sometimes, since everything here is beautiful and i am used to cows and monkeys in the middle of the road. How weird is that! Well, keep following me, so you’ll get a little taste of India yourself! Peace!! X

First Indian Train!

2009-05-04T00:31:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we finally arrived in Puri, after one week of horrible cities. We definitely did it the hard way. The train was another experience again, of course everyone stared at me while we were waiting at the train station. As well the two girls on this picture here. At first I didn't pay much attention to them, because everyone stares at me, and i can't talk to everyone. But later, when Brian and I sat on our sleeper benches in the train (uhhh, no blankets, no sheets, nothing), suddenly those two girls came up to me and never left anymore. They said it was the first time they met a white person and they spoke very well English. So i sat there with them, talking for ages about the country, while in the meanwhile the most beautiful landscapes passed by. Banana trees, palm trees, weird animals, it was a nice train ride. The girls of course tried to teach me some Hindi, the common language here in this part of India, but it's too hard for me to even remember half of the words. They totally adored me, that is so weird, their dad came to buy me drinks and all the other children in the train were totally obsessed by me as well. Not really by Brian, guess it's different because Brian has black hair. It was very nice to talk to those girls, very impressing as well, they told me about their culture and of course children are very open so they asked and told me everything. They wrote in my friends book as well. In the morning, when everyone woke up, Brian and I were surrounded by children and their families, who were all very kind and asked us many questions. It was a great experience, nice to interact with the locals, that is the luck you have in India, they all speak English, however, some better than others, but still, you can have a converstaion. We're in Puri now, still freaking hot, but we have a beach now and the food is better here! So that sounds good. We have a great room, very big and we're planning to stay here a week and then head up north. We need to recharge ourselves a bit after the route we took, crossing the country. I would never recommend it to anyone, but I don't regret anything! This week I'll get back to my mission again, taking loads of pictures!! Thanks for following me guys!!

The Horn Contest

2009-05-02T00:36:00.000-07:00

Our early journey yesterday wasn’t that comfortable. However, it was our first experience in an Indian train. We had seats, because we only needed to travel for five hours, but we had to get up at five in the morning. The people in the train looked quite rich, all of them. The contradiction between rich and poor is very obvious in India. People who are rich for example have their own waiting room for the trains. They have beautiful clothes and wear golden rings, whereas the people from the slums really don’t have anything. It’s bad to see them sleeping in the train station, hair that has never been washed before, black nails and old, or no, shoes and clothes. Children still come to beg for food and usually I don’t give them money, just because it is impossible to give all of them money. But it always feels bad to see the kid eventually walking away, trying his luck with another person. I mean, the people in Holland who beg for money, they have another choice, they don’t need to be like that. People here in India obviously don’t have another choice. So, there is this big contradiction between the rich and the poor, they live together in the city, but they actually don’t. In India of course they have the caste system, that means when you’re born in the slums, you’ll never climb the ladder. So do the people behave. Rich and poor don’t go together, the rich don’t give a damn about the poor and the poor seem to have their own areas which they hardly ever leave. What they do the whole day? I don’t know, but i wish i could live in the slums for a week, just to experience their poor life. Because in my last blog I wrote we haven’t properly seen the slums yet, but today our train drove us right through it. .It was really bad, houses were all just about to fall apart, you wonder if it would happen today or tomorrow. It were not even houses of course, I don’t know what it was, some made of wood, some made of old blankets even. It’s really hard to see but it’s reality here in India, and i really don’t think these people are too unhappy, they don’t know any better and that’s what saves them.
So yesterday the five hour train ride brought us to Raipur, the capital of this state of India, and according to the Lonely Planet the worst city in the country. Are we lucky hey! We’ve already seen the other two best cities in India haha, and now this one. Well, if I would be a journalist for Lonely Planet, I would definitely not write THIS is the worst city, but Aurangabad or Nagpur. Not that this city is nice, no, but it's funny how every horrible city has got its own things to offer. For example, this morning we woke up because there seemed to be a 'horn contest' going on. All trucks and busses were all blowing their horns, all different kinds, very funny. However, it isn't a contest, it apparently goes like this every day ;-) Tonight we're finally leaving for Puri, the city we’re already trying to reach for a week. Though the cities are ugly and very hot and there is seriously nothing to do out here, i don’t regret about coming here and crossing the country the way we did. Now we got to see the real India at least! I bet no other travellers ever did this shitty route, but some have to be the first! We still like it, though the food is getting on my nerves. I don’t like Indian food, Brian does, but even he feels like it’s all the same, only currys, that’s it. I only eat bread and some rice and stuff, but i would love to have some normal vegetables for example. But that is the food you can’t eat here, since they wash it with their water.
So, we’re looking forward to catch the train tonight. Man, that’s one thing I need to say, booking a train in India is like writing a bestseller or winning the lottery. It is seriously a big drama to book a trainticket, you have to be lucky. First of all they don’t really speak English and they just do ‘the head thing’. Then they all point to another direction to buy the ticket. You have to fill out some forms on which you write down what train you wanna have, what time and when. That is such a weird system, because half of the time that particular train is fully booked, so you have to go all the way back and stand in line again. They’re all very helpful, Indians, but they actually never know what they’re talking about! Well, having said enough, i am gonna drink a cold beer in the second hottest city in India J Cross fingers for our train tomorrow...14 hours!!
X Loes (and hope Q-day for all of you was a little bit fun, despite all the news i've heard!!)

This is the sign you see when you enter our hotel...whatever it means!! :-) And the other picture is the view from our window, romantic huh??

How many ...holes does the earth have???

2009-04-30T02:32:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,
From one shithole to another, that is what we did! I think Nagpur, where we are now, is even worse than Aurangabad haha! Todays newspaper told us: this is the hottest day in Nagpur since 1942!! How nice! It’s 48 degrees here, impossibly hot. So we can’t really do much here. Well, even though it wasn’t what we had expected, we’re still enjoying ourselves! I mean, i am actually a celebrity here; people want pictures of me, they wanna touch me and all want to talk to me. But the staring gets a bit annoying, yesterday Brian and I were drinking beer in our hotel (the only normal place in tow) and this Indian guy stared at me for two hours at least. I don’t know what they think, they are very curious, some are friendly, some are not.
Let me tell you another funny story. Our busride to this next shithole was ok, but we almost missed the bus. That was because our tuk tuk driver didn’t know where to go. They all really want to give us a ride, so they just do ‘the head thing’ and pretend as if they know where they’re going. What happened was of course that the guy dropped us off at the wrong station twice. Not only that, he seemed to be fine driving on the other side of the road, very nice. The police stopped him, but when they were out of sight, he just did it again! Eventually we arrived at the right station, and the tuk tuk driver didn’t wanna leave, he wanted 20 rupees more, we just gave it to him because we didn’t have time anymore.
They all want money from you here in India, and it’s not that we don’t wanna give them some money from time to time, but we just get ripped off all the time. It’s bad to see all the begging children, the people who live on the streets and the dodgy dogs walking around. It makes you wonder why the hell you’re worried about nothing sometimes. Though, in India there might be a lot of poor people, it doesn’t hit me that much as it did in Russia the first time. I don’t say it doesn’t hit me at all, but it is different now. However, we didn’t really see the slums properly, I don’t think I would say the same after having seen that. We’ll see!
One more night in the hottest town on earth, seriously true, and then, tomorrow morning at 6.30 we leave for Raipur, and hopefully can get an immediate train to Puri...our next beach town destination, where we want to stay for a couple of months, after having seen this ;-) Peeps, take care and see ya soon!

The world's shithole!!

2009-04-28T04:08:00.000-07:00

Hi my dear friends! Well, as you can see on the pictures, we left paradise Goa and arrived, after a 14 hour bus ride (no sleeper, just seats, GREAT) in Aurangabad. Brian described it as Gods asshole, and that is kinda the best description I can give you. We weren't planning on having the best time here, since this is only a pitstop for us, we're heading to the East Coast, that should be kinda Goa-ish and so we're looking forward to another holiday again. But this, we never expected this. The people here didn't expect us either, because they're staring at us as if we were aliens. People in China stared too, but this is way different, it's a bit scary, I don't think they like us here. Well that's fine since we seriously hate it here haha! We are so amazed by this shithole. It looks as if some people two years ago decided to build a city and now decided to not finish it anymore. There is dirt everywhere, pigs, cows and goats walk around, eating trash. There seriously is trash everywhere, impossible. People don't care about this city, throw everything on the ground and burn it from time to time. Today we went to what is considered the 'mini Taj Mahal' and that is the only beautiful building in town. Besides that, India is still freaking hot! We are soooo looking forward to leave! And that will be tonight, another bus, that is gonna bring us to Nagpur, let's hope it's not gonna be like this too! But, despite all the dirt and the weird atmosphere in this city, Brian and I enjoy ourselves well. We noticed Indians do something with their head when they talk, we call it 'the head thing', and when you pay close attention to it, it gets very annoying. They shake their heads a lil bit when they talk, as if they tell you 'no' all the time. Well, haha, whatever, all is fine, pray for our busride tonight and we'll see you in Nagpur!!

Only in India

2009-04-24T06:08:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you hear people, of course tourists, say: ‘only in India’. And I have to admit that a lot of things I’ve seen happening here really really can happen nowhere else. Of course the animals on the street, there is cows everywhere and dirty dogs run around all the time, though they luckily leave you alone. Our taxi driver in Mumbai asked us if we would wanna buy weed. Imagine that would happen in Europe! No, only in India, and today was ‘Only In India Chapter 700’. Today we hired a scooter again, of course, we do that every day now because it’s the perfect way to explore the city. We had heard from several tourists that you actually have to have a valid Indian drivers license for that. Well, whatever, we thought all the time, we don’t need that. But today was different. We went to a birdwatchers area, dad, you would have loved it, because there were kingfishers (ijsvogels) from a different kind as we know in Holland. And everywhere in this city are hundreds of sea eagles flying around. Tomorrow i’m gonna take good pictures of them, because you can come very close. You can even see them dive in the sea to catch some fish. It’s great to see them with so many! There are many animals in India anyway, and the sounds they make, I don’t know what to think of that. Sometimes it’s like you’re playing a computer game, so weird are the animals here. This morning we woke up and we heard a monkey chasing some birds, very funny. Remember your childhood cartoons were monkeys played in? That’s how a monkey sounds in real as well.
Back to my story, we wanted to go watch the birds, well, there for we had to drive up the highway. Yeah, the highway, very dangerous in India, but we thought: let’s just do it. Well, only in India this can happen: read and laugh out loud please:
Brian of course didn’t wear a helmet, we never do that because in the city it isn’t dangerous (really mummy and daddy). But now we got stopped by the police, without drivers license and without helmet. So we thought we would end up in jail, however, we were still laughing. When the guy asked Brians license, we just made a story up that we didn’t know that was needed. In the meanwhile our scooter was parked on the side of the road were many policemen where, doing their jobs. One of them tried to stop an Indian guy, who didn’t stop. And then two things happened that could happen only in India. To try and stop the guy THE POLICEMAN STOLE OUR SCOOTER!!! He just jumped on it and drove away, chasing the guy very fast...we were stunned. The policeman who stopped us told us the thief would come back. Well, whatever, we couldn’t do anything about it, so we kept on arguing with the policeman who wanted to get money from us. We gave him 500 rupees, let’s say that’s 7 euro and then we were allowed to move on without a drivers license. Usually you just have to hand in your vehicle when you get caught without a license. Only in India you pay the police guys dinner and that’s it. Well done, so finally we could go and see the birds, because the guy who stole our scooter was back, with the Indian guy who didn’t wanna stop. I guess he had a bigger problem than we had in the end.
The day after tomorrow we’re gonna leave our paradise and we know that’s gonna be hard, since we’re spoiled now. We have our own scooter and a great hotel. But, we want to be travellers, no holiday resort people, so we’ll have to move on! We didn’t figure out where we want to go, so let that be a surprise for you guys, Thanks for all your nice comments and talk to you guys soon!

Don't go in April!!!! :-)

2009-04-23T01:36:00.000-07:00

Yes people, that’s what everyone is saying, even the Indians: ‘why are you here? It’s too hot!’ And yes, that is true. Forgive me for saying it, but it’s so fucking hot! Sweat is dripping off our faces the whole time, but in a weird way you get used to this.
The bus to Goa was pretty uncomfortable, though, we laughed our heads off, we had beds in the bus where we had to sleep in together, but it wasn’t even big enough for one person. Plus, we paid for airconditioning and in the end it gave up on us. Too bad, sweating away in a bus that arrived at least four hours later than it was planned to. But, we had a good time and when we got off in Goa we immediately felt like kings, what a paradise! Weird birds everywhere and beautiful palm trees. We have the best hotel for 5 euros a night, including a swimmingpool and airconditioning. But, after this we’re gonna be a bit more careful with money. After we finally took a shower, we went to a restaurant nearby and talked to some local people, the owner of the restaurant. He told us about Goa, it is a paradise and apparently a lot of Dutch people come here every year. He told us about Calcutta and Dehli, it is suppose to be even worse than Mumbai, and we can hardly believe that. Mumbai was one big chaos, not a city to stay for long. The big cities in India are just not the best places to be as a traveller. You can better stay in little cities, more spread out like Goa, so the heat doesn’t eat you immediately. He talked about India, we talked about our countries, very nice. People in India are friendly, very helpful as well. But, after the restaurant suddenly a guy came up to us to tell us we won a price. Super idiots we were, we went on a taxi with the guy and of course it wasn’t true, we didn’t win a price. Luckily we didn’t have to pay for the taxi in the end, so that was good. After all this Brian and I went to our swimmingpool and Brian went off to get some bears. He came back with ‘bad news’. In India it’s now election time and during those days we’re not allowed to drink in bars. Finally here after a chaotic city, and we can’t even chill out! Don’t go in April...elections, heat...the locals are right!
But we wouldn’t be adventurers if we wouldn’t have found a way to get beers in the end; we went to the hostel where Ria and Ross, the people I met at the airport, stayed, and because that’s a backpackers place they were allowed to sell beer, but only to drink in the rooms. As the rooms are sticky and humid, that wasn’t the best pleasure, but we did everything for a good and cold beer. And this is how we spent our first day, just hangin around with the other travellers.
Today something happened, i kinda rolled off a cliff. Let me explain, Brian and I hired scooters, Brian drove it, i sat on the back, great to watch the beautiful sea, palm trees, this is just a paradise! On the way we stopped to take pictures of the playing children again. That’s becoming my mission now, taking pictures of children in Asia. When we stopped, we saw a monkey. Man, a big one as well. Apparently they have aids and rabies, so we didn’t go too close, but he was scared of us as well. Brian took a video of the monkey climbing and jumping haha, funny! After that IT happened. We stopped to take a picture of the beautiful sea, and then....i fell. I rolled off the cliff. So my upper left leg is totally red now, and all scratches are there. But it could have been much worse, so I’m happy only to have this. We went to buy some water to clean my leg and then this Indian woman came with some yellow powder, that apparently was an Indian medicine. Whatever, i let her do her thing and i walked away with a yellow and red leg, very charming! After this we went to a bar and even though they are not allowed to sell beer, the guy was so shocked by my leg that he gave me one. Great!!! When restaurants get caught selling beer, they have to close and can never open again...
Well, more about Goa in a while, we’re gonna stay in this paradise for a week or so! We love it!! Hope to hear from you guys! X

Mumbai taxi tour

2009-04-20T04:32:00.000-07:00

Hi people!

Today Brian and I did some crazy taxi tour. Let me explain what these pics mean. The children live and work in some kind of laundry village, they did only laundry there and the place was packed, more than 10000 people live there. This is where I got the portraits of them. We have seen crazy things last night too, rats, people sleeping on the streets who just don't have a home. We were walking around, trying to find a bar where we could drink a beer and suddenly we were in this nightclub, drinking a proper Hoegaarden :-) We walked back and than some childeren (picture of me below) followed us and asked us for rice and milk, so we bought it. But it's like this every day, people beggin for food and money. You just feel weird to say no, wondering what they think of us bloody rich white people. Well, tonight we're going to Goa, is supposed to be even hotter, according to the taxi driver. And he told me i should buy a dress ( i walk around in footballshorts the whole time). Hahaha. We almost got away with not paying for the room we had for two days, but too bad, we were eventually asked to pay the money. Well people, see you in Goa!!! And sorry for the ones, BRUNO, who say my blog is a bit of a mess with pics and text just all over the place, if you know me, you should accept this!

Mumbai!

2009-04-19T05:57:00.000-07:00

Wow people! India is one of a kind, an impossible country, nothing like China. It’s hot as hell and there are soooooo many people around, you can’t even imagine. Okay let me tell the story. I arrived in Mumbai, after a hell of a flight, just didn’t sleep at all and I accidently broke everything in the plane. First i dropped another persons food, after I broke my headphones so i couldn’t watch movies anymore. That sucked because i was just into Seven Pounds, with Will Smith!! But, after the flight my mission was to find Brian. Did I find him? YES! But it took like a three hour taxi ride. I met some tourists at the airport, Ria from Wales, Jamal from Norway and Ross from England. Together we took this taxi and man, we all had backpacks of course. No problem at all for the smallest taxi i had ever seen. No, they just dropped all the bags in the back of the car and that didn’t fit, so they tightened them up with some ropes and that was it. Quite surprised already we had the worst and longest taxiride ever. People all over the place, cars just drive where ever they want. Whereas in China they do have traffic lights, in India they just don’t. The tire flattened halfway of course, so we had to stop and the driver got more and more annoyed by us. Brian somehow couldn’t call me so i just took my three new friends to the hostel where we were supposed to meet. But we agreed on meeting in the morning, not late in the afternoon. As if there was an angel on our shoulders, I walked into the hostel and Brian was just sitting there and waiting for me. Very good i found him! But the journey to find a hostel wasn’t over yet, cos Brians hostel was fully booked and the next one too. We were sweating away man, with the biggest bags you can imagine, but finally we found a hostel. A weird building though, at some levels they’re praying out loud, some people are building whatever, everything is under construction and man, what a world. Outside are loads of dogs and begging children, very annoying. Brian and I just tried to go out for a beer, but everywhere are people who start talking to you and follow you, so, no privacy at all! Luckily Brian and I are already good travelmates, so that at least is great. This first day just was a weird impression again, don’t have any idea about how this trip is gonna be. The heat isn’t gonna make it easy to do stuff, but we’ll have to get used to it. Sjan, just to warn you, you’ll need no jacket at all. After your shower you already sweat again and again and again. The river is horrible to look in, very troubled of course. And the people stare at me, already got my picture taken by some, just like in China. I didn’t eat Indian food yet, just a safe Italian pasta. It is really a big challenge, this trip, but the great thing about travelling is meeting people and i managed to meet three travellers at the airport already. So who knows who else is gonna come! Well, for now, i am just too confused to write a bit more, but we next time I’ll specify my story better. And...with the people we met in India we had an awesome night already! Sjan, prepare for cool beers, nice hostels and chats with people from all over the world!! It already feels like the other trip, meeting so many travellers! Five in one day, cool huh? I let everyone write in my friendbook already, so I won’t forget people. Facebook friends will add up soon J Tomorrow Brian and I are heading to Goa, which should be beautiful according to everyone here. Nice beaches and beach parties, here we come! We’re gonna meet Ross and Ria again there, so let the party start! Don’t know when I can use internet again...we’ll take a bus tomorrow at night, eight o’clock Indian time, arrive the next morning, Monday morning, at 8 am Indian time. The bus will be an adventure, since the traffic here is crazy...but we’ll survive! I know now why i wanted to do this trip! Because the free feeling is awesome! Bye guys, hope you have a good time too, i would love to have the Dutch weather now J The grass is always greener on the other side huh!

X Loes

21.25 flight to Bombay!!

2009-04-17T07:20:00.001-07:00

OK PEOPLE!!! Count till ten...

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 ,10......

And...I'm off to the airport!!! See you in India!! X

The first part!!!

2009-04-15T01:04:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!!!

First of all I want to say thank you for all the best wishes I received via email, sms or whatever else. Thanks for all thinking about me. But from my side as well I want to wish everyone the best year too. Not only I need a bit of luck, all of you need it!!! I hope, when I come back home, I'll hear some succes stories. Some friends need to find a proper job, good luck with that!!! Others wanna get pregnant, well what can I say, keep on trying :-) Some of you are buying or building houses which isn't much easier than what I'm doing, so in this blog all of you get the best wishes from me too!

I am in London now, the first part of my trip. Saying bye is never fun and so it wasn't yesterday. Parents crying, friends crying, me crying...but I turned around not saying goodbye but: see you later!! And 'later' still is undefined, but it's for sure I'm gonna see all of you again some day.

London for me is very nice, I have friends here, I love this city and now I can wave London a proper bye too. It's gonna start all over again on Friday night, when Adam is gonna bring me all the way to Heathrow. So I already told him he can carry my bag :-) Because that is a thing I need to get used to again, man, how heavy. What the hell did i all take with me??

The other important thing I have to say is about Brian. For the ones who don't know the story: I met Brian from Washington in Shanghai, 1.5 years ago and when he was drunk he booked a ticket to Bangkok so we had to say bye in a rush.. Never thought i'd see him again, but here we are, going to India together. Met him in London already yesterday and it was fun, so this trip can only be wicked!!! Will soon upload some pictures of this typical hippie American dude with his long curly hair HAHA!!!

Hope you're all looking forward to my stories, cos I do!!!

KISS

Almost leaving again...

2009-03-24T06:59:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone!

It is quite a long time ago i wrote my last blog...but, I will be bothering you even more from April 17th, since I will leave for India on that date. From India I will be going to Nepal, together with my friend Sjan, who has been my loyal travel partner in Russia, Mongolia, China and Japan before. My first five weeks i will be travelling alone in India, and will take my laptop (a mini one since we live in modern times huh!), my camera, my Ipod and my backpack full of clothes, summer clothes :-) Although this trip will be a big challenge for me (i don't eat koriander nor onions, i don't like spicy food at all and i can't handle hot summers at all) i really look forward to go. And as well i really look forward to keep you all updated and informed about where i am and what i am gonna do. Of course i'm gonna miss all my friends, my family, my cat and my own bed and shower, but, in these times of internet you guys don't have to worry about me not contacting you at all. I will be in touch more often than you think and want ;-) Please enjoy this journey through the world as much as i'm gonna do, together with me and leave me as much comments as you like, it will only make me smile! Of course my next post will be supported by beautifullll pictures!

Loveya allll!!

My travel route: India (2 months), Nepal, Tibet (hopefully), China (maybe and only the South part), Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Indonesia and Australia!!

I know the fact this blog is in English will not make everyone happy, but you are welcome to ask as many questions as you like about any vagueness i might cause by writing in English instead of Dutch :-)

For the ones who don't know yet:

Facebook: Loes van de Ven

Hyves: appelmoesjeuh

Last FM: Loesdidi

www.zuidoostazie.nl (for my monthly blog, in Dutch only)

email: lvandeven@hotmail.com, or appelmoesj@hotmail.com

Skype: appelmoesjeuh

Phonenumber (only emergencies please!!): 0031653317126 or 00447984547508

And, for the people who aren't suffering from financial crisis, and would love to sponsor a poor girl like me, who otherwise will have to sleep on the street, this is my bank account:

17 02 30 252 (with a blink of an eye of course, but still i am a little bit serious about this ;-))

Hope to hear from you!! TO LEAVE ME A COMMENT: CLICK ON 'COMMENT' (WRITTEN AT THE BOTTOM OF MY ARTICLE), THEN SELECT NAME, WRITE DOWN YOUR NAME AND IGNORE THE OTHER POSSIBILITIES!

Kisssss, Loes

2008-06-23T14:22:00.000-07:00

My work is all about trust’

‘Can I write on you?’, was what Mariam Al-Umran asked me when I first met her. A surprised but honest ‘yes’ came out of my mouth. Before I knew what was really happening, an Arabic poem, written with eyeliner (how simple can a creative soul be) covered my fingers, hand and arm. After, I was forced to sit down on the floor while two hundred pictures were taken of me . Soon I’d be a part of her exhibition in the Chelsea College of Art and Design.

Mariam is from a small island in the Middle East, Bahrain. After moving to London, she wanted cultures to be more connected with each other. ‘People don’t trust each other anymore, nowadays they’re afraid.’ Her work is all about trust and she chose an intimate form of art; writing on people. The ‘trust-part’ of the story? ‘People don’t know what I write. I choose someone who doesn’t understand my language. Of course I always write something beautiful, a poem or something about my first impression of the person. But no one will ever find out what’s written, it’s between me and them.’

Writing became a form of art for Mariam when she moved to London. She kept two diaries; one in her language, one in English. Soon, she started writing on the walls, the floors and the ceiling. She showed me a picture of a whole room covered with Arabic writing. As Mariam believes in people and presents herself as a ‘people person’, her idea of writing on people came alive. ‘There’s something fascinating about the human body. Everyone has got something beautiful. Especially eyes, they reflect the whole personality.’

Europe is a source of inspiration for Mariam. She lived in Berlin and London and wrote on as many people she could find from different cultures. She’ll continue writing on people forever, she says, also after the exhibition. Although, she feels the difference between her own culture and the European one. ‘It’s a risk to take my work back home. In a small and conservative society like mine it’s a taboo to have the physical contact I have with the people I write on. However, I’d love to make the difference and allow people to experience the beauty of arts. But I can only do that when I feel my country is ready to appreciate the idea and the work as something beautiful, not shameful.’

What Mariam did to me, she did to fifty other people, as a part of the final examination of her studies. And trust her, amazingly beautiful pictures (including mine) will be exposed on Friday the 13^th of June, in the Chelsea College of Art and Design in Pimlico.

published @

http://www.dazeddigital.com/incoming/mariam-al-umran-at-the-chelsea-college-of-art-and-design/

My friend Bianca as my model

2008-06-02T14:35:00.000-07:00

The best thing I ever did in my life...

2008-05-30T13:10:00.000-07:00

Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened'. This slogan came in my life after the best I ever did in my life; my trip to the other side of the world. A gateway to another mind, another soul, a more colourful life. For 3,5 months I explored the other side of the world, together with one of my best friends. In these three months I learned and saw more of the world and of myself than all the years before. I always presented myself different; my clothes, hair, shoes, everything was different. But also my mind. I got this unusual urge to move, to see things, to just enjoy my life instead of spending my time behind the computer in a stupid office. I did this for a few years, and now my life is less organized, and I earn less money than I ever did before. But I'm rich. I consider myself rich, even though I sometimes bend over to pick up fifty pence off the street ;)
The trip went to Russia first. There I saw the poorest, most sad people on the planet. One image I can never get out of my mind anymore. We had to take a train from Moscow to Yekatherinaburg and there, right in front of the station, sat a whole family, mum, dad and kids. There were absolutely freezing, in the rain, and they looked so unhealthy that I thought they were gonna die in a minute. I only gave them a glance for five seconds, but my heart stopped beating for the rest of the week. In bed, at night, in a train, somewhere in the Ural in Russia, I thought about these people. I thought about my own life. And this was the first time I saw myself in a mirror. The psychological mirror of life; what a good life I had at that moment. And it broke my heart. I could feel every little thing these people must feel every day. I thought. Because there is no way to compare my life with these peoples life, or to even understand what's going on in their mind and bodies.
Well, you have to move on and we did. We crossed Russia by train, saw the most beautiful things when it comes to buildings, but also the most sad things when it comes to living in a fucked up country like Russia. Time to let all these thoughts pass your mind you don't have. Our next destination was Mongolia, an amazingly beautiful country with it's own culture, beautiful smiling and friendly people. Another history, another story, another impression again. And it hit me just as hard that image of these people had hit me. A country so beautiful, so simple, so untouched as Mongolia. It was a blessing to go through it by train, ride horses and see these people living in gers. The second time I saw myself in this mirror was also in Mongolia. You can't imagine how simple these people live. They are busy feeding horses, riding horses, drinking yakmilk, survive. While we're busy building the highest buildings in the world, going on diets, buying expensive clothes. Why? Why the hell? Was my life really like this, so selfish as I now thought about the Western people?
But again, no time to think about all this. Next destination: China, Beijing. A wicked first day we spent there. How the hell can we survive here? That was what I thought when we first walked the Beijing streets. People yelling, screaming, laughing, we couldn't stop looking, no staring at them. We loved Beijing, didn't wanna leave anymore. This is where my slogan comes from. "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened". Our last day in Beijing we were lost. Lost in our feelings, we lost all reality over what was happening. What wás happening?? We saw the world by train and the beautiful moments came by without even saying hello (Deep Dish). We didn't understand our feelings anymore. We sat in a cafe, totally crying and laughing at the same time. Also because we had to say goodbye to our friends we met. Then, an amazing thing happened. This is maybe the best moment of the whole trip. A Chinese girl who worked in the cafe saw us being confused, sad, happy and she came towards us, didn't say any word, but gave us a little piece of paper with the wonderful and magic words: "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened." Of course tears were streaming down our faces even more, but it was the happiest moment of our lives maybe. I dare to say that. This slogan became my everything, my own little way of thinking and it's a good way of thinking. We stayed in China for two months, and the Chinese people stared at us for two months, and we stared back. It was an unreal experience. China is an amazing country and our last destination was Shanghai. We were so unhappy to leave. We were sad, but our slogan helped us. And a boat to another beautiful country, Japan, made us feel happy again as well.
Who ever in this world dares to say Chinese and Japanese people are all the same, I won't talk to. Japan is also an amazing country, but in no sense the same as China. Japan was amazingly beautiful, with the most friendly people and the best high quality products. We spent our time in the Shinkansen, from place to place and the most impressing was of course Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In both places we went to the atamic bomb museum and both of the times we didn't talk to each other for hours afterwards. It was stunning, too crazy to think of, what happened there fifty years ago. After Tokio, the best end of the trip we could think of, we went back home. Back home we got the culture shock. I felt horrible. But, I couldn't cry because it was over, but only smile because it all happened, because it was the best thing I ever did in my life. That trip made my soul and every other part of my body, rich. And that is the best feeling in the world. The pictures are the ones that impressed me most.

Loes

Madness

2008-05-20T07:00:00.000-07:00

Crazy girls and a crazy photographer...just a crazy photoshoot for fun...

Peacock and his Andy Warhol friends

2008-05-19T14:39:00.000-07:00

What Marilyn Monroe can be, the peacock can be. Andy Warhol is a looser, his work is amazing though, but everyone can do it in Photoshop. My Andy Warhol peacock took me two minutes. But he deserved it. He loved the camera, standing there, showing his beautiful feathers in Kew Gardens. He was screaming and showing, he loved the attention. And I loved him.

Life as a nightclub photographer

2008-05-17T04:37:00.001-07:00

I love how people pose, how they want me to take their picture over and over untill their eyes are finally open instead of closed. It's funny and sweet how they all want to take pictures of me too. They feel sorry for me because no one takes pictures of me...but in fact every night I have to be careful it's not only me in all the pictures in the end. See some of my work here and see the rest of my work: www.metparties.com/gallery.

Lil puzzle

2008-05-16T18:42:00.001-07:00

Usually I describe people in words. This time I tried to describe one of my best friends in five images. So, take a look at these pics and feel free to tell me who she really is...