Ghostboy on the move

Or what about the weekend?

2008-05-05T06:00:00.002+02:00

After Sara left, the first weekends have been difficult for me. There is my heart that feels like every second beat is hers, and also my social network here is not that big yet, so the weekends were often just sitting around in my hotel room thinking about the future, watching movies or taking a walk, just for the walk. Most of the time, spending that time alone. I still love being on my own a lot of times, but when being on my own turns into being alone, the fun is out of it. To me being on my own is a chosen action, where being alone is an action that occurs due to the lack of another option.

I’ve never been that super social dude. Sometimes I might seem like it, but actually that’s not when I’m really me. At least that’s how it feels to me, but on the other hand… it seems like not being me is a part of being me. Or how we can make things complicated.

The last two weeks things are slightly changing. First of all I joined a football team here in Kathmandu. A team consisting of a mixture of, mostly foreign, players from different countries based in Nepal for professional or educational reasons. The team (which name is an abbreviation I still don’t exactly know) “management”, is planning on joining the regular Nepali football competition next year. All just for fun, but one never knows…

Next to the physical and mental benefits I get through the endorphins while doing sports, being part of a social event like this brings you in contact with new people, and gives something to do during weekends. Something different than going to a bar and have local beers. Local beers that actually don’t taste bad at all. Or has it been too long since I was in Belgium?

Another memorable weekend activity I had last week, together with Theo. A Dutch guy, whom I met here in Kathmandu, who’s also member of the football team, and whom I just happened to cross paths with several times before. Theo is a tourism student, back in Holland, but without the education, I think I make a good tourist myself.

Anyway, last week was Visa extension time. Since Theo’s visa expired already a few days when we were talking about it on Saturday, we decided to take immediate action and made our way to the immigration office on Sunday. Filling in the necessary forms, paying the bill, and then it’s waiting for a few hours before you get your passport back, a nice new visa sticker included. What to do during these few hours?

Theo, as well as me, saw already before there was a funfair in Kathmandu. A funfair advertising with “The Flying Dragon”. With an attraction called “The Flying Dragon”, we couldn’t resist going there. When we entered it turned out we were almost the only customers there. The majority of the people in the park were working there. You can’t compare the park with any other that I’ve been to already, and I might say I’ve seen some of them.

The park has all the things a funfair needs to offer, going from a bingo, over magicians, a ghost house, boating, to a park tour train, a giant wheel and coasters. All this in a local way, which might seem hilarious at first, but after a while, the beauty of it shines of.

When entering the ghost house, the ticket seller also enters, though in a different door. All the dead bodies that are moving, coffins that are opening, sounds that are played are hand driven by this one man. As you make your way through the horror house, you see him standing behind the attributes, holding the ropes. In itself it might sound ridiculous, but we actually admired the simple way, how they make it work. And what’s most important in a funfair to me, we had a great time making our way through the ghost house. Since the magicians seemed to have made themselves disappear, the next stop was the giant wheel. Where I’m not a big hero and therefore not have a big knowledge on giant wheels, I thought to remember that they were supposed to go smoothly and slow. Not here. The giant wheel was actually the most thrill ride, with something that came close to a coaster belly feeling. Also the way it was driven was at least remarkable to me. When we bought the ticket, a man followed us to the wheel, and ones we were sitting he asked us for the tickets. The tickets that we just bought from him, 25 seconds before. Being the only ones there, they still kept to the procedure of selling the ticket and collecting it half a minute later. Then he went to sit behind the engine, started it up and of we went. The engine looked a lot like a tractor engine or the engine of a big lawn mower. Ok, I admit, it would have been a really big lawn mower, but still…

For over five minutes we made circles at “ludicrous” speed and then it was over. The wheel being stopped by just turning of the engine and the additional breaks were handeld by a pedal manipulated by the conductor’s foot. A little strange when you’ve never seen it before. Or how used one can be to automation.

Theo took another ride on a coaster, flying around in circles, so we suspect that this was the Flying Dragon. It must have been, because we never found anything else that could have been the flying dragon. The operating procedure was the same as with the giant wheel, as was the ticket-buying-going-to-the-attraction-and-giving-the-ticket-back-to-the-same-man-being-the-only-one-there procedure. The man operating the engine was also the same man as before. It was like we had our private engine man. But then it was also as if we had our private funfair.

For the giant wheel, the Flying Dragon and the park train, they always started up the attraction just for us. Or how much more VIP can you be?

This whole two hours of fun has cost us all together €1,50 each. Including entrance ticket, ring throwing, ghost house, a drink, the giant wheel, Theo’s Flying Dragon experience, and the park train.

We surely want to go back one day (at least ones) to see the magicians, and play bingo, That day, we shouldn’t forget to take a camera.

Overall, when you’re in Kathmandu, I really advice you to visit the funfair, as it is another different way of getting in touch with Nepali culture, and on the other side it shows to me that the way of handling things might be different, but needs are often the same. Everyone wants to have some stress relieving, relaxing and fun time every now and then, I think, whether you’re from Europe, America, Asia… Some basic needs seem the same everywhere. And where there’s demand, people will always try to find a way to answer this demand, seeking their benefit in providing services to others demands. And where it can be a financial benefit the service provider is looking for, still often there’s also the peace of mind benefit that makes many people answering to the needs of others. Again, I don’t choose sides, I just write how I see things happening around me. Or how things appear in my perception!

Let there be ... a house!

2008-04-20T13:32:00.001+02:00

Knowing that I’m planning to stay a longer time in Kathmandu, I soon realized that I didn’t want to spend all my nights sleeping in a hotel. Therefore, together with Belgian friend we were looking for a house to rent. My friend is the owner of an IT company here in Kathmandu, so it was planned to have one floor of the house for the company, one for him and one for me. Since my name still isn’t Rockefeller, and Paris Hilton still didn’t loose her mind enough to give me all her money, we were looking for a “nice renting price”. This week we found our house. Well, actually my friend did, because he did all the searching. After weeks of not finding what we were looking for, at a location we could both agree on, this week we actually found two. The contract for the first one was as good as signed, but at the last moment it didn’t work out. Coincidentally almost at the same time, another offer came in. An offer even better as the first one. A few blogs ago, I wrote about coincidences. I’m not going to repeat it all, but the fact that this first deal didn’t work out, right at the time the next offer came, even gives me a better feeling about the house we signed the contract for. Where in the first house we couldn’t fulfill all our wishes, concerning both having a private floor, in the second house we both have our own floor, with terraces. There’s also a floor for the company, a garden, big enough to throw parties, all surrounded by a wall (with an entrance gate of course) which really makes it our quiet, private place in the big city. The area we will be living in is more native than touristy Thamel, which was also one of the desires we had. My floor exists of a big bedroom, a bathroom, a living room, a hall, and a kitchen. From the kitchen you can walk onto a terrace which has a bit of a strange shape, as it is flat for one meter and then is rises up. I won’t be throwing parties there, but it has some other conveniences. On the outside of the house I noticed I even have another room up there, which I couldn’t place in my recollection of the visits inside the house. Who knows how many secret entrances I will find more??? As I’m really looking forward to moving there, I know there might appear problems I didn’t think about, or don’t realize the impact of. In touristy places there’s often a better supply for water, and maybe even electricity (electricity is a different story). I was already told that in order to get water, you have find out when they are sending water through the pipes. Then you have to fill your tank and after that you have to pump it up to the tanks on the roof. Some people say the water comes every day, others say it comes every two days, others even say there is no regularity in it. Some say it comes during the night, others say it comes during the day. Who will tell, it will be a matter of finding out ourselves, I guess. Thing is, if you miss it one day and it wouldn’t come for two days later, it might get smelly in the office. Of course you can do two or three days without showering, even longer. But I realize how spoiled I am, enjoying my shower every single day. There’s always the possibility to wash yourself with bottled water, I know, I just mean it will take some adjustments to my regular routine. Which I actually see as an advantage and enrichment to my life. Another thing that I like about landlords here is there seems to be a big level of respect for the lessees (a word I learned reading contracts, so I really wanted to use it). Owners repaint the house before you move into it. Both times we got offered to use some of their furniture, free of charge. The owner is entitled to take care of normal maintenance, including big and small repairs, in the house during the time of the contract. It’s all in the contract, but we’ll see what’s the value of a contract here. Anyway, we found our house, and will be moving soon. The only sad thing is that a lot of people probably won’t join us in the house warming party. They will say Kathmandu is too far away. Sissies!!!

Elections in Nepal

2008-04-14T07:00:00.009+02:00

Elections are over in Nepal, or at least the majority of it. There are some polling stations where, due to some problems, the polling will be done or redone somewhere this week. I don’t want to write here about the result or my political opinion. In stead I’d like to write about what I noticed during these past few weeks, trying to follow the election fever through newspapers.

First of all, I noticed that standards are different, depending on where you are. Talking about peaceful polls in one line of the newspapers, another line tells you the story about a candidate getting killed DURING election day in a matter related to the elections. Where in many places this would be enough to cancel the elections, here some people seem to be satisfied that there was only one killing.

Also the weeks before this historical 10^th of april, newspapers reported most of their first two or three papers about candidates getting beaten up, people getting intimidated, people getting killed over the elections, and then you can read a statement from the election commission that when coercion is being used, the polling would be canceled. My question automatically was… “What does it take for things to be called coercion?” (Oxford English dictionary describes to coerce as; persuade by using force or threats)

Another thing that caught my attention was that, as said before, the first pages of newspapers reported about all the crime related election information, further away in the paper there was a section handling about actual voting, and statistic such as the percentage of women candidates, rules and regulations, awareness of the purpose of the elections,… This is maybe back to what I’m used to. First give action and sensation, then for those who really want to know it, give other information. Of course you have to sell your media, but writing about the importance and historical fact of these elections, my feeling is the media should raise itself above its normal standards and try to contribute to the nation’s future in a constructive way.

A major role, as well in the newspapers as on the streets, was taken by the UN. The UN who was monitoring the elections, to see if everything took place according to the rules. But what if they found things that didn’t go according the rules? As I understand they were not allowed to take action, just registrate and report. What’s the meaning of such an expensive operation, when the role is to monitor and report? It’s easy for me to criticize sitting here writing my blog, but I do understand that it’s a thin line where another power comes and help in another nation and interfere in this nation. It’s a sensitive matter, and easy to cross the line. But aren’t people appointed (also read paid) to take those difficult decisions? When UN-monitors see things happen, of which the observers know they are illegal, they can do nothing but registrate and report. These same activity they just monitored lead to personal human suffering, but they were just permitted to monitor. It makes me think. (finally something does)

Now that I’m thinking about it, am I playing the same role towards the UN, as they do here? Was I just registrating and giving my report now in this blog, without taking action when the time was there? Not that anyone would have listened maybe, but I also didn’t try. As said so many times the last weeks, here in Nepal, the voice of the people should be listened to, and that’s what the elections were also about. Maybe I should raise my voice more often, and just see what it brings. There’s no harm in giving your opinion, even when no one listens. Then, at least you’ve tried!

ABC and the little backpack

2008-04-06T12:51:00.009+02:00

It was my first visit to Pokhara again, after the gem stone scam. I can say, I didn’t even think about it in fear, because two days in Kathmandu already learned me that the Rajes and Vickies I deled with moved their territory to the Thamel area in Kathmandu. I had a glimpse on them at Tridevi Marg, where they have a “new” shop. I still love Pokhara for its wonderful views, for my Tibetan family that lives there, for its easy way of living and great food places by the lake. It seems to be logic that when I’m in Pokhara, I do a trekking. Just like two years ago I took the trek to the Annapurna Base Camp, only this time without a guide or a porter. Just Sara and me. One thing I will never forget is the small backpack Sara was carrying with her with everything she needed for the trek in it. I think it must be some kind of record. As always the trekking made me really quiet, and I can imagine for company I’m traveling with this can be really strange. Luckily Sara knows me, so it just stayed with an occasional: ”Are you ok?” I can’t put my finger on it what makes me so quiet, but it feels very peaceful inside. While walking I noticed I still have a lot to learn in respecting other people’s desires and limitations, because even more than usual, I want to enjoy everything there at my speed, at my desires. That’s another thing the mountains seem to do to me. This constant reflection on how I handle things, how I feel, what I want, how I am. As many people might already know, I like these reflections, because I really think eventually they improve my quality as a person and therefore my quality of life, although a lot of those reflections are not solved at the spot (or even being things to solve). That containing the fact that there are always things I’d like to see different about myself. Most of the times it’s about interaction with others, but it can be physical things or intelligent things as well. Another thing I also realize every time I do a trekking is how much I dislike the cold. Every time I seem to have forgotten how cold I was the last time I did it, and how I thought at that time not to forget it. This time it even felt like my big toe was going to freeze of my foot, after walking through the snow a few days and not finding the possibility to heat them up during the evening. It was wonderful to experience all those things with Sara by my side 23/7, as that must have been the ratio we spend together since february 20, when we met again in Bangkok. Although the freezing toe (at least something that felt like it) was not a nice experience, it’s more bearable to me having the one you love by your side. The snowline was lower as the other trekkings I did here, and also that made that again this trek was completely different from the other two. Being in a lot of the same places as 2006, still a lot of things looked similar and different in the same time. It is to say that I still love October more for a trekking over here, because of the visibility that is much better at that time, this first trekking in march was also an unforgettable experience. A lot has probably to do with the company I’m with. A topic I talked to with some fellow travelers during my trip, and which all of them recognized within themselves and their experiences. ABC is also the place where in 2006 I made a stupa for Katia. Being there again was a strange feeling, where tears came into my eyes, but also a peaceful feeling about it. Although the stupa wasn’t there anymore, the place will always be related with Katia to me. A place where I got to say goodbye. In that matter, I didn’t care about the stupa being gone. The spirits will always be there, to me. After nine days of trekking we reached Pokhara again, and next day we got to stay out of the Holy Festival mess. Holy is one of the many festivals they have here in Nepal, and on this particular day people have fun covering eachother in colourful paint, while walking over the street, sitting on the curb,… We were lucky to bump into the right people, who respected your wish if you didn’t want your clothes and body covered in paint. Something I just didn’t feel like that day, also because we were out of clothes and the things we were not wearing were in the laundry. After 24 hours of rest in Pokhara it was time to do 2 days of rafting. Since the waterlevels are low this time of year, the rafting in itself was not much more as just sitting in a boat, floating around on the water and take an occasional swim. The occasional paddeling being a nice change from the 9 days of leg work in the mountains. Funny sight to see people get out of the mountains with muscular legs and anorectic arms. (which is a big exaggeration, but it feels like that) (well not really, but still) (anyway, I think you understand what I mean) (or not) One of the nicest parts about doing a multiple day rafting is that you get to spend your evenings at some kind of beaches, sleeping in a tent at the beach. Our boat had five people on board , counting the guide, and was accompanied by one man in a safety kayak. At the beach we shared our part of the beach with an Englishman and a man from New Zeeland, who were taking a three day kayak trip. Our guide showed us all his tricks during the evening, tricks with ropes, matches,… Enjoying all the attention he got. I think everyone had a nice evening and enjoyed the easy and funny atmosphere. Another great thing about these raftings here is the food you get. Man, can they cook! Whenever people ask me about the meaning of life, I answer: A good meal! Somewhere I think I’m serious when I say that. Isn’t that something most people enjoy? A good meal! Not that you get some haut cuisine at those trips, but I do enjoy bread with vegetable salad, or pasta, fries, rice, curry…it was all there, prepared by the water and eaten by six hungry mouths. It is amazing how much they can do with so little supplies. Just one fire, and all the food transported with us on the raft. Food for five meals. As all good things come to an end, also this culinary trip ended and after having some transportation on top of a bus, we got to admire and experience the easy atmosphere of Bandipur. A nice little place between Pokhara and Kathmandu. A town which gives the impression of western movies, in which John Wayne might turn up anytime to do a shootout with another bad guy. Since John is probably a little afraid of the upcoming elections in Nepal he wasn’t there, so we just had over two relaxing days in kind of a medieval town. (yes, next to being the perfect location for a western movie, it also had a big medieval character. All that in one place.) Going back to Kathmandu was high on my priority list, however. Don’t ask me why, I was just really eager to go/come back there/here. The downside of coming to Kathmandu however was that it meant the day of Sara leaving came much closer. As it had been something I knew all the time, now it started to become realistic. On the other hand, coming to Kathmandu meant that my search for a life here could start. Something that scares me as well as attracts me. Maybe the scary part attracts me, or could it be the other way around.

Back to Nepal, or not, or so, or not,...

2008-04-06T12:40:00.002+02:00

After taking a holiday on my travel, it was just going to be a matter of a few days before I was back in Nepal. A very special trip to Nepal, because it was together with Sara, whome I told so much about the beautiful Nepal, and because it was probably going to be the last stop on this trip. A five month stop, to begin with. It was also special to me, because it was my first time back in Nepal, after traveling around south-east Asia. During this trip around SA Asia, I began realizing that I might be so much in love with Nepal before, but after seeing more of Asia… How was Nepal going to be this time. At the start of my trip, the plan was to spend this last five months in Nepal trying to find a possibility to stay and live here. That was another reason why this time, my being in Nepal was not going to be all just hanging around. Anyhow, first we had to get to Nepal ofcourse, and since we booked the flight tickets already in Bangkok before we went diving, it was just going to be a matter of 2 days. At least that was what we thought. On the contrary, what followed was were 6 days of plans changing, flights getting canceled and delayed. Spending nights in hotels where we were the only Caucasians, and Sara being the only Caucasian woman ofcourse. It all started when I went to pick up the tickets that were going to be waiting for us at the travel agency. Arriving there I got the message that the airline canceled all flights to Kathmandu, due to the unstable political situation in Nepal . A situation I didn’t hear anything of from friends being residents in Kathmandu and around Pokhara. Ofcourse there were the upcoming elections, which made things sometimes get a little more tensed, but to cancel all flights for that reason… Were there maybe not enough passengers to keep the flights profitable? We’ll probably never know. A nice gesture from the airlines was that they offered us another flight, with another company, leaving one day earlier than the original flight. Problem was that by the time I got that message, when I came to pick up the original tickets, the flight was scheduled to leave in less than an hour. That flight was obviously not going to be ours. Next move was going to be return the money from the airlines, which I’m not going to tell of that it was Orient Thai. Since the travel agent couldn’t get the money back from them, we had to go there ourselves. Quite a journey, looking for a place in a city like Bangkok while you only have vague directions. When we found the office getting the money returned was no problem, only the time it was going to take was another matter. First it was going to take 2 weeks, if we wanted it in cash, after a little taking it could be returned the next day, and after rebuilding the office we got the money at the spot. Then it was time to go back to the travel agent and book another flight. No problem, the flight was booked and supposed to leave three days later. The advice from the travel agent, anyhow, was to come and check the day before if the schedule was still the same, because the airline had a reputation of delaying. Spending those extra days in Bangkok were a little bit of a torture, as our minds were set on leaving for Nepal. But we managed, only trying to kill each other once, to prevent from getting bored. As adviced, the day before the flight was scheduled, I went to the travel agency and there I was told the first flight was still planned to go, but the second flight (it was a flight with a stopover in Dhakka, Bangladesh) was already delayed by 24 hours. No problem, it just made that we had to spend two nights in Dhakka in stead of one. Accommodation and food paid by the airline company. Finally we were ready to leave. We got to the airport in time, so nothing could stop us now. The flights scheduled departure time was 11.40pm, so after having a light dinner at the airport we got to the gate, ready to board and go. By midnight we were still sitting at the gate, waiting to get on the plane, no one telling us anything if something was wrong. Obviously something was wrong. The airline staff were lying on the floor taking a nap, so when Sara went to ask what the matter was, they told us there was a technical problem with the airplane. 20 minutes later the nessage came the plane wasn’t going to leave that night, due to engine problems. Let’s all get into a minibus (since there were only 14 people waiting to board the plane) and spend a night at a fancy hotel on the expences of Biman Bangladesh. (again I’m not going to tell you which airline it was) Getting in the minibus, without anyone from the airlines with us should have been a bad sign, but no one was really panicking. At least not for the first hour. A hotel located 20 minutes away from the airport, had been the message. After one hour it turned out the taxidriver didn’t know the location and no one had a contact number from the airline. The taxi driver called probably all his friends and relatives to ask if they knew where to take us, and after a three hour drive through the back alleys of Bangkok we reached the hotel. Reaching the hotel must have been by accident, I think. At 4 in the morning we got dinner and then it was time to go to bed. I must say the room that was appointed to us was super. I’m not going to tell you the price for a night there, but it was definitely a quantity of the room prices I was used to stay in the last 6 months, and so was the luxury. After we got to the room, 150 Bengalis also came to the hotel. They had been waiting on the plane for there connection flight to Kathmandu, as they already came with the plane from Singapore. Being construction workers from Bangladesh, working in Singapore, even more then us, they were not used to this kind of luxury. That showed the next day as they attacked the lunch buffet, where a big bowl of rice (something like 60X50cm) was empty after less than a minute. What I’m telling you is no exaggeration. Meanwhile we were still waiting for any information from the airlines when/if the plane was going to leave. First they were going to pick us up at 1pm, then at 4pm, then at 6pm, and finally busses, to bring us to the airport, arrived at 7pm. When every one got on the bus, message came there were still some people that didn’t pay their mini-bar bills. You could here people saying: “The what-what?”, and others: “Wasn’t everything paid by the airline company. A misunderstanding, to me, the airline is to blame for, since they didn’t clearly tell what was included and what wasn’t. Just as with the food, the Bengalis took advantage from all this luxury and drank quite a lot from the mini-bar, and what they didn’t finish, they just put in their bags. Again, no exaggeration! For a lot of those people having to pay the bill was a financial nightmare, as mini-bar prices are already way higher than normal prices. So, the ones that had to pay their bill, or discuss their bill, of the bus again. By that time, the message also came the food on the plane was not going to be ready. Question was asked to the hotel if they could quickly make a meal for over 150 people. Since some organizations still are capable of managing things, a little over half an hour later dinner was served. A buffet which had the same short lasting life as the lunch buffet. People were so over the buffet that Sara didn’t even get to eat, if it wouldn’t have been for a manager who was keeping eyes on things, and made her a sandwich to take with her. Eventually all the bills got settled (I don’t know if and how they got paid) and of we were to catch a flight to Dhakka. In Dhakka, as written before, we were promised a hotel to spend the night, before taking the plane to Kathmandu the next day. On arrival we got the message: “I’m sorry, you have no hotel voucher, so we can’t provide you with a hotel.” Sara is a sweet and gentle angel, but don’t push here too far. I won’t tell the exact story, but 3 minutes later we had arrangements for a hotel. Arriving at night again, we got to bed immediately, and got woken up 1.30hrs later with the question on the other end of the phone: “Do you want mosquito spray?”. The answer could have been: “Oh, was that a mosquito? I thought it was a cow buzzing around the room.” Anyhow the people from the hotel were nice, and they mend well, so we just gave a confirmative answer and spend the rest of the night in the delicious odeur of mosquito spray. At 10am someone from the hotel staff woke us up asking if we wanted breakfast, and whether we wanted it in the room, or at the dining hall. “O yes, by the way, your flight is delayed!”. Not again!!!!!!!!!!!!!! When we wanted to go and walk around in Dhakka, the hotel staff told us we were not aloud to go outside with a transit visa, and that it was too dangerous. A transit visa that costed us 20USD. 20 USD just to spend hours in a hotel. I’ll probably never understand. Eventually we got permission to get out, taking a business card from the hotel with us. That feels much safer, I must say! 4 hours late, the flight was on time, and a little over an hour after departure time we arrived in Kathmandu. Finally we made it, and guess what… Without any problem we got to the hotel in no time. I remember going for a drink to celebrate eventually arriving, and the next thing I know it was morning next day. Damn Tequilla!!!!!!!

My trip took a dive

2008-03-05T10:37:00.008+01:00

Malaysia continued giving me great pleasure, and never let me down in my first impression I had of it. The people I met there are still exceptional to the ones in all the other countries around here. I spend three nights with a family, had a super evening in Kuala Lumpur, having dinner at the bottom of the Twin Towers, spend a whole day as a child in a theme park,… Every day there was something that made me even happier as I was the day before. I also met a Polish woman, living in England, whom I had a great time with, just hanging around, or being a child in the theme park. Everything seemed to come together every minute of the day. Easy to see why I love this country so much. Having a good time somewhere also has a lot to do with the people I’m with. I wonder how it would be going back there, not having Meg around (the Polish-English woman) My first week in Malaysia, I spend mostly on my own. During the day I met people on the bus, on the street,… But I really chose to be there on my own. A time I enjoyed, and without any effort I rolled back into being around people. Since this has been a big problem earlier on my trip, I really enjoy seeing how things work out more and more. It makes me more self confident, and eager to make this trip longer and longer. Malaysia was the first country I actively used Couchsurfing. A website which gives you the possibility to meet people all over the world, for a coffee, a couch to sleep on, information on their city,… http://www.couchsurfing.com/ The three nights I spend with Lay Peng and Zach was my first couchsurfing experience, and the evening out in KL also started with one contact on the site. Malaysia also felt like a very safe country to try my first active steps on couchsurfing, and my feelings didn’t let me down. Due to this great experience in Malaysia, going to Bangkok again, after only two weeks of heaven, might have been with tears in my eyes, if it wasn’t for the reason I wanted to go back to Bangkok. I was meeting Sara again, and we were going to make arrangements to take a trip to Nepal together. Sara, Nepal; two words that sound like beautiful music into my ears. After booking a ticket to Nepal for the 4th of march, we decided to go to Kho Tao and take a diving course. At first I wasn’t to eager to join a diving course, knowing my fatalistic thoughts, that made me at least a little scared to go under the water. Now I can say that taking the divingcourse was one of the top 5 highlights of my trip so far. Starting slowly, not being able to even breath with a snorkel in the pool, I gained something like an addiction to be under the water. In five days, I took 11 dives, and after taking my Open Water Course, I didn’t wait even 24 hours to start my advanced course. If it wasn’t for the plane that was waiting for us, I propably would have taken the next course, the rescue course, at once. I’m interested where this new passion will end. As a dive instructor? At least it would give me one more possibility to settle in Asia. During the course I also met Tuval and Iris, a couple that didn’t only feel like people I would like to stay in touch with, they even surprised us on the last evening with the message that the day before they found out they were pregnant. It felt special like being one of the first ones to share such a news with. A message like that really made me feel special. It made the wonderful last weeks even more perfect. Arriving back in Bangkok had some surprises for us. Arriving at 1.30am in stead of 5.30am was special, after being used to arrive late for the last few months. Also the planetickets ha a surprise. Due to the unstable political situation in Nepal, the airline company decided to cancel its flights to Kathmandu. An arrangement they had offered us to go one day early with an other airline expired before we got knowledge of it, so a time of rearrange was born. The booking office we contacted for the tickets was very helpful (thank you Jerome), but the airlinecompany was less helpful. Eventually we received the money back, but for that we had to go to the office ourselves, the travel agent wasn’t aloud to receive the money on our behalf. Arriving at the office they told us that if we wanted the money in cash it would take two weeks. After a little complaining from our side, it was possible to get it the next day and after complaining a little more, we received the money right there, right then at the spot. It makes me wonder why it should have to take two weeks if it turns out to be possible to give it right away. After all, the new tickets to Kathmandu are booked, it takes us only three more days in Bangkok, so … all well, it ends well… so far!!!

Chinese and Tibetan new year

2008-02-10T06:14:00.001+01:00

A new country, new impressions, new people, new surroundings,… Something new is always exciting, and scary as well, to me. Specially after my great time in Bangkok, the idea of a disappointment was in my mind. So far nothing was less true. I entered Malaysia on the day of Chinese new year. Chinese new year being on the same day as Tibetan new year in 2008. The ferry rip I was supposed to take from Butterworth to Georgetown, on the Island of Pelua Penang, was a piece of madness, together with risk, exhaustion, and even danger. Because of the Chinese new year the people in Malaysia had a five day holiday. As if they all agreed on visiting Georgetown at that exact day, the queue for the ferry was enormous. That is if you would like to call it a queue. Hundreds of people, coming from all entrance sides, trying to make their way to the entrance gate as fast as possible. The entrance gate only opening every now and then, when new people were aloud to approach the ferry landing. Where the custom used to be to get women and children first of the boats, when a ship was sinking, here elder women and children got picked out of the queues to approach the ferry first, away from the madness. Meanwhile, in between the times the gates opened, everyone was still pushing, puling, and trying to wrk their way to get at least a meter closer. When the gates opened, it was madness as people from the back pushed, people from the sides also pushed, and still there was this one little entry gate. After all I made it, thanks to my elbows. Arriving in Georgetown was not only great because all of this was behind me, but immediately I got a feeling of likeness for this town. A feeling of likeness for Malaysian people I already had by then, despite the ferry experience. On the train over there, people had already shown me their kindness, helpfulness and hospitality. Coming from regions where there is always a reason why people are friendly, here it doesn’t seem to be like that. Really special! Because of the Chinese new year, and the holiday the Malaysians have, Georgetown is a quite town these days. Something that can be different when normal life will start again, I think. I enjoyed being in quite Georgetown perfect. This was also the first time, I got to experience Chinese new year closer. In China it’s probably much more impressive, and even in a lot f other countries it might be, but Malaysian celebration was my kind of celebration. Open, kind, respectful, and with a lot of action going on without forcing people to notice it. By accident I ended up in the celebration placefor Chinese new year in Georgetown. Dancing, singing, even a fashion show, it was all there. Also there I was approached by local people, just coming for a chat, just giving me a comfortable feeling. The overall feeling I have got about Malaysia so far is a feeling of comfort: A clean country, an easy public transportation network, helpful people. Why not enjoy it? Being in Asia doesn’t mean that you have to suffer, that you have to live in terrible conditions, that you have to become sick of the food. Being in Asia is more about a bigger inner feeling, to me. About experiences that don’t matter the conditions you’re in, because cultural the differences are there, and everywhere around you to notice. Even in the biggest tourist place, life is never the same as home. A thing that counts for everywhere that is not your local, natural habitat, I guess. The Chinese seem to have pyromaniac blood, as they love to burn things. On every street corner you see incense in al sizes and colors, with all kind of decorations. And all this gives a great atmosphere as they love to decorate with colors. They all have a meaning, but on the risk of being totally wrong, I choose not to go further into it. I just enjoyed the colors that were everywhere around. The surroundings of Georgetown also offer beautiful places. Penang Hill must be wonderful on the top, but these days, around Chinese new year, you have to rise early to catch a ticket for the train upthere, as people from all over the country seem to be interested to came here, now they have some time off. I didn’t make it, but I think it’s not more than fair that we leave these days for the local Malaysians. Seeing them having fun, enjoying the days, really makes me a smiling man.

Green and peaceful Bangkok

2008-02-02T09:47:00.000+01:00

It's propably the enormous quantity of smog that I have been breathing the last weeks, but I must say I like Bangkok (this time). The last two times I was here, which were also my first two times, I hated it from the first until the last second and even before and after. The first time I was here was the day, evening, before the King's birthday, and comming from Siem Reap, Cambodia, I missed my last connection to Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai where I was going to meet Sara. A meeting I was really looking forward to, and that propably polluted my judgement on Bangkok that time. The second time I even refused to even come into town, and therefor just spend a few hours at the busstation, waiting for a connection to Surin.

This time however, I'm here for two weeks already, and I must say, I kind of love it. The trick is to go out of the real touristic Thanon Kao San-area and see what Bangkok really has to offer. My way of doing this is just hupping on one of the many busses around here, going for a perticular destination, or just see where you end up. The last part always being a walk back to the guesthouse, which is in the TKS-area. On one of those trips, I ended up in Lumphini park, in a part of downtown Bangkok. I was astonished to see that in the middle of such a huge city, there could be really a peaceful, quite atmosphere, even in the middle of the day. Walking around there, my imagination must have been talking a walk with me I thought, because not only was there almost no traffic noise there (at most moments there was even no traffic noise at all), at once we saw crawling through the gras some kind of lizard. Nothing special, you would say, specially if you've been travelling before. I even had lizards in my bedroom, as we all have had around these places. Not these lizards, I may hope. The size of these animals was varying in a range from 20 cm to at least 50 cm. Being reptiles, and knowing my fear for reptiles, I wasn't to eager to take a closer look at first, and I didn't have my camera with me (which has a very good zoom).

Since we had visited the park on a week day, there was not much else going on around there, just an occasional jogger, or some local or expat reading a book.

Being interested in my fears, and being interested what this park would be like during the weekend (families coming together there to spend there days together playing, resting, eating, relaxing,...), I decided to go back during the next weekend. I took my camera, because making pictures of these reptiles were my main conserne to go back. Walking the first 30 minutes around in the park, I didn't spot one reptile, but I saw a lot of families, as I expected. The atmosphere was truelly nice and friendly. People smiling, children playing, people just reading a book under a palm tree, everything was so peaceful overthere. Still, I thought the people being there were propably the reason why the animals were not really showing their face, or even their tail. That was until I walked into an area of the park, I don't know what was special about it, where also people were doing the same things as in the other places, only here the area was filled with the lizards. Filled is exaggerated, but you could really see a lot of them, swimming around, hiding, but also just walking between the people on the grass. To my surprise there were even more lizards as when we were there the other day and the size of these ones was amazing. Some of them were 1 meter long, not even counting the tail. Approaching the animals they really seemed to be lazy bastards, as they just stayed there lying on the ground, maybe even enjoying the attention. Attention they didn't seem to get from many of the locals, who propably see them every week. They might even be part of the family already. I left the park with a lot of pictures, and happy as a child, because it stays amazing to me that such a little natural things can be just in the center of a huge city like Bangkok. It's a wonderful place to just lay back and relax for a while. That is, ofcourse, if you don't mind sharing the lawn with lizards. The locals don't seem to mind.

Coincidences or not?

2008-01-25T14:17:00.001+01:00

It seems like after I've been sick in Savanaket, everything seems to come together, in the good way. Where november and december have been tough months emotionally, from Vang Vieng everything is joy and fun. Well, there are sad moments ofcourse, there are problems to solve every now and than, but the over all balance is more than positive. Problems don't seem to be so difficult as before, I seem to take peace with a situation easier as before. It gives me the impression that after leaving Nepal, my travells really started, where Nepal wasn't really travelling, it was more being home.

On the way from Savanaket to Vang Vieng I met Kurt, an Austrian economical advisor, and it was just the start of meeting people with the weirdest jobs. Not that the jobs were actually weird, it were actually more professions I knew about but never met a person who did it. Top of this all was meeting a tree surgeon. Really, they excist, and as if I was not really convinced...I met a second one. It seems to be one of those professions that you never meet, but when you meet them, they come from all sides. Coincidence?

I travelled with Kurt, the Austrian, from Vang Vieng to more quite areas, and together we shared cold mornings in Phonesavan and Xam Nua. Although the cold at 7 in the morning was painfull somehow, I did enjoy it. I enjoyed feeling it again after months. The last cold I had felt was up in the mountains in Nepal. Writing it down I realise that hasn't been that long ago, but still...it felt like very long ago. At that moment I had like a postponed Christmas feeling. A feeling that dissapeared pretty soon, as a few hours later we were sweathing our clothes of again. Starting a trip when it's cold is not a good idea if you're not prepared for the heath that will follow . As it will be the other way around, propably. That trip in itself was a little dissapointing considering the attraction of the day: the Pathet Lao Caves, but at the end we missed the last bus back to Xam Nua. Xam Nua being located 30 km's away from the desolated place we got stranded. We kept on smiling, and started for a loooooooong walk home. A log walk that got interupted by a friendly family who offered us a ride in the back of their pick-up, all the way to Xam Nua. Coincidence?

From Xam Nua the trip took me to Louang Prabang in the most horrible saengthaw ride I ever had. 25 people in 17 places, one of the benches that broke down (and got repaired), the driver who was drinking beer, Chinese going crazy about this, and two people from Holland in the saengthaw. Actually, that last thing wasn't horrible at all, but it just comes with the things I remember from that ride. The Dutch people we Ronald and Sabrina, and it was just the start of meeting eachother again and again for the next three days. A really nice experience. In Louang Prabang I found propably the cheapest guesthouse in town, and met Robert again. Robert, an American whome I met several times before. When he arrived in Louang Prabang a few days before me, he had send me an e-mail with the adress of the guesthouse where he was staying. I only noticed this later, because at that time I hadn't checked my mail for a week. Still we ended up in the same guesthouse, again. Coincidence? Am I walking around in Bangkok a week later, who do I run into there??? Good old Bob (Robert, for those who didn't get it) Jessica, whome I met on the bus from Vientiaene to Nang Khai (take your map and see that this is where I got back into Thailaned), and who left Nong Khai one night before me, shared a train cabine with Robert the night before. Coincidence????????????

Well, coincidences or not, I met some very interesting people, all with their own stories, and each with their own interesting points of view. But most of all, I'm having a great time and saw some amazing places again. In nature, meetings, coincidences or not, there are so many little heavens on earth left, it's just a matter of being able to open my eyes, and that is so much easier when my mind is not obstructed.

The jojo traveller

2008-01-08T05:01:00.000+01:00

Laos brought me a lot of new impressions, as every day every where does. The impressions in Laos however, were those of beautiful scenery, mixed with a lot of self reflecting, astonishment, peace, disgust, sickness, getting stronger, and refinding balance within myself. As I travelled extra km's here, to see Sara (no ofence sweetheart, it was my decision), the overall feeling of Laos will not include the far northern part of the country. It's something I don't regret, as I see it as an opportunity to make another trip over here later. My first impressions are that the southern part of the country is colder, more commercialised as when you head north in the country. This view is also based on my own feelings on that particular moments. It took me two weeks to realise that when people ask you where you're going, most of the time it doesn't mean...can I make money out of you? (as it does in so many surounding countries. A lot of time the people are just willing to show their ability to speak English, very limited skills, but it's cute and nice. When asked at a busstation, it usually are friendly people from the buscompany that just try to point you in the right direction, to make your journey as easy as possible. The further I get up north the more I start realising those things, the more I start loving this country and its people. My last day in Savanaket, I already checked out of my room to take a night bus that evening. The night before I got struck by a fever, heavy stomach aches and almost no sleep at all. I cancelled the cycling trip I had planned with some people I met the day before, and spend the whole day on the floor of the guesthouse terras more than often interrupted for an urgent toilet break. Miraculously, the next day after an 8 hour night bus followed by another 4 hours in another bus, I was cured as good as completely. As if it were a new start, I began to see things with a more open state of mind. Taking a step back from my reserved and anxious looking at things around me, the more I can absorbe the beauty of nature in this place. The surroundings are surreal sometimes. Surreal in their natural beauty. Therefor it's such a petty to me, to notice that all of this peaceful beauty is ruthely disturbed by the commercialisation for the westerners, in Vang Vieng. Taking an easy kayaking afternoon, just wandering between the high limestone hills behind the beautiful flora became impossible. Tubing, floating on the river on top of the inner tube of a truck, became the main attraction here. Tubing often goes together with lots of alcohol, and since that's what the people wanted, they even added loud music to it in the bars every 100 meters along the river. One bar being biger than the other, but to me all with one thing in common...disturbance of the natural invironement and the culture. People enjoying themselves on those places is not my complain, not at all, it's just the way it's done. Being there, I suddenly realised what the grandparents from people of my generation ment with "the devils music". This loud pumping music, together with the boose seemed to make every kind of respect for the local culture to dissapear. People dancing half naked, yelling on every tarzan swing they take flighing on a constucted rope from a tree to splash in the water, disturbing the peaceful nature that this surrounding has to offer. The jumping into the water also shows another sad thing. People doing things they rather wouldn't do, but they feel they have to hoping to belong to the group. Looking at the fear in their eyes hanging there in the air, trying to look as cool as possible makes me wander what idea this must give about westerners to the local population. Isn't it logic they start seeing westerners as walking dollar bills with only interests in status and consuming lots of alcohol? To me its also interfering in the local sociological environement in a very rude way, in a way we wouldn't accept people to do in the west. Still, we do it elsewhere. Lot's of people in the west are scared of other cultures interfering in their environement, but for lot's of them it's ok to do so elsewhere. It all happened before, wars have been fought over it, and most people hope people have learned their lesson now...but still, we do it elsewhere. This less attractive point to my opinion can not take away the beautiful feelings I got just by watching the nature revealing itself in all its beauty. Any sunset is alike, and yet no sunsets are the same. It's those little differences that make them all unique. It's not just the view of the sun that makes everything so spherical, it's also what happens around, before and after it. In Vang Vieng, if you wait a few minutes after the sun has dissapeared, you get to see an amazing view of hundreds of thousands of bats that leave the numerous caves around here and fly in big groups toward the nightly forrest life. (picture left) Really amazing, only most people don't get to see it, because after the sunset they leave for the shower, to wash of the alcohol-sweath from their body, preparing themselves for another evening of partying, not noticing the woman on the back of the truck putting on some extra ruined clothes to her little child to protect it at least a litle bit against the cooler temperatures.

Healing

2007-12-20T06:13:00.000+01:00

To be honest, as you all know me ofcourse, there was supposed to be another blog here, but since it has been on my computer for 5 days now, a lot has changed. The first difficult time in my travell has passed. In Chiang Mai (Thailand), I met my Belgian friend, and the impact was bigger as I ever expected it would be. We shared a week together in Chiang Mai, learning to drive a motorcycle, trekking to the highest point of Thailand, visiting hotsprings, and just walking and talking, which we can do for hours. Being together with her, made me realise how alone I am sometimes on this trip, and it got to me. I don't think there was any better option to be there for me than Sara. She made me think, reflect and have some great times again. Travelling alone was partially chosen because of the confrontation with myself, but some parts I'd rather have seen in Nepal, where I still feel at home and more comfortable. On the other hand, those parts will propably never show there, because I feel at home there. Many good things come to an end, so Sara had to leave, and I decided to take my trip different from now on. Try to be more social. It's not always easy, but it works. I took a coocking class, which was really amazing and tasty, and after that I tried to spend my time in a place more useful as just hanging around becoming depressed. I wanted things to change, and so far they seem to do. Sukhothai gave me a wonderful bycicle drive of almost 50 km's, chased by dogs twice, and some amazing views on ruins and landscapes, as well as seeing some dutch friends again whome I met in Chiang Mai, because of Sara who already knew them. They were becoming a big part of my next days as I saw them again in Kanchanaburi. Kanchanaburi on the other hand gave me a room on the water, yep one of those floating rooms which are diferent from the flooding rooms in Hoi An, a tour to a seven stage waterfall, a ride on the dead railway and a walk over the bridge on the river Kwai. The day before the tour I visited the death railway museum, on my own (I know), which gave me much more useful information and much more feeling riding that dead railway, which would otherwise just have been a railway, sitting on a hard bench. I decided not to spend that day to much in Kanchanaburi, and left after three days, which had a visit on the tiger temple the last day (is that a tourist trap!!!!!??!!!), and left for Surin. Surin fits in my plan to cross the Thai-Lao border in Chong Mek, within a few days, to see Sara again for newyear. Propably I'm the most lucky man on earth getting the chance to see her twice in such a short time, because she's also ravelling Asia for seven months. Surin can be very tricky again, as there is not that much to do here, unless you're willing to spend at least 50 euro and taking the risk just being there with the guide. The risk is on a social level, because Mr. Pirom, who does some excellent tours here, seems to be a very nice and trustworthy man, whome I heared a lot of good about. Sara took a trip here, but she works in advertising and they make loads of money, as we all know! This is also the place where she met the Dutch people, so maybe it's kind of holy ground here for me and that's why I had to stop over here. I stay in Mr. Pirom's guesthouse, for only 3 euro, but as I'm the only guest there, I decided I'm leaving further to the Lao border tomorrow, more specific to Ubon Ratchathani. Travelling alone on 2nd class busses is special, on the other hand. Being the only one that speeks English, and being the only one that doesn't speak Thai can be hard sometimes. Specially at the lunch stops and when you're a vegetarian. It all fits in the process of appreciating people that I do communicate with. At such a moment a smile of sympathy can do miracles, when you start thinking you're isolated from the rest of this world. The most beautiful smiles at those moments are even the ones that only show two or three teeth left over in a womans mounth. That smile is the most warm smile I can get at that moment. PS: As pathetic as it sounds to myself, I's like to dedicate this post to Sara, who stood by me in that difficult time. Thank you sweetheart!!!!

Tuol Sleng

2007-12-11T05:31:00.000+01:00

If there’s one place about Cambodia that will propably always remain in my memory, it won’t be Ankor Wat, it won’t be taking a boat over the Mekong, it won’t be the people being friendly, it will be Toul Sleng, aka S21, aka museum of genocide. There’s really no other place in Cambodia that left that big an impression on me. To be honest, I really had a hard evening after visiting this place. The formal school is now a museum about the cruelty that took place in there years ago. Cruelty commited under the regime of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. What originally used to be a school for children, changed into a prison where extreme rules were explained to be the security of regulations. The first part of the trip true what became this horrible place took me in some rooms where just one bed is placed, and on the bed, there is either an extremely thin matras covered in restants of blood, torture machines, or a combination of both. On the walls hangs one single picture of the old days, showing craving people on the beds, or people bading in blood after the horrible torture. As if people would start laughing looking at this, sometimes around the buildings you get to see a traffic sign that forbids everybody to laugh at this museum. Adding this detail to the walls made the whole atmosphere in there even more grabbing my troat. The second building took me to some prison cells. The first and second floor of the building were reserved for the isolation. Almost as expected, the people were locked up in inhumanly small cells, with their legs attached to the floor by chains. The difference between the ground- and the first floor was the fabric of the cells. On the ground floor cement was used, and at the first floor the cells were made out of wood. I didn’t go any further into why this was, because to me the experience of just seeing those cells was cruel enough, and I didn’t even think about why those differences in fabric. The top floor of this second building was reserved for the imprisonment in group. This room is used as a room filled with anecdotes, these days. Anecdotes from relatives of former prisoners of Tuol Sleng. Anecdotes that tell stories about how people chose to join the Khmer Rouge, seeing it as their only way out of the miserable life they had, but in the end they ended up tortured and murdered in this “what once used to be a school for innocent children”. At 10am and 3pm, a documentary is shown in the tv-room. A documentary that tells the story of two lovers living, and suffering apart under the Khmer Rouge regime, told by letters they wrote eachother that were found later. The most chocking part in the documentary, to me, was actually the part where they take a former guard back to the prison, together with an ex-prisoner. Both of them show a lot of respect for eachother, I think, but when I saw the guard telling a story how he didn’t kill any people on the Killing Fields (which is a different story, but with the same bases), but just hit them on the head, so someone else could kill them, with a smile on his face…I was astonished. The former prisoner is a painter who made paintings showing the cruelty that took place in S21. Cruelty that he himself didn’t suffer under all of it, but some of them he heared about. The guard admitted that the actual scenes took place the way the man painted them. The paintings are there to see at the third building of the school/museum/prison. Under each painting stands the torture machine shown in it. It really makes everything coming even closer. Other rooms in the building are reserved for foto exhibitions. Photo exhibitions that don’t only show the people that were imprisoned, but also some of the leading characters in the prison. Pictures that are ruined by people carving in it, writing on it, one obscene text over another. It’s a hard decision to make if this is to justify. Not being a person that visits museums often, and most of the time I get out faster as I get in, this place really made me walk around for over three hours, but its impression sticked with me until this day on. The regulation that you couldn’t scream during electrification or lashes even made the biggest impression on me. I don’t know why, but the cruelty of the whole place is in that one sentence, to me.

Going south in Vietnam

2007-11-23T11:59:00.000+01:00

Well, it has been a while since I wrote. After we left Hoi An, we got to Nha Trang, and I must say, it was, again, wonderful. The city is devided into different sections actually, there is the local commercial one, and the touristic commercial one. In Nha Trang I also got to pick up with walking again. Visiting peaceful temples, a photographer that's pretty famous over here and in photographers world, visit a monastry, and meeting a man from Breda, of all places. I'm still full of respect for those people, offering their own free time, and money, to go out and volunteer for the less fortunate. To become a volunteer, you often have to pay! That's what Marco, the man from Breda did, and now he was on a well deserved weekend off, with two colleagues. I don't know if I would ever be possible to offer myself so much for those others, although I've been talking about it a lot of times before I left. Travelling a lot starts making me tired. The busses are actually really nice, but still...spending 6 to 12 hours in a bus every two or three days, it starts getting to me. The result is that my mind isn't really clear at all times, and the moments were there that I started thinking; What am I doing here? I'm just hanging around, don't even go to visit so many places outside the towns or cities I am. On the other hand, that's what I'm here for. To live my life the way it feels best for me at this moment. I started to think sometimes of risking to miss a lot while I'm here, just by hanging around, but if it feels like the right thing to do, I just do it. The most places I visit, I try to do by walking, and that's what suets me best. All the doubts are propably "fatigue" stimulated. After Nha Trang it was time to take a ride a little more away from the coast, as we had seen enough, not to say toooooo much, water the last week. The next stop was Dalat. Another magical town, and magical really gets another meaning here, because there is even a place that reminds me of the "Efteling" in Holland. It's a guesthouse where every room is build in the team of a story, an animal,... Walking around there really gives me the impression of being 10 again. Man was that fun, running around the house. Dalat was the place where the higher ranking of soldiers, the emperors, the more wealthy of society went to spend their free time, or escape from the heath during hot season. Well, Dalat was even cold to me. It wasn't freezing over there, but you really feel the difference with the seaside. It was a nice change for a few days. A lot of time to cool down we didn't give ourselves, because two days later Mui Ne was already our next destination. Mui Ne, I can describe best as one beach resort next to another. Those who read my blog thouroughly might remember that I'm more into rios, and therefor am I not so much a beach boy. Well travelling with an Ozzie you have to make some sacrefices. This was one of them, but I did it in full glory. I think I spend two days around the place making less steps a s a jew on a saturday. As I said, I'm starting to feel tired, and I decided, I could use the days of. It turned out that I spend more time at the beach as my personal Kangaroo. (sorry dear ;)) Dalat is also known for its easy riders, motorcyclist who try to convince you to let them take you all over the country. It must be said, I hear a lot of good from the people who tried it. They really show you the places you want to see, and you get to places normal tours or busses don't come. For me it was a little to expencive though. In Mui Ne, you have the Mui Ne version of the easy riders, and Tenzin took a half day tour with one of them. She was really happy with the decision, as she had a great trip. So if you're thinking about doing it when you're here...I can recomend it. For me that was one of those moments that I really had to convince myself that I was doing the right thing by not going on the trip, as I was doubting my activity level on this travell. Well, I sorted it out pretty fast. I decided not to go, beacause first of all that's what I felt like, and second there's no way I get to see everything in this trip, so I just enjoy the things I see and do, and don't look back, certainly not in sadness of something that I didn't do. I love to be lazy, so somethings about me are still the same. Most of it is, in fact. Two days of beach was the perfect preparation to go to Ho Chi Minh City AKA Saigon. I love the cities. The chaos that's bigger than the one in my head sometimes. Crossing the streets in that special way of just walking and everyone will avoid you (if everything works out), being on the back of a motorbike surviving in trafic, and they seem to find it so easy as they are even on the phone. The crouded places, but still some of those parks right in the centre of the city. Oases of rest and people walking, jogging, playing badminton. The only thing that gets to my nerves sometimes is; Want to buy a book...hasheeeeshhh. They really say this in a funny way, so as a matter of fact it is more funny annoying, what makes it more bareble again. You see how you can take everything with a positive sight? I'm happy I do! Also Saigon will only be for a few days, as we'll be leaving soon for Cambodia. Going to the border by bus, and there we take a 9 hour bout to Phnom Penn. Propably some more adventures will be waiting there for me, but to be honest, I'm looking forward to go to Thailand, as that will be the place I'll really take a rest. Try to stay at one place for a little longer, and recover from these first three months. Three months that were awsome, and that I'm very happy about. As I see it: I had the trip in the mountains, had to run away from the gem stone traiders, had a job in Kathmandu, had an earthquake in Kathmandu, saw one of my best friends back after one year, had a typhoon and floodings in Hoi An and still have a sour ass from the busrides. Well for the first three months that counts I think.

Typhoon aftermath

2007-11-15T11:00:00.000+01:00

Three days after the toughest part of the tyhoon, most of the streets of Hoi An seem like nothing has happened to the untrained eye. The markets are back in full force, the tailors are measuring again, the shoeshops try to fit a shoe on everyone that passes by and the restaurants all ask if you want to see their menu again. Only in some parts of town you can still see the damage, as they are either still suffering under a lot of water, or the water just left the area last night and they are still cleaning the houses and the streets. Every street also has a little to a lot more garbage in it, which gives a sign that something might have happened, because normally the streets here in Vietnam are clean. That's what I mean with the untrained eye. One might expect dirt in the streets here if he didn't know better. Othere signs of the damage that has been done are shoes in the shops, showing signs of waterdamage. Still the owners try to sell these shoes, either for a cheap price, or with the message that the water doesn't effect the shoe. Therefor, you don't need to have a trained eye; the water does effect the quality of a leather shoe. Can you blame the people still trying to make as much money as possible after what happened here, and lots of them having lost a fortune? I don't, it's just a matter of surviving now I think. Still I'm surprised every day to see the people's smile, cleaning up the damage, talking about how much they lost, showing how high the water was in the houses, the shops... Nobody looses his or her smile in all of this. That makes them more wonderful to me, because I think I would be full of complains. It's good for me to see this, it really makes me see there is a way of surviving hard and difficult situations with a smile. Besides all the smiles there are also the first amounts of casualties. 24 counted so far, and still hundreds of people missing. If you know the water here was over 1,5 meters in the street...this street is not even next to the river. Some of the houses near the river were almost completely under the waterlevel, I was told. Hearing different stories here and there, I also realise more and more how lucky we've been staying in this hotel, in a higher part of town. People had snakes coming into the hotel together with the water. Knowing my fear for snakes, I think it could have been the most horrible days of my life. But they were not. They turned out to be inspiring and interesting days. Seeying strong people, smiling faces, hard working people trying to make the best out of every situation, supporting eachother. After five days, we're ready to leave Hoi An behind us, for now, and head further south to Nha Trang. But the end of this story is propably not written yet, only my being in it ends here. I widh the lovely people in Hoi An all the best, and ask anyone visiting this place, to see the smile on the people's faces as being there everyday, in good as well as bad days! To be honest, I think there are only good days, after I've experienced this kind of positivism and happyness!!

The typhoon hit us

2007-11-13T05:15:00.000+01:00

November 12, 2007 was propably the most crazy day I had on this trip so far. They woke us up at 5am, with the only message; "evacuate". What happened... Due to a typhoon passing the south of Vietnam, the rain went on so hard the night before, our rooms were close to being flooded. The hallway was already filled with water, and the waterlevel was rising fast. Take our stuff and move upstairs asap was the only option. We were trapped in the hotel, as the streets were already filled with water up to 1 meter. The only thing we could do was take a look outside and watch the water rise 5 to 10 meters more every hour. Havy rains making the picture of the typhoon complete. The shops, as Hoi An is famous for its tailors started to get filled with water more every second. A human drama happening in every house here, but still they didn't loose the smile on their face. The only ones that got upset were the tourists that wanted to know; Can we leave tomorrow? What will the weather be like tomorrow? We booked a tour, can we get a refund? Is lunch ready? It's amazing to see where the values of people are different in the spoiled countries. It seems to me that when your used tu your luxuries lifestyle, although many people don't seem to realise they have this, there's a lot more to loose when nature calls. (Excuse the expression, I just wanted to use it.) After lunch the level of the water seemed to stabilise at the point right before it would enter the hotel lobby. The lobby being 1,6 meter higher than the street...the water had rose up 1,5 meters in the street. A hallucinant sight for me, seeing the streets really filled with water. A strong streaming of the water. Rescue boats in what had been the streets only 12 hours ago. Rescue boats being rown by human beings. Strong human beings, but still sometimes they couldn't win the struggle with the tough streaming of the water. While rowing forward, sometimes the boats just floated backwarts. In the afternoon the raining stopped for a while, and even the sun came out for a moment. At once the reception was stormed again with people asking the same intelligent questions as before, propably thinking the water would be gone in a few hours. Scary to see, how some people really don't seem to have any knowledge about forces of nature anymore. Nature showing once again that it is much more powerful than humans. That was the beauty about the whole occasion, for me. Around noon the power in the hotel got shut off, because of safety. When at 5 pm they lighted some of the lobby lights again, my thoughts were; when will the rush to the internetroom start. It took like 10 seconds, before the first people went to try the internet, coming back heads down because that part of the power wasn't switched on again. I wonder why people are so eager to check their e-mails at that time, although most of the people would propably try to find a reliable weather report on the web. A job that turned out to nothing in the morning. But you never know...maybe these few hours the content of the web had changed drastic. It turns out that it's hard to make a good weather report one typhoons, tunderstorms, or any other force of nature, because I think it all sticks to speculation. You can read the forecast, but when it turns out different, which happens more than once, where does that leave you. Propably in the US you can sue someone for it, but in most countries... Another remarcable thing to see was how the people struggling to get families out of their houses, people trying to save their belongings from the water, became like monkeys in the zoo for the tourists safe in their hotel. Every camera made more pictures as it was used to make in a week when people passed by in a boat, walking arms up in the water, carrying their valuables above their head. I do admit...my camera made a lot of shots too. The level of the water never exceeded the hight of the lobby, and when we woke up the next day, after going to sleep in heavy rains, the street level of the water had gone down to 25 cm. People were trying to go away from Hoi An asap, walking their first 30 minutes through the water, not knowing what the situation would be further on the road. People really seem to panick when nature shows its power. But does it make them realise the power of nature? Propably most of them forget as soon as they return to the safe neighbourhoods, or when they're at home, back in their luxurious flats, houses, leading a good lifestyle, still complaning how hard it is for them. For me this past day was a wonderful experience, seeing the beauty of the forces of nature, as well as feeling helpless seeing so much damege being done to so many people. It makes me think even more about how lucky and fortunate I am. I'm propably not going to be happy every day, and I will complain every now and again, but still...I won't forget and that will help me see things in perspective whenever I need it.

Rain and a Typhoon

2007-11-11T12:53:00.000+01:00

It was a hard decision, but we felt like we had to make it: Leave Hanoi and start the trip to the south of Vietnam. Hanoi really is a city that gained a special place in my heart. Were it the nice people at the hotel, was it the great weather, was it the chaos in the street, was it the wonderful times at the lake? I don't know, and frankly I don't care. The love is just there. The last days in Hanoi I spend just wondering around a little more, sitting by the lake, reading my book, drinking coffee... I started to feel settled there, so maybe that was the sign to leave, as I still had to make the tip south. The trip south turns out to be a trip to the rain, and even a typhoon, so far. From Hanoi we took a night-sleeping bus to Hue, knowing that it was raining in the centre and the south of the country. When I entered the bus, when because we had to take two other busses before we got into "our" bus, I was really surprised. I expected to sit in a pretty normal bus, the only thing special being that the seats could be putted more flat as in a normal tourist bus. Well, this bus seemed to have real beds in it. Not the beds I know from the hotels, or at home, but still there was not one seat in the bus. Except for the driver, ofcourse. The bus must have had like 30 or 40 beds. Three rows of two high. It was special, and the only problem for me was that the blanket was too short. But that's just a minor difficulty ofcourse. Maybe there was another problem to get to sleep. The constant horning of the bus. It's crazy how many times they horn around these areas. Sometimes it looks like a kid having a new toy. AND the horns never brake down, unfortunately. Propably they would take a car out of traffic if its horn wouldn't be working. No lights is ok, but no horn is not done. In Hue, we got the expected rain, but still we visited the Imperial City, which I must say is slippery when wet. At some parts you really have to be very careful, and I don't understand how it's possible not more accidents happen there. Tenzin went down once, but further we had no problem of that kind. The city itself really was enjoyable to me, but since I'm not really a museum kind of guy, they never really touch me in a way I could write a whole epistel about it. I think these 6 lines are quite good, considering this. The late afternoon and evening we spend watching movies at the hotel. Who said a TV is not necessary when you're travelling? Oop, it was me! I even got this feeling like ordering a pizza and beers, but instead we went to have dinner at the hotel restaurant, because that way we could leave the room and still watch the movie. Isn't it great when things work out so well? The next day we left Hue already to go and have a look in Hoi An. Hoi An is famous for its tailors. They make you silk suites for around 80 USD, and it's supposed to be ready in only 24 hours. Don't worry, I won't return with a suit. Maybe a purse. Hoi An suffers from a typhoon at the moment, and that gives some amazing views. Pooring rain, the street flooded, waving threes, but still everyone driving and walking on the road, like there's nothing going on. Well, maybe for them there is nothing going on. For all I know they might be used to this kind of weather. Propably it means that there's nothing to worry about. Not that I'm worried, but still...you never know. As always things will work out perfect, and there's always TV ofcourse. I wonder which movies are on tonight?

Halong Bay and Cat Ba island (part 2 of 2)

2007-11-10T10:22:00.000+01:00

After being dropped of at the hotel on Cat Ba island, and having a peanut lunch, we were going for another boat float between the Cat Ba islands. To be honest, it's much more quiet and peaceful overthere as in Halong Bay. The simple reason for this is less boats. We decided to skip kayaking and head straight for the beach. Well, beach... To reach the beach, which had the size of a table tennis table, we had to jump of the boat, and swim to it. It might sound as if I was dissapointed, but in fact I wasn't. I'm not that much of a real beach boy, I'm just more into Gabriel Rios. The sun and fun were excellent over there. At least for me, loving the peace and quiet areas. Jumping into the water was done from the roof again, and I must say, still my heart was pumping harder when I was up there. Meanwhile on a bigger beach, not so far away, on an island called monkey island, Jamie was enjoying some special time with the monkeys. What happened? Some monkeys got into a fight, and the head monkey came out to show them of. As one of the monkeys didn't really listen to him, he came up to Jamie. Jamie, being an adventure travell guide, knows not to show his teeth to the monkey, as they see this as a sign of agression. With his camera bag he tried to get the monkey away from him, avoiding to look into his eyes. The head monkey came back again and send the little one away. Nice ending for Jamie, you might think, but then the monkey leader thought time was right also to teach Jamie a lesson. He took his leg, and bit him right above his ancle. Nice story, don't you think? Although most of you might have expected something more, to me it stays laughter after hearing the story over and over again. Not to forget, all the allusions that were made after Jamie bought bananas next day. Where we were supposed to leave the next day, we decided to stay an extra day. The extra day was spend walking around the beautiful harbour, and relaxing at a wonderful beach, where it was really quiet. Over the total day, I think 20 people have been there. Excellent! The rest I needed, bacause after almost two months, I'm starting to get tired inside my mind. All the new experiences, the new people, the new situations, like traffic for instance,... it's getting lots of my energy. It's good to have some easy days. Easy days well spend resting, as I still have a lot of time ahead of me.

Halong Bay and Cat Ba island

2007-11-09T03:25:00.000+01:00

Although I'm not into organised trips, I decided to take one to Halong Bay and Cat Ba island. It was a three day trip, which consisted of two day boat trip, spending one night at the boat, a little trekking and kayaking. Leaving from Hanoi to Halong City, I immediately saw the kind of mass-tourism that goes around here. Busses crossing the city, picking up tourists to go to one attraction or another. It's a good oiled machine, because while keeping to schedule, nobody got stressed. Arriving in the harbour at Halong City, the amount of boats waiting for passangers was uncountable. Waiting for passengers, but they were comming. Every boat would leave the harbour within a little while. When the boats leave the harbour, it feels like being in a procession, all the boats peacefully in a row. The only part that showed it were tourists on the move were the beer drinking people on top of the boats. Lunch at the boat, which I was a little affraid of, turned out to be enough, and...delicious. Seafood, rice, vegetables, peanuts, fruit...it were the ingredients that would be fed to us the next days. But damn it was good. It felt like an all you can eat buffet, and every time the peanuts won. DAMN PEANUTS!!!! After lunch there was the standard cave-visit. You walk in, walk out, and on the way you get some nice views. It's this part of those trips that terrifies me. But still here, there was no feeling of marching one behind the other, all like, I'm sorry I must say it, Chinese. The cave even gave some wonderful views inside and walking back from the cave I really got a few beautiful views at the bay. The bay contains over 2000 islands, that were created long-long time ago, when ice melted and flooded the place. What once were mountains, rising up from the ground, now are just peaks rising up from the water. It really gives some amazing views. After the cave thing, time was there to do some Kayaking, just paddling around, and after that swimming in the hot water. Since we Tenzin and me) had been talking about jumping from the roof of the boat, into the water don't worry, we felt like we had to do it. Brave I walked up to the roof, but once there...6/7 meters seems higher looking down than up. I think we stood there for 5 minutes just looking down, shivvering legs. We jumped after all, and again...amazing. Just flying in the air for like 2 seconds, hit the water. Writing it, it seems pretty pfffff, but I know at that time, my heart was beating so fast, it was one of those moments you would like to do again, because you only remember the nice parts of the rush in your blood. Dinner in the evening was another struggle with the peanuts, and after that it was relaxing at the roof of the boat, admiring the beatiful starry sky. Unfortunately the boats around us had karaoke parties (ours was broken, yiehaaaaa), and therefor there was a lot of noice, but still I had my fun as you here the people getting more and more drunk, wondering when I'd hear the first one fall in the water. It didn't happen. The next morning it was of tho Cat Ba island, bus time for 15 minutes, and arrive at a national park to do a little trekking. A trekking that wasn't reaaly tough, but it was nice to do a little excercise again. The trek brought us to the top af a mountain (250m), on which a watching tower was build. trekking up the mountain was easy, but I passed for the wtching tower. Too high for me, as I'm still a little affraid of hights. The view from the top of the mountain was good enough for me, hahahahahaha. Resting and waiting for the others when we got down again, I got to see my first snake here. A small long bastard of which I heared afterwarts it was poisoning. If I knew it at the moment...I don't think I would have gone so close to take a picture of it.Snakes are still like hights to me...don't feel good around them. Jamie, a man from New Zeeland, whome we met around here, is an adventures trekking guide and was really hoping to see some snakes around here. Well, I got to see it, but he got something reserved specially for himself. You'll read about it later in this blog.

Changing places

2007-11-02T04:02:00.000+01:00

As I wrote before, Kathmandu had some new surprises for me. Arriving at 1 pm, I was offered a completely legitimate job at 2 pm. A job correcting Dutch texts for a website-developement company from Holland. Making back half the amount of money I left in the fraud, just by working 5 days. Because it was offered to me by some Belgian people I met in Kathmandu before, I trusted it and took the offer. Working with Nepali people was one of the objectives I set before I came here, and now the opportunity was there. It's true there are some differences, as if i didn't tell him to do something, he wouldn't, but it's not like they are lazy bastards as they are described sometimes. The job in itself was pretty boring for me, but it was nice to spend days in a constructive way, contributing to the knowledge of the youth from Holland. A few days after I arrived in Kathmandu, I got the same gem stone offer I had in Pokhara. I just listened to the man, knowing almost exactly what he was going to say, and thank him after that with the words; You shouldn't ask me this because even I can read the Lonely Planet. Some things were really remarkable. Where the man (at least he called himself a man) in Pokhara claimed to be from Finland, this one told me he had the Danish nationality. Both of them used the same name; Raj. I know there is the Raj cast around here, but this name was pronounced different from that one. Both of the contacts started with my watch. As I wrote in the gem stone story, it's quite big for a watch and people tend to look at it, ask to see it, and even to buy it. In Kathmandu I also met some people from the trek again. One of them took a special place in my heart, because she saved me from a big stupidity in Pokhara. Over there I didn't get the chance to thank her, but as it always happens...if you have to, you'll meet again. Thank you pretty and beautiful blond Finish woman. (not to say Ritva) We had a nice time together on the trek, and now also in Pokhara, and we seemed to have a lot of the same ideas, as we always ended up in the same places at the same time. Those are the moments I really enjoy, specially if they are with someone I carry in a special place in my heart. To make the story complete; my last night in Kathmandu, Lhundup, my Tibetan friend from Pokhara, showed up at my hotel. Having breakfast the next morning with Lhundup and Ritva, felt like a perfect closure for this time in Nepal. I took the plane to Hanoi, Vietnam, in the afternoon. The first flight took me to Bangkok, Thailand, where I spend the night at the airport, before taking my flight to Hanoi. Actually I had no hotel room in Bangkok, but the nice woman from Thai Air fixed things so that I could spend my night in a hotel bed at the airport, payed by Thai Air. Sometimes things work out just perfect, and those moments I enjoy so much. Arriving in Vietnam however, I was facing a new problem. My luggage was left behind in Thailand. No big deal, as there are two flights a day, and I was on the first flight. Still it seemed that I was out of luck for a few moments, because when my luggage arrived in the evening, they took it to the wrong hotel. The lost & found office already closed, the other hotel, which name was pretty similar to the one was staying at, called "my" hotel, I called the lost & found office next morning, and now we're now. So still waiting, but havng faith I'll meet my bag soon. Arriving at the hotel was still great because after one year, I got to see my close friend, Tenzin, again. I kind of forgot how pretty she is, and she still has this same smile and wonderful personality. After only being in the hotel 2 or 3 days, it seems she's all the staff's favourite. It's just something about her that makes you love her. About Hanoi...it's crazy. I thought I saw it all in Kathmandu or Mexico City, but here... traffic is even more crazy. To be honest, I LOVE IT! (not being the craziest person in town)

The gem stone fraude (second and final episode)

2007-10-30T04:35:00.000+01:00

To be honest, I didn't really know what to do. Who could I trust? Who was involved in the fraude? The people from the guesthouse: were they supposed to keep an eye on me, or were they just normal spectators? The first thing I did was making my creditcard useless, with a phonecall to Belgium. After that, is was already 11.45 pm, so I decided to go back to the hotel, make sure my backs were packed, so I could leave asap. My mind was still trying to think of the best plan and all the options. Being back at my hotel, I didn't get any further than my original thought; I have to get out of here! That night I slept for one hour, my heart beating to fast, to much on my mind to really get some sleep. I put my alarm clock at 6.30 am, but it didn't turn out to be usefull, because my hour of sleep must have been somewhere between 3 and 4. I got up at 5 and kept on looking at my options. The people from the guesthouse shouldn't be outside, there shouldn't be to many people on the street yet, but the streets also shouldn't be abandoned. At 5.30 am I heared a door open. Was I too late for my silent escape? Did the owners already wake up? I looked outside the window, and saw one of the other guests leave her room and heading for the front gate. The front gate was still closed, and that was the sign for me to take my bags and leave. The gate still being closed was my sign the owners were still inside their house, because otherwise they open the gate. My thoughts turned out to be right, and once I was on the street, it was a matter of minutes, before I would reach my safe haven, a guesthouse I used to stay before I went to the trekking. Somewhere between five and ten minutes later I arrived in the guesthouse, but everyone was still sleeping. I hid on the rooftop, which gave me a clear view on the entrance as well as the rooms of the owners of the guesthouse. At 6 am the youngest brother got out of his room, and he didn't even seem to be surprised when he saw me there. It was like I was there every morning. A few minutes later his father woke up, and I told him the whole story. He was listening very quite to me, and after I did my story, he assured me I was safe and I could stay there until my Tibetan friend was going to pick me up. Last night I had already send a text message to my Tibetan friends, the people I really trusted around there. Telling the whole story again to the manager of the guesthouse, and one of my Tibetan friends, it turned out the man from the guesthouse knew the owner of the travell-company, where they swapped my creditcard. He assured me he was completely trustworthy, and he was not involved in the whole fraude, him being a very respected businessman in Pokhara. One phonecall to him, and he assured me the money wasen't withdrawn from my account at that time, and it wouldn't be, after he heared my story. He said he knew one of the men I was in the office with, the day before, but never had any problems with him. He told me to come by the office the next day and we would solve the problem. My Tibetan friend took me to his village, as we both agreed I would be safer there. Still we didn't know who we were dealing with, and what they were capable of. In the village, I was threated like a king. I think I never had so much to eat in one day. (well, I propably had, but not this kind of delicous food) The families were all together in one house, and we moved from one meal to another, from one house to another, figure of speech! I got to experience the real life in a Tibetan village, as part of a Tibetan family. Protected and taken care of by them. The whole village feeling sorry for me, and praying. I got to sleep in a room with my two new brothers, after spending the evening in that same room with all the family. It really was a unique, and wonderful experience for me, specially after the tension that had been going through my vains the past 24 hours. I felt safe, and home. A welcome feeling at that time, but I had to go back to Pokhara, Lakeside the next day. I had to try and recover the 2000 USD. Next morning, one of my Tibetan brothers drove me back to Pokhara, on the motorbike. I was instructed to go to the travell agency, return to their shop, they would call me a taxi that would return me to the village. When I entered the Travell agency at 9.30 am, the owner was not there yet. I was told to come back around 11 am. Walking back on the street, I went to send some e-mails, contact the credit card company again, to recieve a new credit card. When I came out of the internet spot, I saw two of the "bandits" passing by on the motorcycle. I turned away my head, so they didn't see me, but all the tension was back inside my body. Were they informed by the clerk at the travell agency? I decided to take a place at the rooftop across the agency, so I could keep my eye on when the owner arrived, as well as who else was entering or leaving the travell agency. After the relatively quiet hours since the afternoon of last day, I was feeling unsure, and therefor insecure again. At 11.15 am, I saw the clerk of the agency leave, which he told me ment his boss was there, so he could go to lunch. I had seen a man going in the agency, which must have been the owner, because I had never seen him before. Even in my logic, one and one is two! After telling the owner my story again, he gave me back the two receipts from the VISA transaction, so I recovered the money. He also confirmed they booked a ticket to Londen with part of the money, which was canceled immediately. The rest of the money, the company was supposed to pay to them. A business they seemed to find pretty normal, so I assume it happens more. The company owner advised me to let go of the 40 000 NPR, after having a telephone conversation with one of the men, asking for some explenation. Their story was they already send the stones, and also had their expenses. I decided to leave it that way, and go back to the shop of my friends, to go back to the Tibetan village, where I could feel calm and safe again. After arriving in the village again, it was an easy day, like the last one. Talking with the family, exchanging stories about what happened to me, and similar cases that had happened in the past. Cases that they only heared about that day, but that made them a worried about my safety. One of the brothers contacted someone he knew that drove a microbus between Pokhara and Kathmandu. They agreed on taking me out of Pokhara the next day, back to Kathmandu. The bus would pick me up, somewhere on the road, not on the normal bus parks. So it happened, that after spending the evening with my new family, I returned to Kathmandu in the morning, in what I would call a little bit western style. Crossing the bus on the road, stopping, changing from the car to the bus and I was on my way to Kathmandu. What happened in Kathmandu is a whole different story. Nothing compared to this one, if you compare it to the tension. Kathmandu had some nice surprises ready for me. A story I might write on later, or maybe even not, We'll see, but this one I really wanted to share with you. Bottom line; I'm ok, and I had a special experience that made me wiser, and more attentive.

The gem stone fraude

2007-10-25T11:32:00.000+02:00

Walking down the streets in Pokhara, my watch, which is quite big, attrackts the attention of people often. Nothing special when a local, working in a gem stone shop, asked if he could see it. He invited me in the shop, where we had a cup of tea. After a while, some other men came in, and somewhere in the conversation, they started talking about there stones that had to be delivered in different countries around the world and because of the high taxes they were charged with, they were looking for people to deliver those stones for them. The “head”-man was a very easy speaker and always talking, actually making sure you didn’t have the time to think. If you did come up with an answer, he/they always had an answer, even a reasonable one. The profit I could make with it, was told to be 23 000 euro. Obviously this was one big fraude, but still, my interest was touched. My interest in how these things actually work. After thinking about it for a few hours, I decided to say yes to the plan, also thinking; What if this is real? There are so many places around here I'd like to help out financially, and with that amount you can really help a lot of places here. They asked (wanted) me to move out of my hotel, and I could check in in their hotel, where they would carry all my expenses, and they would pay for my meals until the day I got back from London. They would also pay my airticket, two ways. After leaving my hotel, and being brought to their hotel, the chief invited me for dinner in one of Pokhara's nice restaurants. We had a talk about what had to be done before I left, and I had a good time, maybe this was extra activated by the beer they were ordering. I have to admit, they gave me a good and safe feeling, so maybe that was the point were they caught me. Changing from wondering why, how and what, to believing and trusting. The money I could make with it was already reduced to 20 000 USD, but still, that's a big amount for me, and many people. The only thing I had to pay for was the insurance of the package I was sending to London. The packadge which would contain the stones. Next morning, I was picked up by the hotel by one of the survants. He escorted me to one of the shops, which was right behind the corner, and there the boss was waiting. After the blabla, we started packing the stones, putting them on cotton and folding paper around it like an envelope. When he was packing the stones, I wrote down which stones and how many were going to be in the package. So, they really gave me that safe feeling, as if I had control over everything. After the envelope was closed and sealed with both our signatures, el jefe send me to a courier service to send the package to the GPO in London. In the mean time, we were also going to cash money from the ATM machine for the insurance. An insurance that was going to be more than 4000 USD, because the estimated value of the package was 20 000 USD, and 21% of that amount was the insurance price. What had happened at that time, I don't know, because I didn't hesitate to follow the plan. To my luck my card could only withdraw 40 000 NPR at one day, which is equal to about 650 USD, or 470 euro. When I would arrive in London, the envelope would already be there, so I just had to collect it at the GPO, get in contact with the contact person, hand him the merchandise and he would pay me my money, plus the insurance money minus 6%, because if they would cancel the insurance there would only be a 6% charge of the total amount. Because I could only give them 40 000 NPR at that time, we decided they would swap my creditcard for 2000 USD. They were always talking about their shops, and their people, as if they owned Pokhara and around. At least that was what they wanted me to believe. The afternoon, I was off duty, which means I had no meeting with them, and we met again at 5 o'clock in the evening. At that time I was told my flight to London would be two days later, at 8.30 am. We swapped the credit card in a travell agency, which was not completely strange, because that is done by more (even legit) shop owners, if they don't have their own possibility to accept credit cards. Than time was come for me to meet some friends, have dinner (with my friends) and go to bed early. That was the plan, so we said goodbey for that day and agreed on meeting eachother again the next day at 1.30 pm. I never saw the friends I planned to see that night, because I didn't feel like it. Instead I had dinner on my own, and on my way to the hotel, I ran into a Belgian friend, whom I talked to for more than an hour. When I finally went to the hotel, I ran into a woman I met on the trekking. Two days before I told her about the whole plan, and because she was so suspicious, she started looking in travell books, because she knew somewhere she had seen something about it. She took me to her hotel, and there she showed me what was really bringing me back to reality again. In the Lonely Planet of India there was this warning about gem stone treaders, who rip of tourists by sending them to other countries to deliver stones. They make friends with you, take you to their houses, insist on paying you dinner ... the whole story I just wrote down. Than when you would arrive in the other country the stones wouldn't even be there, even if you saw them delivered at the so called courrier service, and with even more bad luck, you would find out that your bank account gets ripped by your credit card. After thanking her heartly for her very interesting information, I went back to my hotel, which had become a place I had to leave as soon as possible. A big problem was that I had two big bags I had to take out with me, without anybody seeing me. And on top of that I had to find a place to hide, because I didn't know what kind of people I was dealing with. This told me I couldn't leave at night, when everyone was sleeping, also the good people. The area where the hotel was located was dark, so I had to make sure I wouldn't bump into one of them in a dark alley. My credit card had to be blocked, to preveal any further financial damage, and recover the 2000 USD. A lot to do in only a few hours. My mind was working fast, but at that time it couldn't seem to work fast enough. My heart was beating maybe harder as it did during the toughest effort I did trekking around the mountains.

Back from the trek

2007-10-17T11:24:00.000+02:00

Well, I'm back from the trekking. Where it was estimated to take 20 days, we finished the trip in 16. I'm not going to give a detailled treking summary here, but I can tell you it has been special. Propably it was the last time I do a trekking with a compagnion. I'm not judging over others, I'm just saying that when I'm up there, I really love the freedom to go my own speed, my own planning, and only thinking about my own physical abilities, because I must start believing that they are quite a lot when I'm surounded by my favourite mountains. Like last year, even when tireness strikes, every day I feel stronger and stronger. Where others seem to loose power every day, it was like I was absorbing it. Doing this trip together with someone I just met also made me realise a lot of things about myself. Re-realise sometimes, like the part where it's still difficult to think about others limitations, and specially respecting them. I really have this problem with physical weakness, I just can't stand it. To me it always looks like people saying they went all the way, just were making an effort, nothing more. It feels to me like many people don't really know what pain actually is. Ofcourse it's my opinion, but I think of myself more as a fighting character after this trip. I'm happy with that, but its not new to me that I can handle a lot of physical pain, on the contrary to emotional pain, which I'm much more affraid of. One person I met on the trip, left a deep impression on me. Dave, a 40 year old professor in fylossophy from the US of A. When we were together, it was like we were two 10 year ols kids, but man...did we have fun. His whole being left quite an impression on me, also the mature one. It feels like one of those people you meet and at once there is a connection. I think loosing him on the track, because we had to take an extra resting day, due to Orly's physical condition, was what made me a little more grumpy. As I realise that, it sounds stupid to myself, but that's the truth about what happened inside of me. You can't imagine my happiness when I bumped in to him on the streets of Pokhara after the trek. Ofcourse there wasn't only Dave we met on the trek. First of all there was Orly, my companion, ofcourse. What she taught me, propably without realising it, is that I really have to do this kind of trekking on my own, or maybe with an even mind. I think she being 21 and me 33 also made a difference. If I sound like bigheaded and being a smart ass right now, than I think you're reading this in the wrong atmosphere, because I'm not judging, I'm just discovering things about myself. Other people we met on the trail varied from old people, to newly weds, and ofcourse a lot of Israelies. A lot of Israelies take one year of after serving in the army, and before going to study. In my opinion, a lot of them are to young to experience the true values of such a trip, the true values of this side of the world. That's how I experienced a lot of them. Ofcourse there are not only the people, but even more some parts of the trek, or feelings on the trek I'll propably never forget. Getting stuck between the water and find my way out on the back of a donkey after I lost some weight during the trek was a nice but at some parts painful experience, Orly getting hit and run over by a running donkey was scary, crossing the pass at a hight over 5000 meter was cold, climbing at 4.30 am in the dark while it was snowing, looking down at all the headlights coming up the road. You'd almost forget there were people wearing the headlights. It was a nice game of the light playing with the snow. But ofcourse there were the magnificent views over the mountains as you could really see them getting closer and bigger every day. Actually we were getting closer, but that doesn't matter now. The trek was another unique experience, which I experienced at most considering my abilities. I've no regrets about any moment or desicion, so that makes me a happy man. Happy that it was part of my life, and happy to be back in Pokhara, which still feels like home to me. Now I'll propably spend another 11 days here, wondering around, relaxing and seeing people I love around here. Life is great and I'm part of it!!!

Pokhara turns out to be more dangerous as I first expected

2007-09-30T12:04:00.000+02:00

My time in Pokhara will soon be over. At least for this visit. I'll be here again in about 21 days, 21 days I will spend walking around Annapurna. The Annapurna Circuit is a trekking that is mostly known because of the Thorung La Pass, a pass at more than 5000m. The past few days I have seen a few people that had to come back early because of hight sickness. Others did it as if it was nothing, so I don't think about it to much. I'll see what it brings for me. My partner in this operation will be Orly, an Israelian woman which I admit is really pretty, but that's not the reason I asked her to join me. She just seems like a nice and calm person. Someone with maturity and very passionated to see the mountains. In my plan to come and live here in this wonderful town, there's a new dimension. One of the restaurants on the main road at Lakeside is...To Let. Actually it's just a rooftop which they made into an outdoor restaurant, but you have a nice view from up there. You can see the lake, and the hills behind the lake. It's not like I'm going to buy it immediately, but I must admit it's tempting. Yesterday I went to have a first look, and normally today I was going back to see the kitchen and talk about the price. Inform about the price is more correct. Namk went together over there with me, not only because it's easier having a Tibetan with you to buy a Tibetan restaurant from Tibetans, but also because he and his family are kind of my contacts here. They are such anice family, and invited me for lunch the other day. For the first time I ate meat again. Meat from a Buffalo, and I think it will happen more often around here. Not that I'm so crazy about it, but I think that when a family invites me for lunch or dinner, I think it's just a matter of being polite that I eat whatever they cook. BUT, the taste was good, she made it spicy, which makes everything here even better. That day I also got to meet Sange, the 2,5 year ols don of Lhundup and Tsewang. This little Buddha is so smart, it's unbelievable. He keeps repeating every word you say, until he made it part of his brain, and after that I really belive he knows the word, and even what it means. He's also very interested in Buddhistic rituals. The fun really starts when he takes a big towel and winds it around him as if he were a monk. The serenity that shows of this little man together with the child he is, it's like a promise for an interesting future. Honest, I've never seen a child like this before. It would really be amazing if one day, maybe the family and I could be in business together. Business which will propably not be turning only around money, but business with the main purpose to help the Tibetan people to improve their situation. I'm still crazy about Tibetan refugees and their villages here around Pokhara. If you want to know why, I think you just have to visit them with an open heart yourself, and propably you will be surprised about the things that happen, or don't happen.

Pokhara, it's like coming home

2007-09-24T11:12:00.000+02:00

Wednesday, september 19, I left Kathmandu for Pokhara. Pokhara, my favourite place in the world. Coming here didn't seem to be that easy on that day. During the trip that normally takes about 6 or 7 hours, we got held at a road block. It was a local demonstration from truckdrivers, and kept us there standing by the road for 6 hours. By the time we arrived in Pokhara, it was already dark, but the nice part was that at the roadblock I met a lot of people. One of them was Klaus, from Austria, and after we met again later that night, looking for something to eat, we got stuck on eachother and now we're walking, trekking, sitting around together for about 5 days. We're still discussing which one of us gets the other in these difficult, strange, shameful situations. Knowing me, you know he has to be the bad Karma. Together, we ended up lost in a forrest, without knowing we ended up in what has earned the name titibar already (which we left pretty quick), we ended up flying 700 meters above the ground in a paraglide, every day had something special and even amazing. As it may look like in the title of this page...Pokhara stole my heart. This isn't just now, Pokhara was one of the big reasonsm I wanted to come back to Nepal. The second day I surprised this beautiful Tibetan family with my appearence. I met them last year, because they were like family, no they are family, of one of my best friends. When they saw me again this year, it was like I haden't been away. They were so open, nice, friendly, caring, generous, they are really amazing. Every now and than I get by at their shop, and than we just talk, laugh, and enjoy a nice fresh juice. Walking around in Pokhara is also like walking in a heaven full of women. Really, the Nepali and the Tibetan women even more, are gorgeous. There is this one Tibetan girl that tricked me totally with her smile. I must admit that she tricked me, because after a while she opened up her backpack, and showed me her moving shop. After all, I'm proud to say that I didn't buy her whole shop, I didn't even buy anything (yet)! When I spend my money here in Pokhara, I mostly try to spend it on the Tibetans, because they are really people I feel close to my heart. Being self reluctant in this country, I really have a lot of respect for them, and they are also very friendly, hospital, and even generous. Anyone would open his or her house for you if they can help you with it. They try to sell you their handicrafts, but what makes it different from the millions of others that try to sell you their goods here is that they never become really pushy. Buying from them is partly like a game as much as selling to you is also like a game to them, I was told from someone who used to do it herself. They are really the nicest people I've ever met in this world. Later I will write aboput my experiences of the paragliding, and I will add some very nice pictures, but for now, I just wanted to make a brief update, because so many thing happen in one week. Hope everyone is feeling as well and happy as I do, Bodhi

Teaching at Rosegarden High School

2007-09-18T13:02:00.000+02:00

Sunday was teaching day. Unlike in Belgium, where I live officially, children go to school on Sunday in Nepal. They have a free day on Saturday and on Friday they have only a half day of school. I got into contact with Rosegarden Hig School (RHS) true Bhim, one of my Nepali friends. Both his children go to school there. RHS is a private school, and those school give a better education to children normally, because the teachers are more interested, there is more money and therefore more possibilities. As school is getting more expensive every higher year children often have to change from a private school in the early years to government schools at a later age. Me coming there on Sunday, september 16, was quiet a good timing, it seemed. Because of the second day of Teej (see my former blog), of which the first day was two days before, some of the female teachers were not present, due to a temple visit. I must admit that I was a little afraid, when they took me to the class. To be honest, I didn’t prepare anything, thinking I wasn’t really going to teach. No way out, they took me to my first class, where the principal introduced me as a guest from Belgium, and than it was up to me. Starting with my name seemed a good possibility, because, I thought, before they could pronounce my name we would have been 20 minutes further. WRONG, at the first moment they pronounced my name correctly. Even a class of students under 8, and some even 5, I think, they were already ahead of me. When I started talking about my country, the location, the amount of inhabitants, our system of education, they seemed really interested. Asking questions, didn’t seem that difficult as I suspected it would be. It was nice to see how they were listening to me, being amazed thet the highest point of my country (694 m above sea level) was lower as the city they were living in, Kathmandu being a city located at 1350m above that same sea level). When we started talking about sports they really got a grip of the talking and before I knew, we were all around a desk in front of the class, them explaning to me one of Nepalies most popular sports, of which I must say, with a lot of shame, I forgot the name. I do remember that you could play it with two people, or more, as long as you had an even figure. Propably I was more under influence of the impact of the moment as they were, because they remembered my name pretty well. Little rascals! My second class were older people, and actually the “lesson” went pretty much the same, only they got me into singing a Belgian song for them. I think my face was red like hell, but after I finished I received a big applaus, which I must say, really touched me. The questions they were asking me, were really about if I had a war in my country, or problems with discrimination. They were really interested, and had a lot of those questions I really didn’t expect. The range between the oldest and the youngest in the class was something like 7 or 8 years I think. That’s already one of the big differences with the educational program in my country, where everyone is supposed to be the same age in one class, with exceptions for people like me who are so fond of some years that they really want to do it twice. ;) If I wouldn’t have been talking to them, they would have been free to play outside, doing sports, or just talk to eachother, but even when I asked them several times they really chose to stay inside and talk. It was touching again. They stole my heart, they really did, specially that one girl saying to me; you have such a big heart. She must have been something like 12 years old, and that were her exact words. Try to keep your tears inside at that time. They must have seen the water coming up in my eyes, but I don’t mind, although I didn’t feel like crying in there. When I decided on my own to stop the class, because I wanted to visit another school at an orphanage also, standing right outside the door I took out my camera to take a picture of these wonderful people. At once, like there was a magnet in the camera, 250 children came running to me screaming; PHOTO PHOTO PHOTO!!! I got locked in and they came with this speed running up from all sides that when they reached me it was like they couldn’t stop anymore. The result was me laying down on the ground. I think I have never heared 250 people laughing that loud, while “my class” helped me standing up and picking up some things that fell out of my pockets, to give them back to me. After a photo shoot that must have taken like 20 minutes, I finally managed to get out of the fun-war zone and I was so happy. Happy that I could take this extraordinary experience with me inside my heart. Inside my BIG heart!

The start of the trip, and arriving in Kathmandu

2007-09-15T08:52:00.000+02:00

It must be hard, travelling with a baby in Kathmandu, because although the Thamel area is filled with shops and people selling on the street, the only thing you can not find here is propably babyfood. I don't remember Kathmandu being this much madness. Last year when I was here, I was with an organised group travell, so maybe that's also different, but how often you get adressed to for trekkings (everyone seems to have a trekking agency, or at least a brother with a trekking agency.

Arriving here, I was happy to be picked up at the airport by one of my Nepali friends, Bhim. Being my guide last year we stayed in contact and there he was. A good thing as finding the hotel wasn't that easy.

After finding the hotel, it soon seemed the Belgian population was well presented at the hotel, and I don't mean only the guests. The staff also had a few Belgians and the man behind the bar, Bruno, seemd to be from the same town as I am. He left Belgium five years ago and has been country-and job-hopping ever since. At the hotel I got in touch with some other fellow Belgian people that live and work here. Very interesting, playing with the idea myself sometimes.

Being invited at Bhim's place for lunch prepared by his wife, was a very pleasant welcome on my first real day here. Knowing that I'm a big fan of Dhal Bath, I got to eat so much that I didn't need anything else that day, at risk of exploding.

Another person I met here is Govinda, a local trekking agent, whome is not trying to sell me anything, but we are talking for hours sometimes about opinions, ideas, in which we seem to be at the same level often.

Visiting Bodhnath again was one my top list when I planned coming back to Nepal, so I immediately dis the first day after having my lunch at Bhim's place. Bodhnath being the biggest Stupa in Nepal, and therefor a very important Buddhistic place. The serenity really has its impact on me.

December 14, 2007 was Teej here in Nepal. A hindu festival, also known as ladies festival. I went to Pashupatinat to see the amazing sight of thousands of women waiting in line to enter the big Shiva temple. Thousands of women is really a true figure. Women are waiting for hours, while on other places women are dancing, all on a day they are not eating or drinking anything. All this in honour of Shiva, praying for their husbands to have a long, happy and healthy life.

Meeting the Belgian people living and working here, in combination with meeting the local people after their working hours, so not commercial related, really gives a lot of extra to my trip, to my days. Govinda is a man I can talk to for hours. Last night we ended up closing the bar at midnight, agreeing on meeting again today in the mornig. We share a lot of the same ideas and our minds are in the same directions. Very nice when you're in a country far away from what you're used to. Those are the moments you do it for!

In this past days my emotions have already been true different stages. Being happy to be here, going over worries about what I'm doing here when everything seems to be different than the last time, passing real sadness seeing a man dying on the street (and I really mean this, I don't think he's alive as I write this) My emotions going true so many different stages in such a short time, it's wonderful, it's what I planned this trip for.

Why? I don't (need to) know!

2007-08-31T17:12:00.001+02:00

As I finished my job for a year now, time is getting there to make the final preparations for my trip to Asia. The more I think about it, the more I realise that I've got no real goals over there and that I can't exactly say why I'm going there. The reason why I'm taking this trip is because it feels right, because my heart tells me to. Follow my heart...the thing I used to forget for so many years, is easy once I found out what the heart wants. In many cases it's very difficult to really see what's my heart talking to me, and what's my mind talking to me. Many people talk about making a balance between what the heart wants and what the mind wants. Well, that just isn't good enough for me. My ideal self is making the heart and mind be in balance, not me making it in balance. And I think this is possible, just aim my energy on the right marks, focus on my true values. There's no way of forcing all of this, and therefor I won't even try to. My idea is that spending time in Nepal (at first) will bring back a lot of the inner peace I found there last year, it will bring colours back into my eyes, as well as tears and laughter. And if all of this doesn't happen, still it will be an experience of a lifetime. Enough has happened in the past, enough opportunities have been thrown away by myself, and realising that makes me believe that I want to do this. Doing this is my heart talking, as well as my mind, so I'm on the road to where I want to end. Inner peace!

Mexico Chiapas (part 3/4)

2007-05-31T11:25:00.000+02:00

Going to Palenque was one of the best desicions I took when I was in Mexico. I have no regrets of any other desicion, but Palenque is one of those places that conquered my heart. It's one of those places where I felt home, between the ruines, in the jungle, swimming near the waterfalls in that jungle. Every bit of suffering, and mind torturing dissapears, being in that kind of natural welth. I realise that I feel rich, feeling the sun on my face, absorbing colours that surround me, being a small part of that big nature that surrounds me. No pressure, just being part of it and breathing pure nature.

Looking through little gaps, or windows in the ruines give me a different view of the world. Being in that peaceful state of mind, I really get to enjoy those little parts of life so much. It surprises me every time. Being colourblind, I'm not able to name all the colours like other people do, but I know I can absorbe them and let them fly true my body. At those times, I don't care if it's blue or purple, if it's green or brown, I know what I see and I love to be part of it.

Spending time in Palenque together with Dina also made it more easy to gain that state of inner peace. She was there, but not pushing, both in our own state of mind, but still together. Respecting eachothers limits and in loving care for eachothers needs. She's crazy and fun to be with, with a big dose of intelectual baggage and interesting points of view. The kind of person that makes me think about more than what's happening around me, that's Dina.

Walking back from the ruines to the hotel, many mini-busses passed by, but one caught my attention. At the back a young man was waving and signing. The mini-bus stopped and there were Raphael and Emmanuel, the two French people I met in Oaxaca. They left the people they hooked up with, to say hello and have dinner with us that evening. It really touched me!

Going to the waterfalls is always going to inner peace, for me. Visiting Misol-Ha, and Agua Azul was no exception. It's like the energy produced by the water, is transformed into me. With that much energy, it's easy to put away all agitation and enjoy life at its fullest. Swimming between these waterfalls was also a new stage in my search for peace of mind. As I said many times before, also this was being part of such a big thing and just floating in it. Being carried by the power of nature, that's what it feels like, to me.

Agua Azul even touched us so deeply, that we decided to go back the next day, and just spend the whole day at that powerful place.

Mexico Chiapas (part 2/4)

2007-05-24T09:39:00.000+02:00

Chamula, is a little town near San Christobal. Here we spend some time walking on the Zocalo, and breathing the atmosphere of the town. Ofcourse there was the market at the Zocalo, there were the children beggers, the church was painted in a colourful way which really made it look wonderful in it's surrounding, but what I liked most at that time was being in the sun. Feeling the sun spreading its beams all over my face. I do believe there is some strong power in the energy of that sun, because when I really let that sun come over me, it's like I'm reborn, and deliberated of any kind of sorrow. At that moment the inner peace overcomes me, and that's what I see as the search in my life: Inner peace. No words anyone has ever said to me had more impact than the beaming of the sun.

It feels like being in the position of a foetus, and the more I let the sun shine on me, the more energy grows in me. The energy makes me open up from the position of the foetus to standing straight, smiling and letting energy flow in and out, all in balance, and with a smile touching both ears! At those moments I feel like a source of neverending positive energy. Energy that I want to use to grow in my life.

One of those moments I reached a little outside the center of Chamula. On the side of a hill, in a semy rough landscape, with a view over the hills and the Zocalo, but far enough so there was silence. Dina and me, we spend some time together there, as well as time alone. It were moments of truth, peace, wisdom. Moments were I could look deep inside myself, without revealing negative energy. At those moments it doesn't matter where I go, I just want to be. Not to be is out of the question! (I solved THE question!!)

When I'm in that state of mind, I can look at emotions in a different way, in a more truthful way. Seeing beggers don't hurt me in the same way anymore. It's not just compassion that I feel, it doesn't make me feel all sad anymore. I can look at myself as an individual, and therefor see the other for what he or she is. It makes me sad seeing that some people have to work hard to attain a little bit of humanity, and others just need to act working hard to attain more and more! My compassion is different. My compassion is really pointed to the individual, and not to my past anymore. I can be there for the other person, where before I was trying to heal my memory also. There is room for others inside my heart, because it's open. There's room for others inside my home!

Opening my home for those who need it the most is something I've always done, but at those times...I think it's more comfortable for everyone.

Mexico Chiapas (part 1/4)

2007-05-12T14:43:00.000+02:00

From Oaxaca I returned to DF for one day. Just to see a metal band from Holland, and leave with Dina next day, for a 9 day trip to Chiapas. On the nightbus to DF, I saw Margaret, a woman I met in the Oaxaca hostel. Arriving in DF, it felt a little like coming home. I felt powerful and as if I knew the city as if I had been living there all my life. Propably Margaret saw that and I walked her to her hotel, as a local guide. It was a very special feeling, a feeling of confidence. Before we went to Margaret's hotel, we had a cup of coffee, with some locals, by the street. Just sitting around a big table, where the other people were Mexicansd on their way to work. I felt one with the city and it's atmosphere. I felt part of it, and not just a tourist. Meeting Dina again was special, but seeing Kuas and Kafka again was even better. I even started thinking about a plan to take them home with me. The concert was also something special. I was surrounded by a kind of Mexicans that didn't fit in into my view of Mexicans. I never realised that there were also metal fans in Mexico. People with long black hair, ok, but with dirty long black hair, leather jackets, chains,... I loved it! To save us some time, we flew to Chiapas, although I would have rather taken a bus. Driving in a bus is more like me than taking a plane, but no regrets. The first looks of Chiapas I got were those around the airport. We took a taxi drive from Tuxtla to San Christobal. After five minutes we were already surrounded by beautiful nature. An endless canyon, flowers, trees, hills,... really my kind of surrounding. San Christobal is a little town to me, one that breaths tourism, but not in a diturbing way. As many parts of Mexico, it kept a lot of it's authenticity and local products. Markets, where you can also find locals shopping, little streets, people selling food or drinks on the street. People from around trying to make a living. Ofcourse there were also the beautiful churches. The area also breaths "Marcos" and the Zapatistas. In a history not long ago, the people from Chiapas showed how strongly they can come up for themselves and their loved ones. They stood up against the governement and took possesion of their own streets. It's sad that you have to take possesion of what's yours. They took possesion to make a statement that they wanted a better life, a better life that they deserve. Working hard, providing the rich, but getting only a little in return. I felt the strong willpower of the town. It inspired me to think about terms of possesion, conquering, owning, giving. The earth is only from itself, and we can be happy we get to live on it. But still, we, humans, made places our own. Many people think we can own a part of the earth, but I don't believe in that. Now, I can agree we need structure, the structure that deviding the world into countries tries to provide, but where did we go wrong that it had to come this far? Sometimes I ask myself the quetsion: Why can't we all live peacefully together, respecting ourself and others? It' s a question that used to sound so pathetic in my ears before, but these days, it sound like a scream for help. A scream of becoming aware of who I used to be and to what I became after experiencing life!

Mexico Oaxaca

2007-04-16T14:21:00.000+02:00

Oaxaca was the next step in my solo-trip. I had the unique experience of travelling in a bus that arrived early at its arrival place. At one hand I was lucky, because it's a unique experience in Mexico, I was told, but on the other hand arriving in a city at 4.30 am is not complete fun. Being fortunate, I arrived at the hostel, and I didn't have to pay for that same night. Only the next night was charged, but I could already enter the room. Arriving in a dark room at 5 am, with 7 people sleeping there. I felt a little uncomfortable. Searching which bed was mine, making up the bed,... At that moment I didn't know what kind of people were there, and back again, afterworths it seemed that I don't have to worry so much. The hostel had more guests than the one in Xalapa, and here I experienced the joy of meating people that I really felt good with. People you see in the streets again, you have a laugh together, talk a little bit, share some experiences, and then you go on your own way again. These are the people I like, because i really felt close to them but not obliged to anything. I think it had more to do with feeling free and happy. It's my inside that makes me scared of not being good enough, of loosing people, but at that moment I felt so happy with myself, that any bound with others was a wonderful extra, but most of all, there was this peaceful bound with myself. First of all there was Tino, a Mexican from Veracruz, who has a big trip to Asia planned, and we could talk about feelings, emotions, problems,... without me feeling ashamed, or unsafe. He's a very open and smart man that made me even smile more when one week later he send me an e-mail to say how much he liked that conversation. That same conversation that is still in my mind right now. To me it was a sign of appreciation and that feels great. Thanks Tino! Tino was travelling with this Japanese man, and he was the one making me feel really at ease with my tattoo. Years ago I had two Chinese signs tattood on the inside of my left leg. He was the first one I met that could really read the signs. So now I know that I don't walk around with just anything on my leg. Those small moments could make me feel so happy, that sometimes I told myself to stay calm, because I was starting to feel euphoric. When I get euphoric, I start jumping around, singing, dancing, laughing, talking, all things that are just fun, but afterworths I can fall back pretty deep, and that's something I have to try not to let it happen. Although it's part of my nature (or it became one) it feels better to me trying not to let it happen. To do something harmless with all that energy in me, I decided to walk to Monte Alban, a walk up the mountain, a walk that takes about 2 hours. Every step I took, my smile got bigger and bigger. The inner peace I felt at that moment was new to me. As I knew this inner peace before, it reached a new level. It's like I want to laugh and cry at the same time, I feel so free and every emotion can come out. There's no shield over the emotions, they can move around and live freely. At those moments my sences as well as my heart are totally open, and everytime it feels like a liberation. The walk took me a while and it was a walk in the glowing sun. Although it was a little to hot to walk around in this temperature, it was a wonderful (again) experience. Seeing the views over the city and the powers of nature (like the hills and the clouds), and also feeling the wonderings of people about the trip I was taking up to Monte Alban by foot. It's still something that I really like, being admired for something I do, did, or achieved. Maybe that's what got me going all the time, because at the end I was pretty proud of it. I know that many people do it, but I did it and that's what counts most for me. The views over the city I saw were pretty, and behind every corner I knew there was going to be another, wider view. Views that make me realise what my place is on earth as part of a bigger place. A view that makes a lot of needless luggage fall of my back. Feelings of guilt for instance. I also got caught by the image of cross in wood by the road, as a memorial to this little child that died after only living two years. It made me realise again how lucky I am, being here to experience all this beauty for over 32 years now. Kevin, I hope you may rest in peace, and I hope you know that you made me realise how fortunate I am! Even we didn't know eachother personal, you're in my heart! I feel my mother will take care of you, as if you were here own son! At the top of Monte Alban, I met Raphael and Emmanuel, again. Two French people that were also in the hostel in Oaxaca. Talking to them wasn't just to improve my French, because they are really people with an open mind and heart. They felt very open, to me, and Oaxaca wasn't the last place I would see them. Some people pass your way and they just leave an impression you don't forget. I don't know what it was, but they left such an impression on me. A feeling of being accepted, being welcome, being at the same level,...that safe feeling again, without any needs. Just being myself, and being good enough as I am. And about improving my French...mostly I switched to English very fast, because their English was very good, as well as their Spanish. (well, compared to mine) The site of Monte Alban "just" brought extra joy into my heart. The views over the monumental pyramids that were build so long ago, the views over the hills, the flora and even the fauna, it all made me feel in touch with nature and the experience of "now". It also brought me closer to the realisation how easy we have it these days when it comes to materialism. Back in the time when those pyramids were build, they had to spend a lot more effort to accomplish those peaces of art. But so many years later, so many storms, so many earthquakes later, they are still there, while houses build in this time often don't stand a "normal" storm. Did materialism make us lazy? I know it made me lazy! In Oaxaca, I believe I felt the first real freedom of mind. It was like flying around, wondering and enjoying everything that happened around me, in a free state of mind. I could really open up for so many things, and one felt even better than the other. There were not only the long walks, with the nice views, and beautiful colours. There were also the streetmusicians, that filled my heart with joy, happiness and smiles. Food even tasted better enjoying the wonderful music of those musicians. I was amazed that they just played in the street and that you didn't have to pay €50 for it. In Europe, I think those people would get a contract from one or another record label and they would only play in theaters or on festivals. I'm not the biggest music expert, but to me they sounded great. Not only this band was a pleasure for my ears, eyes and stomach, there were these two other musicians that made me smile all the way true their performance. They were not only good musicians, they also knew how to play their audiance, just acting crazy, but I doubt if it was really acting. It even brought me into a contact with the waiter of the caffee where I was enjoying a coffee, and he seemed to be the cousin of the two musicians. Hours later, he came up to me, at a different place, and at first I didn't even recognize him. He just came for a talk, some laughing...I felt adopted by the city and its inhabitants. It was another wonderful moment, another moment of true inner happiness. Another image that caught my attention was a square filled with police, some heavily armed, others weaponless. In between of them was an old woman, and she made that view so perfect. In Mexico they take "to serve and protect" very literally, I think. For hours the police were walking around at the square and the Zocalo, next to it. Sometimes, it seemed like something was going to happen, because they were organising, or running to another place, but I've been there for hours and nothing happened. It was a strange, but pleasant atmosphere. I didn't know what was going to happen, and I was even filled with a taste of sensation. It was a healthy taste, at least that was how it felt to me. I've been just sitting at the Zocalo for hours, talking to Curtis, a Canadian I met in the hostel, just sitting by myself, watching children play and be happy, talking to strangers, listening to the live music, . I'm repeating myself...it filled my heart and soul with joy, smiles and happiness! I didn't care about anything anymore, everything felt so nice and peaceful inside of me. It was like I just became energy, and my body made sure all that energy stayed together. It was like flying around, I was really feeling free. Free of thoughts and every obstacles they can bring, just wondering! Smiling every moment of that day, it was one of the most energetic days of my life, so far. Being a solo traveller, doing this trip, arranging things by myself, and feeling so wonderful...it made and still makes me proud of myself! Your Ghsostboy, Bodhi

Mexico Xalapa (part 2/2)

2007-03-27T18:14:00.000+02:00

My second day in Xalapa was a day on which I continued walking around, to make sure I would experience the real life more aswhen I travell in a bus. Walking between the local people, smell the food they prepare and sell on the street, listen to their music on the street with instruments a size I´m not used to see with street musicians, not being extra protected as a pedestrian in traffic, that´s what is the real life to me. It´s also special to get on busses that are more than full, I admit, but I think that needs a lot of skills to survive. But I´m willing to try on this trip. Walking also brings me in contact with the local people, as I ask them the road and try to improve my Spanish in that way. What caught my attention was that people at first don´t seem to respond on your quetsion, but it seems that they do. It´s like they don´t expect you to ask them something and the reaction is a little slow. Not that it takes 10 seconds, but the reaction in their face even occurs mostly after you aked the question, but than they respond very friendly and really try to help you. They are really nice and that gives me a nice feeling. A warm feeling and it brings a smile on my face. The trip lead me to the highest hill the city is build on, to Macuiltepec. It´s not just a hill, because nothing in Mexico is just something. On top of the hill is a nice park, with several interesting places. There is a museum about the fauna in Veracruz, a tower on top where you have a view over the town, a big "sunclock", the Aztecs used to have, places where you can BBQ, walking iles, and ofcourse there are the trees and flowers in all colours, as well as birds and other species of animals. It´s a place that breaths peace, and I love it. You can find people from all ages and status there, as well as people with all different interests. That´s what made it also exceptional. People jogging, people walking around, people sitting and just relaxing, people having a romantic time, maybe people skipping school, people feeling like a child surrounded by all that beauty. It sounds like a normal park, and propably it is, but to me it was a place where I found that inner peace again. The smile rising on my face, totally one with myself and nature, shining maybe even harder than the sun. It was my little moment of heaven again. On my walk back I got surprised by rain. And when I say rain, it´s an understatement. The city and the whole area seems to be known for its strange weatherchanges. One moment you are sweathing in the sun and the other, you are hiding for the rain. As unpredictable as it is, so beautiful it is. It´s just another wonder of nature, and another sign that we don´t own or control nature, but that we are part of it. I don´t feel like nature has bad meanings with us humans, when it was raining back than, it had its reason for nature. Even though I was out with short sleeves, no jacket, and not knowing how long this was going to take, it was nice. The street changed into a little swimming pool in no time, people hiding on the front steps of the stores. It brought people closer together, because standing there hiding for the rain, people talked, even though they had never seen eachother. The people like me who kept on walking trying to hide under whatever there was to hide under going further and further also made eachother smile. Passing eachother, not knowing who´s going left and who´s going right: it gives funny situations, and people laugh at eachother. A smile is so beautiful and even more when there is wet sunshine all over the place. People didn´t seem to care, they didn´t get upset, they just took it as it came, and that´s relaxing. I seemed to be the only one getting a little bit nervous when I wanted to cross a big place where there was no possible way of hiding. While I write this I think: What was so important to me that I still wanted to go on, that I couldn´t wait. I don´t know the answer, but next time, I will remember this question and take my time. Xalapa was my first solo tour and it worked out very well. I was set to go to Oaxaca and really looking forward to it. I was told that Oaxaca was a beautiful place, but most of all I loved the travelling. Taking the bus from one place to another (the big distances, like 8 hours), finding a hotel, discover what there was to see and feel, meet the people. It made me feel like an adult, and sometimes I even think I am an adult, but than I realise that I´m just 32 and that there is still much time to play, before groing up. Bodhi

Mexico Xalapa (part 1/2)

2007-03-26T17:52:00.000+02:00

As I wrote in my last blog the short time in El Carmen was the beginning of 24 hours of welcoming the experience of fear again. I arrived in Xalapa (also Jalapa), which is the capital of Veracruz, somewhere around 11pm, found a hotel and went to bed. I was happy to be travveling on my own. But this time it was really on my own. The past weeks, Dina had been there somewhere all the time, but now I was really on my own, and to me that was another new step. A step which made me grow, again. The next morning, I started walking to Coatopec. It´s a little village next to Xalapa, and it was a two hour walk. Most people might take a taxi maybe, or a minibus, but I just looooove walking. Watching what´s around me, taking little paths between the trees, walking by the highway like I´ve only seen it in movies. Cars passing by very close, finding a path to walk on sometimes, because I don´t think many people use the way as one to walk. It gives me that wonderful feeling of living my own life at that moment. Walking from one place to another also gives you the opportunity to stop, when you see something that makes you laugh, cry, something that you want to see a little closer. It also gives you the chance of checking things out from different angels. In Coatopec, I sat down at a beautiful Zocalo. It was a small one, but there were so many nice things to see and feel. Many people talking in small groups on benches. Trees and flowers, surrounded by nice colourful buildings. A man, another Carlos but this one was 26, came up to me. We started talking about Mexico, it´s beauty and it´s sadness. We talked for over an hour and it was nice talking to someone I didn´t know before, and talking very open at once. Back again it made me realise how fortunate I am in so many ways to be born and raised in a "wealthy" country as Belgium. People complane everywhere, I think, but to me it´s what the complain is about. You can complaine because your life standard is really below a human level, or you can complane about a lack of even more Luxuary things. It´s up to everyone to see in which category he or she belongs. After talking, he showed me a mural in a building at the Zocalo. It was the life of Benito Juarez, painted on a wall. Not only the painting was a piece of art, also the love that Carlos used to describe everything and show his admiration for Señor Juarez was pure art that touched my soul. Carlos even walked me to my bus, waited with me, gave me even the CD that was in his Diskman and left, without anything else. I only know what he told me about him. No adress, no last name, but a CD and an experience that gives me a nice shiver when I think about it. Somewhere it feels like he was an angel. Being there at that time, coming up to me, make me feel at ease on my first day as a solo traveller. Hé will always stay special to me and have a place in my heart. Thank you Carlos, no mather where you are, I send you a lot of love! From Coatopec I continued my trip to Xico, where I could find "La Cascada de Texolo". People who saw the blogs on my Nepal trip, may remember that I´m crazy about Waterfalls, so I really wanted to see this one. It was hot and the walk from Xico to the waterfall was a beautyful 45 minutes walk in between the bananatrees and the trees with coffeebeans. I thought, if there is ever a bushfire here, would it smell like coffee????? Arriving at the waterfall, it was another special moment in my life. My heart was so open that I could realise that the past 45 minutes where another little life lesson. Sometimes the road is difficult and tough, but many times there is a reward called beauty waiting at the end. A waterfall is not only its sight, it´s at least as much its sound. The power coming out of it...it goes right true my vains. I started walking around the waterfall, coming at points with magicall views over the villages next to the waterfall, and before I knew I ended up in a little town, where they didn´t have a real road of stones, but everything was still just sand. Having the experience from the evening before still a little bit in my nerves, I started to feel a little bit uncomfortable. You see people watching at you, talking to eachother, go into the house, come out again,... At least I saw that, and at such moments I start making my own stories with it, so that´s how it was for me. I entered again the vegetation of bananatrees and coffeebeans. I recovered of my little feeling of fear, and admired the vegetation in all its beauty. The colours, the smell, the quantity, the relation of the colours to the sky, everything was just pure and beautiful. Once I realised that I had entered a forrest, which was like a labyrinth to me. I was right in the middle of it, and had no idea where my way out was. To make my feelings even more mixed up, I realised that the forrest had snakes as its inhabitants, as well as wild dogs. I never really paniked, but I must admit that after asking the road to two men working in the forrest and walking the wrong way again (that language problem again), I started to feel really uncomfortable, because darkness was starting to come. Lucky for me I found the two men again and one of them walked part of the road with me, to show me the hardest part of the road. I ended up ok, ofcourse, and darkness didn´t seem to fall as quickly as I remembered, but the fear was there at that moment. The fear was even bigger than the day before, because of my holy fear for snakes. I must admit that the fear is already less than one year ago: but the tought of being there in the dark, with the snakes coming out from under their trees?????????? Noooooo, thank you! In the evening, back at the hostal, I met another nice and special man. Kirk, travelling around the world, at least untill the next presidential elections in the United States. Why? It´s not up to me to tell you, but he pissed of some important people, and that made him a citizen under surveillance. I know I wouldn´t feel good anymore. Kirk, if you read this, thank you for the nice talk, we missed eachother the last day in Xalapa, but I didn´t forget about you. I think the rain drove us apart at that time. Believe in yourself and I wish you all the best with Valentina. My first day in Xalapa was one with many surprises. Surprises that made my trip even more colourful, and there was even more to come!

As I said before, the returning of the feeling of fear, I consider a good thing, what has changed with that feeling since the last times I had it is my reaction: I don´t panic anymore. I think I already took some big steps the past years, and I´m willing to walk on!

Mexico Cuetzalan and the trip to Xalapa

2007-03-16T19:52:00.000+01:00

Well as you might remember, I showed you in my last blog a picture, of which I thought it might put me on the street. So, after one week I´m allowed in the house again. During that week I had a wonderful time. I visited Cuetzalan together with Dina, than drove to Xalapa (by bus and without Dina), and after that I also spended two days in Oaxaca. First of all, Cuetzalan comes in my top 5 of most beautiful places on the earth. (those I have seen anyway) It´s a village, I think, and the nature there is won-der-ful. It´s really undescribable. We visited pyramids, a cave and a waterfall, guided by 10 years old Carlos. He guided us from one place to another, and we had the impression that he was happy with us as his "clients". In the cave I had one of these moments of inner happiness. Everything was just perfect at that time. I was amazed by the beauty of nature, while actually feeling free. It was like another prove to me that I´m part of that bigger thing, I don´t have to carry it all. We went 80 meters under the ground, but every one of them was worth it. The trip to the waterfall was a little trekking. It felt like home. Once we reached the waterfall, it was just relaxing and enjoying the beauty over there. It was one of those days you hope you will never forget. Everything was right, everything in balance, and Dina even got beaten twice in a running contest by Carlos. What more do you want? Going from Cuetzalan to Xalapa, Ghostboy had an experience of which he hopes they don´t happen to much in his life. I had to change busses in El Carmen. No problem, I just go up to the busstation and ask for my ticket to Xalapa. Perfect plan, if there would have been a busstation selling tickets to Xalapa. El Carmen seems to be a place where truckers have a quick snack, drink a beer, and that´s it. It was dark, I was walking there with my two backpacks, and no one who spoke a word of English. It´s necessary that you know that I can speak a very tiny littlelittle bit of Spanish, but understanding...that´s really something else. It was getting later and I still didn´t know how to take the bus. Some busses passed by, going to Xalapa or Veracruz, I waved to them to stop, but the drivers didn´t even look at me. I had seen it a lot here, just wave at a bus and it stops. Asking the people around what I must do went ok, but understanding there answers didn´t work. I began to get a little nervous and turning around I even hit my head against a traffic sign. Right when I thought it was hopeless, a family of streetvendors helped me out. They were so kind explaining me that the most busses went directly to Xalapa, but some were non-directs. They were waiting for that one to, so I waited with them and as sign of gratitude I bought one of their breads, which was finished before I arrived in Xalapa. I´ve got no pictures of this place because I was just to scared to take my camera out, but believe me, it had something from a movie. What will stay with me from that evening is that I really have been scared, something that didn´t happen to me for a long time. Being scared is not a nice feeling, but to me it´s a good sign. I think being scared is part of life, and I lost that part for a while. Being scared is like a signal preventing you from danger. As with so many things, it´s the way you handle it, that makes the concequenses, but there´s nothing wrong with the feeling. I´m happy it´s back, but on that evening, I didn´t think about it like that. And that was just the beginning of 24 hours of welcoming the emotion of being scared home again.

Mexico DF update 1

2007-03-08T16:22:00.000+01:00

Well, this city really has it all. The diversity between all the places you can find here is so wonderful. In a few 100 meters you can walk from a place, being surrounded by so much traffic and buildings to a nice park, where you can feel a calm amd relaxed atmosphere. I´ve never experienced this in so little distance. It´s just wonderful.

The places I´m talking about are the places around the Zocalo, in downtowm DF and the Alameda Central, that´s the Park I was talking about. The police even walks around wearing a sombrero, which only makes it more nice and relaxing to me. (those who think all Mexicans wear a sombrero all day and eat a kilo of tortilla a day...I have to dissapoint you, because it´s not true)

Another place that is on its way to steel my heart is Bosque de Chapultepec. It´s on of the biggest parks in the world, I think, and there is so much to see. You are walking between so much green, there are museums, like the un-be-leavable interesting Museum of Antropology, there is the Castillo on top of a 15 minutes climb, which is beautiful on itself, but since a long time it is also used as a museum of history. If you are around, I would certainly advice it, also because of the wonderful views you have over the city. There is also a zoo, an amusementpark,...shortly there is something for everyone, and very much for someones.

In this park I can find so much contact with myself. I can walk around for hours, enjoying what I see around me, because I´m so happy between all those wonderful surroundings. There I can let myself get into a kind of higher atmosphere. It feels as if I´m just energy and emotion flying around there. Everyone is equal, the people, the animals, the trees, the garbadge cans,... right then I get that feeling that I like so much, that inner happiness. It is something that I can not describe completely, but to me it´s a big lesson in life. Being happy by being in touch with myself. Being able to live my complete life like that, is a stage I would really like to reach, because that is true happiness to me, and I was already lucky to experience it a few times.

In the beginning it sounded strange to me, but now it feels quiet normal. To see, feel, smell,..., to experience what is happening around me, I need to be in touch with myself. I have to be deep inside myself, to see what´s around me. It sounded like two opposites to me, because I used to turn into myself closing my sences and emotions. Now I try to to it an other way and experience myself to the deepest, but keep my sences open.

Being in a place like Chapultepec made it easier to achieve that level of communication with myself, and now I hope there will be more places to do so, and more and more it will become a naturale thing that I can experience no matter where I am, or who I´m with.

If I really experience these moments on its fullest, I know that is possible. It will take a long time, maybe a whole life, but the path to enlightment is a wonderful path on itself, filled with lots of unexpected happenings and people comming your way. It´s a matter of keeping your eyes open, and believe in youself!

This trip seems to be very interesting again to the exploring of my emotions and sences.

To end this blog with, there is one picture that I really couldn´t keep from you. Ghostboy meets Cinderella! (this picture might put me on the street, but it´s worth it)

Take care and enjoy being (because I know I do),

Bodhi

Mexico DF

2007-03-05T15:14:00.000+01:00

Hola, Ghostboy Bodhi has arrived in Mexico. So far no one got hurt. I´m staying with this wonderful friend of mine, Dina. She opened her house for me to stay in and even lets me out sometimes. It feels wonderful being around people like her. People who are open, with knowledge about life and a nice vision on life and the world. I don´t mean that you can only find them outside of Belgium, because over there are also people who can touch me very much. It´s not the quantity of the touches that counts, it´s the impressions they leave. Together with her, her two doggies live there (here): Kuas and Kafki. They really are so nice, and Kafki is always the first one to come and say hello to me. This morning he even came to sleep in my bed with me. And yesterday when they went out for five minutes, he enetered my room, looked at me and left again, like he wanted to say: We´re back! Kuas is also very nice so don´t think I only like Kafki. After two days I even thought them "synchronised laying on the bed"!

Being here on my third day I noticed how much in love I am wit Nepal, and maybe Asia in general. I catch myself comparing, but Mexico is completely different, and I certainly do hope I can open my heart and eyes to let Mexico enter in me as itself, and not in competition with any other place. Today I really start walking around, descovering Mexico city "down town". Saturday, march 2nd, Dina already took me to Taxsco, it´s an old city, very known for it´s silver mines. We went there on saturday, because that´s the day the big markets are there. I think I will never see as much silver in my life again as I did that day. At that time I had only 4 hours of sleep in two days, so I didn´t get to enjoy the environememt as much as I would. That propably explanes why I didn´t like the atmosphere at the time. Something I immediately noticed is that Mexicans like colours. They paint their houses in the most wonderful colours. And Taxco was no exception to that. As colours colour my life and heart, that is an aspect of Mexico I will enjoy, that´s for sure.

To go to Taxco we had to take a three hour bus trip. Here that´s pretty normal, where in Belgium that would be a big trip.

Yesterday we went to the supermarket. No big deal you would say...weren´t it for the fact that it was a sunday and that is was midnight. For those who think I typed a mistake, I will type it again: Yesterday we went to the supermarket. No big deal you would say...weren´t it for the fact that it was a sunday and that is was midnight. I just loved it.

Well I´m of for some more discovery, and I´ll keep you updated on regular bases!

Hasta luego,

Bodhi

Soon I'll be off again

2007-02-19T15:16:00.000+01:00

Hello, all of you, beautifull sunbeams! As you can see it has been a while since I wrote on my blog, but that doesn't mean that nothing has happened in my life. The past months have been difficult emotionally, but times will change, I'm sure about that. I belive in that. There are some people, that I promised to write about, like Tenzin, but first of all I would like to tell everyone that from march 2nd untill april 1st I will spend a whole month, experiencing a whole different culture, all kinds of new people and habbits again. I'm off to Mexico, to visit someone who became very close to my heart the past half year. Her name is Dina and she really is a very special woman. However I never really saw her live, I have the feeling that we know eachother at a certain level. We spend hours on the phone, and even more chatting over the internet. She gives me a feeling of respect, appreciation and understanding. Not only in recieving all those things, but also a natural way of giving them, without thinking about it. It just happens when we talk and share our deep emotions. The past few months, we both have been thinking about the feelings that we have towards eachother and from both sides it was searching and not yet coming to an answer. But for me I can say, that it already was a very nice time, with lot's of intense emotions, that make me feel alive. I've spend happy times with her, but also very sad times, but everytime she was there. So all of you may know that I'm really looking forward to my Mexico trip, and not only to meet Dinalietje, but also to try and find some more peace in my heart again. The kind of peace I found when I was in Nepal. It would be nice, but I can never find that same peace again, but I know that I can find another kind of peace and that's nice. No two people, things, or situations are the same, but that doesn't mean that they are better or less to me. They are equal, but different, or as they said in Nepal...Same same, but different! As you see, I'm preparing to go, enjoy and discover life and the world again. I'm not planning too much, there are some things I want to do, but I'll see what happens when I'm with the Azteques. I'll try to go with the flow and follow my heart, as I always should. (read want to) I'll keep all of you informed on this weblog. See you all soon, and I'll keep on smiling, whereever life brings me!

Breaking news: Without going to the mountains, Ghostboy feels like he's in the clouds again

2007-01-03T01:18:00.000+01:00

We write september 18 2006, and I (Ghostboy) wake up! I put on my cellphone, what is normally not the first thing I do when I wake up. My phone shows me that I have three missed calls and one new message. I open the message and read (in Dutch): After spending nine months in my mommies belly, I, Elise, today decided to see my mom and dad in real life today... My weight is 2,995kg and I'm 49cm tall. JOY TO THE WORLD, ELISE IS BORN! I was happy, sad, euphoric, dancing, crying, chearing,... Every emotion that ever passed in my life came back in one single moment! To me there was not just new life, new life was born out of two of the MOST beautifull people in the world. You might or you might not know, but Kjell, the father, is the best friend anyone could ever dream of and I'm the chosen one to be his best friend. He's a wonderfull man, who would give his life for his real friends. You always (at least I did) learn that a true friend is someone who is there, for better or for worse, just ANYtime. Well...he is, and his wife is as beautifull, and luckily more pretty, as him. When they told me they were pregnant, I was crying tears of joy, and now that she is born, I'm showing that tears of joy never run out! Maybe I'm preoccupied, but to me, she really is the most beautifull baby in the world and I will care about her as if she were my own. I have this big wish for children of my own, and that's what made me sad maybe, but seeing her, the child of my two best friends, it really makes me so happy. PS: Did you notice how intelligent she is...not only did she know how to spell the words, she also knew how to use a cell phone to send a text message and she knew what her weight was and how tall she was. Her being soooooooo intelligent makes me really willing to state that I had nothing to do with it, except for having the father as my best friend! I wish Elise all the best in the world and that she may live happily ever after, like every princess does at the end of the story.

The trekking Part 4 (The Tenzin Express/Experience)

2006-12-30T14:40:00.000+01:00

It was on day 3 of the trekking (on the road to Tadapani) that I saw this shining star walking and enjoing every second of it. Our eyes crossed, we shared a friendly smile, and said hello. At that very moment, a strange feeling went true me. A warm feeling, that felt really comfortable and made me feel at ease. That night we stayed in a place a little further than Tadapani, a place where we were the only visitors and a place with a magnificant view. You had a wonderfull view at Machapuchhare. The next morning when we were getting ready to leave, I was standing outside of the room, enjoing the view once more. At that time this "mysterious" woman passed by. Again she had this big smile on her face, while everybody else was still showing signs of a morning feeling. Again we shared a friendly smile and we said hello. I found out that she was Australian and that she was trekking on her own. A few hours later we met again in a place where we were taking lunch. We talked more, and she said her name was Tenzin, a name that I was not able to remember at that time. I saw her Mala and asked her about her religion. She is a Buddhist. Before I went to Nepal, I was interested in Buddhism, when I was in Kathmandu, I got fascinated by Buddhism, and when I was talking to her, I just knew that Buddhism was something I really wanted to include in my life. The peace, the rest and the joy on her face, made me feel happy. And that went on for days; Just seeing or thinking of her made me smile, it made me open up to myself. It gave me strength and power to go on. But most of all, it started to make me feel alive again. I did this all by myself, but in some ways, she helped me, just by being te wonderfull person that she is. The next days we met more and more, we even took our nights at the same places, we shared a bedroom, we EVEN started sharing apples. No apple will be just an apple in my life again. Every apple brings a smile on my face these days. Apples became one of the connections between Tenzin and me. It's like I see her in every apple, and when I feel sad or lonely, I should just eat an apple, and then I wouldn't be lonely, because I realise that she's with me, in my heart. Spending time with her made me feel at ease, and therefor I could open up to myself. I started to see more colour, feel more emotion, ... I just started to feel! Because I was feeling supported, I got to open up, and she saw that. I don't think she realised what part she took in that, but that's also not what interests her. She just loves a smile, to see someone feeling, to see someone grow, to see someone open up. She told me things that are between her and me, but it were things that made me feel really safe with her. It was nice to realise how open we were already on the first moments. We were telling things to eachother that you normally don't tell "on a fist date"! Being with her just felt so secure, that I wanted to share whole my life with her, I know she wouldn't use it in a bad way, and I have no intensions to do that with the things she told me. To me she is such a collection of positive energy and true open emotions, and as you might remember; that's what true life is about, to me. Nowadays, when we hear eachother on the phone, we're always happy as two children seeing their Christmas presents. When I recieve a mail from her, a big smile shows up on my face, when I recieve a text message, a true warm feeling passes through my body. That's what love is to me, that's what life is to me. A true collection of sincere emotions and energy! And you know what the most wonderfull part is; ever since I met her, I'll never walk alone anymore!!!! Thank you nature, for this beautifull creature that you've raised!!

The trekking Part 3 (The trekking experience)

2006-12-10T13:52:00.000+01:00

I could try and tell you detailed every step we took in the trekking, every town, village we past through, but that's not what I want to do. Not the fact that I took so many steps there, so I can't remember all of them, made me decide that it's more interesting for me, and I think also for you, to tell you what an experience it was for me. The trekking gave birth to many of my inner feelings that I still feel now, but also revealed a lot of feelings that I have been hiding for to long.

I still become emotional when Tenzin tells me these days, that seeing me in the mountains was wonderfull, that I was part of it. And that's exactly what it felt like to me. I felt like I was part of the mountains and that is a wonderfull feeling, believe me.

Being in between those bigbigbig wonders of nature, it made me realise that I'm a part of a bigger thing. It's not just me, but it's me! Seeing things in that perspective and realising that made me concious of the fact that I was still carrying all the problems of the people around me on my back. That's just to much to do for a little man like me. Actually I have to say, for a little part of nature, like me.

Not only did I lose a lot of the weight on my back, weight that I placed there myself, but I also met some beautifull creatures of nature, some people call them humans. Ofcourse there was Tenzin, but describing what she ment to me and did with me, I will spend a whole item about it. But there were a lot of people who made me feel and give love. There was Bhim, the guide, Bhesh, Prithivi and Purna, whome I talked about earlier. But there were so many people, opening themselves and feeling very safe to me, so I opened up to them to. In this "resume" I'll put some pictures of wonderfull people I met in the mountains. Sometimes it will be someone I didn't even speak to by language, but that I spoke to just by eyecrossing.

The more time I spended in that increddible invironement, the more open I became. The region, the air in it, the people, the views, the smell, everything made me open up hidden places in my soul.

While I was walking, running, sitting during the day trips, feelings of sadness could appear, feelings of guilth about Katia's death for instance, and I just let them be there. I didn't try to reject them, but I let them exist and come out. The result was that 10 minutes later, a smile, not only from humans, but also from trees, animals, mountains, waterfalls brought a big smile on my soul, and also my face. Ever since, I smile at peoples sadness. Sadness and weekness are two of the most true parts of people I think. Happiness is also a true part of people, but often it is an act. Many people want us to be happy, and therefor we play happy sometimes. I used to do that to, and sometimes I still do it, but I don't want to do it because society asks me. Make note that I think that society is an artificial thing, so actually I went along in this and therefor I chose to act happy, even when I was sad.

Being in the mountains changed that for me. It made me open up to myself, and see what was deep inside. Walking by myself between those giant hills (even the hills were giant to me), in that variety of colors, being amongst others who were open and free of blockings inside, not only made me discover more about myself, it also made me love me. I'm very happy that I had the oportunity to open up between people who accepted me for who I am, and let me feel my feelings. Without them, it would propably ended very fast, my revealing!

The trekking didn't make me a better person, I'm still the person I was before, there's just more to see of me right now. I've opened up, and for one of the first times in life, not only other people got a look at the real Lieven, even me.

What did change during my time there, is my view on earthly life as a human being. I see it as the universe exits of energy, emotions and feelings and that's devided into several "bodies". e.g. people, trees, animals, mountains, water,... So whenever one of these bodies dies, dissapears, the energy and emotions still stay here. They need another body, and my beliefs are that when Katia died, I took part of her pain inside me, feeling that was what I deserved. We can choose what energy, feelings we accept and which ones we don't, but it's a process that takes a lot of attention.

Attention that I couldn't seem to spend before, trying to fullfill my so called duties in society.

Now I feel that nature, energy, emotions are real, it's easier for me to accept myself as I am. Knowing that I'm just a stage, not the ending point. I'm a stage in the eternal life of my emotions and energy, so I think my job now is to treath them as good as possible. I accepted them and I have to take care of them. Give them a home, nurture them like they are my child. Giving them a nice place to stay, also includes taking care of the body, try to live a life as healthy as possible.

THAT's what trekking was for me, these sights inside of me and how I think the universe is working! It helps me a lot, and I feel good about it.

Life is a beautifull thing, enjoy it, because you're a stage to another level! Nothing more, but certainly nothing less!!

The trekking Part 2 (The beginning)

2006-11-10T14:32:00.000+01:00

October 4 2006 will be the day bookmarked in my soul as the start of some beautifull friendships. The friendship between the mountains and me, between me and me, between The A-team and me and already the first steps to one of the most beautifull friendships in my life: between Tenzin and me!

We left Pokhara by taxi-bus for Naya Pull, where we started the trekking. I did not know what was in front of me but I felt excited and strong. We started walking, and the first meters went very slow, because everything we saw, was so beautifull, that we wanted to take a picture of it. That first day we went to Tirkedunga (it took me a week before I could remember that name), and everyone was feeling in good shape. The road was going up and down, but just easy. Later it would seem that this was just a warming up. We walked in between the rice fields, already saw like 1263 waterfalls and nature exposed itself, being so big, to us. I couldn't keep my eyes of of all that beauty. The colours, the trees, the rice, the water being so powerfull. I felt like a city-bird, seeing my first tree. I already saw a lot of nature in my life, but this was something else. This was like nature-heaven to me. It made me feel calm and excited in one emotion. An experience I can't explain, but I hope everyone gets to experience it. The whole day, I felt so happy that I could be part of this. This nature wasn't part of my life, I understood that I was part of it's life. It made me loose a lot of weight on my back. The weight of carrying the problems of the whole world.

A little more about the A-team. When I talk about them, I'm talking about our two guides and our two porters. There was the chief-guide, Bhim. A small, dark man, who opened himself during the trip as being a spontaneous, friendly and funny man. He made up the plans and laughed as I have never seen anyone laughing before. Ok, sometimes, he could tell a dirty joke and than he was the one laughing hardest.

Than there was Purna. Could you have a more suitable name being guide in the Annapurna region? First I thought it was a nickname, but later it seemed to be his real name. He is a shy, but very helpfull man. Almost every day he stayed with us, untill the afternoon. Than he went to second gear and left us, to go and arrange the lodge for that evening. Once I went with him, and believe me, this guy goes fast. He's strong and really seems to dance on the rocks. It's beautifull to see, how he manages to work with the rough stones and slippery paths. His English wasn't that good, but day after day, we got to talk more and more. It was a matter of trust I think. We made eachother feel at ease.

The two porters were Bhesh and Pritibi. Bhesh was the tallest of the fab-4 and Pritibi the smallest. In the beginning they were both silent and at a little distance. It was nice to see how we managed to get better and better friends every day. The language also being a problem here, Bhesh even tried to teach me some Nepali. Sometimes we were walking and I was repeating Nepali sentences for like half an hour, but it worked. I think I knew like 10 sentences after a while and ofcourse those were the sentences I said to every Nepali we crossed. But they appreciated and it made contact really easy. (and funny) With Pritibi I have been racing from time to time. Make notice that he was carrying half of our luggage and I only carried my day-pack. I still don't believe how much effort it took to get him behind me. He even made me a Bamboo Flute, with some bamboo he found in the forrest. He picked it up, and a few hours later the flute was finished. Really amazing! Coincidence or not: Pritibi is Nepali for ART!!!

Now I realise that I have taken some big risks running in an area completely strange to me, but I managed to do it without fear and therefor without getting an accident. I think fear is the biggest enemy of me, but there I didn't know any fear. I was so happy and free from obstacles inside myself.

(end of Trekking: The beginning)

The trekking Part 1 (Pokhara)

2006-11-07T13:19:00.000+01:00

Ok, here we go. On october 3 we took an early bus to Pokhara, where our trekking would begin. The bus trip was only 200km, so in Belgium that is a good 2hours driving. Not in Nepal. It was a 7 hours taking trip, but it was nice. As we came closer to Pokhara every minute, you could see the landscape changing into a miracle of nature. Rice, trees, fields, hills, are just a few of the beautifull eye-catchers I saw.

In Pokhara we were lucky to experience our first tropical rain. In no time the streets were filled with water. It gave me a chance to talk a little more with the beautifull woman from the money exchange counter, as a cow came to change some money.

It was a quiet evening, and we were looking forward to the trekking. In the evening we also had our first real conversation with Bhim, our guide, during dinner. Yes, I was talking during dinner, but only when my mouth was empty. We saw our first Nepali dance act and went to bed early, as we wanted to be ready for the coming 13 days.

At this point I did not know what was going to happen to me in the next two weeks, but I already felt wonderfull. I experienced a calmness inside me that I had never felt before, or at least I couldn't remember. People might say that there is so much chaos over there and that they go crazy being there, but for me it was the other way around. The chaos had been in my head, and being in a busy place like Kathmandu and Pokhara made me get structure in my head. In no time I felt at ease and so powerfull that I could take anything that came to me. I was really looking forward to the trekking. Being scared of everything in Belgium, in Nepal I felt strong and with self confidence. Strange how that can be, but I love it. In that little time my life was already changed, into something that I had been looking for, for so long. Peace at heart and mind! It was like at once I started to see much more colours as before. There used to be green, yellow, blue, brown,... but suddenly all those colours came in so many tints. There was a light and a dark version of every coulour, and there was the light-dark version, and... (got it?)

I think this has all to do with perception. All those colours were there, before I saw them, but getting structure in my mind and heart, made it possible to see more, to use my brains for noticing what was around me, and where I was part of. It's so beautifull, and yet only the beginning!

Coming home Part 2

2006-10-31T17:22:00.000+01:00

After we got that first look on Hinduism on October 2nd, it was time to gain some Buddhism-impressions. Ok I admit, I was even more looking forward to that. We went to Boddnath, where we saw this amazing Stupa standing right in front of us. It was surrounded by prair flags. A sight I will never forget.

A Stupa is a totally closed building and at once a "Lieven" imagination showed up, seeing this Stupa. Where is Richard? I don't know, I just saw him checking the inside of the Stupa right before we finished it. Oeps?!?

The Stupa stands right in front of a beautifull monastry, which has an amazing bell, the size Santa hopefully never buys for his raindeer.

As we walked further on the Tibetan domain, I bought my first prairflags and visited my first monastry on the inside. I didn't really feel comfortable, as the Monks were sitting down, doing there prairs and we, the tourists walked easyly around in that same room. People say they didn't bother, so I believed it, still having my doubts. They even offer there "guests" tea, and I must admit, my first salted tea was special, but I liked it. I was cought by Buddhism, the moment I walked into it's monastry and saw the serenity of the monks. I felt myself at ease there and calmed down, just being there. I could have stayed for at least a few hours. Observing, maybe even try to participate, learning and meditating. It was my first physical contact with Buddhism, but at once it made me realise what my life stands for and how I like to spend it. For now, that's for me to know, but some of you will find out soner or later. Who has, wants to know it, will, I trust in that.

We visited "The Monkey Temple", where monkeys really cross you on the ground, without saying namaste, and where Bhuddism and Hinduism are gathered next to each other. It's nice to see how different believes can stand peacefully next to eachother.

We also visited Durban Square, where we went to visit the house of Kumari. She is a girl that is pure, in the purest sence of the word. She may not have lost any blood in her life, for instance, and she has to stand different exams before she can prove being a Kumari.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumari

Kumary was not home, but we got to admire one of the most famous handicrafts of Nepal. The wooden windows, beautifully carved.

Shortly after arriving back at the hotel, we got the news our luggage had arrived. We celebrated with a few beers, knowing that I'm normally not a beer drinker, and prepared ourselves to leave for Pokhara the next day, to go trekking in the Annapurna-region.

In the evening I went into town, on my own. Just trying to meet some of the locals. Since it was Bada Dasain, the biggest festival in Nepal, I met some celebrating shopowners, taxidrivers, press-members, all on the same place. At the street in front of a shop. I offered to buy some more drinks, and we had fun, although I was still very much in my western way of thinking; I have to watch out. Nothing happened, and that opened my eyes again. Trust in the good intensions of people. Don't live your life in fear, because you'll miss so many beautifull feelings!

(end of part 2)

Coming home Part 1

2006-10-28T14:28:00.000+02:00

It's strange, but being in Nepal really felt like being home. For several reasons, I felt more at home there, than in Belgium. All my life I've been looking for "my home". A place where I could allow me to be myself, where it felt safe, where people spoke, acted and lived based on emotions. And suddenly it was there. Without noticing it, I slipped into it. The grass is always greener on the other side of the hill, but when I look at my pictures now, the grass just is greener in Nepal.

We, two other Belgian men (whome I first met at the airport in Belgium) and me, arrived in Kathmandu on October 1st 2006. After 4 flights, it seemed that something went wrong with the transportation of the luggage. Result, no luggage and the man behind the counter wasn't really well equiped for making a form to get our luggage back. At least, the airport didn't have the equipment, we're used to in Europe. No problem, it'll arrive tomorrow, or the day after that, or never. Who knows? I just accepted it and it even made me smile. Welcome in Kathmandu. The Nepali man, kept smiling, although he didn't seem to know what to do with the tourists standing around his desk, that I think he brought himself, and some of them getting nervous. He just kept smiling, like most of the Nepalies do. I think it's some kind of Nepali-look.

Coming out of the airport, we met our second part of Nepal: the 1352 friendly people who will help you carry your bags. Being in India, I knew this was gonna happen, but there were 8 people welcoming us and later it seemed, there was only one man who really knew who we were. Always funny those hectic situations. But most important thing was...I arrived in Nepal. Imagine I was left behind in London and my luggage got to Nepal. The welcome in Hotel Thamel was warm and friendly and they even seemed to have beer. Big beers. The Nepalies seem to drink one of those beers together with two or three people. Some of the Belgians thought really different about that and the manager of the hotel seemed very happy with that. After all it stays business, can you blame them? October 2nd, we went to do sightseeing in Kathmandu. First we went to the famous shivatemple from Pashupatinath (Pashupati; the protector of Nepal and the lord of all living creatures, according to the Nepali Hindu's) at the bank of Bagmati river. I must admit, it is beautifull, even when you see corpses being burned in front of it. That's tradition there. They don't burry dead people, they burn them, and after that they throw there ashes in the river. Why? http://www.mailerindia.com/hindu/veda/index.php?death Outside the temple, inside I don't know, because only Hindu's are allowed inside the temple, monkeys were walking around, next to the people and the cows and dogs. Nice to see how everybody lives together on the streets, in the trees and at the bank of the river. You can also find Sadhoes, people who gave up everything and devote there life to the god Shiva. They live of what they get from the people and I think some of them are able to start a carreer as photo model, because everyone who passes them immediately grabs for his camera, and not only to see if its still there. You take a picture of them, to which they coöporate wellwilling, and in regard you give them some money, or food. I also saw my first snake that day, but it didn't scare me. Ok, it was one of them funcky dancing snakes, but previously, even they used the scare the something out of me. To me it was a sign that I was getting more and more self confident and that I was trying to live in the culture of Nepal. I seemed to be able to let go of my western way of thinking and was more attrackted to the Nepali culture of Hinduism and Buddhism. The open emotions and the way people deal with eachother was also a fantastic experience to me. I felt like I finally was coming home. (end of part 1)

2006-10-27T02:27:00.001+02:00

I will write down a short note about my trip to Nepal, while preparing to write the whole story. It was a fantastic time, which brought me closer to myself, nature, other people and inner peace. I've been able to discover more about Buddhism being surrounded by people who live it. I met wonderfull people, but one person was really special. Tenzin, a beautifull Australian girl, touched me in a special way. I feel like I found my soulmate in her, and that feels great. During the trekking of 13 days to ABC there were so many fantastic views, contacts, situations,... but most of all, there was no motorised traffic. No sound or sight of cars, plains, motorcycles. That was a unique experience for me and it tastes like more. The cultural choque didn't appear when I was in Nepal, but the moment I came back in Belgium he was there. Conclusion: I feel more attached to the warm, open culture of Nepal than the cold and fake culture of the west. I must say that this is my impression, it's like that for me. Many people get ill from food overthere, for me it was the other way around again: my insides protested when I was back in Belgium. Nepal was a unique experience for me and it left me some friends that I will never forget and maybe see some of them again in this, or an other life. Strange how you can bound with people just by eye-crossing. When you can open your heart and see what's happening around you, you can feel so many joy inside yourself, and that's something nobody can take away from you. Believe in yourself and nobody can hurt you, by calling you names, or giving you bad comments. I once read: Those who care don't matter, and those who matter don't care. I think that's one of the most important lessons I learned during the three weeks in Nepal. I let me be myself, no matter what others thought about it. And you know what? A lot of people accepted me more. Thanks to Tenzin, even rain can't bother me anymore. She made me realise that it's just wet sunshine, another beautifull miracle of nature. About the Nepalese local people? They are pure, friendly and with so much hospitality. Even when they're poor and have not enough food, they will invite you in to have a meal with them. And it's not out of policy, it's because they respect you and eachother. It was one of the most beautifull experiences of my life and I feel that it's just the beginning. The beginning of a beautifull continuation.