Hunting for paradise

Wunderbar Zanzibar

noreply@blogger.com (Merel & Richard) — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 10:39:00 +0000

So Zanzibar the island that is supposed to be known for the best beaches, spices and the of course the best known Arab invention, slavery. So we left Dar es salaam by a ferry called the kilimanjaro. There were more similarities than you could imagine. Firstly you never see either of them. The mountain because of the clouds, the boat because it is always late. Secondly manoeuvrability, need I explain more? Once we arrive we had to get a visa. Anyone thinking that Zanzibar is part of Tanzania is ......... Right. I just think they forgot to inform the customs there. So after standing in lines we were finally in Stone town. A charming place that is great for a one to two day visit. Our hotel really made us feel like a part of the Zanzibar history. It included bars in front of the windows and great common shower where dropping your soap could be and issue.
The next day was hotel change time and the usual sight seeing. Merel needed sun glasses and on the way to get some her flip-flops broke. So we found a store (after what seemed a 1500 km hike) and the Indian store owner (who else) wanted 12000 shilling (6€) for them. Merel drove him to a frenzy with her hard bargaining skills and ended up paying 12000 shilling. Indian 1, merel 0. Next up were the sunglasses, the bargaining score here was (even though it was a different Indian) Indian 2, merel 0. After 20 min merel realised that one of the glasses was a lot darker then the other and thus merel could only see with one eye unless the sun was shining directly into her face. So the final score? Let's just say it was an easy win for the Indians.
Next up was my problem. I decided I wanted a haircut. So on a local market we found a barber and in I went. After my cut I decided to get a shave. By the time the barber took out, what looked to me like a sabre there was a crowd outside the barbers looking at the muzungu (white man) being butchered. According to merel I looked slightly frightened. In reality I did not feel that way at all. I was shitting myself. Anyway I survived and paid €1.25 for the ordeal, although slightly disappointed for Not getting and applause from the audience.
Our next hotel was better, although we think it was a brothel as the walls in the shower were all mirrors and it had more steps in it then the average staircase.
Now I'd like to complain about tourists dress attire. WHAT is wrong with you? You have two types. The 'I want to wear what locals wear guy' who then buys a local wedding attire that is only worn by tourists, unless there is a local wedding. I wonder if these people wear tuxedos when they travel in Europe?
The others are the 24hr prepared safari going guy. Wearing a panama hat in matching combination to their brown green outfit. Then they will carry a large knife on their belt that cuts deep into their leg every time they sit down. This much to my pleasure though! Then they will always have a compass. These people are always the ones that could not tell you where Tanzania is on the world map but the compass essential so that when they get lost at the hotel pool they'll know where north is.
Next up was the spice tour that I recommend but was uneventful and the jozani Forrest that is home to the red colobus and blue monkey. We were on the tour with a couple of french guys whose English consisted of yes and non. Our guide had such a thick African accent that we left him with the French so at least no one understood each other. Another reason we left the guide was that when merel ran after a lizard (if only I would get €0.01 for every time she did that) and she caught one and presented it to the guide he shrieked. Merel asked him what monkey were in the Forrest his reply was the red one and the black one and you saw that fear was within him that we would ask. More.

noreply@blogger.com (Merel & Richard) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 09:00:00 +0000

Top sport, desk gibbons and to many options

noreply@blogger.com (Merel & Richard) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 16:45:00 +0000

Aah.. our first week in Spain in almost ended. So where to start? Merel has been fighting with bureaucracy for the whole week as she had to show her diploma, first it had to be translated then she had to do more courses as the diploma was not valid in Spain, then it had to be the original diploma then a certified copy was ok. These desk gibbons just keep jumping up and down on their chairs waiving their arms around if they smell a hint of work coming up. However as typical as Merel is she did not give up and kept on calling and doing what they told her to do. The result you may ask? They told Merel it was ok. So at the moment it looks like Merel does not even have to show her swimming diploma to anyone. The desk gibbons gave up at the sight of a lot of work and noted that she has all the right documents. On the bright side of this all, it only took a week and Merel only has six more applications to do. ahahaha.....

On a more personal note, this week I decided i would join a real national top sport here in Spain. Now before all you vegetarians go all " bull fights are cruel, etc " (you know who you are:) I decided to join a sport i always considered my self good at. i.e. the national sport being lazy. Now suprised i was to find out that i am a mere amateur in this sport. In fact i am so bad i would not dare to ever say that i am lazy again just to not insult the Spanish. As we called the government (who close at 5pm) at 16.30 they decided that during mid sentence they would hang up. When we called back they where closed. Fair enough you would think, however it was 16.41. Even the bums here do not bother to stand up for money but just put a can in front of them whilst sleeping. The only exception is one bum that holds the can in his mouth and walks around as he has no arms and that makes it difficult to get up when lying down.

I have been trying to learn Spanish now and figured out that the Spaniards hate foreigners. I listen to what people say around me and go to the bar and repeat that. When Merel orders a beer for me she asks for a beer and she gets one. So i do the same at the next bar. However all of a sudden ordering a beer becomes a quiz show, do i want the beer cold, medium cold, local, Mexican, in a glass without a glass, shaken, stirred. As stupid as i can look the only thing from the 10 million dollar question i got was Mexican. So i guessed Mexican and for once the waiter seemed to understand me, however even in the Mexican section there where a billion options.
Now this is not the only time that happened, when merel orders tomatoes in the supermarket, there are no questions asked if i want a kiwi, it seems that every country north of the south pole produces kiwi's. Luckily I'm not the only one with the problem. It seems that when ever merel asks something in Spanish the Spaniards seem to think hey a foreigner and increase their speaking speed to the setting, the speed of light.

photo's of our new place

noreply@blogger.com (Merel & Richard) — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 20:04:00 +0000

Moving into madrid

noreply@blogger.com (Merel & Richard) — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 19:32:00 +0000

Ok some short details.
for the Google earth people among us type in calle de linneo 9 madrid. you will see a red car and 2 black ones below it. On the right of the lowest black car you will see a patio/balcony and a square house with a white blob on it. If you would shoot the blob you will hit my lamp so don't.

Phone numbers
Merel 0034610871342
Richard 0034662626783
Home 0034912217235

Anyway life here is horrible it is 20.45 and im not allowed to go for dinner until 22.30. This time it is even worse as i have to eat Indian. Then i will have to go to a party called function and party. Apart from the snow and cold life is good here but after cleaning the studio for a whole day i am looking forward to a good dinner and party.

greetings

First things first-ish

noreply@blogger.com (Merel & Richard) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:11:00 +0000

To put things straight, we moved to Madrid. Just so everyone knows.
We had a busy couple of days, apartment hunting. The first one costing the most of all we have seen until now was in worse condition the a Dubai camp for illegal Indian immigrants (this however would explain the 2 Indian imigrants living there). However the second one was nice and in a good location, thirdly was a basement with a bedroom that 1.5m high and had no windows and the last one had six month rent to pay in advance.
So the choice was easy and we are moving in on Saturday.
The studio has 2 floors (top is bedroom) a small living area, a kitchen and a bathroom. It is all inc so no extra cost for internet, water, gas etc.

It is quite strange that Spain is more of a foreign country then Australia and new Zealand and there are more English speakers in China. Sadly my Spanish is not to functional as i can't even get myself in trouble with it.
On the bright side I did figure out that I speak Italian and French. As I keep on saying merci and mille grazie.

Just to make matters worse today my gloves got stolen, from a toilet booth.
As a man does you stand to pee and my gloves were on the toilet roll holder before they fell down. Then comes the moment in witch you have to decide wether you stop peeing and pick the gloves up or continue. I chose the latter, zipped up and turned around to see that my gloves had disapeared. I do not know what sick bastard steals gloves from a public toilet floor but i hope his toilet paper was finished, so atleast i can see him as a opportunist and not a bastard.

My sister (Nathalie) aksed me to mention her place in the blog. As we are staying there i feel obliged to do so, out of pure guestmanship. The place is great if you like a horny landlord talking dirty about your grilfriend and your sister. You enjoy room temeratures of about 7 deg. & a hot water teperatures of atmost 12.5% above room temperature. At the downside (there is always a downside) you need to climb 12 staircases to get to her 4th floor and once halfway it starts to feel like the Escher painting of the stairs that never end. The nice part of the staircases is that the steps from the 12th century so that every step is either longer, shorter, higher, lower, slipier or rougher then you expected. First time going up you will look like a cripple who can see no depth.
However if you hold up the laptop in the air you have internet and I was allowed to stay over, so I would not dare to complain.

Of we go again.

noreply@blogger.com (Merel & Richard) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 10:09:00 +0000

Checking in at the ariport in germany was no problem, infact it went so well ryanair will be my air company of choice from now on. Or so i though then. We decided to get priority seating, so that we could get in the plane before the common people would and pick the best seats. In real life this meant that we had a full 15 seconds of a head start before the angry mob of people where let lose to also board the plane. I am quite confident some of them had tortches and hayforks with them once i looked back.
Once we had our emergancy exit seats a german/russian steward came to us expaining what the big door next to me was and why it had written exit on it and that at a emergancy i had to read the booklet on what to do. He seem to be just as pleased to be there as a fox in a fox hunt. I decided to try and do my homework on time and my presumptions where right i had to pull the one meter big red bar with the sign pull on it. Once all were seated the head stewardess summoned us that we could not have anything lying around untill we would liftoff.
After 1.5 hours of sitting in the plane and we had still not left i decided that i wanted my coat and at that thought the stewardess smelled the sent of my tought and the hunt was for who was thinking something illigal. The person who did this would, or so i feel get the gallow and the angry mob would get to watch (at a surcharge ofcourse as it is Ryanair) as they already had their torches and hayforks to create an ambiance. We endended up grounded for 3 hours due to weather issues, the fact that there where mechanics walking around the plane right engine did not have anything to do with the delay. During the 3 hours we had to listen to 2 commercials for the great offers of Ryanair. This would have been bareable if it would not be continious and if it would not be interupted by the only song everyone can play on the piano but then in a techno beat version.
At Dublin we arived to late to get into town before our next flight so I amused my self by eating, laughing at people tripping over luggage and a taxi driver waiting for Willy jones for 4 hours.
Our next flight i figured the Ryanair system; the priority passenger would get a bit of fox urine sprayed on them and one steward would walk with them with the usual 15 second start.
Then the not so angry mob would get a cloth with the same smell turning them in to a face paced (like those olympic fast walkers) angry mob trying to devour us before we go onto the plane. To say i felt sorry for the familiy with the pirority seating and 2 buggies would be a lie as they would porbably get to sit next to me with 4 crying kids. However after they disensembled the buggies their kids where stepped on by the mob and they where the last in the plane.
At the arrival the trumpets where blown (you see where i get the fox hunt feeling from) to anounce that we where on time once again. Apparently i was the only one shocked at that announcement as arriving ontime once out of two times is defiantely not a "again".
This brings us to spain. The weather is good and the food is better and thats all i know uptill now so from sunny spain it is a over and out.

How long (bay) until we are out of Vietnam

noreply@blogger.com (Merel & Richard) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 04:58:00 +0000

So there we go to how long bay. On arrival we were told the day plan First we would check into the room then have lunch go see a cave, have dinner and then do some karaoke. At the last plan, the karaoke all the tourists sighed complained and nagged, our complaints were in a communist very well ignored. So after dropping by the cave and having dinner the announcement came that it was time for Karaoke. A lot of sighs and complaints later the guide came with the following statement. "i like, tourists like karaoke!" The machine was put on full blast and some of the people there or better said the drunk Aussies decided to join for a better half of the hour and the rest decided to go sit upstairs. After even the Aussies decided that it was enough and they also joined us the Vietnamese decided that now it was their turn for the next 5 hours to do that and keep the guests awake.

It is apparent that the Vietnamese (in the tourist areas) are arrogant, ignorant and unpleasant towards tourists. I never ever had the feeling that i wanted to grab a person by the throat and give them a good dutch rub. (for you that do not know what a dutch rub is please do the following: form a fist with one hand and place it on the top of your head making sure that your knuckles touch the head only. Then push hard onto your skull and rub it back and forward) Now wasn't that fun!!!! i just made you give yourself a dutch rub. :)

When we got back to Hanoi we had to decided if we would go down Viet nam or go into china. After asking around we heard that china was cheaper and there were not Vietnamese. So off we went to get a visa and that morning i decided to go to the Ho chi mihn mausoleum. So on arrival we were forced to line up in to two rows and stand in a perfect line where they could go and get scanned to see if we had any weapons in case we would try and kill him...... wait he is already dead, so it was a check to make sure that we could not kill him any more then he already was.
So in we went and, yepp he was dead.... and in a aquarium.

That night we left for Sapa the mountain village in the north of Viet nam.

Hanoi the city of scammers

noreply@blogger.com (Merel & Richard) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 04:28:00 +0000

So at the airport in Hanoi we arrived on time to discover the pains of communism. After getting yelled at the customs for not lining up properly we went trough to get money with a British guy. Of course all the ATM's were broken and there were only 25 of them (ain't that true communism!). We got into the taxi to Ha noi city. Kevin booked at the Australian Hanoi hostel in the city and we got dropped of there. Or so we though the Vietnamese copy hotel names if they get a good review in guide books so there were 3 Hanoi hostels in Hanoi now. We got taken to a hotel around the corner where we got a huge room for $10. So we were happy. That night we walked into the city only to hear some people say hi to us. This has been happening since Laos, these random people walking by us or we walked by them and they would say hi. I told merel that they properly confused us for someone else. However after we talked to them it seemed that we were tubing together in Viang vieng. So we sat with them on a street corner drinking bia hoi. (Beer hoi), the cheapest beer in the world at a crazy$0.15 a glass. So the night passed quick and after a final white beer at the lake we decided to buy a helium balloon and merel sang the famous German da oben am berg song in a obnoxiously high note.

when we got back to the hotel with the Canadians, the hotel staff where trying to sell children for sex to the Canadian guys ending the night in bad way. The next morning the staff where threatening the Canadians for not booking a trip trough the hotel. So it was time to move on.
(anyone going to Hanoi do not stay at the sunflower hotel )

That morning we went to ho chi mihns mausoleum, that being closed we headed to the war museum and i would recommend it to anyone. However it might be a little one sided:)
Next was the Hanoi Hilton a prison where first the French tortured the Vietnamese and if we would have to believe the stories there, the Vietcong lavished first rate 5 star hospitality on the American GI's. However there had to be one American that had to spoil the fun. As i was walking around i overheard a what seemed to look like a educated American woman of around 35. She said to the guide "well at least we helped you guys get rid of communism!" I wanted to stab my self and everyone around me so that it would be less embarrassing for us to be with anyone so naive, well naive would be quite a ridiculously huge understatement.

The mornig after we decided to go to halong bay on a 1 night boat trip. So i had to get up and get money at 7am. Now what i forgot to say about Hanoi is that the people there are agressive. they will physically pull you into their shop and tie stupid bracelets around your arm with such a knot that you can not get it off and have to buy it. The women that walk around with the baskets of fruit on sticks on their shoulders, will put it on your shoulders and then demand money for it or you have to buy fruit. For some reason tourist pay. Sure ill pay to carry your baskets? Anyway that morning i had one of these ladies chasing me with baskets of cabbages. "hey mister you buy?" she screams at me, i presumed that she was new in the business or retarded as i had to explain to her i had no use for a cabbage. After the explanation she asked. "So you buy?"

i see that i will have to reinstate the 5 messages rule!! and there seems to be an issue with the messages from the breedveld side, or better said a lack of......

so here we go

noreply@blogger.com (Merel & Richard) — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 11:17:00 +0000

w
i think vang vieng was the last place i posted from during then and now we travelled to Viet nam and China but i will start with Luang prabang in Laos. It is a world heratige site, meaning that everything is 3x as expensive because there are no busses allowed to drive through the old town! The bus ride from Vang vieng to Luang prabang was interesting visually seen, nice mountains and we only hit one biker on the way. thank god the driver was a beginner so that we only drove 70 km\h through hairpin corners. On the way we saw a persistant girl trying to sell us dead squirrels with furr and all and i wondered how many toursit would buy them? Anyway on the road we saw a couple of cyclists - now it is 200km from luang praban to vang vieng and by bus it takes 6 hours - very brave. Why would anyone even think about biking it?

Anyway Luang prabang is up to now the most scenic city i have seen, it's calm, at the tourist market no one asks me "you buy something!!!!" and the food is good. Although getting on the topic of food there has been some issues and one of them, ok all of them involve me..... so at particular one issue i stormed to a toilet, only to have a one way conversation with a british woman in the shop next door advising me to avoid street food. I always forget to thank the shop keepers for putting the toilet air vent towards a busy tourist shop.

then next day we visited all the temples and relaxed without major complications.

Then we decided to do a mahout course for a day so that merel can take care of an elephant. So off we went and the first stop was a local whiskey village. I had to try all the local whiskeys, One with cobra, serpent, millipede, scorpion and god knows what else. So that we could handle the elephants we where told. Well just for the info, cobra whiskey tastes like wet dog smells.
So we walked around with the eleophants and washed them and put them to bed in the forest. So i thought....... merel did all that, however the elephant had certain complication's with my personality and made me walk behind him. so i paid to see a butt of an elephant and walk behind it for 5km.

The next day we had to leave to Hanoi by plane as the borders where under "terrorist attack" i.e. freedom fighters. Depending on whose side you are on, but to me anyone who tries to bomb me is a terrorist. So we got to the airport 2 hours early as told and one hour later we already had to board the plane. Once every poor soul was on board (viet nam aiways (see my point?) we left directly so 45 minutes prior our original departure time without mentioning the destination. We were wondering if it was the plane to Hanoi and all the passenger together decided that it was. My only concern was if they had tomato juice and if it was normal that Indians where telling other passengers their love stories on how they met randomly in a bar, halfway trough the story we all hoped to crash so we did not have to listen to the story anymore. . We arrived at our original departure time in Hanoi. The city of ...........

sorry

noreply@blogger.com (Merel & Richard) — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 02:55:00 +0000

we are back in semi unsensored civilisation. i.e. laos. we decided to take a boat to thailand from china and if that was fully booked wait a day or get a flight to thailand. after a 12 hour busride with coughing in my neck and mobile phones with semi professional speakers. we arrived in jinghong to hear that the boor was full and aonther one would not leave for another week. so we decided to go look for a flight only to hear that the company went banrupt. so a bus to laos was the only option.......*&$(&$$$ atleast we are alive.

i will blog more in 2 days.

tip to people that go to china do NOT wear army gear at the border crossing as they might find you suspisious! found tht out first hand. and hide, cover your lonely planet at they will check all books you bring in! and take it away!!

noreply@blogger.com (Merel & Richard) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 09:33:00 +0000

and one more to show how we travel! 19 in a bus plus a flock of chickens?

me doing an elegant dive...ish

noreply@blogger.com (Merel & Richard) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 09:24:00 +0000

j
just wanted to show what we are up to all day. ill write a new travel story within the next days.
we are planning a elephant track so i am sure that that will bring some good stories.......

our plans

noreply@blogger.com (Merel & Richard) — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 10:40:00 +0000

So as there are new messages there is a new post. We are leaving Vang vieng after relaxing for 4 days and now it is time to move on to Luang prabang and maybe Vietnam what would be a historical and culinary experience.

Not much happened the last days so i decided to give all who care a short update on what is going to happen after this trip.

I decided to aply for jobs at Swedish match, Starbucks, Shell, Phillips or Imperial tobacco asking for a job within europe so that I can get to know the company , get a decent salary and holiday. Once in the company I would have to see how fast i can get out of europe on a expat deal. Of course if there is a good job within these companies without the expat deal it would still be interesting so long i can get back to holland once in a while. So within the next week or so it is CV time and hopefully get some replys.

Merel will update you all on her plans some time soon....... ish......maybe

However yesterday we decided to come up with some requests for when we arrive
1) bitterballen in het zwaantje
2) patat oorlog, frikandel met and broodje kroket

i found paradise

noreply@blogger.com (Merel & Richard) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 11:14:00 +0000

ok here we are in vang vieng the tubing captial of the world, or laos at least. So what are we doing here? We sit in a tube and float down river consuming beer laos and shakes. Then for dinner we ly in a bed and watch friends and movies on screen. Yepp paradise a day of tubing will cost you a full $8. For that money you could do a full day of drinking one beer in holand. however i am going to keep this message short.

So henrik what movie is it and whay don't you come down here.

nathalie this is the place to be!

Everyone i am not moving to holland I AM NOT MOVING TO HOLLAND (just to make sure no one misread the firt time). I am going back to say hi to people and then get the ...... out of there. i would rather move to france.

on a final note i see the donations are not comming this way so i am altering the offer the more you guys pay the longer I stay away! you can see merel in 1.5 months but ill stay here... now thats an offer you cant refuse!!!

greets

good times

noreply@blogger.com (Merel & Richard) — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 04:12:00 +0000

So this 5 message thing is working! i think i stopped at 4000 islands, so on i go. First of all the bike issue, i thought pink was THE color in Holland? Anyways... on the last day on the 4000 islands we decided to do what i do best, nada, nothing, and zip all. I swam with a buffalo and later that night we went to a monk festival where there was nothing fascinating to do so merel ended up patting a pig to sleep.

The next morning we left for Pakse, the gateway to the bolaven plateau. Now i know that it does not sound exiting but it was an experience. We had to rent a motorbike to get there and Merel decided it would take 2 days to see the whole thing. So in the morning we left for the rental place only to be told that we needed a passport to rent a bike, so we reserved one and went to get our passports. After a full 5 minute return walk we went to pick up the bike only to find out that when you reserve a bike here it means that they give it to someone else a.s.a.p. So we had to get one else where, naturally they were all rented out and there was only one left. It looked nice and new so we informed what it would cost. It was more expensive then all the other places as it was a thai bike the owner explained. Now you must wonder what is the difference between the thai and Laos bike? Well with the thai bike you only have 2 speeds, stop and ultrasonic, so i only used the fourth gear so that merel did not fly off the back of the bike every time. The second difference is that the brake was not functioning and the horn (probably the only essential thing in asia) was making the sound of an vacuum cleaner.

But off we went to see a coffee research center and a coffee farm and as all tourist say go to the places where no tourist go. Now i am getting on an interesting point if i may say so m self. Every tourist always complains that there are too many tourists and that they want to go where no other tourists go. Now to start at the beginning, the places that no tourist go to are a) un interesting as no one wants to go there, b) too far away as no tourist has the energy or time to go there. c) if the last place would be interesting the tourist board would have made a road and a huge parking lot there so it is not that interesting. Now i recently visited one of those places where no Tourist has been before. You wonder how i know that? Well peoples heads turned when we motored past and that is still no proof, but here is the final proof: the dogs are afraid of white people.
Now as i was there i can truly tell you there was no reason why tourist would go there. So my advice to people that want to go to where no tourist go and still see amazing sights go to a country at war, and please stop complaining about too many tourists as you are one of them!

Half way through the drive we found out that i pushed the bag in to the little front basket too hard and the toothpaste decided to explode in my bag, the good thing about that is that where ever we go we leave a minty fresh smell behind.
That evening we had dinner in Tat Lo where a German woman decided to join me eat by means of staring at the motion of my fork going from my plate to my mouth and making a detailed description on what it would taste like and that i was eating too much and how stupid i was by putting fish sauce on my food as in Germany it is for cooking. Then when i ordered desert she announced to her companion (have mercy on him) what a pig i was and if i did not know how many people are starving in the world. Once her food arrived she decided that fish sauce was a must on her food and my desert did look good. I regrettably decided not to tell them i spoke German.

The following night in pakse, packse, Poksse, Paxe or pakxe depending on what way they decided to write it this time. we decided to treat ourself to a massage for $2 a half an hour. So we had to get changed and merel convinced me that i was wearing my shirt backwards (the buttons were in the front), so stupidly i changed it only to have the masseurs laughing at me as now i was wearing not only my shirt backwards but also my trousers. After having all the meat ripped of my bones i felt reborn and relaxed.

This morning we had to get out of the hotel at 12noon and our sleeper bus (a bus with beds) was going to leave at 8 pm. Pakse is not too fascinating so we decided to take a massage this time a herbal one where they use molten magma with herbs on your back. (at least it felt that hot) My guy was a bit too keen and so i had to keep an eye on him..... however i had stomach issues (that i get already by just thinking of the food) and dear old mr. decided to massage my stomach so to save his table and my dignity i tensed my stomach and he kept trying to get me to relax it. I did not know how to tell him in lao to stop so i stayed strong and prevailed. So i got a few more slaps around the head and that was it.

Time to go to the bus. It was the best bus ever 10 hour drive and you lie in bed. They decided to put a DVD on of a new Hollywood movie but put the language on lao and subtitle in English. Fair enough you would say , however the translations where things like "what is the soup, dough!!!" in stead of "what's up dawg!" so we could not understand a lot. So i went to sleep and did not wake until a baby decided to ruin my peace. The parents decided that if they would get up and hold the baby next to my head it would make me feel better. Well i did not feel better and the baby screamed so loud that i am convinced it was a new world record and he was keen to do a new try just to prove that he beat it. Now the bus company decided to help and put some great karaoke on in the bus. That did not help so maybe if we put the lights on that would help was their next idea. However the dad gets the Nobel prize for maximizing irritation, this chap decided to make car honk noises along the karaoke music.

Anyway the next blog will be more about our future plans as it seems that we are heading back to holland soon.
However i decided that the more donations will be made to longer we will stay away. and that is a promise,

photos

noreply@blogger.com (Merel & Richard) — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 09:11:00 +0000

well that is it for now as i had to live in the internet cafe for 3 weeks for this! once again i am waiting for 5 messages!

laos!

noreply@blogger.com (Merel & Richard) — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 10:19:00 +0000

So i got the 5 post again, so i must write!
After leaving Sihanoukville we had to go back to phnom penh for our next leg in Cambodia.
Naturally i got sick for 3 days and so we where stuck there too. However we survived the illnesses.
In the guest house we ended up sitting next to 2 "older" Germans who ordered their food and finally they wanted to put it on the room number. Their room number was twhooh handret vivty ziks as they pronounced it. The poor waiter did not get it so the Germans though maybe if we scream it he will understand it. But no. So they came up with the next tactic only saying the numbers. TWHOOH VEIVE ZIKS. the waiter still did not get it so they got angry. Good Samaritan as i am i jumped in to help and told the waiter "i think they are trying to say that their room number is two hundred and fifty six". The waiter laughed and walked of and the Germans, well the Germans were not too happy with me showing them that they can't speak English.

That evening we went for dinner and the waiter's main concern was how to kick a 4 year old child that was begging as hard as he could and as many as he could while i was eating. Not a nice sight.

But now we move to the better parts. We decided to go to Kratie to see the river dolphins. So once in the bus we stopped in the middle of a little irrelevant city to pick up a German guy. However at the next stop he asked the driver if that was a lunch break and the driver nodded so the German got out and the bus drove away, and the German was running after the bus. I truly enjoyed the sight of the German running next to us but luckily for him the bus stopped again to let him in.
That night we met some Swedes that told us how to get to the dolphins (always straight but turn right at the roundabout), and about a nice bamboo bridge over the water. sounded nice!

So the next morning we rented a moto (motorbike) and drove to the dolphins (straight at the roundabout) and after a 7m (no not minute but meter) ride we stopped and saw dolphins. Quite nice but uneventful. Merel disagrees but as she never updates her blog you will never hear her side of the story. :)
So we went to look for the bamboo bridge that was supposed to be after 1km on the left. (i considered the swedes last advice) And after 12km still no bridge. So all the way back, however we found the bridge and it was made of at least 3 to 4 sticks of bamboo of at least 2 m the rest of the 40 or so meters was wood . So what is the moral of the story do not listen to swedes on anything involving materials and directions!

For the next part of the trip i would have to go back more then a year. To a discussion with merel's father on the topic on why it was important to have legal insurance. As he put it if you drive over the village chiefs prize winning chicken, he is going to ask a millions dollars to replace his "one in a million chicken". (I thought true, it is good to get the insurance but the chicken story com on when is something like that going to happen?)
So back to current time. On the Moto you honk at anything and it moves out of the way so no problem. Guess who does not listen to the honk, yepp the prize winning chicken. You must wonder how did I knew he was a prize winning chicken? well all other chickens here walk around ready to eat. i.e. hardly any feathers and this chicken was truly a good specimen. Luckily i missed it and i am sure that i heard the village chief swear in the background. On the bright side we can now answer why the prize winning chicken crossed the road. To cash for his chief!

Merel then started to howl that she wanted to drive that moto, so she drove off and all the local men where laughing at me, i felt so manly on the back. Luckily merel decided to drive full speed trough gravel and after i told her that gravel does not have yo much grip she decided to stop. By means of an emergency brake, i jumped off and merel ended up face in the dirt 10 meters away from a group of male farmers who enjoyed the ordeal and saw it as living proof that women can not drive!

The next day we decided to go to Laos and booked a mini bus there. we did not expect to get the local bus as all the tourist get the Mercedes air con buses. Luckily we had the VIP seat so it was only 24 people in the minibus (an 8 seater) and we had to share a couch with only 4 and a flock of chickens.

Now we are at Don Det at the 4000 islands in Laos. Laos has no coast line so you must wonder where do they hide 4000 islands. Actually its only 3 islands and its in a river. However we are in a bungalow here enjoying $1 bottles of whiskey in the bars and are already liking Laos!!!
ill try to post some pictures tomorrow see if the internet is up to that.!!!!

Meeting people

noreply@blogger.com (Merel & Richard) — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 07:17:00 +0000

As we were sitting on the beach we saw 3 people walking into the bar. They sat down and as i looked i saw they were Israelis ( as they have a flag on their bags). They wanted to order and as the Khmer's English is not fluent you have to say everything slow and clear and do NOT change your mind as you will get everything you said. But to get back to the Israelis, they ordered and wanted noodles with this without that ect. and the Khmer noted it all down neatly ,the next one wanted this without that ect. the last one wanted a burger, which he pronounced boeggarrr, he started of asking how big the boegarrr and was making hand gestures only understandable to the other Israelis as the khmer and I looked at each other wondering if he was having a stroke saying bugger or if he was trying to order something. After the other Isralelis joined in they thought that by screaming HOW BIG IS THE BOEGARRR the Khmer would understand. After showing him on the menu he got his answer and then.... well he did not learn his lesson. he started saying no schoeoeoes, the Khmer was obviously considering the stroke option agian. Now all the Israelis started to scream NO SCHOEOEOEOES , no keetshjoep, no maichoneesj NO SCHOEOEOEOES. one of them ended the discussion asking the Khmer ironically if he did not speak English. At the end they tried to pay with fake money and when the bar manager joined in they payed in dollars again saying that they where getting the wrong exchange rate even though one dollar is 4000r all over the country (expect at the royal place, see last blog).

Here at the guest house they think that if they wear a tie they can be rude to the guests as all the guys with a tie that work here have issues with serving people, a great idea to work in hospitality. then again looking at european hospitality the waiters there are also experts at avoiding seeing you hand in the air a milion times and you should not forget to say thank you when they hurl a plate towards your table.

(little note as i am sitting here the internet guy has not issues by looking at porn on his computer next to me, disturbing, however not something you would see in Europe !!)

there was one more thing i forgot and that is that when we visited the killing fields, where millions were axed, beat and shot to death. The tuk tuk driver came to us with a big smile and asked us if we wanted to go to the shooting range , for $30 i could shoot a bazooka and double it and it was possible to get a cow for target practice. Now that is an offer it i could not refuse! $60 for a life time experience!
But seriously i still can not believe the guys timing after such a place.

anyway we are in Phnom penh again and are going to kratie and on to Laos

so im logging off and now i am realy not posting another message until i get 5

P.s. i did not shoot a cow, with a bazooka

our travel plans in SE asia and all the maps of travels so far

noreply@blogger.com (Merel & Richard) — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 08:02:00 +0000

australia map ckick here
new zealand map click here
now i am still waiting for the 5 posts and there is a good story on the way however today merel is ill and we will stay in shinoukville for the day
hi to you all and goodnight!

Cambodia 2

noreply@blogger.com (Merel & Richard) — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 09:36:00 +0000

So i got the 5 messages. So here another post. After leaving the temple at Baupuon a friendly police officer tried to sell me his police badge but i decided that that might not be a good career move, so i declined. Further down the road another temple called Ta Prohm where i made the mistake to inquire about the price of a book about Pol Pot, the leader of the Khmer rouge regime in the late 70's. So we started negotiating but he did not want to drop his price. So i walked away as there were at least 800 other Khmer (Cambodians) who sold the book that would love to rip me off for less. Then he yelled a price after me of $3 (that being $2 less than my minimum offer) so i turned back and we started negotiating again, and once more he did not drop below $6. That got me a bit irritated and so i left him and bought the book later with a old Khmer, plus the lonely planet on Burma for $10.

That night we drank and ate at the guest house with a group of tourists and listened to Khmer's explain about their culture. The culture of picking up women. In europe we all know the flower trick where you pick a leaf and do the she loves me/she loves me not; well as there are more geckos here the Khmer's do as following, they count the sounds it makes. However instead of the she loves me thing they have the combo, 'she is a virgin' or 'she is a widow'. After we asked them what one was better they could not give us a clear answer but it sort of sounded like this:
The widow meant an easy pickup for a night, the virgin was hard work but a keeper. It was hard not to be amused around the local Khmers.

Next up was the long trip to Kbal Spean and Banteay Srei temples, which was a less impressive than the first day. On that trip we noticed that the dogs that lived there where street smart as they are masters at crossing the road and avoiding traffic in general. Merel was straightaway thinking of a plan to research the evolution on western pet dogs compared to Cambodian dogs.
That night i decided to treat myself to some ice cream and went on my way to get some. However 5m in front of me there where to dogs fighting so i approached them on the left side to walk past them and one of the dogs started to growl at me, so i moved to the right side and tried to walk past them there. Now i had 2 dogs growling at me, and about a bus load of Khmers laughing at me so i had 2 choices; face the dogs and get attacked, or go back and be the village loser. I chose the latter one and was now the laughing stock of about 3 bus loads of locals, but it really was their loss as i did not invest in their economy in the total value of at least $0.25. Once back Merel wondered why i was so quick so i told her that i changed my mind and decided to have a coffee at the guest house.

On merel's birthday we decided to go to the market to have some fun and we started off with breakfast at a restaurant. I had my food and drink after 20 minutes, 5 minutes later merel gets her coffee and 30 minutes later still no food. They forgot about her. so we decided to go and have a frozen margarita or better said we ordered a bucket of it. So usually you get a 2L bucket and this time we got a 2L vase. Who cares you think, well a vase is differently shaped then a bucket and so i poured Merel the first glass and no problems, however once i poured mine all the liquid was in merels glass already so nothing came out. So naturally you tilt the vase more and i ended up with a frozen margarita mountain around my glass and none left for Merel. The poor thing.
Next up was dinner with a French dentist (seriously can it get any worse) but she enjoyed it and ended up having a nice Birthday anyway.

The trip to Phnom Penh was ok. a 6 hour bus ride where the dude in front of us was pleased to eat his 20cm fried tarantula and at the toilet stop it became more fascinating. The usual routine would be all men run to a field and pee. Well this time it was all men run to a field and pee however one just dropped his pants and did his thing, neatly in line i must add whilst in a busy conversation with his co-pee-ers. I seemed to be the only one shocked.

The city is nice and we had a lot to see. We started off with the Royal palace and once there, we received the "special tourist exchange rate" as it seems to be the only place in Cambodia where they look funny when you pay in dollars. The main attraction was the silver pagoda, it should have been called "the pagoda with the silver floor tiles that are covered with carpet as the tourist walk over them and break them but you can see the tiles at one tiny corner pagoda". So that was disappointing. However the monks made up for it as one of them could not keep his eyes merels female features. There goes his karma!

That night i ordered beef on a sisling plate. Sounded good, and moments later i received a plate with raw meat and a raw egg. 5 min late still nothing else. I was worried that this was it but later the cook walked out od the kitchen with a huge pot filled with coals and it had a lid with oil and garlic and a sort of area to grill on it. So i was grilling my food and this meal is by far the best i ever had. !!!!

Next was the killing fields and Toul Sleng prison where the Khmer rouge under Pol Pot tortured and massacred 1.8 million people. This experience is un-explainable and just to see a huge tower filled with skulls gives you chills down your spine.

At the guest house we met a irish couple that planned to go to an orphanage. So we decided to join them. The tuk tuk driver explained that rice was very expensive at $35 per 50kg we decided to donate a bag. Not expecting the #@%^#$^@ driver to rip us off, and even worse rip orphans off for his own good. However it is about the gesture and the kids seemed happy about it.
After on we heard from the irish about their India trip and i was amused to hear that the indians asked her ( a nurse) in public what she was doing with a stupid guy like him (electrician) .

However the next stop is Sihanoukville on the coast to get our Vietnam and Burma visa. 563 cows 23 markets and 13 suicide missions of the bus driver we finally arrived (that is 4 hours for people that are not bored). Upon arrival we noticed that the tourist are getting ripped off on a large scale changing $6 for a tuk tuk trip (usually $1) and everything is a fixed price. Of couse all the places to stay are full and we had to pay $15 a night (usually $7) Nevertheless it is nice to be on the beach and have a chilled day. Sadly the beach is full of beggars that have lost a leg on a land mine and merel and me (not knowing the local currency) gave him 100r when he asked for more we told him to go away, afterwards i calculated that we gave him a whopping $0.025 cents. So i think our karma, actually i should just stop about the karma as to recover from this on i would have to become the dalai lama.

Here life is easy and we or should i say I am eating all day, the best thing here are the menu's where reading it is like a crossword puzzel, the have hot dongs, friend beef, blue cacacaou drinks, chippen sandwich and loads of noobles! (hot dog, fried beef, blue curacao, chicken sandwich and noodles)

last note merel's cousin is also on the move, i'll put his address on the bar under my profile and also here www.mantaray87.blogspot.com.

merels birth day number

noreply@blogger.com (Merel & Richard) — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 09:38:00 +0000

you have to call all of you. the number is 0085599411037
i hope it works if not send her a mail!

cambodia

noreply@blogger.com (Merel & Richard) — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 11:51:00 +0000

so we left Bangkok, i did buy new flipflops that almost killed me today, but more on that later.

On our last day in bangkok we went to the floating markets where, after negotiating for about 8 years we payed way too much to rent a boat for one hour. The great thing was that the boat trip that takes 2 hours was exactly the same as our trip but then you stop at every shitty tourist shop. So we were better off. The Market was nice as there was good food, but nothing too interesting in particular. However Merel was more than intrested in the 3 cats that where hanging around a cage with a squirrel in it, the big monitor lizzard that was swimming across the river and the fish feeding (they will come up with anything to scam you off.). I told the guy who was steering the boat that i wanted to eat and not look at tourist shops, apparently that was hilarious and he told all the thais that were there, who equally thought that to be hilarious. However i got my soup and we paid 2euros for tiger balm (in holland it would have been a good deal). The next was the bridge over the river quai. Where the japs (japanese for the politically correct) forced the thai to build a bridge. (wikipedia it, i can not be bothered to write the hole story). However it was a nice place to visit and after that we had some more soup and Merel got confused between a chilli and a green bean and set fire, to then again force me to try it to so the both of us were on fire. The next stop was the whole reason for our trip, the TIGER temple. We arrived there and once again payed way too much but we got to pat tigers and play with the little ones. However once the photo op. came there were 3 to 4 hundred people and all the tigers are asleep. The monks threw the tigers around and explained that the tigers are nocturnal and that is why they did not react. A man told us that when around the tigers we coud not stand on the big rocks as the tigers could leap towards you there. So at an instant all the french ran to the rocks to climb them. However back to the tigers, they just slept so i am pretty sure they are drugged or they are monks in tiger suits however we did pat a tiger. On the way to the exit a tiger suddently jumped out of the control of the keeper and leapt towards me, i threatend it with a semi profesional karate kick and he backed off. merel told me to add that it was a 6 week old tiger, however i can say that i was once atacked by a tiger BEAT THAT!

The next day was a bit ... event full. We took a bus to Aranya phratet on the Thai cambodian border. The trip was great and easy. After getting ripped off on the Fake border control for a visa (we payed $40 insted of $20) we walked to the real border where all the other people payed $35 at the real customs. Corrupt #@%$% . Needless to say we could skip the lines if we payed more but merel insisted on waiting 2 hours. In cambodia we arrived in a town called Pouiet. It was so discusting that it would be rude to your garbage to dump it there. However we wanted to go to Siem reap. And the official taxi fare there was $50 and after threats and lies we ended up paying $60 but atleast we got out of there. Poor backpackers that decided to pay $8 for a pick up had to drive 8 hour insted of 3 with 15 people in the back over roads that made the hymalayas look like a smooth trip. Luckely we arrived at 9pm and only saw one dead guy and loads of insect farms. So the trip was interesting. Our hotel here kost us $8 a night and is clean and comfortable the only downside is that there is only cold water.

This morning we went to the Angkor what temples and it is defiantely one of the most amazing things i have seen during this trip. I will fill in on more details later as we still have 2 days left here. However i stumbled onto a couple of interesting things. First of all you all know that no one realy knows what happened to Hitler, Well ill tell you he is a tourist at the Ta Prhom temple. A german guy had a hitler moustage and look i made a picture of him, but i can not believe that anyone could get away with that. Seriously is it not illegal or something? Secondly, the way tourists dress here is interesting. Back home you have those people that are trendy or those who only care about being comfortable! right you think who cares. Well On a holiday Trendy people seem to go hiking with high heals and to me that is just great amusement. But now the "comfy"people, can any one explain to me why on earth they dress down on a holiday. Ok fair enough you want to wear light easy stuff, but i have seen people walkig aroumd that if you would give them a red nose you would be damned if they where not part of a clown group. So i would like to call to all "comfy"people to leave their clown suits at home, and to trendy people to keep on bringing their 6 set armani suicase set as it is a great photo oportunity to all other tourists in the jungle.

Just to finish off on the flip flop story. When we arrived at Phnom Bakheng temple the steps where VERY steep and small, and the staircases VERY high. Merel ran to the top and i was left behind to make a picture. I hate heights and after climbing half the steps i chickened out (yes merel managed to catch it on video, bless her soul) However, when one is scared one starts to sweat. Thus ones flip flops become slippery thus balancing on 2cm of staircase at 10 meters hight, one might considers it as quite dangerous. After all the fuss i did manage to find the normal stairs to the top and still saw the temple.

As for merels B day 9 feb we are trying to get a mobile so everyone can call.

We are loving it here and i wonder what the jimmy we ever did in Australia, once you have eaten cambodian fried cucumber and beef you never want to leave this place.

PS keep on messaging; i decided that the next post will not be posted unless i have 5 or more replies. (this corruption thing is working for me!!!)

PS2 We'll post some pictures again when we find a fast internet connection, so who knows when that will be..

noreply@blogger.com (Merel & Richard) — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 04:26:00 +0000

Alright there we go! First of all i would like to mention that there is space to post messages, just a reminder.
Singapore was great. We went on a alk around touwn and had our fisrt rain in 3 months there. My flipflops (or thongs) where definately made for the australian market as they turned to slipslops when in tough with water. So i slipped and sipped across town and we fisrt stopped at the esplanade theatre Some sort of whaky dome thing that was cool to see. After visiting the museum and the chinese markets where we had eaten fried carrot cake with seafood ( i like) we went to get the best tomatoe juice and banana milkshake and went to sleep as we had to get up at 3.30 am to get a taxi to the airport.
Once we got up and went to the airoprt to pick up the luggage that we left behind we found out taht we had to be at the budget departure hall. So another taxi and we left to the budget terminal. to start at the begining, as we booked our flight online we where told that it would cost us $60 to fly to Bangkok after filling in the fisrt 40minutes of deatails we where told it was $100 extra for the taxes, After that we where told that it was a nother $30 for a seat in the plane. so we booed it all and once at the budget termainal we where told to pay another $60 for our luggage. So It was not so buget afterall. Next up was the great idearto eat some cake and have a drink before the pane left. Merel ate most of the cake and toroughly felt sick and i ordered what i tought what was apple juice. However in small letters it told me that it had aloe vera in it and jummy crunchy tasty bits. I was drinking someting that we europeans put in our hair that has an apple taste and it had crunchy bits. It tasted like the firt sip you talk out of an caron of apple juice that has been standing in the frige just a bit to long so that it went jelly. However the price we paid for that was more then rediculous and the buget termial ended up being the rediculously expensive terminal.

In thailand i got my battle mood ready to fight as jsut as we arrived at the customs a new customs office opened at the next terminal and everyone was told to go there. We where in the middle of a group of russians that all started to run. So we steped onto the flat escalator (like the ones at shiphol) we slowly waked on that and had a herd of russians running next to us on the normal floor with their high heals and gold chains ratteling. Needles to say we where there first with a herd of panting russians behind us. After talking a taxi to drop off our bags at a storage we went to the hotel and into town. Bangkok is a dirty city but it is great to be here. We decided to go the the weekend market and after visiting the animal department where they sold everything from cats to squirrels we ended up buying crap for our merel and a belt for me as merel confiscated mine to tie up het bag so i had to walk with my hands in my pockets to keep up my pants. That evening we stoped at a restaurant at the back of our hotel to have a bite. I ordered garlic beef with fresh chillis as i love spicy food. Ususally the thai make it not so spycy for the toursits but i did not mind. Atleast this is was it tought, so once i got the food i firt added more cillies and started to eat. After about 10 bites i saw all black infront of my eyes and i blacked out for a second. It was great!!!! altough i might not add the chili before a taste.
We are going to Cambodia in 2 days but first we are going to the floating market and the tiger temple to cuddle a tiger

singapore

noreply@blogger.com (Merel & Richard) — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 02:53:00 +0000

well, we are out of Australia. In the plane i decided to challenge my bad karma in a huge way, by ordering a tomato juice. I wouldn't say that Merel did not warn me, but i won, so from now on i will sigh a little cross in the air as the Christians do (don't they?) to help my karma along (does it help?) Before you all think that i have become a karma dude, and yap on about karma all day like i do now. Well you are wrong!

Singapore is nice and a great city for us to slowly evolve into the hectic Asian lifestyle. We have the good food and atmosphere, but it is still a very western city. i will write more once we had a couple of days here.
cu