Flashbacks of 8 months meeting people

The end of a new year (can you remember it was new?) is almost passing just like these almost 60.000 kilometers that I passed so quickly. And I am still on the road finding my long detour back home. Whether this home is my home-country our a new home will be told by time, but 8 months were not enough to find this place. This flat world is not small enough.

Pretty much every day I think back. I think back of my family at home who lived without me around for the last 6 years, I think back about yesterday, about last week and last month and I think back of many other beautiful, sad or difficult moment. Mainly the happy ones though!

During my travels I met many people. I made a bunch of new friends of which a few I consider as potential best friends, and perhaps my Facebook friends got almost doubled since I left.

Kinabalu, what does that mean?

Photo: Old post office filled with graffiti at Kota Kinabalu - 12/12/10

Being rich with time, I was 'overstaying' in the city of Kota Kinabalu, so I've started asking around what means the word Kinabalu, used for both the City Kota Kinabalu and the mountain Kinabalu.

The first person was a father with who I was sharing my table at the bus-station restaurant during lunch, about 1 hour before the bus to which I bought a ticket,would be leaving, bringing me to the village of Ranau.
I had a conversation with him and he asked me many questions. He kept thinking I came from New Zealand, or maybe he kept saying I came from New Zealand, because I told him I am from Holland bur he didn't understand the name nor knew the country. So I wasn't surprised if he kept saying New Zealand not to be in the situation not knowing where I am from, or having to ask questions about my county in an awkward way without naming the name of the country. So he kept asking things about New Zealand, and I kept saying I couldn't answer his question as I had never been to New Zealand, "however in my country, in Holland, ...." is how I finished my response but he kept firing new questions about this country which actually carries a Dutch name.

Beaten by the weather of Mt. Kinabalu

Photo: While ascending to 3272mtrs, ¾ of Kinabalu - 10/12/10

The breakfast in the hostel would be starting at 7.00h, so the previous night I set my alarm to 6.45am. The next day I would be climbing the highest mountain of South-East Asia; Mount Kinabalu, on Sabah, Malaysia. A few minutes past 7.30am I found myself walking along the road to get to the entrance of National Park Kinabalu, another UNESCO world heritage. My way to the park was a 1.8km curving road slightly going uphill. I noticed the grey skies and I hoped that it would remain grey, and that they would take good care of keeping the rain within.

At the park there were a few papers to sign, arrange a mandatory guide, pick-up a packed lunch, a last toilet-break and go!go!go!
It is possible to hire a personal guide, or with a group so obviously it is much cheaper to spent the cost of the guide with other people. I read that it was normal for single hikers to to join other groups or other single hikers. I walked out, and straight away I spotted two foreigners who turned out to be from Southern England. I approached and asked if I could join them and share the guide. This was ok for them, and also for the guide, so I found myself a guide, and off we could go.

Riding a wheel chair at the hospital

Photo: All wrapped up on Borneo, Malaysia - 19/12/10

Since I did not make it to the top of Mount Kinabalu, and in meanwhile I returned to Kota Kinabalu from a trip to Kuching, in Sarawak, I thought I'll give it another go, and to be more sure of reaching the top, I thought to climb to mountain in one day up, to the top, and down again. Because during the night there is a bigger chance of rainfall, and I didn't want to catch the same unluckiness as the previous time...
Earlier I was planning to go to Sandakan, as my flight to Kuala Lumpur would be leaving from Sandakan about 5 days later. Mount Kinabalu is on the way to Sandakan anyway.

So I took the bus, and after about 30 minutes on the bus I realized that I forgot my charger for the photo camera batteries! What could I do? Get off and go back? But from the bus station it is another 30 minutes and two buses to get back to the hostel....I could perhaps go to the mountain and return to the hostel afterwards or the next day. Could I ask them to send to charger perhaps?
I decided to continue to the mountain and see if it is possible to climb the next day anyway. In meantime I send a text message to Jennifer and Will who I met on the way and who I joined the visit to Kuching, asking for the phone number of the hostel so I could give a ring for them to check on the charger and take it from the room before someone would steal it.
I found out that Jennifer and Will, who where planning on flying to the Philippines, were not allowed to board their plane because it´s required to have a return flight to visit the Philippines...and they were sooo looking forward to go!

In meanwhile I reached to mountain, and I walked up the stairs to the head quarter.

But what is China?

Photo: Time for tea in laid-back Chengdu, China - 06/11/10

Perhaps there is no answer to the question what China actually is. Or maybe there are a million different answers and opinions. And just as you think you understand it, you find out that the opposite is true. Perhaps it is impossible to understand into detail, this very interesting country.

There is a lot of contradiction for example in the habits. In one way the people are very polite, but at the same time the most elegant people dressed up clear their throat at least two times with a sound that can be heard at the end of the road. And always after wards comes the spitting. Whether you are on the streets, in the bus, on the train, in a shop etc, they will spit. Even on the carpet! Though to be polite, with the toe of the shoe they rub the spit into the carpet so it won't disturb you. Even shopkeepers while customers are in the shop. It seems nothing stops them from spitting. Apart from a few 'no spitting' signs you can find in some places.

Their are many efficient inventions. Such as the trousers of little children. These trousers don't have an 'ass' so there is a big cut in the back of the trousers and when they need to go to the toilet, they only have to sit down :)
It made me laugh many times seeing these kids running around on the streets with naked butts! Even at a temperature of 5 degrees.
My second day in China, while walking through the modern and well paved shopping street, a little boy, who apparently did not have on of these trousers, stood in the middle of the street with house trousers at 'socks-level' and with his jacket and shirts pulled up completely he stood their smiling and naked doing his pee, wild turning from left to right to make sure the streets got watered everywhere :)

Exploring Nanjing in 1 day

Photo: Business and skyscrapers - Nanjing, China - 18/11/10

One day of wandering around is what I allowed myself in Nanjing where my night train brought me early early in the morning. It was still dark outside when I looked through the windows of the train onto the modern platform. Most of the Chinese clocks were about to announce 6.00am.
First trying to find the left luggage windows to leave my back, because in the afternoon the same day, a different train would be waiting for me to bring me even further north.
I got a little lost on the 3 floors counting train station as signs were not located very convenient but I managed to get my back taken care of so I was ready to take a few escalators into the ground and take the metro. From the north of the city I decided to take the metro to the south part and walk my way back up. I walked first aimlessly a little around and tried to find a good place to get a local breakfast. I found the perfect place in a side street where many local eateries where, with only locals. Many steaming pans on big fires located outside or in the entrance. My most favorite places are where their kitchen basically is located in the entrance or even outside.
I managed to order something by pointing at some noodle-slurping locals, and sat down next to them at a small wooden table outside along the street occupied with many cyclists and cycling market people or other sellers and buyers.

A pleasant walk along the lake; Hangzhou

Photo: West lake at Hangzhou, China - 11/11/10

In China it is very easy to rent bicycles, and this way of transport is promoted quite a lot to the tourists. After a good night of sleep in the hostel next to the west lake, I decided to go and rent a bike and cycle around town. It's quite a place, and most of the points of interests are spread around the city and the lake. Also I was told by some tourists that it's impossible to go around the lake in 1 day and especially by foot, since it is more than a 10k to get around.

Photo: Beautiful autumn trees - Hangzhou, China - 11/11/10

The day before while walking to the hostel on please autumn tree-lined road, I saw a few bike rental places along the streets; those places also being used by locals who own a chip card, press it against a chip card reader and one of the bicycles is being unlocked. I noticed as well that each rental place had a little information point and with a bit of luck they rent out bikes to tourists....

Mt. Huangshan in Cotton Paradise

Photo: Mountain Huangshan, China - 17/11/10

In the hostel in Shanghai I met Julien from Belgium. We got along pretty well and we both planned to climb Mountain Huangshan, a few hundred kilometers west of Shanghai. We planned to go on the Monday or Tuesday and checked for the weather forecast which gave us some disappointing information....clouds and light snow!!! Not exactly what you hope for to enjoy the wide views when climbing a mountain. Luckily on Wednesday the weather was predicted to be clear and sunny.
Since there are quite a few peaks on the top, and a long route was sat out, we planned to go in two days.
On Monday evening we took the night train K8418 leaving at 17.45 from Shanghai for which we had reserved bed in the hard-sleeper, carriage 8, bed row 9, with for me an comfortable upper-berth. There are actually price differences between the lower-, middle- and upper-berth, lower being most expensive, upper cheapest. Our expected arrival in Huangshan Shi, also know as Tunxi was early in the morning.

Indecisive Chinese train journeys

Photo: Train station of Shanghai, China - 15/11/10

A matter of being flexible in China too. While in a touristic town full with canals and many interesting views, I met an English chap, Ed, who at his turn met two Chinese tourists. The four of us spent the day walking around in the city, and the next day Ed and I where leaving for the train station. Ed taking his train back home to a town outside Shanghai, ready to go back to work teaching English, me catching another train to my next destination.
Ed, being able to speak quite some Chinese, helped me getting the train ticket, and after lunch he left to catch his train.
While I was waiting for my train, I was browsing through the lonely planet and re-reading where I was going, what I planned before. Suddenly I realized that I might not want to go to the little villages I planned to go. I didn't feel in the mood to go to these little villages, which probably are beautiful in the summer as per the lonely planet, but in the winter, well suddenly I had a very depressing image in my head with poor looking people doing hard work carrying heavy stuff etc.

Feeling numb in Chengdu

Photo: Chengdu, China - 06/11/10

Six months after my departure, I found myself on a big airbus a319 heading for the airport of Chengdu, located more or less in the middle of China. This country was among my list of countries to which I have been curious when I was a child.
China, is a whole new experience for me and it is so different than the countries where I have spent my last 6 months! To be starting with the temperature, I was nervous to not have enough clothes to protect me against the winter cold. From the moment I left home, I spent walking in 30 up to 42 degrees celcius. And now suddenly I would step into 15 degrees. Brrrrr, as at night and in the morning it will be around 4 only.
During the flight I was reading one of Paul Theroux's travel books, which I bought the day before. Coincidentally in his book he was traveling to China in 1986 ;) I thought that would be reading in style. I was reading a chapter in which he, together with a group travelers, he crossed the border by train from Mongolia into China. One of the guys from the group was screaming through the train that the border police had taken two guys for questioning as they were carrying an edition of 'the economist'.

The other corner of Europe: Istanbul

Photo: Istanbul, Turkey - 16/07/10

Once my visas for Azerbaijan and Iran were arranged I could finally really move out. I should aim in between the two compass needles of the South and the East, however at this moment I couldn't really be bothered to look at the compass (my brother gave it as a present before leaving) as I allowed my captain, flying for blu express, control the integrated compass of this airbus a320, which by the way urgently requires a re-make-over according to the latest fashion. I could send a letter with some photos to 'MTV's pimp my flight' and guaranteed Xzibit will be impressed by it's current state.
After two hours or so we reached the cloudless sky of Istanbul and the captain made the airbus touch ground safely, under the sounds of a loud applause reminding me I was accompanied with many tourist aboard.
From the airport well outside the city there were a few bus lines and I got on bus #10 bringing us to the Asian part of Istanbul city.

The three Flamencos of Spain - Part 3

Photo: La Alhambra, Granada, Spain - 15/05/10

See also:
The three Flamencos of Spain - Part 1
The three Flamencos of Spain - Part 2

It's been some time ago already, but that last flamingo was still out there waiting for me to be given shape, colors, a character and simply to be written about. While I am sitting in the train in Italia. To give you an image of my situation, it's the train from Pisa to Roma. It's 19:23h and this is a nice ride along the coast with the last sunshines warming my right cheek in this cold air conditioned coupé. I would take a photo so you could see me again wearing my blue jumper. I really dislike airco! The people who have been traveling with me are in any sense aware that I simply hate airco! Outside it's 30 to 40 degrees and you arrive somewhere inside, BAM! 15 to 20 degrees! Now that is cold after 1 week non stop in these temperatures! A t-shirt would not be sufficient. Nor shorts! Hence the blue jumper. Ah wait I am going to show you anyway!

Fresh & Washed; new life!

Photo: Napoli, Italia - 09/07/10

Somewhere along the road, I started meeting people, started spending long days in discovering places I was visiting. In our whole life we are bound to assign priorities and make choices. We prefer to do what we like to do, and in a life without or at least with hardly any responsibilities, I think people end up only doing what they like to do. And why not! I can't blame these choices. Why would you choose for things you don't like to do if you don't have to do them? Why choose for the dirty dish if you got a nice dish served at the same time? So did I make choices in how to plan my day, as far as I planned them. The largest part of my trip I did not plan what was coming up, with a result of many surprises each day again. I met people on the way, decided to join them. Make plans together where to go our just follow their ideas when they have planned their day or next destination.

Photo's Iran part 2

The faces of old Iran

The walls for characterization the country and symbolization of the book. Check out each face in this post.

Photo's of Masuleh, Iran

Ok ok, then also some photo's of Iran!

This was in the village Masuleh, build in the mountains. Fresh air and a lot of nature!
It's character is recognizable for the houses build in the foot of the mountain with a very sharp angle, so one persons from pavement is the roof of the front door neighbours.

I spent my time in Masuleh with Ainova and Oscar from Barcalona which was loads of fun! Coño! I should get some photo's tagged by them soon on Facebook. But the website is blocked in Iran :)

Two forgotten photo's from Marrakech

Yessss finally an update!
But I am afraid I have to disappoint you, since these are only two photo's from Morocco.
No new exciting stories of Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, nor Iran.

I haven't found much time, nor inspiration to write new stories, but I hope I can share some hot news soon!

But first these two photo's I forgot to put online.
The big square in Marrakech. During the day it's an 'empty' place, with guys playing the flute making their snakes stand straight, and other people selling their stuff, and ofcourse the unforgettable motorcycles and moppets.
During the night, you won't recognize the sqaure from the way during the day...it's completely transformed into one big restaurant. Only eateries, smoke, loads of different smells, and if you allow yourself, very good tastes! It is difficult to walk from one side to the other side without sitting down, as each eatery have their guy standing and waiting for you asking to sit down and have some food. You say no thank you? They didn't hear you, or pretend to and ask you again. You're already past him? No worries, there is a next guy half a meter further away asking you :)

It is, like Milko says, a Shpectacular to see the place by evening, as it's all dark, but strong lights as if you are at a building side. A lot going on, many people, and the smoke makes it's a brilliant place. If you take some time, I am sure you can take the most beautiful action shots here!

What they know about the world

Everbody must have heard some time about the people who share their
knowledge about countries and capitals in the world even when their
general knowledge is not as strong as others'. The jokes about some
people saying 'ah, France, thats the capitol of Paris!' or the
other one where they say that Amsterdam is that country in Europe
where people can smoke a joint in the coffeeshop....

I have experienced a few new ones, never heard about before. Maybe
never existed before. But first a few years back when I lived in
Manchester, England. I heard this one many times from many English
people. It is always Germany again who causes the trouble. Maybe Jason
Statham referts to the good old past when everything was ok, when the
future was still good. Maybe he referts to that in the movie Catch
saying 'before ze Germans are here'.
When the English asked me where I am from, and I replied with the
answer 'I am Dutch',

The world supporting Benfica

Two months ago when I was in Lisboa for a few days, Paulo took me to his friends to have a dinner. Me being in the middle of proper Benfica Lisboa fans, I was telling Joao about my trip around the world. He was impressed and he decided to abuse me to promote his own club! Nearly propaganda!

He gave me a scarf of Benfica and made me promisse to show that the world loves Benfica!

Enjoy the first results :)

Bull-fights in Sevilla

Photo: Bull-fights, Sevilla, Spain - 09/05/10

For the people who speak Dutch, I like to ask you to have a look at
Reishonger.nl where I wrote an article about my curious visit to a
bull-fighting game where I experienced a very mean game of killing
bulls in a harsh way which I will never support any more in any way.

Where is Fred?

Photo: In the dunes in Morocco, playing the tamtam big time!

Yes, where am I?? When was the last post?? You people must have stopped checking the blog already....no update, no update, no update.
I had a tooo great time in the desert of Morocco playing the tamtams, as you see on the photo :)

No, actually I HAVE BRILLIANT NEWS!!! Today I received my visa for Iran! Mister Ahmadinejad allows me to visit his country for up to 30 days. I better not ask for a tourism tour to one of the nuclear factories....I might end up in jail labelled as a spy!
So today I arrived back in Rome, for the third time(as you can read on the 'follow my footsteps page' which I just updated with all the places I have been). This morning my alarm rang at 5.00am, to catch the train from Rimini to Rome. I will explain later why I left so early!
So anyway, I was supposed to go first to the Embassy of Iran to pick up my passport with new visa. Yes to pick up my passport. They had to have my passport, I couldnt bring it with me. So the problem was, I could not request a visa for Azerbeijan at the same time. So I had to wait for a week for my Visa for Iran to be finished, which I picked up this morning, exactly one week later.

North Morocco; a day-trip to Spain

Almost two weeks the Moroccons have me on a visit. You start getting
used with being in Morocco. No longer the tiniest little things remind
me of being in Morocco, and the chaotic chaos starts to become normal.
Nothing will shock me anymore, and I am prepared to see the most
unexpected. The perfect example I had yesterday. Everything together.
On a simple terras in Chefchaouen belonging to a bar, I was waiting
for my night bus to arrive but I was 2 hours too early at the bus
station, so I ended at this terrase with a mint tea only as sweet as
you can get your tea in Morocco.

Magic in the dunes of Morroco

What I was looking forward to the most of coming to Morocco was a, for me unique visit to the sandy dunes in the desert of Morocco. Arriving in Marrakech I planned to travel up north via Meknes, Fez, Chefchaouen, Melilla(Spanish teritory) with destination Nador.
With the western Sahara - which actually does not belong to any country but very stubborn being claimed by Morocco - being too far to the south I had to search for different options.

The 3 Flamencos of Spain; Part 2

Having started with he biggest and most touristic Flamenco, it was time to move on to the second: Córdoba.
Happy as I can be, I bought myself a train ticket in the train station of Sevilla Santa Justa. This would be my first train trip in Spain and afyer spending the last few hours walking around in the city of Sevilla, I found myself returning to the train station. Exit Over-tourism!

The 3 Flamencos of Spain; Part 1

After leaving my dear friends in Lisboa, Paulo and Alvaro dropped me off at the train station from where I took the train to Faro, located at the south coast of Portugal. To me famous for beauty of the English golf players ;)
Once arrived at the platform of Faro station - a glance at the clock told me it already started pointing out the hours in the late afternoon - I hoped to still be able to catch a bus to Sevilla.

Photo´s online!

A little late, but finally I have managed to put some photo´s online!
Please continue to my flickr account for photo´s: milesofculture

So far you can see the photo´s from:
Gran Canaria
Tenerife
Lisboa

Gran Canaria André and I discovered:

André and I discovered something beautiful on youtube, check it out!

From Oporto to Lisboa by train

Once arrived inn Portugal at Oporto airport, I quickly grabbed my bag from the carrousel soonest it appeared, and I strabbed it to my back. Just as I looked around me to see where the exit was, I saw that I was the last one to leave the bagage area. I realised in a
complete different way what the impact is of handlugage-only travelers...with some people carrying whole suitcases aboard.

El teide; the (illegal) Spanish top

With it's 3718 meters above sea level, el Teide and Tenerife can call themselves the proud owners of the highest point of Spain.
Me being on Tenerife had to visit this previously active volcano. Since it used to spew lava around the years of 1600 and 1700, the area is covered with dry solid pieces of lava.
Near the top you can see several mountain peaks close to eachother which used to be separated volcano's such as el Teide and el Pico. This all after the whole top used to be one big crater of an incredible 16 kilometers of diameter. Still today you can see on the south side the strong borders of the old crater like a long dike all around this mountain top.

Gran Canaria: the rocky island

Last Monday I made my way to the Hague and Utrecht for a last visit to my friends before leaving for the big trip. I left the Hague with a happy belly full of sushi! Dennis and Rianne took me to a Sushi restaurant: all you can eat in 4 rounds and a real surprise desert! For this surprise desert we could choose from three different flavors of ice so it turned out not to be a surprise at all and we greatly had to laugh about it. Also the waiter had to laugh about the joke. Later, with an other waiter serving our ´surprise desert´ we again had to laugh seeing the small cones with one coupe of ice-cream. We asked the waiter - not being aware of our jokes - with a sarcastic surprised tone of voice ´hey, we asked for the surprise ice-cream! So the guy serving us made a face ´ah of course! how stupid that I forgot´, and he pulled away our three cones of colorful ice-cream, turned his right arm with the ice behind his back, took the colorful coupes with his left arm from behind again and wide smiling he said ´Tadaaaa!!!´. With many after-laughs we enjoyed our Surpricecream.

Crossing the Mediterranean sea

Yet, I have never made my way to Africa, but soon you can find my footprints also in the deserts of Morocco. Morocco is a complete different destination than all the other trips I have made so far.
Two years ago, my curiosity for Morocco started growing. This country started climbing higher in my list of places where I want to go. Last year in November, it made a huge jump forward on this list when I received an email from Paulo, a friend from Manchester who travelled with his girlfriend to Morocco. What I really like about his trips is that afterwards he always writes his friends a very long email with all his travel stories, including tons of photo's! His experience and the beautiful photo's made my curiosity for Morocco grow even bigger.

Today I have booked two more flights. Flight #1 from Madrid to Marrakech. Flight #2 from Nador to Barcelona. Nador is a city in the north east of Morocco, while

Tenerife & Porto

A ferry of the company Naviera Armas will asure my connection between the harbor of Las Palmas and Tenerife. Tenerife is the proud owner of the vulcano El Teide. With it's height of 3718 meters, is El Teide the highest mountain of Spain which I will definitely pay a visit for a good days hiking.

After a visit to the Piramides of Güímar, and a few more days of sightseeing, I will find myself heading for the airport. Today I made myself to lucky owner of a cheap Ryanair flight to Porto, the largest city in the north of Portugal. Porto is very famous for the Port wine which is widely made in this district.
This will be my second visit to Porto, before I catch the train to Lisboa for tiles-spotting on the beautifully decorated walls of Lisboa!

Photo: Szeke, Flickr

First flight booked

Gran Canaria!! The Spanish islands are my first destination.

I have decided to go to Gran Canaria first, to visit Marta & Andre, friends I met in Manchester. I am glad they are happy with my decision as you see on the photo. This morning I booked the flight to Las Palmas for a fairly good price. Flights to Gran Canaria, with it's warm temperature all year round, tend to be sold quickly so I grabbed the chance straight away.

This is the first step in my trip so I have a date to start my trip around the world: the 27th of April.
I am still puzzling around with the directions in Europe because not all the connections fit in well. From Gibraltar and Morocco, from where I was planning to fly to Gran Canaria, there are no direct or cheap flights so a small change in the route made my first destination confirmed and booked this morning.

From Gran Canaria I am not sure yet where to go next. André might join me to for a short trip in north west Africa, before I head off to Spain, France and Italy. And after Italy? Who knows....Will I go to the hot and

Visiting each country in Europe

To visit each country in Europe, that is my target I have since 2006.

Thanks to the many low-fare airlines, I have managed to visit 60% of Europe already. Mainly via city trips or backpacking during summer holidays.
Only 40% to go! I hope to have visited pretty much all countries after my trip.

Click on the map for a detailed view

Planning the route

In google maps I have created a map, indicating all the places I like to visit.
I am still working on the map, so soon more places in Amercas and Africa too!


Leave a comment if you think I should visit a place not indicated on the map!