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India

The Silent Retreat

I took the train from New Delhi to Rishikesh at 5 o’clock in the morning. Rishikesh is situated along the holy river Ganges, about 200 kilometers northeast of Delhi sitting at an elevation of 330 meters, it is considered the doorway to the Himalayas. The Rishikesh area is considered to be sacred as it is believed that meditation at this place leads to the attainment of salvation. There are many temples, some ancient, some new in the Rishikesh area. And for the record Rishikesh is also the place where the Beatles wrote their “White Album”.

I was going to stay in an Ashram to do a 7 day silent retreat, meaning no talking for 7 days. A guy from the Ashram picked me up at the station. When I got off the train I saw someone standing with my name on a plate. You see this on many train stations and airports. It’s quite normal, but to suddenly see your name on a plate between dozens of unknown Indians after an exhausting train ride is still somewhat awkward. Haha. We drove on a bridge across the Ganges river, which Indians call the Ganga, and arrived at this beautiful Ashram. The Ashram looked like the way people depict paradise in images. It had a collection of cottages, surrounded by a perfectly maintained pittoresque garden with a view on the mountains. Wow! I stayed in cottage number 10, in the midst of the premises. The cottage had a kitchen, a bathroom and two bedrooms. The wall was made out of red stones, which gave it a monastery feel. I thought I had the cottage to myself, but I was not alone. I was kept company by ants, crickets and other small unrecognizable creatures on the floor. The walls where full of jumping spiders and I even had a permanent roommate underneath the sink closet, the gecko! He sometimes appeared quickly from under the sink closet to sunbath for a few minutes next to the window.

The Ashram was established by a famous Swami. And what makes this Ashram stand out, is that they mix spirituality with science. Coincidental the Ashram also had a link with Surinam. The swami had lived there for years. And the Indian people in Surinam brought the Himalaya yoga, as it is called, to the Netherlands. Funny! So when they heard that my roots where in Surinam everyone got excited.

I was welcomed by the head of education. Before I could do the silent I had to follow a three day course about yoga, meditation, diaphragmatic breathing and more. He asked me my name. “Frans”, I said. He didn’t understand how to pronounce it. I told him “It’s easy, just like the country, France.” “Ooooh, now I understand. France!!”, he said. He explained me about the Ashram. I had to follow a strict daily program which consisted of morning prayer at 5 o’ clock, Joints & Glands Exercises from 5:15 to 7:00, Breathing practices from 7:00 to 7:30, Meditation from 7:30 to 8:30, Breakfast from 8:40 to 9:30 etc. etc. the program ended at 9 o’ clock in the evening. Like.. wow!! He recommended a good book to read before my silent. As if I had enough spare time with this program Haha. I could borrow the book from his library. He would write my name down, so he would remember who had the book. And then I seriously saw him writing down my name as “Spain”. Lol!! Hahaha I told him it was the other country Hahaha.

The next day we started with the morning prayers and after that we did the Joints & Glands exercises workout. The teacher spontaneously improvised by starting with a fast paced walk through the area. We followed and all giggled because it must have looked really silly, but on the other hand walking like that through this magnificent place full of lovely nature, singing birds and a view on the mountains while the sun is slowly rising also feels special. I loved the hatha yoga classes in the afternoon. During the hatha yoga classes I also found out how stiff I was hahaha. I just couldn’t get the lotus position right. During the evening meditation we sat in that pose for one hour. I needed two extra rolled up blankets for support hahaha.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner were consumed at fixed hours in the dining hall. The food was completely vegetarian. Not even chicken or fish. Ah well.. you get used to it. One day we heard someone running over the plastic, corrugated roof of the dining halls’ outbuilding, which made a real loud noise. Everyone stopped eating and stared. Who was that!!!? We found out it was a large Macaque. Wow! The culture shock keeps continuing ;-) Hahaha.

I met with the swami who would be my mentor during the silent. He told me that as a newbee I could do a maximum of three days silent. I was shocked! I told him that I had planned to do a seven day silent. He laughed. “Most beginners crack in to tears after two days”, he said “but ok… let’s first start with three and then see if you can handle more.” People who know me, know that telling Frans he is not able to do something is the best way to make me really want to do that something. I said: “Ok” However… I thought: “I’m definitely doing the seven days!!!” Hahaha. We talked a bit about the silent retreat. He told me I should have as less distraction as possible. This meant keeping reading and writing to a minimum. Keeping a small log and reading for an hour a day is ok, but no more than that. And also if I really needed to communicate with him during the silent, I could do so by paper. Also I didn’t have to follow the strict program when in silent #luckyme. I saw some people in silent walking around in a white Khadi, so I asked him about the dress code during my silent. He gave me the best answer possible: “Just be your self. Come as you are” We agreed that my silent would start at 6:30 the next morning.

The day before my silent it was a full moon and it felt kind of special.

The first day went well, pretty easy even. I only had to suppress some sounds  one makes out of a habit. I followed the hatha yoga classes and attended the evening meditation and sat alone in my cottage for hours. Just me and my thoughts, knowing the next 7 days I wasn’t going to communicate with anyone. Also the prediction of a nervous breakdown on day two or three was hanging above my head, but I was determined!

The second day I was prepared for any surprise. I’ve been told a crying fit could emerge out of nothing, but when the Swami saw me that day at the dining hall, he walked up to me. “I can already see you are strong enough. Go for the seven days! I will be out of town and will be back the day you are finished” I’m not sure if he told me to go for the full length because he saw that I showed no signs of breaking down or because it came in handy for him and his agenda. Lol! Hahaha. Either way I was going for it!

Eventually the surprise came… but not in the form of a crying fit. The toilet tap in my bathroom sprung causing a little flood in the bathroom. I was like.. Really!? Now!? I kept calm and managed to shut down the main tap. After a few hours I could open the main tap again and everything was back to normal. Luckily! That night a incessantly stream of birds were flying over from the Himalaya’s. It must have been thousands of birds, because it took for ages and it was real special and calming to look at.

I was getting used to not talking. I did my daily yoga, having a tea with milk and sugar prior to it, eat three times a day, did some contemplative walking, meditation and returned to my cottage. I started paying attention to my room mates ;-). The ants were my flour cleaners. I saw them moving a piece of peanut, I accidently dropped on the floor, all the way to their shelter. Me and the gecko beneath the kitchen sink, became friends Hahaha. I stopped chasing him, instead just let ‘m get his sunshine now and then. He would go after the flying spiders on the wall for me. A cat showed up at the porch of my cottage. I gave it some food. It kept showing up almost each evening.

The cottage had a peaceful feel to it. Also at night. It is quite an experience, alone with your thoughts and no one to share them with. The thoughts keep on flowing. Long forgotten memories show up.

After a few days I was really at peace. My mind was empty. I lived in the now. It felt like a vacation in a vacation. This sounds crazy, but during this trip I have constantly been busy arranging flights, hostels, laundry, sight seeing, getting to know the next city, meet new people, exchange new currency etc. most of it really fun, but still exhausting at times. Now I just did… well… nothing. I only had to make sure to sleep, eat and drink, do the laundry and follow some classes. But it wasn’t all a bed of roses. I also felt real homesick at times and after all these days of vegetarian food I was craving for a medium tenderloin steak soooo bad!! (I told no one, because they would kill me, especially in the land of the holey cow!). But still… these were just relatively minor inconveniences.

Every night there was something going on, on the banks of the Ganges. Chanting, drums, people. I could hear it in the distance, while lying in my bed, but I could not go there because I was in silent and mostly it was for local people. One day I did however went for a long walk of a few kilometers to the befriended Ashram. It was really relaxing. Only when a guy on a scooter started talking to me it took some time for him to realize I was in silent. He first thought I had some hearing problems. Awkward situation!

The seven days went by fairly quickly. I learned a lot during the silent and I would advice everyone to do it. I only sinned one time, when I couldn’t catch any sleep and then suddenly a mosquito started to zoom in my ear. I cursed at the mosquito, whispering, but not even finishing the word. That was the only sound I had made during those seven days. No nervous breakdowns, no crying fits… guess I’m pretty balanced emotionally :-) Hahaha.

India

Back to Delhi

They say the India experience is not complete without some proper effect of the food on your stool if you know what I mean ;-). It took a while, but eventually also I was not resistant against the dark corners of Indian food. I experienced the most horrible Indian toilet that will stay permanently on my mind. It was a toilet on the road back to New Delhi. I asked the driver to stop, because I really needed to go to the toilet for a number two. He stopped at a restaurant alongside the road. I rushed to the toilet with a roll of toilet paper. I opened the door and saw a hole in the ground on one side. Flies swarmed around the hole. On the other side a saw a familiar western toilet, but is was filled to the nock with… well… doodoo! Like iiiieeeeeuuuuww!!!! I felt like neo in the matrix. Will I take the blue or the red pil? But in this case they both lead down a bad path. Hahaha. I don’t remember anymore how I did it, but I managed.

We arrived in New Delhi with our driver and had to pay him. Prior to the trip we agreed on 20 Rps a kilometer and 200 Rps for each night. We did 750 kilometer and we also stayed some extra nights without travelling. So this meant 750 x 20 Rps for the driving and 200 Rps per night. Easy calculation! Suddenly there was a minimum fee of 150 kilometers a day. So this meant that if you don’t use the car for a few days, which we did, you still have to pay this minimum, which meant paying 3000 Rps a day for not using a car. Sounded strange to us and we were not told this. Another scam? Not again!! Hahaha. We ended up arguing with the driver, his manager and the whole tourist bureau. Eventually after argueing for ages, we met each other halfway, but the good vibes between us and the driver were completely gone. But hey, thats India! Haha.

One custom of Indian men I can’t leave out is the clearance of their throat and nostrals all the time. They seem to spit a lot and don’t hesitate to make a loud sound, while doing it. I say to each his own, but please dont do it 2 seconds after you hand over my delicious, slimey, green curry. Hahaha I had this at a restaurant, you must have a real strong appetite to eat after that.

In New Delhi we visited the Lotus Temple. A Bahá’í House of Worship notable for its flowerlike shape. If you look it up on a map, you can see that even the garden is built in the form of a lotus flower. To get there you have to take of your shoes and walk barefoot on a carpeted stairs, all the way up to the temple. But the smell that was coming from this carpet was horrific!! Hahaha. Imagine thousands of different, indian smelly feet, multiplied with the days of the year and the fact that I’m sure this carpet is never washed you get my grip on what your nose has to go to. Hahaha. But it was more then worth it! When you enter the temple it silences you! A real special experience!

Finally we decided to visit the Gandhi memorial, which is the place where he was assasinated. We asked a new driver to take us to the Gandhi memorial. Strangely enough he didn’t know exactly where it was, but then we saw the signs along the road saying Ghandi Memorial. We followed the signs, got out and followed alongside the crowd in to the building. But inside the building we only saw pictures of an Indian woman, with a lot of history about her, but no signs of Ghandi. Soon we found out that there is also an Indira Gandhi, the first female prime minister who has also been assasinated and also has a memorial. Wrong memorial, but still special. Wow!

We got to the Mahatma Gandhi memorial, which was just a few minutes driving. It was impressive, but strangely enough less crowded. You could see his room where he spent the last minutes and on the floor they layed out his footsteps of his last route. You can follow these footsteps from this room all the way to the garden where they suddenly stop.. on the place where he was assassinated. If that doesn’t bring shivers through your spine, you need to check your nerve system. Greatness!

I had some trouble getting a train ticket for Rishikesh. All the trains were fully booked. I had only one chance to score a ticket and that was by going to the train station in person and go to the foreigner desk. They always save some seats for way too optimistic foreigners who think they can book their Indian train ticket three days in advance. Lol! The hotel staff warned me about scams, so I was prepared. They explained us the exact location of the foreigner desk. “Entrance, first floor on your left”. And luckily they did, because more than once, guys offered us to show us the way to the foreigner desk and tricking us in to going in to their own desk and buy tickets with them which are way more expensive and even false. One guy really topped it off. He tried to convince us that the tourist office moved outside of the train station a while ago. It moved to a white building at the other end of the street. He was more than happy to take us there. Yeah.. and I have crazy written on my forehead. Hahaha. I got the tickets at the real foreigner desk. Jeeja!!

My companion for two weeks was going to leave. I am on my own again. Heading for my silence retreat in the Ashram…

India

The Golden Triangle

We decided to do the Golden Triangle. The Golden Triangle is a route that consists of three remarkable cities in North India. New Delhi, our starting point, Agra, famous for the Taj Mahal and Jaipur, the Pink city. We had a private driver who accompanied us all those days and drove us to all the spots. I thought it was way to decadent, but soon found out that it is just common practice here in India. Our driver was a mild man in his 50’s with the physique of a teenager. Of course contrary to what the tourist agency told us, his english was as good as my french. And believe me, my french is not good, despite what my name would suggest Hahaha And more so, we could have also learned some Hindi before getting here ;-) LOL! Our communication stretched no further than: “next location,” “pickup time tomorrow” and “how he slept yesterday”, but it was enough and you don’t only need words to communicate. However, the situation became quite strange when we arrived in Agra and he suddenly told us to put the sunscreens on the windows to make us less visible from outside and then tried to explain us that we should tell the police he is a friend, not a taxi driver, if they stopped us. It took us five minutes to understand. Normally it would raise a serious eyebrow, but we already went through so much, this didn’t seem strange anymore. Luckily however we weren’t stopped by the police.

In Agra we went to the Taj Mahal. We were accompanied by a guide, who spoke English fluently and knew a lot about the history. After this I would never visit a great work of art without a guide!! I fell in love with the Taj Mahal. I have seen it on pictures many times, but when it suddenly appears in your sight, while you are walking to it and having some small talk with the guide, the whole conversation falls still. He explained us that it was build with translucent marble giving it it’s shining glow. Especially with full moon. The flowers which seem to be painted around the entrance are actually inlay stones from Iran, Zimbabwe and other countries. This inlay craft, was only mastered by a few. Untill this day, the descendants of these craftsmen, still use the same technique. And one of the red stone types they use in this inlay, lights up when light shines on it. It was magical when the guide showed us this when we went inside. It was dark and when he moved his flashlight over the inlay stone flowers, only the red flowers lit up. Mythical!

The story of the Taj Mahal is that of love. An emperor building it out of love for his wife. Who doesn’t know it? But I didn’t know that the emperor made sure the hands of the architects and other specialists who designed the Taj Mahal where chopped of, so they could never design something as beautiful again. He later on, also wanted to build a black Taj Mahal opposite to the white one, to symbolize his pain, grieving the loss of his wife. His son, thinking his father went crazy spending too much money on his crazy plan, imprisoned him in a palace with a view on the Taj Mahal. We went to the site where the prison was. They call it “The Land of Nowhere”, because no one can escape from there. From within you could see the watch towers left and right. The fort was surrounded by a garden which used to be full of wild animals including tigers. The garden was surrounded by water which was filled with crocodiles. Nowadays the watch towers are unmanned, the garden and the pond are arid and dry, but if you try to imagine how it must have looked like, it is a crazy sight. In Agra I also developed a deep respect for carpet makers. We went to a workshop where they make handcraft carpets. The owner explained us the craft. Each point you see on the carpet is soleley notted by the carpet maker. Imagine me filling a computer image pixel by pixel. After that the carpet undergoes a whole process of brushing and finalization to make the colors come out even more. He even helt a fire to the back of the carpet to show us it doesn’t catch fire. These carpets are really indestructible and will keep their quality for decades. Impressive!!

The next day we went to Jaipur, which is called the Pink city. And when we arrived we understood why. A part of town is completely in pink. It is even been said that you have to pay taxes if you don’t paint your house pink. There is a good incentive for ya ;-) Hahaha Lol! Before we entered Jaipur we stopped at Patepur Sekdi. We were jumped by kids who tried to sell us things. During our stay in India we came across a lot of guys trying to sell us things, but these guys where nearly ten and stunningly battered “Hello sir, where you from?” “Oh, Holland? Nice country. I know Amsterdam. I got a friend in Amsterdam.” “Look in to my eyes sir… Look in to my eyes! You see these eyes? Remember these eyes. Remember this face. When you come back sir, buy something from me, promised? Promised!?” I must admit I was intimidated Hahaha. Imagine these guys at their twenties. They would sell you icecream in the winter. I didn’t make a promise however, but couldn’t resist to buy a small thing when I came back. We entered the Patepur Sekdi. I had to wear a cloth around my waste, because you are not allowed to wear short pants above knee level. And like everywhere in India you had to take off your shoes. Walking on the hot stones, barefoot we came to find out that we were walking amongst ancient grave tombes. It felt a bit macabre walking with your bare feet, between tombes with decayed mummified people. We even attended a ceremony.

After that we arrived in Jaipur, where we first went to the Amber Palace where they sacrifice a goat each day at 5 o’clock sharp. The painted flowers on the walls are more that 500 years old and still intact. It is vegetable paint, each color made of a certain plant, vegetable or fruit. Amazing! At the exit of the palace there was an Indian guy with a flute and a basket from which a hypnotized cobra emerged. How stereo type can you go Hahaha. It was a real cobra. The man invited me to touch it. I freaking did! And I’m still alive. ;-) Haha. After that we went to the City palace where the royal family resides. This palace has the greatest silver jar in the world. It is even recorded in the Guinness World Record book. Within the palace is the Jantar Mantar, an Astronomical instruments and obervatory. The instrumensts all still work. The guide explained us how we could read the time from one of the instruments. I checked it on my watch and the instrument was totally accurate. Wow!! We concluded our stay in Jaipur with the Jal Mahal, a palace located in the middle of the Man Sagar Lake.

Oh and how can I forget to tell you about the best sales man I have ever seen. We were in a shop that sold blankets and shawls. He looked like the Indian version of Ricky Gervais, with an obviously fake toupee. We were negotiating a price for the things we bought. When we told ‘m our offer he put the back of his hand to his forehead like he was playing a strucked man in a classical play of Odysseus. Then he got himself together. Looking at the floor, sighed, rubbed away a fake tear with his hand and then with a sad voice, he continued: Ok, because my heart is really with you, I will make you a special, once in a lifetime offer only. Like a magician introducing his assistent, he raised his left hand and ordered one of the boys behind the desk to bring him his instrument. His calculator. He typed the magical numbers. Sighed again and slowly turned the calculator towards us, showing us his offer like he had just signed for his own death. Of course we didn’t fell for this show, but decided to cut him some slack because of the outstanding performance. Hahaha Lol!

That night when we were in the hotel we heard loud music and fireworks. The sounds were getting louder and louder. We went outside to find out that a wedding ceremony was going on. A parade of happy, dancing people, musicians, drums, horses, fireworks, colored powder..  a complete spectacle! Nice to experience!

We decided to stay a bit longer and added another city to our trip. Sariska. Home of the infamous Tiger Reserve. We arrived at our hotel, which was situated in a really nice garden with swiming pool and green birds. An oase after all the crowdyness. We took a day off from all the activities and just layed alongside the pool, relaxing and reading a book. The internet wasn’t working and I couldn’t resist to fix it. #nerdalert ;-) Hahaha. That day it suddenly started to rain after all those days of blistering heat. We found toads beside our hotel room, which resided in a yard. The hotel had a pretty good restaurant and I was hooked to their pancakes. We ordered 5 portions at a time. The waiters looked at us like, what’s wrong with these guys!? Hahaha. The restaurant walls were filled with gecko’s… real ones! Despite that we ate there everyday. At one day however the waiters got in a little argument with each other. We didn’t know what it was about, because they screamed at each other in Hindi. Suddenly they started attacking each other, ended up in a fist fight and grasping. After a few seconds the peace returned. Our eyes were still big, like what just happened!!?, when one of them turned up at our table, still out of breath, taking our order: “Can I help you sir?” I asked him: “Are you ok!?” He replied with the typical Indian nod and took our order. Wow!

We somehow got this bad idea to leave our moustache. I don’t really have an explanation. Don’t really ask, just take notice Lol!! Hahaha

On my way from our room to the restaurant I was constantly attacked by a big, white dog who belonged to a family that was staying in a room next to the restaurant. I’m not really afraid of dogs, but when this large fellow comes running up to you from a distance barking loudley you can’t help to jump up. Hahaha. And he only did it with me. The bad thing was that the best internet reception was in the restaurant, so I had to be there often. Sometimes at night he was asleep, I could see him from a distance, and I tried to walk silently. But as soon as I almost got to the door of the restaurant he snuck up from behind with a large sprint and a loud bark and I jumped up again. And I hear his boss say the typical: “He likes you and just wants to play” Like really!!??

We went to the Tiger reserve, which claims to have 9 tigers and 15 leopards?? On our way a large group of monkeys blocked the road for a while. Like I told you before, they are everywhere. We entered the park with a jeep and already within 10 minutes we saw a tiger. The jeep had no protection, but the guide explained us that this wasn’t necessary because the tiger sees the jeep and the people in it as one large animal. Too large for it to attack. We stunningly took pictures. Strangly enough, even the guide took pictures, like he doesn’t see a tiger as often also. But what’s that there on the picture? A collar? Hmm, maybe the tiger wasn’t as wild as we thought. Hahaha

Before we left I wanted to take a picture with a monkey that was sitting on a little wall. I got close.. and closer… Sander took a picture. I moved even closer.. and closer…. suddenly the monkey tried to attack me. I jumped back and almost stumbled. These guys are not to mess with Hahaha.

The next day we would head back to New Delhi for the final part of the Triangle. Off we go!

India

The Culture Shock

Out of all countries I visited untill now, India gave me the greatest culture shock. It is so complex, so diverse and really different from anything else I have seen untill now. First of all, it was hot, really hot. Between 40 and 45 degrees. It was dry season. Yellow green rickshaws trying to find their way through the heavy traffic. And in India unlike in the west they honk, just to notice other drivers of their presence. So you constantly here honks everywhere. Because of this they even introduced silence zones in some parts of the city, where it is prohibited to honk. Like wow! Apart from a rickshaw here and there, we did most local transportation by taxi. And don’t be surprised when suddenly through all this traffic you see a large, imposing, creature, slowly passing by. An elephant! And then a few meters down the way a camel. Indian music bumping out of the taxis’ shrill sounding speakers. The driver suddenly stops and tries to manoeuvre around a cow that is just standing in the middle of the road causing traffic, because of course they are holey creatures here in India. Even the Mc Donalds in India only serves Mc Chicken and Mc Fish filet. No burgers! Hahaha. Really! I found out when I tried to order and didn’t see any burger on the menu. Sitting in the taxi it is also a wonder we never had an accident. One driver was even ghost riding on a part of the high way in the evening, while we were sitting in the back looking at each other, like, is this really happening?

One time we were driving behind a truck with three black oxes, all squashed together. One was laying on it’s knees gasping for air, while he was squashed down by the other two and was slowly dying. It was a horrible sight. The taxi driver simply told us, that these where not holey creatures, because they were no cows and they mostly die during transportation. I’m no animal activist, but this is terrible! Like… wow!!

The city is very dusty and full of smog. So bad that when you make a picture at night using flash, you see the particles light up on your picture. The streetscape is full of people. Every where people. All sorts of people. All busy with something. Selling things in their shops, driving, walking, spitting, running, yelling and even shaving.. yeah you can get a fresh cut, just on the street, bicycles with dozens of boxes stacked on them, a woman driving a motor on the highway with a baby in her one hand and driving with the other. Wow! Unfortunately the streets are filled with a lot of poverty as well. It is not uncommon to see someone suffering from polio walk by with floppy limbs or elephantiasis (elephant’s leg), a lot of dirt and waste on the streets, even people who made homes out of this waste material, more animals, hogs, donkeys and a lot… I mean a lot of monkeys. And then there is the smell. A warm, thick, deep, sour smell that sometimes suddenly grasps your nose. At times this is mixed and made bearable by the smell of burning compost or incense.

Seeing all this things really make you feel greatful for our situation back home. It also makes you realize how unfairly devided the world is. At the same time this is only the first curtain of India you see. If you dare to look behind the curtain there is also a lot of beauty, splendor, history and magnificence to the country where all religions coincide! India! The word alone carries so much weight. The slogan “Incredible India” is really applicable, but then in the good and the bad way. India is incredible and unbelievable at the same time. In dutch we only have one word for these two words… “Ongeloofelijk!”

India

The Wrong Indian Chain

I arrived in New Delhi in the evening. Sander, a friend, who was going to join me for two weeks on my journey in India, would arrive at night. My plan was to check in at the hotel, where we already made a reservation, and pick him up later with a taxi. I took a trustworthy airport taxi, with a fixed price. After 10 minutes of driving, the taxi driver asked again for the address. I showed him my paper with the address on it. Suddenly he didn’t know where the address was, it seemed to be an incomplete address. He offered to call the Hotel for me to ask for directions. After a short Indian conversation he hung up saying the hotel was closed, all the bookings were cancelled because it was election time and of course he knew just the perfect Hotel for me. All my alarm bells started ringing!! I had heard about this scam already and wasn’t going to fall for it. I knew they where just trying to lure me to another hotel where they get some kind of commission. After I refused to go to the other hotel he offered to drop me off at the New Delhi Tourist information. My plan was to get a normal taxi there and get to my hotel. However at the Tourist information they told me te same story. I insisted to call the hotel myself, dialing the number my self. Only after I spoke to someone from the hotel confirming the story, I believed it. I went to their recommended hotel. Later on I picked up Sander from the airport with a taxi that was arranged by the Tourist information and everything seemed well. It was a bit strange however, that each time we tried to leave the hotel someone linked to the Tourist information was waiting at our service for us to guide us, drive us etc. We noticed every time we left, they informed the Tourist information and slowed us down with chit chat until someone from the Tourist information arrived. I listened to my gut-feeling and decided to send an email to our initial hotel, just for some extra double checking.

The next morning I got a mail back that they where open 365 days a week and that we were mislead by the taxi driver. Wow! We immediately decided to book a new hotel and get the hell out of this complot. However, things got ugly when we really wanted to get out. All sorts of people trying to get us back to the maffia Tourist information. When I wanted to check out we were offered a discount if we would go to the Tourist information and get a coupon. I thanked for the offer and said that I don’t want the discount. Then suddenly I could not pay at the hotel desk, only pay at the Tourist information. When I refused, the guy called the manager of the Tourist information and handed me the phone to talk to him. I explained I just wanted to pay at the hotel and didn’t need any discount. When the price of the hotel was suddenly increased by 1000 Rupies and he would only speak to the white guy, meaning my friend, I started to loose my temper. Like seriously!!!?? I stopped all communication, went back to the room, we booked the new hotel which would pick us up from there and took a chance by putting the initial agreed amount of cash on the desk of the reception and just walk out. Luckily no one tried to stop us. Guess we were convincing ;-) Hahaha I skyped the newly booked hotel with my iPad, still using the wifi of the old hotel Haha. A few moments later a taxi arrived to bring us to the new hotel. Completely paranoid, we didn’t trust it and asked if he knew the name of the hotel we where going to. He didn’t! Seemed our paranoia wasn’t misplaced. He was also in the complot and part of the Tourist information maffia. Finally our real taxi arrived and we got in to this over the top 5 star, swimming pool, spa, resort behind gates. Hahaha. We thought we deserved it! ;-) I later found out that we were in a wrong chain. A chain is a network of taxi drivers, hotels and tourist booking agencies that all work together. They try to lure fresh, new tourist meat in to there chain as soon as they get of the plane. There are some good chains though, we were just unlucky to start of in a bad one. And this is just the short version. Hahaha

Japan

Kyoto, Nara and back to Tokyo

After Tokyo I took the Shinkansen, the super fast bullet train, to Kyoto. It goes every 10 minutes. Kyoto is more relaxed, traditional and historic than Tokyo and it is famous for it’s shrines, temples and castles. Here people more so wear traditional costumes, you can see geisha’s walking the street and I even saw a man with a hog on a leash.

The first night I stayed in a Ryokan, a traditional Japanes inn that originated in the Edo period (1603 – 1868). The tatami-matted room even had a private tea set. I had to wear a yakuta (a japanes garment) and sleep on a futon bed with a buckwheat pillow. It had a real traditional feel to it, if you forgot about the airco and the flatscreen tv the Ryokans nowaday have ;-) Hahaha

I was adviced to just rent a bike and visit the beautiful temples and shrines. They didn’t advice me to visit the far away Bamboo grove by bike. And guess what I did? Hahaha. It was afternoon and I had untill five o clock. I had a map and on the map it didn’t look that far. I was wrong. I ended up cycling for two hours or so and still didn’t reach it. People I asked a long the way, people where shocked when I told ‘m where I wanted to go. It was really far. Strangely enough none of them offered to walk me there this time ;-) It was almost a quarter past four. And I still had to cycle for about half an hour. I passed a train station and decided to do the last part by train. It was only two stops.

The Bamboo grove was beautiful!! It was worth every minute of cycling and the two stops by train!

The next day however I decided to do a lot of temples and castles by bus. Lazy tourist style! Hahaha. Each templeI was more beautiful than the other. I went to see the Kinkaku-ji Temple also nick-named the Golden pavillion, The Nijo Castle and Ginkaku-ji, the Silver pavilion. The Silver pavillion obviously had the most beautiful garden. But none of these could stand against the Ryoan-ji Zen Garden. I saw this one on television back in Holland on the program called “Erica op reis”. This was my main trigger to visit Japan. The garden doesn’t include flowers or water, but only white gravel and a few rocks. It is said that no matter from which angle you look at the garden, it is not possible to see all the stones at once. I sat there for ages, mesmerized by the beauty. Amazing!

On my way to one of the shrines I met this Japanese guy who wanted to start a conversation, but his english was as bad as my Japanese is. After some failed attempts of communication he raised his finger, like he wanted to say: “Wait, I have an idea!” He took his iPhone out of his pocket and opened an app and started to talk a Japanese sentence in to his phone. He then held the phone next to my ear for me to listen. The phone said in a robotic voice: “Do you like Japan?” He then gave the phone to me and I understood that I had to answer in to the phone. I held the phone to my mouth and replied: “Yes, I like it very much. It is a beautiful country.” He took the phone, looked at the screen. It didn’t work. Again he gave the phone to me and I repeated my answer. This time it worked. A robot voice, speaking the Japanes translation of what I just said. The app was named Naritra and we communicated through it all along the way. Genious!! This is the future!

I also attended a traditional tea ceremony. We were introduced in to the art and history of the tea ceremony then the woman performed the tea ceremony, which was a range of delicate actions. Taking a spoon, putting the spoon back, taking some tea, mixing it with water, cleaning the spoon, putting the water back etc. etc. I had walked all day and was a bit tired, so this was really relaxing, almost meditating to look at. Later on we learned that every action has a meaning. For example before you drink your tea, you look at the cup. This is to admire the artwork on the cup. Then you turn the cup 180 degrees, so the artwork faces away from you. This is not to besmirch the artwork with your lips and to let the other people in the room also admire the artwork on your cup. After you finished drinking you again turn the cup 180 degrees, so you can admire the artwork again. Each and every action has a meaning like this. The ceremony took about half an hour. After she finished we had a cup of green tea. She explained that this was only the short, basic version. Normally a ceremony takes like three hours. Three hours for a cup of tea… really!? It is beautiful and I like the symbolism around it, but I don’t know if I could wait three hours for a cup of green tea. Hahaha The tea was delicious however! In the beginning she explained that one of the principles of the ceremony is tranquility. Later on she explained that one cup of green tea holds more caffeine than a cup of coffee. I couldn’t help but asking how these two work together, because it sounded a bit contradictory. She answered: “We are good at surpressing our feelings, it is typical to Japanese culture” I was like wow, best answer ever!

At the hostel I was also told about this city full of deers that walked freely everywhere, Nara. I decided to go and see it. It was only half an hour by train from Kyoto. I was told that the deers would leave at sunset. It was getting late, so I had to be quick. When I arrived I saw no deer at all. “If you walk this street all the way, you will see lots of them”, said the man at the tourist information desk. I walked the street and suddenly I saw a deer. Amazing!! But then a saw three more, four more and only a few meters further there was another flock. They where everywhere. I visited two shrines and also there where deers. Went to the park and even more deers. Crazy!!!

I took the Shinkansen train back to Tokyo. At one of my last nights in Tokyo I visited the Robot Restaurant. It was more like a Robot Show. It was one bulk of music, sound, effects, laser lights, robots and spectacle!! It was your typical Japanese extravaganza and I loved it! They only forget to bring me my food, which I got afterwards, but the show was so breathtaking that it didn’t even matter! Haha Like wow!!

On my last night in Tokyo I also went to the Golden Gai, a district in Tokyo that is composed of a network of six narrow alleys, connected by even narrower passageways which are just about wide enough for a single person to pass through. Over 200 tiny shanty-style bars, clubs and eateries are squeezed into this area. I was with a group of Japanese people I just met. When we walked the streets they started pointing full excitement at a guy that passed us. It was the world famous Sumo Wrestler Hakuho. Jeej! I have seen Hakuho! I didn’t know him before, but I guess now I do ;-)

Tokyo was so much fun, that it became very late. At seven o’ clock in the morning I realized that my plane was going to leave in a few hours. I rushed to the hostel, packed my bags, checked out and I don’t know how, but I arrived at the airport just in time. Hahahaha. Japan, love it!!! Up to India!!

Japan

Amazing Tokyo!

“When you travel, you experience, in a very special way, the act of rebirth. You confront completely new situations, the day passes more slowly, and on most journeys you don’t even understand the language the people speak. So you are like a child just out of the womb. At the same time, since all things are new, you see only the beauty in them” — Paulho Coelho, The Pilgrimage

That’s soo true! Japan is one blazing, amazing, culture shock. The fact alone that almost everything is written in Japanese. I have to guess what is what by it’s appearance. Is it a shop, a bank, a station? I mostly have no clue Hahaha

I arrived in Japan at Tokyo Airport and looked out of the window of the bus that brought me to the centre of Tokyo. At that point I started to realize where I was. The stories about the Shogun, the Samarai, the Yakuza… they all happened on these grounds. And I am here now! A strong feeling of excitement grasped my mind and I felt the energy filling the air. I was also lucky to arrive here in the season of the famous cherry blossom. The Japanes love it and I was lucky to experience it. All over Japan trees are filled with cherry blossom.

I stayed in a Capsule Hostel and the name kind of says it all. You sleep in a capsule. It feels a bit like you are sleeping on the Star Trek Enterprise. A quite large room filled with capsules stacked on top of each other. Each capsule has it’s own Tv, radio, light, alarm etc. You can open and close your capsule to enjoy some privacy. There are two things you must not have when doing a Capsule Hostel. 1. Claustrophobia. Check! 2. A large backpack. Ehh… like all 99% of the backpackers? I have no idea why, but you only get a locker that is big enough to put your daypack in, and you are not allowed (as in most hostels) to keep your backpack next to your bed. But practical as I am, I put my backpack in my capsule at day time and put it right next to the capsule at night. Hahaha.

I didn’t learn any real Japanes apart form arigato (thanks), konichiwa (hello) and sayonara (good bye), but I noticed that Japanese people say “Hi” for everything. It means ok, thank you, how are you and lot’s more. And it is not pronounced like we are used to, but really short like you didn’t mean to say that word and with a lot of air usage. Hope this explaines it ;-) haha, but you should hear it. Another thing is when you want to order something. You have to call the waitress by saying something like “Namazeeeen!” in a whiny way. Only Japanes seem to be able to do this

In Japan it is normal to use different footwear for different rooms. So when I moved from outside to the capsule lobby, I had to switch my shoes for Japanese slippers. And at some Hostels I even had to switch my slippers to other slippers when entering the restroom. Like wow! Also the Japanese sanitary deserves some mentioning. For one, most of the toilets have heated toilet seats. And instead of toilet paper, they have like a whole control panel to choose the intensity and dispersion of the waterbeam that cleans your buttocks. Of course they have some toilet paper if you insist on doing it the old fashioned way ;-) At first I also did not understand what the plasti stools where doing in the bathroom. Later I found out that you are meant to sit on it while showering. Wow!

Tokyo is so diverse. Even if I would have had a year, I wouldn’t be able to see everything. At first the subway system can be somewhat overwhelming, because it’s a web of stations that are used by different companies and each company has different lines. But after some practicing I got the hang of it. I also loved the sound of chirping birds at all the subway stations. I don’t know if it is real, because the repetition is so static that it must be fake, but who cares, it brings a bit of nature feeling to this metropolic city. The nice thing about Tokyo is that it is really safe, so you can take the subway to any random neighbourhoud, go up there and enjoy. That is exactly what I did. Tokyo to me was one big computer game. It brought me to Nakano Broadway, a multi-story market, constructed like a maze where you can really buy any… thing! I went to Takeshi street, famous for it’s trendy fashion. I also visited the famous Shibuya crossing and Akihabara the electric town within Tokyo. Here I found a real fun, nostalgic shop where they still sell the Snes, Gameboy, NeoGeo and Sega’s from the 90’s complete with all the game cartridges. It brought back sweet memories and I loved it.

After a few days I discovered that there is a whole world on top of the one you see. In the Netherlands you are used to just look at the street horizontally. For example if you see a restaurant, you don’t expect another restaurant on top of it, at most there are some houses on top of it. Here you also have to look vertically, because sometimes three restaurants are stacked on top of each other. I was looking for a certain Yakitori restaurant. I knew for sure that I was at the right address, but when I looked I only saw an entrance door to a somewhat office-like building. Seemed that I had to take the elevator to the 6th floor to find out that there is a whole lively, world hidden here with a lot of people, good atmosphere, the smell of roasted Yakitori with lovely spices. Like… wow!!.

My visit to the Senso Ji Shrine, the Asakusa neighbourhood and the Imperial Palace brought me back to ancient Tokyo. Especially when strolling around in the gardens of the emperors and imagining how it would have been in those days, with the wars, the shogun, the samurai’s, you can’t help but feel a shivering through your spine. The gardens are beautiful and protected by these great, thick walls that had a real crucial function back then. Impressive

I also went to the Sumo Hall where the sumo wrestlers train. Unfortunately it was no tournament season, so the hall was closed. But just as I was going to leave, some apprentice Sumo’s left the building. Ok, they where not as big as their heroes, but it is as close as I could get to Sumo wrestling on this visit haha And off course I struck a pose with them. :-)

The clubs here in Tokyo are also pretty good. The seem to love Hip-Hop. Especially in Harajuku you see a lot of Japanes Hip-Hoppers walking by. The only weird thing in the clubs are the “No dancing” signs. Imagine me being there and the bodyguard politely asking me to keep my dancing down a bit. Lol!! Hahaha.

Japanese people are really nice and helpfull, but during my stay in Japan I became afraid to ask somebody for directions. As soon as you ask someone for directions it is like they sign a no resign, death contract that forces them to make sure that you arrive at your destination or else… hahaha.This is no worry when they know the location and can point you in the right direction. It gets sticky however, when you clearly see that they have really no idea where the location is, just like you, but are not willing to give up. They keep staring at your map for minutes, holding it in each possible direction, mumbling some Japanese, start asking other people, type the location in their phone. Even when you say, it’s ok and you will find a way to get there, they simply ignore you and continue looking at the map, at the road, and then back at the map, mumbling some Japanese again. Eventually most of them will offer to walk you to your location. Even if they are searching together with you and it’s a 2 km walk far off their own intented route. So I became afraid to ask for directions, because I didn’t want to put this torment on them.

One thing I did not understand is why Japanes people keep on talking Japanese to me, while I clearly don’t understand it. I reply that I only speak English and like they haven’t heard it, they continue in Japanese and ask me some more questions. This leads to a somewhat awkward conversation where they are speaking Japanese, me trying to clear up that I don’t speak Japanese, me smiling politely saying “Arigato” and continuing my walk. I later met a guy from Hong-Kong at the hostel. I asked him if he had the same thing. He explained me that they are actually speaking English. It only sounds Japanese. “Maccerudonerulds” for example is the way they pronounce “Mc Donalds”. Ow shit!!! Hahaha. That day when I was walking through the station with my large backpack and daypack on, a small, old Japanese lady looked at me with fascination and asked: “Arruju goching climbru amountinn?” It sounded like Japanese, but when I listened closely I understood that she was asking if I was going to climb a mountain. Wow Frans!… Wow… I may have missed some good conversations my first few days in Japan. Hahaha.

I went to the Tsujiki fish market where the morning catch is traded. The sushi bars around it serve the seafood that has just been caught. It doesn’t get any fresher than that. I had my best Sushi ever!!! Period! To imagine that the food on your plate was just swimming in the sea, moments ago. And then to imagine that I am the same guy that once said: “I don’t like sushi!” Shame on me, I officially apologyze ;-) Hahaha

A funny contradiction in Japan, is that a large part of the population wear mouth facemasks and on the other hand you can still smoke in restaurants and clubs here. It almost seemed unreal to smell smoke from the table next to me, while I was eating my diner. Haha

And the vending machines….. they are something else! They are everywhere and you can get any drink out of it. Even burning hot coffee or… a can of beer. Yeah I said it… a can of beer. Imagine taking alcohol out of a venture machine in the Netherlands. Impossible nowadays. Hahaha

As regards to the lower limit of food, ti is still really nice. You can walk in to any alley, pick the grimiest looking restaurant and still have food that is ok. Even the sushi from the supermarket is really good. And it is also common to wait in line to get in to a restaurant. Not only for top restaurants, but any normal, local restaurant. All the restaurants have fake plastic replica’s of the food the serve, exposed in front of their restaurant. These plastic replica’s look really realistic. There is even a large trade going on in these replica’s. And for tourists it is really handy. You can see how your dish will look like prior to your order.

One thing I also wanted to do is to visit an Onsen which is an old, traditional bathhouse. In the lobby I had a conversation with a Austrian guy. He just happened so, to be going to an Onsen with a group of people he met on Coachsurfing. He invited me to come along and as flexible as I am I was like, why not? We jumped in to the eclectic Japanese metro system to arrive half an hour late at the meeting point. It was already becoming dark. There stood an old Japanese woman with a bike, seemingly waiting for someone. We approached here and as soon as we made eye contact we knew that she was one of the people. Actually it turned out that she organized the get together, but that we were the only ones who appeared. The two others didn’t show up. The three of us walked to the Onsen in a rustic neighbourhood. She told us she came there often, because she lived nearby and likes to show people this part of Japanes culture. I got a bit sceptic when she said: “Ok, from now on if someone asks you for your name you are Lee and you are Joy” The Austrian guy started to panic a bit and I was like: I know how much the Onsen costs and as long as I pay in cash there is no problem. Later on it turned out that she had discount coupons, so by acting as other people we paid much less. Our sceptism was unnecessary Hahaha. The Onsen was great!! She learned us all the Onsen practices and etiquette. Use this towel for that, first go to this bath, than move to this place, woman en men first separated, but after that put on this suit to go in to the mixed area etc. etc. Without guidance from her we would have been lost! Lol! The Onsen had an indoor and outdoor part filled with natural hotspring baths. One was even filled with H2 water instead of H2O. This water has a strange structure and feeling to it. In the mixed area you had sauna’s and ice rooms. In the iceroom you can watch large icepicks grow to the top in minutes, before they gave in to gravity and felt on the ground for other icepicks to take their turn to grow. When we sat there one icepick grew more than one meter high. Really relaxing to look at.

This onsen was also famous for it’s sublime massage chairs. I love massages! But most massage chairs only give a fraction of a real massage. I must admit. Even though it is not as good as a real massage, it is the closest a machine can ever get. It was amazing how they could replicate all the pressure points in your neck, your back and even your legs. Wow!

In the onsen and also in 99% of the hostels you are denied entrance if you have a tattoo. That’s crazy!! Even people with a small tattoo are denied entrance. I guess this is because of a certain tattoo covered organized crime organization ;-). Luckily tattoo’s on a dark skin are not that visible and with a bit of towel coverage you will be alright ;-) Hahaha

I visited the Meji Shrine and the Yoyogi Park. The latter is famous for it’s rockabilly dancers. I just so happened to bump in to them. They were performing a show on a square with a soundsystem playing old, jukebox, classic rock and roll. They had their hair combed back like the American 50s movies like they stepped right out of Grease and made these typical rock and roll dance moves. My honest, honest, honest opinion? Lame!! Hahaha Sorry!

I was getting a bit hungry and decided to go back to the subway station, but I heard some sounds coming from across a large bridge. I walked the bridge that crossed a large high way and on the other side I saw that there was a festival going on. Huge crowd, with stands and a large banner at the entrance saying “Earth Day Tokyo”. I spent a few minutes there. Walking from stand to stand, looking at art, food and information all circling around the topic of saving the earth and being aware of our environment. There was even a colorful parade, which passed by. After a small diner at one of the stands, I decided it was time to move to Kyoto.

Australia

The Outback

Australia, the land of kangaroo’s, aligators, wombats, the outback, great barrier reef and aboriginals. To be honest I put this one on my list because I wanted to do EVERY continent (Southpole excluded). Hahaha so my opinion was a bit colored. I landed in Sydney and was immediately attracted to the funny sound the traffic lights make when they turn green. It’s the sound of an 80’s Atari astroids laser beam Pieeuw-sound. Soo funny! Sydney has these little smart things that make you think, why didn’t we think of this. For example: When entering a train in the Netherlands most people want to sit on a seat facing the direction the train is going. In Australia you can ajust the seats to face the direction the train is going in. Just pull a handle to adjust the seat. Yeah.. readjustable seats, like why didn’t we think of that!?

I took a “Walking City Trip”, where you explore the city with a guide for two hours, who explains all about the history of Australia. It was nice! I got to see the Sydney Harbour bridge, the Opera house, the Sydney tower and much more. We also went to the well know Rocks district, where all the criminals from the UK where deported. The hood has a long, dark history but is nowadays the place for upscale restaurants and bars. You can even dine in a prison cell if you fancy that ;-) And of course the famous Bondi beach can’t be missed, so I layed around there for a minute.

I met up with an old classmate from the Netherlands. She and her friend showed me around town. We had a lot of fun. We went to smooth, 20th style burlesque bars and even ended up in a bar where they had tons of whiskey’s on the wall behind the bar which lit up by backlight. Like wauw! I regret I didn’t take a picture of that one.

After Sydney I moved north to Brisbane to visit a friend of mine I met in Brazil. It was a great reunion!! We catched up on great memories of Brazil and enjoyed Brisbane. We first went to the South Bank Night Markets and after that we hunted for toads and bats around the house hahaha, We went in to the Brisbane nightlife which was marvelous! Cloudland an extraordinary nightclub club and Brisbane’s premier lounge bar, where water was pouring down the windows and a live band played all the latest dance hits. Fantastic!! The day after that we decided to go to Dreamworld. I hadn’t been to an Amusement park in ages and was wondering if I could still handle the rides. As we entered the park we were all a bit nervous and started to walk more slowly hahaha. But it turned out to be great. I still got it! ;-) We did a lot of rides! I even went for the Tower of terror (the name says exactly how it feels) and to the inhall Zombie laser game haha.

The laser game was funny. Of course I was first of my group (brushing my shoulders off, while saying this ;-) Yeah, Brisbane was cool! We had a real fun time and good laughs!

I left Brisbane to head even more to the North to Cairns. The portal town to the Great Barrier Reef. In Cairns there is not so much to do really. It even has a lagoon called “Cairns Esplanade Swimming Lagoon” next to the coast, which I don’t understand. You see the sea which is completely empty and next to it a lagoon with people swimming and having fun. It looks a bit awkward haha

In Cairns I hung out with another friend of mine which I met in Brazil. She told me Ozzy, the little devil dog from the hostel in Brazil which we loved to hate, just died. He got hit by a truck. R.I.P. Most of the people I meet here are doing a working holiday for a year. They work in farms or restaurants and pay for there vacation that way.

In the Netherlands I got compared to this guy from the T.V. A now famous comedian called Jandino. On the streets, at parties in the supermarket, everywhere I hear people say “Hey that’s Jandino!! Is it?” I finally got rid of this by travelling the world. May be it was the main reason for me to travel the world hahaha. But in a club in Cairns I suddenly heard someone scream: “Heey, Jandino!!!” Never thought it would follow me all the way to the other end of the world… it was a drunk dutch guy… off course. *sigh* hahaha

At one of my afternoon strolling around Cairns I heard a lot of birds squawking but didn’t pay no real attention to it. Then when I walked under a set of trees I saw a guy, that was approaching me, looking up at the trees and immediately jump off of the sidewalk. Curious as I am I also looked up and understood his reaction. The sound was made by hundreds of bats hanging from the trees. Really hundreds of them! You could see their eyes starring at you. And the ground beneath the tree was filled with bat poo. Amazing!! I took some pics, but was quick to leave the sidelane too, because I didn’t want no bat doodoo on my head.

The next day I went to the Great Barrier Reef: The only living organism that can be seen from space. And I was going to dive the Great Barrier!! There was a little problem however. My last diving experience was in Turkey almost 10 years ago. It didn’t go very well. To keep a long story short, I almost drowned because my oxygen tank was only half full. So you can understand I was a tiny bit nervous. Still really tired from the night before, I got on a boat which was really fighting the waves, going up and down. They even supplied people with “boat sickness” pills by default. We stopped at the reef after almost an hour of sailing. We were divided in to diving groups. And while waiting your turn you got the time to do some snorkeling. So I did. And it was nice. But then it was time for the real thing. I put on my diving suit, spit in my diving glasses (as I was told to do), washed it off, put it on and waited on the side of the boat. The instructor put on my tank, gave some instructions and stressed that we really followed him and off we went…. one word… amaaaazing!!! I immediately forgot my whole Turkey experience and enjoyed the beauty of the reef. I saw a lot of beautiful creatures and colors. A Maori wrasse also known as the Napoleon fish, a big blue fish, just swam past me. I could even touch it with my hands, because it is not afraid of humans and it even likes to be touched. The most strangest thing I saw under water was when my hand touched some coral. The coral had some beautiful, bright, blue flowerlike things on it, but as soon as I touch the coral these blue flowers quickley nside. The flowers where actually Christmas Tree Worms. Wow!

Off course I can’t leave Australia without having seen any Kangaroos…. in a park however. Hahaha. But I got to feed ‘m and saw even more animals like the Southern Cassowary, a large, aggresive, colored bird which looks like a prehistoric ostrich. Furthermore I saw aligators, wombats and other typical Australian creatures. Oh yeah, and I didn’t know Pelicans where such fun creatures. I ended up watching them mesmerized for half an hour. Hahaha.

It’s funny how foreigners love Kangaroos, but Australians don’t. They are to them what pigeons are to us. Imagine a tourist in Amsterdam taking pictures of the beautiful pigeons. Hahaha. It’s because they terrorize the farms and even form a plague. Actually most Australians just hate the damn Kangaroos. I gues Skippy did some good PR for the Kangaroo sociaty ;-) Hahaha

Just before I was leaving Cairns, news messages started popping up, about a cyclone by the name of “Ita” that was going to hit Cairns. It was already a level 5 cyclone. And for your imaging, Katrina was a 5. I even got a text message on my local Aussie phone saying: “It looks like Cyclone Ita will come close to your area. If your service is interrupted, you’ll still be able to make emergency calls to 000”. I could feel the panic just before my departure. The super markets where empty, because all the people where hoarding. My flight back to Sydney was cancelled and I was put on another flight that would leave four hours later. The day I left, the streets where full with sandbags and the airport was crowded. Luckily I managed to get out in time. It reminded me of the fact, that an earthquake happened in Chile just one day after I left. I was also lucky to be out of the country on time. I must be having an angel on my shoulder. Actually I literally do ;-) Eventually Ita would turn out to be a level 1 cyclone, because it weakened as soon as it came to land.

I stayed in Sydney one more day before I headed for Japan. I decided to see the Blue Mountains and the Three Sisters. My plane was leaving that same day. The guy from the Hotel told me it would be two hours from Sydney to the Katoomba station from where I could go to the Blue Mountains and two hours back. He didn’t calculate the waiting time when you just miss all your connections. It took me three hours to get there. Then I rushed off to the Blue Mountains. It was quite cold there. I took a moment to experience the three sisters and live in the now, then I took some pictures “Smile” hahaha and had to get back as soon as I could to not miss my plane. More so, I had to make it to the next train to Sydney which would be leaving in half an hour, otherwise I would miss my flight. I saw the bus and confirmed with the busdriver that this bus was going to the Katoomba station. The busdriver a world-weary guy slowly and without any real involvment replied: “Yes, eventually we will get there.” That was all I needed. I hopped on the bus and while sitting there the busdriver suddenly started speaking over the microphone, telling us about things we could see on our left and right hand side…. it was a sight seeing bus!!! Fortunately this one would make it in time, but I have never had a more nervous sight seeing in my life ever hahaha.

Chile

The Easter Island Moais

I arrived in Santiago, Chile just to continue to Easter Island. Santiago has it’s own beauty, however besides from Santiago’s nice atmosphere, good food, bars and many streetdogs my mission was: Easter Island!

Easter Island aka Rapa Nui, aka Isla de Pascua, aka Paaseilanden. I first came in contact with it, actually through the game “Super Mario Land” on the Gameboy. In one of the final levels,  featured these odd looking, stone, statue faces. My fascination started when I heard that there is an island in the middle of nowhere where these faces, called Moai actually exist. I told my self that I would go there when I am big…. And now I’m big I guess ;-)

Through the years of course I got to learn more about this mythical place. Heard the stories and the myths. The heads of the Moai seemed to have complete bodies underground with ancient scriptures. The population used so much of their resources for transporting the Moai, that they almost starved to dead, leading to clan wars and cannibalism. Easter Island originated from the eruption of three volcanoes Terevaka, Poike and Rano Kau. One of the volcanoes crater slope the Rano Raraku was used to carve the Moais. The Moai are actually burial places. A family would order a Moai with the hewers (people who carved the Moais). The familiy paid by serving the hewers food until the Moai was finished. That maybe explains that untill this day, no one knows how long it took to build a Moai hahaha and also no one knows how many people it took to carve the Moai out of the slope. Finally they still are not sure how they moved the Moai from the Rano Raraku to the village of the family where the Moai would stand. So this is the place I was going to. I even recollect my omen-like encounter with the tattooed guys in Jericoacoara

It took about 5 hours by plane from Santiago, where I arrived a few days before. There is a 2 hour time difference between Santiago and Easter Island. When we landed, it was the most cosy and funny airport I had ever seen. No plane trunk, we just used a stair to walk out of the airplane, being welcomed by some guys playing hawai-type guitar music. All the woman got a yellow flower to put in their hair. Customs took one minute and there I was… On the island. The guy from the hotel picked me up. When I got in to the car and wanted to fasten my seat belt he said: “No, no, no. Relax. Here it is not necessary”. Wauw! He gave me a short tour around the city, telling me where I could find everything. I looked around to see if I could already see any Moai, but I couldn’t, which even fed my excitement. The hoteI was actually a group of apartments, with one apartment serving as the front desk and lobby. They where surrounded by a nice garden with colorful flowers. Mine had a room with three beds. Don’t ask me why, but that was just the fact. The hotel was runned by a woman named Anna, her son (the guy that picked me up) and her daughter.

The island had an immediate relaxing effect on me. It was pleasently warm and there is a constant breeze, because it’s an island I guess. And the sound of the wind going through the leaves of all the plants and trees is relaxing. Also a lot of wild horses inhabit the island. You could see them passing by now and then.

I went out for something to eat. I ordered the local dish. Cerviche. Not knowing that it is a plate of mixed, raw seafood in a bowl of lettuce accompanied by rice. I literally saw the raw squid tentacles on my plate. The people from the restaurant where so kind, that I gave it a try and I was hungry and needed nutricious food. I stuffed some in my mouth and chewed without thinking. I got pretty far, mixing every bite with a lot of rice. But after I ran out of rice I could no more! Awfull!! Why would someone do that to another person!? Lol.

People here are nice and relaxed, but very forgetful. A few examples…There was no electricity in my room except for one plug. The guy from the hostel assured me he would fix it in 10 minutes. It happened sometimes. When I came back from the center and asked him how it went with the electricity he had really no idea what I was talking about. But when I explained him again he was like: “Ooooh, no problem. 10 minutes.” He eventually got me an extension cord to use with the one plug that was working. You got to love ‘m for that. I went to a restaurant and asked the waitres what this purple/white meat was on my plate. I was just curious. She was going to ask the chef. When she came back from the kitchen she started to clean some tables. When I asked here if she got to know what it was, she looked at me with a big question mark above her head. She went back again and got that it was squid. My plan was to book a tour for the next day. I could choose between three tours. I asked Anna before what time I should let her know which tour I would like to take, so she could call the tour operators. She told me to tell her before 20:00. Deal! When I told her my choice at about 19:00 o’clock. She called the tour operators. “They were already closed.”, she said. “Probably went home earlier. We’ll try tomorrow morning and see if we can get you on one.” The hotel also served breakfast in bed. You just had to name a time. How nice!! We agreed that I would have the breakfast at 8:30 and we would call the tour operators at 9:00. Eventually I got up two hours too early because I forgot to adjust my clock to the new time zone, the breakfast got served at 9:20 and we called the tour operator at 9:40. Hahaha All this is possible, because of the relaxation of the island. And why should I stress. I was in a beautiful place, the tour could be done at 10:00 and come on… breakfast in bed… where do you get that these days? And in Easter Island it is all about the rubber time. Take it easy!

The tour was lovely. We started at Akahanga, an archeological site. Then went to Tongariki the famous place with the sixteen Moai statues. From there we went on to the Rano Raraku site from which the Moai statues were carved. We could still see some unfinished carvings. And to think that it is said that some of these statues have a complete body under the earth with supposedly ancient scriptures is crazy. It felt really strange, epic and big at the same time. A special moment I will never forget! After that we went to Te Pito Kura and ended up at the Anakena beach to relax. At Te Pito Kura the guide showed us a stone, the size of a basketball. The stone was surrounded by four smaller stones. It was used in ancient times by the people of Easter Island to determine North, East, South and West. “If you put your compass on it”, the guide explained “The needle of your compass will go crazy, because of the magnetic field.” One guy seriously put his iPhone on the stone with a compas app running and wondered why it didn’t go crazy. Like.. Seriously!!?? Hahaha After the tour I went for something to eat. A girl from the tour complained about internet being slow in this place. Then I made her aware of her current location. Like: “Come on, look where you are. You are on an island in the middle of nowhere… you should be glad they even HAVE internet.” Then we had a laugh about it, because it is really crazy and you would almost forget where you are.

The next day I decided to rent a scooter. When I asked for a lock, the woman laught. No one is going to steal the scooter. Where did I hear this before? Cahuita? :-) I love small towns. And if you think about it, it would be really dumb to steal a scooter on Easter Island. Where would they run to? Hahaha. And also, everyone knows everyone here. I drove up hill to Orongo a small town on the slope of the Rano Kau volcano and this trip is something I will never forget. Listening to the Fakkelteitgroep album on my iPod, driving through an idyllic bright green landscape with al sorts of colored flowers, wild horses everywhere, the sun shining fiercly, the cold breeze and the singing sound of my scooter. This was paradise! I loved it! And on top of the Orongo crater I took a moment to realize where I was and live in the now. To complement this feeling the battery of my camera got exhausted. Like life was saying: “No more pictures, just experience now”. I walked the last part uphill and there I stood. I could almost see the complete island from there and the sea surrounding it on the left, on the right and at my back. I tried to imagine that I am on this small island in the middle of nowhere, but it just couldn’t fit in to my head. It just couldn’t! All the time the island felt like a small town and even on top of this volcano I could not get rid of this thought. And then to imagine that all these clans fought tribal wars, performed cannibalism etc. on this small piece of land (25km from west to east) Crazy!! I drove all over the island with my scooter and saw a lot of Moai. I can’t see no Moai anymore! hahaha. I ended up at the Ana Kai Tangaa cave to see the cave paintings. Oh yeah, I also went to the post office to get the official Easter Island stamp in my passport. A gem amongst travellers. I can now boast with it. ;-)

I am also quite sure I was the only black guy walking around on the island at that moment. Hahaha. I was a sight. It was funny how little kids would respond to you. One little guy walked bravely next to me for a few steps and then quickly ran back to his little friends, proud! Like he was saying: I dared to walk beside him. I did it! Hahaha

The next morning I woke up by a knock on the door. It was 10:00 O’ clock. I had to check out. Guess the ruber time does not work when it is in their advantage ;-). I packed my stuff and Anna took me to the airport. The cute airport with one runway, one gate and one checkin desk. Once in the plain the flight attendant spoke the following words: “Ladies and gentlemen, we are going to spray the plane with insecticide, please remain seated. It does not affect your health.” What!? I am still here to write this down, so I guess I am ok. Haha

Easter Island was great! I loved it and charish this special experience. A memory no one can take away anymore! When I flew off and looked at the island getting smaller, I thought about Super Mario Land and cracked a little smile. I will leave South America now and head for the Pacific! Off we go!

 

Brazil

The Amazon

Amazon who hasn’t heard about it? It was the last part of my trip in Brazil and I was really curious about it. I heard a lot of stories, also about people getting underwhelmed.

I arrived at my hostel in Manaus, the portal city to the Amazon, at midnight. We had to be careful not to wake people up in the room, as I installed my backpack, daypack and took my place in the bunkbed. The next day I woke up. The plan was to search for a tour to the Amazon. I met the hostess for the first time. She was ferm. “I hate Manuas. Manaus is no good. And I hate the Amazon, the Pantanal is better.” Eh… ok, so much for the marketing section of the hostel. Obviously she used to live near the Pantanal. “But if you want to book a tour to the Amazon”, she continued “we have some great tours.” Eh.. didn’t you just say…? Of course I decided not to go with the hostel, but instead went in town to look for a better tour operator. I was accompanied by a Swiss guy, who was travelling the world for three years. I met him that morning and he was also searching for a tour. You would expect that Manuas would be full of tour operators on every corner, but the contrary is true. These operators are hard to find. I will spare you the hustle, but eventually I booked two tours. One day tour to get acquainted with the Amazon and a two day tour to really get deep in to the rainforest.

 

The day tour was ok. It was a tourist-type boot with a guy speaking bad english on a microphone with bad equipment. “Sooa gherwhehavethemeetingoffatheriverss and as you can see thisissawherebeautifulspot and… ” Like what did he say!? Haha The boat took us to the meeting of waters. This is the place where the two rivers Rio Negro and Rio Solimões come together and form in to the Amazon river. The Rio Negro comes from Columbia, has a black color and is warm. The Rio Solimões comes from Peru, has a brown, sandy-like color and is somewhat cold. Because the Rio Solimões streams faster and has a lower temparature than the Rio Negro, the two rivers don’t mix for more than 6 km. You can really see the stroke of brown water and the stroke of black water flowing next to each other. The boat even stopped on the center line. We could put our hands in the water on both sides, so we could literally feel that the temperature of the Rio Negro water being hotter than that of the Rio Solimões. Crazy experience!!

And I scraped another thing of my bucket list. Swimming with the pink dolphins! These wild dolphins were given lunch daily at the same time at this same bay. And because they are smart creatures they come all the way to this little spot to get there lunch and what a coincidence it was, that we happened to be there at that same time hahaha. We jumped in the water and saw them coming from afar. The guide helt a piece of fish just above the water. The dolpins in the distance then disappeared under water. Then suddenly I felt something big and slippery touching my legs under water, before I knew it I saw a huge dolphin jumping out of the water right next to me, catching the fish. I could actually hug it. A wow moment!!

We also had an encounter with a Pirarucu (the monster fish of the Amazon), helt an anaconda around my neck, helt a sloth and visited the indigenous people. I heard stories about the last one being a show that was set up to cater to the perception the foreign tourists already have. The show was ok though. We danced with the tribe and had a fun time! But I couldn’t help thinking that this Indian man was going back to his room calculate the income of the shows on his macbook, watch a movie and play a game on his iPad after the show was finished. Hahaha LOL!

The next day it was time for the real thing. Going really deep in to the jungle to sleep there. Shut off from internet and all other modern technology. What the guide hadn’t told me was that I needed some form of hat or head cover. Luckily when we arrived at the dock I could buy one. It was a really obvious one: Army Print, Rambo looking tough guy type of hat! Lol hahaha We had to take a car, a boat, another car and then another boat to arrive at the heart of the Amazon. And as we arrived there I felt the soul of the forest, realizing I’m here! The Amazon…

On our way the guide stopped to show us water lilies. However a whole other caught everyones attention. A flower that moved as soon as you touched one of it’s leaves. The Mimosa pudica. I have never seen it before. I also touch it and I actually saw the leaves reacting to my touch as if I touched a living creature. We also sailed across the floating city: A village floating on the Amazon river.

It was raining season. This means the Amazon was partially under water. We where actually sailing between the top of the trees where normally at dry season you could walk at their feet. You could actually see the watermarks on some trees, where the water had been higher. Could you imagine this!!?? A jungle filled with more than four meters of water and we are flowing on it! And the place where we were sailing is the same place you look up to in the dry season, when you walk the forest. Amazing!

The first thing on our list: Fishing for Piranha’s. We went on a small motorized fishermen’s boat with about six people and a guide. We had simple fishing rods made of branches and used chicken as bate! Hahaha. We went to the first spot. No luck. The guide told us about the piranha’s. He showed us a missing part of his finger, due to a Piranha encounter. Then we went to the second spot. The guide told us, that actually Piranha’s were not that vicious as people think. You can even have a swim with them, unless you don’t bleed. Because if one Piranha bites you and you start to bleed, that’s like honey to the rest of the flock. You will not survive. When we went on our way to the third spot, my hope of catching a piranha was affected. There was also a couple on the boat. The guy was a professional fisher. And while he was talking about his fishing experience someone yelled: “Whoaaah, I feel something bite!” From that moment we knew they were here. We waited, and waited. I put on fresh new piece of chicken on my hook. And then suddenly the fisherman’s girlfriend caught the first piranha!! We saw it and it was quite big. The guide helt the piranha and put a wooden stick between the fish’s teeth. Snap! Before you knew it his jaws clipped the stick like it was nothing. Now everybody was driven to catch a Piranha too. We waited, waited and again!!! The fishermen’s girlfriend caught another piranha. We started to make jokes about she being the real fishermen of the two. It was funny, but after she caught her fourth one in a row, the fisherman was not laughing at all. Then one of the others caught one. After that it was my turn. I felt something nibbling at my hook and BAM there it was! A piranha fresh on my hook. Also while we were fishing wild dolphins visited us. They even came pretty close to the boat, jumping playfully. Beautiful! Eventually the fisherman caught one piranha too, but a meager result compared to the seven piranha’s his girlfriend had caught at the end of the day.

We came back at our lodges by dusk to eat and drink something. We ate, something, played domino’s and had some Caipharina’s. Night was falling and everyone was talking about what we were going to do the next day. But as it is a fact that most creatures come out at night, we were surprised by the guide.. “We are going to look for caimans in the river. Now!” Slightly overwhelmed we got in to a small boat. Knowing the night had fallen and all the animals are out, it felt like National Geographic in real life! This is were I realized again where I was. Crazy! The water was just a few centimeters below the edge of the small boat. It felt like a large caiman could easily get in. We sailed across the river. The other guide stood on the tip of the boat like a rambo, pointing his flashlight at the grass of the river bank. We joked a bit about him: “Oh, yeah and now he will catch a caiman from the water with his bear hands hahaha” Then suddenly he went flat on his belly, put his hand in the water and actually caught one! We were in shock! He freaking did it! It was not a large one, it was a baby black & white caiman and these babies can grow to 6 meters. Caimans have no taste or smell, they will eat everything!

The next day we got up early to go in to the forest. The guide told us a lot about the forest. We saw cashew nuts, which are actually poisoned fruits until you bake them. We saw cacao and ate it right of the tree. It does not taste anything like the chocolate it eventually becomes. It has actually a real fruitlike taste. Tucan birds flying above our heads as we got a taste of the Brazilian nut. The shell which contains the nuts can only be opened with a machete. The guide took the shell with him, to open it up for us later. We saw cotton which are flowers in the tree and pineapples growing above the ground. Then suddenly we came across an old lady with a machete. She was one of the indegious people. The guide lent her machete and opened the Brazilian nut. It tasted really good! We also saw rubber trees. The guide told us about the history of the rubber tree, which only grew in Brazil and gave much wealth to Manaus. He was surprised that I added to his story, the fact that an English man stole the seed of the tree to plant it in Malaysia and India, thus taking away the monopoly position of Manaus. This eventually turned out to be catastrophic for the Manaus economy. He laught: “I was going to tell that, but there are English people here.” Hahaha. On our way back I had a talk with the guy who controlled our boat. He was born in the Amazon. Through him I really understand how well they are at reading their environment. For example he swims amongst big caimans, but only at day time. At day time they are not hungry, because they hunt and feed at night time. He also told me how they catch the caimans. The trick is to point your flashlight in the water and look for the reflection of the caimans eyes. Then look at the distance between the eyes to see if it’s a small one. If so, get near and just grab it by the neck. Also he explained how lakes form nodes and rivers connect these nodes. That’s how they find their way across the rivers. His house is build on pillars to protect it from a flood, but also to keep out insects. And finally they hold chickens who kill all the bugs for them. It all actually sounds pretty logic when you here it like this. When we arrived back at the lodges, they served us the piranha’s we caught the day before. Awesome! I was already wondering why we didn’t put them back in to the river. ;-)

The Amazon was nice! I didn’t expect to see any jaguars, so I wasn’t underwhelmed. In fact I thought that I would have a hard time with nature. but I guess it is the same as with a computer. The more you know about it, the less scary it becomes Hahaha.