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.

Brazil

Jeri, Surfing and Paradise Lagoon

Jericoacoa, pronounced Jeri Kwa kwa ra and called Jeri by most, is a virgin beach hidden behind the dunes of the west coast of Jijoca and was selected by The Washington Post as one of the Top 10 most beautiful beaches in the world. I heard about it during my travel in Brazil. A lot of backpackers told me that it is the nicest place in Brazil and that I should definitely go there. After hearing this multiple times I decided to go there. Jeri is so remote, that you can’t get there by normal car or plane. The only way to get there is to go to Fortaleza, take a bus to Jijoca and from there take a uncomfortable 40 minute 4 wheel drive Jeep through the dunes. And so I did.

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First I arrived in Fortaleza and stayed there for two days. Fortaleza is a nice town with beautiful beaches, but nothing compared to Jeri. I got a little sick in Fortaleza, a small cold. The only real funny thing I experienced in Fortaleza were these Red & Black lions perfumes I saw in a local shop. Does this look familiar? Hahaha

And in Fortaleza I also learnt that in Brazil more men watch soaps on television than woman. I don’t say anything more. Haha. After relaxing at Fortaleza for two days I took a minivan to Jijoca which took like six hours. I went and sit in the back, but the driver immediately asked me if I don’t want to go and sit in the front. The reason: the humpy road to Jijoca. I followed his recommendations, because I figured he had done this trip way more often than me. Hahaha. For six hours I listened to 80’s slow jams which he played on his mini dvd player in the front. And to be honest, it was quite relaxing listening to songs like “Richard Marx – Right Here Waiting For You”, “Lionel Richi – Hello” and “Michael Bolton – When a man loves a woman” Than got on this 4 wheel drive, tied our luggage to the roof and did the ride to Jeri. Crazy! The car jumped up and down the dune hills, cracking our backs and at the same time catering us with the most beautiful sights. Escpecially the last part of the trip seemed like a roller coaster ride.g compared to Jeri. I got a little sick in Fortaleza, a small cold. The only real funny thing I experienced in Fortaleza were these Red & Black lions perfumes I saw in a local shop. Does this look familiar? Hahaha

Finally we arrived in to this simple, small, lovely town with no pavestones but only sand in the streets. I really stood out, wearing my sneakers. It seemed like wearing shoes here was not done. I was actually the only one in the streets wearing any shoes. Everyone wore flip flops. I quickly adjusted ;-). Buggies flood these sand filled streets. Jeri is simple. A beach, a small center, a few lagoons, a mountain and dunes on the left where you can admire the beautiful sunset. The fresh sea breeze and the nice air made my little illnis vanish immediately.

During the4 wheel drive I was thinking: “This place is so remote, I wonder if they have an ATM”. They didn’t!! So I had two options when I arrived there with hardly any money: 1. Take the ride back to Jijoca and take money from the ATM there or 2. Withdraw money at the one big Supermarket and be charged with 15%. Well… I wanted to stay in Jeri, so guess what I did. Lol!

Like Cahuita and Paraty, Jeri is also small, simple and warm. I think I like towns like this. You wake up to the sound of crowing rooster, relax all day and in the late afternoon everyone goes to the dunes to enjoy the beautiful sunset. When I got there the sun was setting in front of me and behind me there was a full moon at the same time. Epic!! Every night they danced Capoeira on the beach and with full moon, they did a special ceremony which I got to witness.

The first day at the beach I had a crêpe with Dolce leite and green grapes. Dolce leite is this sweet, thick milk, which Brazilians, including me like. But i had no idea what the green grapes where when I ordered it. Then I got an eyeopener. In the Netherlands we call green grapes, white grapes, because of their juice and the wine they produce. Here (and I think the rest of the world) they call ‘m green, because of the color they have. Now who is right? Haha

A guy from Israel which I met in Fortaleza also went to the same hostel. He makes me laugh, even when I think of him. He was a small, grumpy, young guy and he hated it when there were no people around him. He actually got mad when the lobby of the hostel was empty and everyone seemed the have went to the beach. He would complain: “Where ‘s the people man!! There’s no people here. Where’s the people?” Then he came back from a walk on the beach, he said “Where are the people, there are no people on the beach. I hate it here!” I went to Jeri one day before him. He was thinking bout going to the same hostel. On Facebook he texted me: “Frans. How is the hostel? How is the people, are there any people there?” When I met him at the hostel, he was like: “I like this hostel, there are people here!” Hahaha. Can you believe him! From then on, every time we saw him and were with a group of people we reassured him, “There are people here, there are people here!”

We went to the Paradise Lagoon with a group of Brazilians. The energy was fantastic! The lagoon had hammocks in the sea. The lagoon seems to be filled solely with water from rain. The fish in the lagoon are adapted to salt en sweet water. In the dry season the fish stay under the ground. Amazing! I was the only gringo amongst all these Carioca’s and then of course you get these funny conversations about the language differences. They wanted to learn some Dutch words, so I told them to just to pick a word and I would give them the dutch translation. “Beach”, they asked me. “How do you say beach in dutch?” “Strand”, I answered. We had a little laugh about their pronunciation, and then came the second word: “Shit!, how do you say shit in dutch?” “Stront”, I answered and they just could not hear the difference between “Strand” and “Stront” Hahaha. It took me a while to explain that the beaches in the Netherlands do not consist of doodoo Lol! hahaha We ate dinner, finger food after finger food, drank, laughed, danced, sang… but when the sun set, the bill came. Suddenly we were kicked out of paradise in to the real world again! ;-) Hahaha.

I went to the Pedra Furada the next day. The Pedra Furada, meaning pierced rock) is an important collection of over 800 archaeological sites in Brazil, including numerous rock paintings, which suggest a human presence prior to the arrival of Clovis people in North America. The walk to the Pedra Fourada is about 50 minutes alongside the beach. This side of the beach is desolated except for a kissing couple and a woman doing yoga on the beach. The constant whisper of wind in your ear is somewhat meditating. The footsteps of people, dogs and horses in the sand, the smell of the salty sea all had a relaxing effect on me. I choose the path uphill. After a walk for 20 minutes without a single soul to see, I suddenly saw something move in the distance. When I approached I saw it was a black ox-like creature. For a minute I thought: “This is not a bull? Or is it?…” Hahaha. That would be crazy. But then of course they wouldn’t let it walk freely here, so of course it was just a cow, but the encounter was somewhat special. The Pedra Fourada was nice. I heard about a quick route back to the center, but I had to go over the hill. Well, the sun was shining fierce, the sand was burning my feet and I was sweating like crazy! I managed, but it was harsh. I even burned my left leg on a stinging nettle plant.

A lot of people I met here are sampa’s (people from Sao Paulo) who went here on a holiday and ended up living here. By the way, I also noticed that a large percentage of the tourist in Brazil are actually Brazilians. And that’s why almost no one speaks english. The hostels, the tour operators, restaurants hardley anywhere do they speak english. I tried to book a surf lessons on the beach. Thank God, I speak a little Portuguese, otherwise I wouldn’t manage to explain it. I hold my heart for the Worldcup 2014 to come with all these English speaking tourist who don’t know one word Portuguese! Help! If you read well, you will have noticed I mentioned “Surf lessons”. Yes I did!

I went to the beach to find the surf school stand I saw the day before. The stand was gone. I asked a few guys sitting at a Caipharina stand if they know about the surf school and why it isn’t here now. One of them, Flavio, jumped up with a glittering in his eyes. “You want surf lessons. I can give you”, he said. Normally one would hesitate and be sceptic. I just followed my gut feeling. I went with him. Later on I heard that he used to be a popular professional surfer a long time ago, but still has the moves. And he really thought well. He introduced me to his son, which he ordered to take pictures with my camera. We first did a dry surfing lesson on the beach and then went in the water. I had a hard time with the salt water getting in to my nose at each wave. The first time I lied on the board on my belly, a wave came, he pushed the board, I tried to stand, but went straight in to the water. Hahaha. Then we tried it a second time. Again my belly on the board, I relaxed, focused, a wave came, he pushed my board in to the wave, I helt the board firmly stood on my two feet, spread my arms and there I was… surfing!! It felt like a stood on the board for ages Hahaha. Nice!

After a few more stunts on the board we went back to the shore. His son literally only took three pictures during that one hour. Like… really!? But I must admit, the pictures he took are stunning. A man of quality, not quantity Lol hahaha Before the surf lesson Flavio strongly advised me to eat light. I ate a whole plate of delicious pasta! Hahaha. The worst that could happen was that I would not be able to keep my balance on the board. I think the pasta might have helped actually ;-)

After the lessons I went in to the main street. There I met these two guys sitting alongside the road selling handmade jewelry. They asked me if I wanted to buy something. I replied: “No thank you” Then they asked me if I could buy them a beer. Normally I would just say no and continue my walk, but this time I followed my gut feeling again. Bought them both a beer and had a chat with them. They had rasta’s and tattoo’s all over their face and only spoke Portuguese. When I told them about my upcoming trip to Easter Island they got really excited. Telling me all about the prophecy, the aliens, the history and the fact that all the Moai statues look in the same direction. We had a lively chat and drew in the sand to explain what we meant. It felt like the beginning of an adventure movie, where the prophecy or omen is set forth. One of them was a fan of the movie Gremlins and had a Gremlin tattood on his body. So far for his credibility ;-) Hahaha

We had two full moon days in a row. The second day, the full moon was even surrounded by an aura. We went to the dunes in the night with a group of people. There was a special atmosphere about it. Also the sound the frogs at the beach make during a full moon is indescribable. One of the guys made a picture of the sky and three dots appeared in the picture. He was convinced these were aliens. I was convinced his camera was dirty ;-) Next stop Amazone Manuas!

p.s. When I told the Hostel owner about my trip to Amazone and my dislike of Tarantula’s he told me that Jericoacoara is famous for having a lot of tarantula’s, they love Jeri. Luckily he told me this on my departure ;-)

Brazil

Salvador de Bahia

I had heard that traveling around in Brazil is hard. Especially for a foreigner. I got used to traveling around in the bus, going to the bus companies, being the only gringo in the bus etc. etc. But domestic flights in Brazil is a whole other league! I wanted to fly from Rio to Salvador on the sixth of March. One day before I booked a flight on the internet. It went really easy and everything seemed fine. But when logged on again to my account, there was no booking and I also did not get any confirmation email. I decided to call the airline company. My portuguese was not at a level to explain the airplane company my problem, so I asked the guy from the hostel to assist me. After half an hour on the phone, their answer was: “Try it again, but do it before 23:45 because then the system goes down”. I tried several times, but got the same error message over and over. ERROR: Double booking, while there was no booking at all. Finally we managed to do the booking by telephone with another employee. I even got a credit card sms alert, that my creditcard had been charged. I had a plane at 13:30 the next day. Jeej!

It was my last night in Rio, so I did what you do in the cidade maravilhosa… party! We came back at the hostel a bit early. I went to sleep and decided I didn’t need to set my alarm, because my plane was leaving 13:30 and I mostly wake up way before that.

The next day I woke up at 13:38. Damn!! Missed my flight!! :( We called the airline company to tell them I missed my flight and they replied that there wasn’t even a booking on my name at 13:30. Really!?? I decided to just pack my stuff and go to the airport myself. No ticket, no place to sleep and all my valuable stuff with me. Normally one has to worry a bit, but the feeling of adventure took the overhand. Luckily I could take a flight at 20:00 which would have me waiting for only 3 hours or so. I even negotiated a better price. :-)

I arrived in Salvador, the first colonial capital of Brazil, the center of Afro-Brazilian culture, notable for it’s music, cuisine and architecture. The hostel I stayed in was beautiful designed and again had a swimming pool. This time the pool was even on the roof where you can watch the beautiful Salvador sunset. By the way my iPhone got pick pocketed. I could laugh it away, because I had such a good time in Brazil and I kind of expected it to happen at one time, but it is still a huge loss. I used it on my trip a lot. Whatsapp, offline GPS maps, Panorama pictures, Duolingo, working on the blog etc. Boehoe!

Reporting the incident at the police station in Bahia is a whole other thing. I arrived there in a small room, with two counters. They only spoke Portuguese. The policeman behind the counter looked like Sylvester Stallone and there was even a police dog laying in front of the porch. It looked so put in scene that I couldn’t help thinking this was like a fake, setup prank and that they would give me my phone back, saying: “You just got pranked!” and laugh it off. Unfortunately this was real. Above me hung a tv showing a Disney movie which had just started. The policeman asked me a question, I answered, he went on typing on his computer for about ten minutes, then asked me another question, I didn’t understand, he explained with his hands, I understood, I answered, and again he went on typing for another ten minutes and so on. Every time he was typing I couldn’t help watching at this movie. It was “Bolt”, the animation with the dog, but then in Portuguese. The whole process took so long, that I almost watched the complete film Hahaha Lol

I went to the Pelourinho the historic centre. A Portuguese teacher I met in the bus, showed me around for a bit. I ate the typical Bahian dish Acarajé en Beijo. Acarajé is like a Bara but they put unpeeled shrimp in it, which you eat as a whole. That was the part I didn’t like. I saw another guy, who ordered the same, just chew on the unpeeled shrimp. I mean head, tail, legs everything!!! Beijo was eatable, but also not top of the list. I did like Fogo de Chão rated as one of the best churrascaria of Bahia. But a Culinairy capital?… no. I couldn’t see it. I did learn something about Caipharina’s though. Here I learned that there are a lot of variations to Caipharina. You have got Caipharina with Cacha, Pineaplle or Kiwi instead of Lemon. And even Caipharina with vodka instead of the typical cachaca rum: Caipiroska. Wow!

Salvador is divided into an upper town and a lower town. You can move between the two levels with the Elevador Lacerda, a very large elevator connecting the two levels of Salvador. A ride only costs 0,15 R$ which is like 5 euro cent. The Elevador Lacerda has connected the two sections since 1873. Pretty crazy isn’t it?

I know the personal space of Brazilians is a lot smaller then we are used to, but I really noticed it when standing in line here in Brazil. I see a person waiting at a kiosk to buy a coconut juice. I get in line behind that person. Suddenly another person just slips right in between me and the person in front of me. When I say something about it they look surprised. At first I didn’t know what was going on here. But then I figured that for them I was standing so far from the person in front of me, that I wasn’t even in the line. They littery almost touch the person before them when they wait in line. So now I’m adjusted Hahaha

On my way back I had to take the bus. At the bus station. There I saw a real sad sight. Dozens of people where waiting for the bus and on the bench of the busstop sat a neglected, skin and bone, naked man, clearly intoxicated by some substance and nobody, really nobody paid any attention. Unbelievalbe! May be these encounters colored my opinion of the city you either love or hate. I have mixed feelings. On the one hand the people here are really friendly, it is said to be the culinary capital, the historic centre and everyone says there is a lot to do. On the other hand there is a lot of poverty, I couldn’t find the culinary part and if I ask around what are the best things to do, people don’t seem to know really. So I think I go with the latter one. Yeah, sorry, I don’t find everything great, amazing, fantastic or awesome LOL! Hahaha.

Brazil

Carnaval 2014!!

Then there was the big day! I had to be at the Samba Drome at 11 o’ clock in the evening and would be parading at night from 1:20 to 2:00. I had to get out at the metro station “Praça once” and would be in sector 6, ala 27. There I would find the concentration. The concentrations is the line you wait in before you enter the Samba Drome. I took a shower, dressed up and took the headpiece and some other large parts of the fantasia with me in a large, plastic bag. I took a taxi to the metro station and was on my own from there on. I saw a few other people also dragging a large, plastic bag with the larger pieces of their fantasia. People like to talk with you, because they know you are going to parade. Off course everyone spoke to me in Portuguese, to find out that I was sort of a gringo. Hahaha. I arrived at the concentration and needed to use the toilet. Believe me, it is hard to use the toilet with your fantasia on and especially a public, plastic festival toilet. I had my all-time favorite sunglasses stuffed on my waste and forgot about them when using the toilet. They *plop* just fell in to the awfully dirty water of the toilet. Can you believe that I loved these glasses so much, that for a split second I had this crazy thought of fishing them out. Only a split second though hahaha. Ah well, you win something, you loose something as long as you win more than you loose, you’ll be ok.

 

I met dozens of people with the same outfit. Must be my formation. We helped each other get fully dressed. The atmosphere became more tense as we lined up in the concentration. We also got introduced to our director. Each sector has it’s own director, telling you to go slower, faster, stay in line, stop etc. We wait for hours in the concentration, like caged bulls wanting to get out. Then the first section of our school hit the Samba Drome. Each entering of a school is heralded with a large firework show. I was in section 6, so it would take a little while before it was our turn. The song of the school started to play in the Samba Drome, we could hear it from far, together with the fireworks and all the people in my section started to hum along with the song. That was a beautiful, meditative, intense moment! Then I suddenly realized where I was: About to enter the great Samba Drome with thousands of people for the Carnival 2014! I got in my zone. Bam! And there it started… my sector was moving, we danced, I could hear the music getting louder and suddenly I was surrounded by loud drums, cheering people and beautiful colors. The director started to yell directions. My section was horrible at making a straight line, he got frustrated and we almost gave the director a heart attack. Eventually no one even listened to him and just enjoyed their moment. We absorbed the energy of the crowd and danced like there was no tomorrow. I completely got in my role even caught myself, giving hand kisses to the audience and do the queen wave. Frans!? Really? Hahaha. Instead of 1:20 we had left at nearly 3 o’ clock and the walk took like 40 minutes, which felt like 10. My pants were constantly sacking, because of my samba moves, but that couldn’t stop me.

 

After I left the Samba Drome I was full of adrenaline. A dutch couple wanted to make a picture with me, thinking I was Brazilian. I heard them speaking in Dutch and understood everything they said. They didn’t knew that. “Pak jij de camera dan!” “Waar is dat ding!?” “In je tas, in je tas!!” “Schiet you op, straks loop tie door. Vraag die vent dear om een foto the nemen!” I kept my mouth shut, until the flashlight hit and the picture was made. “Staan we er goed op?” I asked them in dutch. Hahaha. They were completely shocked and couldn’t believe I was from the Netherlands and got to walk with the parade. And I thought to myself yeah… I freaking did it! One more off my bucket list ;-)

That night I returned to the hostel. Took of my Carnaval outfit and went to sleep with a smile. The next morning my whole outfit was spread across the room. Ozzy the hotel dog, paid us a little visit! Lol

“Sometimes you have to travel a long way to find what is near” ― Paulo Coelho, Aleph