Traveling through Southeast Asia

Since my early childhood, I knew that there was more than just the Netherlands, where I’ve lived up to now. I love Holland, but I really wanted to see more of the world. September 2012, after I graduated from high school, I decided that I really wanted to go to Southeast Asia. I bought a ticket with two friends; actually I met one of them at the moment of booking the ticket. To get all the money together I worked for 4 months in a fish shop in the city Centre of Rotterdam.

I celebrated New Year with family and friends, knowing that I wouldn’t see them for almost 5 months. I felt weird and didn’t know what to expect on the other side of the world. I took my backpack and we drove to Amsterdam airport where I saw Juliet and Bente, the girls who now know me better than anyone else. We said goodbye to everyone and started our trip of almost 5 months. Sitting on the airplane asking myself what am I doing … 

THAILAND

We started our trip in Bangkok. Bangkok stinks, there is no fresh air, you don’t know where to look and it’s overcrowded. We were so tired from all the work at home and the long trip (48 hours, because we bought the cheapest ticket) that we decided to relax a bit on one of Thailand’s islands, Koh Samui. I would never forget the morning we opened our door of the cabin and all we saw was white sand, palm trees and a clearly blue ocean. Unbelievable, I didn’t know that such islands existed. From that moment I’ve loved Thailand. Thailand became our home country in Southeast Asia.

LAOS, THE GIBBON EXPERIENCE

To cross the border to Laos you have to cross the Mekong River by long tail boat. We travelled all the way through the north of Thailand where we bought a ticket for the boat. It’s only 5 minutes travel by boat; you can see Laos from the other side of the Mekong. We were so excited to go to Laos, because we booked the Gibbon Experience, which means zip lining through the rainforest in the north of Laos. 

We started the Gibbon Experience in a group of 8 persons, attended by two guides. You insured yourself, the guides checked and after that you had to let yourself go. It felt like flying from one mountain to the other. I got a huge adrenaline rush. One of the cables was even a mile long; in the middle I thought that if I fell down at that time I would drop dead. What you should not think at that time. We spent the night in a tree house in the middle of the rainforest, a magical experience. The shower had a view over the mountains. Unfortunately seen a gibbon, but it was a wonderful experience, that’s for sure. 

After six weeks of traveling together we split up for a couple of weeks. Bente and I crossed to border to Vietnam, while Juliet was traveling further through the south of Laos. 

VIETNAM, COUNTRY OF MOTORBIKES

Where to start with Vietnam? After Bente and I said goodbye to Juliet we took a bus to Hanoi, Vietnam. This was one of the most memorable rides during my journey through Asia. It took us 30 hours to get there. When the bus driver says to you that you got the last ticket, then you can infer that you may have the last seat, but you’re definitely not the last passenger. In the middle of the night we stopped suddenly, it got some 20 more local people with us in the bus. They all brought their own seats. An American couple next to us was quite claustrophobic and could not appreciate that joke. We arrived late, but fortunately had already booked a hostel, we were exhausted.