Chiang Rai: bizarre bars, temples and foods

Chiang Rai is a place you should definitely go to, even though it's just for the white temple. At some point you've seen so many temples that you don't really feel like seeing an other one, but this one is very special. It's a completely white temple with amazing art on the inside. I have been wandering there for hours, trying to understand the artist's message. It's not finished yet, but already very beautiful!

I rented a scooter and drove around with an english friend I had met before in Pai. For me it was a good practice, the roads are good and the scenery is beautiful.  Green mountains with white Buddha's decorating the nature, tea plantations and many waterfalls to visit.

The nightlife here is not that vibrant but there are some nice bars around. The happy teepy bar is one of a kind. They play old classic rock songs and the owner is a crazy rock n roll chick whom you can have great laugh with. But what makes the bar even more special is that they have pets walking around. Two bunnies and a rhinobeetle. It's surreal, but true! You could just pick them up and cuddle with them. Offcourse I always did when I was there, and I even cuddled the rhinobeetle. Big accomplishment for me, I mean, it's still a giant black bug! But you could stroke it and let it walk over your hand. It seemed like he liked the attention to. Rhinobeetles are as cute as the bunnies!

Chaing Rai has many markets, the saterday and sundaymarket, which are really good. Every night they have a nightmarket with good and also unusual "bizarre" foods. My english friend eats and tries everything. I love food and I love people who love food so let's go and eat! Everything! We ate some bugs, they taste like peanuts. blue, red and green noodles filled with.. I don't know, but it was good! Something called the thousand year old egg.. wouldn't eat that again. We finished the evening dancing at the market with thai people on thai music.

I'm in Loas now, looking across the Mekong river. On the other side is Thailand. Thinking back how great Thailand has been. The Land of Smiles. Kapkunka Thailand, you have treated me well!

Pai: Music, Motorcycle and Treehouse adventures

Words cannot explain how much I love Pai. It's a small village in the North of Thailand. It has a sort of hippy-vibe. Nice chill-out bars, beautiful green nature, mountains, people playing music everywhere. I get myself into a situation every night that I'm somewhere singing and/or playing the guitar. With or without a band, jamming. People start asking: "are you going to sing tonight? Come over and sing with me at that place." In Holland I tend to forget how much I love singing and making music, people keep reminding me here.

I met three amazing girls from the US at one of the bars. They were travelling together and invited me to go to the waterfalls the next day. Four girls, two bikes, road tripping around Pai.

We got ourselves a nice scrub-mud-bath at the hotsprings and then went for a swim at one of the waterfalls. We were the only four there. It's rare that your the only ones there, such a beautiful place, and nice water swim in under the waterfalls, perfect!

While driving around we saw this amazing place by accident. The Tree Houses. We decided to have some lunch in one of the tree houses and then came up with the great idea to spend the night in one of them. And so we did, the four of us rented a family tree house for the next day. Best idea ever.

We had a little party with the staff from the treehouses. They really wanted us to join them for a drink. The atmosphere was so funny, I mean, we were in a treehouse with these amazingly friendly Thai people. One of the staff, who is our friend now, brought us some great whine. Whine is pretty expensive, I feel so honored that she wanted to share that with us. Oh yeah, don't say "love" or "monkey" because something weird will happen. At some point one of my US friends told to the woman from the staff that she loved her pants. The woman just took her pants of and gave it to her! And don't try giving it back! No, she loved her pants, it's a present right away. No problem.

I had such a good time with these three girls, we laughed, cried, biked around Pai, had a party with the staff from the Tree Houses, slept in one of them, I mean.... Best time ever. Will never forget.

Still stuck in Pai, for almost a week now. Going to take some scooter-lessons today. I've been so lucky I could just get a ride everywhere till now. But I definitely got to need those skills for the rest of my trip. Tomorrow I'm going to take the bus to Chiang Rai. Bye Bye, amazing Pai, when I saw this I was pretty...

Chaing Maiii ooohh my!

The trip from Bangkok to Chiang mai was beautiful. From the taxi-guy that was cheering for Dutch soccer, to the train-lady that said "goedemorgen" and that I'm pretty like a thousand times, to the guy from the restaurant in Chiang Mai that ran for a taxi because he didn't wanted me to walk in the rain. Although I was alone for the first time during this trip, I felt so happy. Especially with these Thai people, they make me smile all the time.

The next day I arrived (two and a half hour later than I was supposed to) in Chiang Mai. I went to Kikie's hostel, it was recommended by a friend. The dorm was full but there were single rooms, really cosy and clean for only 250 baht!

Only two minutes walk from the hostel there were many nice places to eat and hang out so I went for some good thai food and later a beer on a terras where I met a really cool Australian couple. They actually had a third glass on their table and a huge beer-tap. They really wanted someone cool to join them at the table and they told me I was the first cool traveller they'd met during their trip. Wow, thanks mate! We did had really good conversations about music, travelling.. everything! Good times, time flew by.

Chiang Mai has sooo many beautiful temples, they are really worth seeing. Annique, my friend from Holland, also arrived in CM. We decided to book a two day trip together to go hiking and see the elephants. At Kikies hostel they informed us well about which trip is the best and also which one is the most animal friendly. PLEASE PEOPLE, DO INFORM YOURSELF ABOUT THIS BEFORE TAKING ANY OF THESE TRIPS!! There are so many elephant trips were the elephants get abused, walking around with uncomfortable chains and people sitting on their backs all day. It makes me really sad and I don't want incorporate with any of these business!

The two day trek was indeed fan-tas-tic! We went hiking for three hours through the jungle and then we arrived at the elephant camp where we were going to ride the elephants and cook, eat and sleep. We had a cosy night with music by the campfire. The huts and sanitary were really basic but I just love sleeping in the jungle. All the noises of the animals, and I even heard the elephants trumping. Magical.

The next day we took the elephants for a bath and a scrub by the river and I was so lucky that I could actually sit on the back of one of the smaller elephants. No bench, just like that, I really felt like Mogli from junglebook!

This camp had many elephants and they were free to walk around in the nature. How it should be! Happy elephants, happy me!

Later that day we went to the waterfalls, swam there and enjoyed some food picknicking at the waterfalls. After that we went wild water rafting and bamboo rafting, which was more fun than I had ever expected it to be!

Annique is my childhood friend whom I grew up with as a child. We didn't see each other for maaaaaany years. It was so good that I had this experience with her. Bringing back childhood memories while sitting in the  jungle..

I'm going to Pai tomorrow and she will soon go to Vietnam. I wish her all the best on the rest of her trip! And thank you for making so many great pictures with your awesome camera!

Bangkok vs. Rotterdam

People often ask me, are you staying? Are you going back to Rotterdam? Being in Bangkok for almost a week now, I think I can make a good opinion about Bangkok. What I like about Bangkok is that you can find everything here. There's religion, Chinatown, a street with Arabic food and shops, there's a street for gaysexual, a street filled with french people where you can get croissants and good whine, a street for young stravellers that want to get wasted on alcohol and laughing gas (khoa san rd. Way to overrated!), and probably a lot more, but this is what I've seen and heard until now. I really like the diversity and the friendly people but.... and Elodie is going to hate me for saying this.. I love "mijn stadje" Rotterdam more. In Rotterdam you can find all of this, but mixed up together. And I love the people living in it (or close to).. my friends.. I miss you! 

I did speak some dutch yesterday with my friend, Annique, who flew in two days ago. It was really nice to see her again after so many years.

A BIG THANK YOU to Elodie!!! For welcoming me in her lovely apartment, for taking me on trips around the city on her awesome bike, for making me laugh, for making my stay in Bangkok sooooo great!!!

All together, Bangkok is one of a kind. The weather will always be better, de food will always be tastier, de people will always be more friendly and everything will always be cheaper. But now... I' m ready for some mountains and clean air! Tonight I'm going to take the train to Chiang Mai!

I <3 bangkok

When I arrived in Bangkok I went to Elodies apartment and I really love the street were she lives. Cosy restaurants, a lot of shops and everything you want you can find here. Till now.. everything is perfect. Got a great massage, got my nails done, got some nice food, went shopping. Elodie knows exactly the right places to go. She has been living and working in bangkok for a year now. She takes me everywhere on her bike, she's a good driver. And I bought the cutest helmet ever. We just had dinner with her friends and then went to khao san for a drink. We had a blast. I'll post pictures soon! All of her friends got stuck here and never left. I'll be leaving this week to Chiang Mai and I already heard of a lot of other places I should really go to. I'm in Asia, and I can go wherever I want to. This is what freedom truly feels like. And it feels good.

To my awesome friends:

Did I mentioned that I have the most awesome friends in the world! Together with my parents they arranged a surprise party last monday and yes, by the look on my face you can see I was very surprised.  I'm going to miss you and thank you so much for being so involved! I love you all!

The adventure has begun!

My parents picked me up at 8.30 to leave to the airport. I was ready to leave. Packed my backpack and checked in online. Bye bye home and kittycat.. Gonna miss you. I felt a little sad.. but at the same time very excited. We arrived just on time. I had more then an hour left till my departure. I gave my passport and ticket to the woman behind the  counter. She looked at me and asked: "did u buy a oneway ticket?" I answered yes.. "it's not allowed to fly with a one way ticket. You have to show that you're leaving the country" she told with a monotone voice. "And why are you telling me this now?!" t was hard to stay calm, my plane was leaving in an hour! My parents explained that I was going to travel around, the woman felt no sympathy and wasn't very helpful to. Downstairs there was a restaurant with wifi so we could arrange something. We stopped discussing and ran to the restaurant.

The clock was ticking and wifi was to slow or not working at all.. we tried it on my tablet, on the phone, on the computer. Three times in a row it stopped working, when my ticket to Phnom Pen - Cambodia, was only two clicks away. At some point there was only half an hour left.. and then I panicked.  I tried hard not to. But I hadn't slept at all because of excitement.. "I'm going to miss my plane." I gave up.. thinking this must be a sign.. my mom told me not to worry.  "If you miss it, you just take the next plain!" That cheered me up a little. I was going, no matter what. My dad finally managed to buy the ticket and we ran to the counter. The woman was not there anymore.. another man recognized us and helped us out. I gave my backpack and one of the ladies walked with me to the the gate so I didn't had to stand in line. Half running, half walking I had to say goodbye to my parents. My mom was getting emotional and told me everything is going to be alright and she loves me very very much. She was trying to be comforting, but instead I teared up because I couldn't really say goodbye. A quick "I love you"  and a kiss and then I had to ran.

I realise things like this can happen, and I look at it as a part of  the adventure. Just as life, travelling will be hard sometimes. But that's what makes it an adventure, right? 

Right now I'm in singapore, ready to take my next flight to bangkok. Still didn't sleep much but my friend Elodie is welcoming me in her home when I arrive. Looking forward to see her again and getting my first pat thai and thai massage!  Hello Asia! I'm soooo ready for you! Whatever you may bring me! I know in the end everything will be alright.