Click on the below button to drop me a note. Suggestions and questions very welcome !
Halfway around the world in 1 year
Welcome to Sotje62 ! My blog intends to make the world a smaller place. Automatically and real-time, the blog traces Beatriz and myself's whereabouts, it might just tell you a thing or 2 that interests me - therefore not you, that's the privilege of having a blog - but read new blogs on the top and click on the pictures in the side bar to see older blogs, the blog,and Beatriz and I hope you grow a good 'travel' appetite. Sotje62 travel blog is in Vlaams (donker gekleurd) and in English (light coloured). So read what you understand and again what you like.
21-04-2009
What they say about Goa - part 2 (English)
Goa part 2.
19th April. Baga beach.
Tonight we go to the saturday night market in Arpora and we get another taste of how much to trust an Indian word.
We ask the first local how far it is to the market. 30 minutes, it is 18H30 so we have just 30 minutes before dark. We ask for the price of a taxi and it is 100 rupees. There is daylight and because we budget as much as we can (100 rupees is only 1,5 gbp) we decide to walk to the market.
It is 19H00 and the sun sets. We ask a second person how far it is. 1,5 km a local says, and then take a right. Doable. We keep walking this small road. Afterwards taking a right means take a left but we figured that one out.
It is dark now and it becomes very dangerous cause Indians are reckless drivers. 1,5 km should be fine. We walk 15 minutes more and arrive in what seems to be a wonderful resort area with huge appartment blocks, accompanied lakes on both sides of the road, luxurious gates decorated with elephant statues made of wood. Wonderful place !! We walk 15 minutes more and no sign of any populated place. We ask a mango juice sales man that tells us it is only 500m more. 500m later, no sign of a market.
This goes on and on and everywhere you go or ask for directions, the same thing happens! And they sound so convincing. Most of all they like us to take a taxi. I guess they feel like there is a taxidriver in all of us.
After Walking 1,5 hours and dodging taxis (and one cow). Seeing a cow coming at you in the dark is pretty scary. But it was a nice one because he was the first to go to the other side of the road..
We arrive at the market. Ja man, advice comes with a lot of salt here.
It looks like an amazing place. Lots of colours, lots of clothes for sale, jewelry, etc. And we saw the most white people together in one place since arrived in India. Lots of English!!
After the market we go for a drink in a chiringuito. Beer is not for sale because of the elections, gin is. The conversation starts what to do tomorrow and it looks like we are gonna change our plan. The original plan to go to South Goa becomes less attractive cause we are full of lying on the beach. Tough life aint it!!
Instead of going to South Goa, the idea to go straight to Kerala comes up. Still we keep it undecided and agree to go to South Goa and then make up our mind whether to go to another beach or to go to Kerala.
I am in Kerala while writing this so you have the answer, from South of Goa we went to Kerala. It took a lot of us though to get here. We did 1000 km in 30 hours and we booked the general compartment on the train, several buses, and one boat. In my next blog I ll tell you how tough it was to get here. It was hardcore traveling.
That is all for now. Enjoy the day and greetz from Bea and me from Fort Cochin, Kerala.
What they say about Arambol :
Arambol attracts backpackers, and gracefully ageing hippies. It has some of the cheapest accomodation in Goa and lots of long timers.
Very appealing for us cause we are backpackers and we love cheap accoms (and many thanks to Isabelle).
The hippies are here, the rasta-men are here, the beach is completely drenged by chill ambiance. Our hippy neighbour in the hut-complex is Dutch, 50 years, father of 2 kids, and more tanned than any local Indian. He arrived in January (it is April now) and is gonna buy a motorbike for 400 pounds to go to Nepal. When he arrives, he will re-sell the motorbike and do the next yet unknown thing.
Our Italian rasta-neighbour works on his dad's farm not far away from Milano and takes 3 weeks out to re-think his priorities. And loves the local grass too. Que cazzoo !!
An absolutely fantastic beach is what Arambol has to offer. We are loving the pineapple and mango juices, the Goan fish, the huts where we stayed, the relaxed ambiance. When it starts to get more and more windy, when we have a (small) rat in on our bed, when we start to know the ladies who sell jewelry on the beach by name, when we realize that more and more people are leaving Arambol and the place starts to look more and more empty, we decide to go the recommended (Thanks Ultan) Baga beach.
----------------------------------------------
What they say about Calangute and Baga beach:
Compared to the further north, this Baga beach has a more upbeat atmosphere, that travellers prefer more often. The beach can be dirty and women in bikinis won't get a second's peace.
The upbeat atmosphere is absolutely true, on the beach you have chiringuitos playing Indian hardcore music and gasolina gasolina, here there is waterskiing, sunbeds, people selling peanuts and crisps on the beach. Here you have all that. Completely different !!
Not 5 minutes go by without someone asking you for food, drinks, fruit, they even want to clean your ears, make you a tattoo, paint genna on your hands, do your nails (more Bea's cup of tea). Whether women in bikini get no second's peace, a lot of people have asked Bea whether they can give a massage, I wonder who's paying who then.
It is 3 oclock now and I still want to go to the beach today, I hope you guys like to read the blog and are interested in more. More to come on Monday or Tuesday !!
In Mombay. In Flemish & English. Flemish up, English is down
3de dag, 361 te gaan. Mumbai. Andheri, Noord-Mumbai. Voor de eerste keer in ons leven hebben we een koe zien slapen op straat. De 40,000 taxis zijn om 12uur snachts nog allemaal aan het werk.
4de dag. Bombay Central. Hartje Mumbai is het verkeer nie te garren. Een dokter heeft ons geleerd dat de autos moeten stoppen als je oversteekt, anders vliegen ze het gevang in. Het stelt ons niet gerust en de traagste mensen om over te steken zijn wij. Kolaba gezien.
5de dag, Mumbai. Bloeiend heet is het vandaag, 38 Celsius en de smog erbij: het is beter leven op een grillrooster. Vanavond vertrekken we naar Noord-Goa, Arambol voor wat meer adembare lucht. Tzal Paasmis zijn op de trein dit jaar.
--------------
3rd day, 361 to go. Mumbai, Andheri. North Mumbai. Cultural shock starts with seeing a cow sleep on the walkway and 40,000 taxis buzzing around your ears.
4th day, Bombay Central, the most congested traffic part in Mumbai, makes it impossible to cross a street. A doctor tells us that we dont have to worry. If a car hits you, the driver goes to jail. Not enough to comfort Bea and the funniest people is us. Saw Kolaba.
5th day, Mumbai. Awfully hot, 38 Celsius, with smog to smoke you out like on a BBQ. Tonight we leave to North-Goa, Arambol, to get some oxygen. Hope the train organizes an Easter ceremony on the train.
-----------
Mumbai leaves a mark of great poverty to us, of Ghandi, of too many people in one place, very friendly and very funny, of a place impossible to cross a street. Watch out or the cow takes you over !! And of endless ambition to be friendly and better off. PS: The people we met are very friendly and help you to get to anywhere. We do have walked a lot around blocks wondering whether they misdirected us on purpose, or they didnt know any better. And they sound so convincing !! *source: textually.org
I am in London where my backpack trip starts, if staying with friends before our outbound flight is called backpacking. I am not sure. My flight leaves from London HR to Mumbai, India on Thursday and although I am leaving on Thursday, I am in London to do my bits and pieces like visit work and visit friends E.x. I need to collect the new visa credit card. Security in HSBC is this good, that for the cardholder it is the hardest to get to his money. Also I want to see a friend that I will meet with in Bangalore in May, and last but not least, I need to buy me a raincoat.
Many people ask me whether I have a time credit at Red Hat but unfortunately that does not exist in the UK. (time credit is a Belgian thing, it gives you the right to take time off under T&Cs, and your employer pays you 500 euro every month, and they are by law enforced to grant you this time credit; SMELL that !! surprised me as well have to admit). What does exist in the UK, is unpaid leave. With the remark that only when a position is open, they take you back on board. In small letters you can think that a job has to be vacant. (In small letters you can also think that if they did not like your way of working or attitude, they can refuse to take you back as well). I will hope hard a position will be vacant when I come back, otherwise I need to go somewhere else. (Or you can say that hope they really liked my work attitude!)
In London I am staying with my ex-flatmates where we get along with great. (Thank you Pria & Grant). They are an Australian Indian couple so at is a great starter to get insights on our trip. Those are 2 countries that we take a lot of time out to visit. And do they like to talk a lot about their me countries, culture and everything. As much as I like to talk about Belgian beer, Bruges, friends, frites and which topping goes best with them.Curry ketchup if you have doubts J We will meet with family of theirs in New Delhi and we will see each other in Sydney for new year.
Mybackpackroute. Bea and me have agreed the main route more or less. Big pieces of the route are stolen from books and internet. The people from the adventure store wouldnt be impressed when I told them I was copying the not to be missed sections and was handdrawing maps from them.
Mumbai, 9th of April, kick off. Mumbai, Indias biggest city, is our best destination to go south to Goa, Kerala and Cape Comorin. From there we go 4,000 km by train back north to Delhi and Nepal. Time estimate is 2 months. Over de friendship highway, the route goes from Kathmandu to Tibet. Form of transport we are still unsure about, bus I guess. In Tibet we take the train through China to Beijing. (http://www.chinatibettrain.com/beijinglhasa.htm) Time estimate 2 months further we are, and up north in China. That will be the most northern we will go in China because otherwise it will take us to far off the South East Asia bit. South East Asia we will do in 2 months as well.
Being a big gate to cross continents, Singapore is our way to go to Australia and New Sealand. I say OZ and NZ because it depends on our budget whether we go to New Zealand.
That is pretty much what is planned so far and South America is an option after Australia, as much as Japan and Indonesia are places we would like to go. It is all open! -----------------------------
Wish me safe travels. Like my father says the world is crazy and I say I will have seen it.
If you want to see us in London before we go, we will be 2,5 hours before our flight in LHR terminal 3. 2,5 hours that means 7h30 tomorrow morning, go for it!
Thats about it for my first blog. We think we are ready and the bag is packed. Buena suerte!
Morgen vertrek ik naar London voor het begin van mijn reis. Mijn uitvlucht vertrekt vanuit London Heathrow naar Mumbai, India. Deze vlucht is donderdag pas, dus blijf ik in London voor 3 dagen om de laatste toodoo´s weg te werken en mijn werk en wat vrienden bezoeken. Een van de toodoo´s is naar de bank gaan om een bankkaart te gaan afhalen. HSBC, dat is de bank waar ik bij zit, is een hele goeie bank. Zo goed dat zelfs ik problemen heb om geld af te halen. Ik ga ook een moat zien waarmee ik in Bangalore ga afspreken in mei, en nog een KW kopen want dat ben ik vergeten. Morgen avond zie ik Bea terug. Zij is ook bij haar thuis geweest. Het gaat deugd doen om haar terug te zien want het is al meer dan een maand geleden.
Veel mensen vragen me of ik een tijdskrediet genomen heb bij Red Hat maar helaas bestaat zoiets niet in Verenigd Koninkrijk. Wat wel bestaat, is onbetaald verlof. Met de opmerking als een positie vrij is, je die krijgt. In kleine letters kun je er wel bij denken dat die positie er dan wel moet zijn. Ik ga hard hopen dat die er dan mag zijn, als het niet zo is, dan moet ik ergens anders naartoe.
Voor die paar dagen in London blijf ik bij mijn ex-flatgenoten slapen waar ik nog goed contact mee heb. Het is een goed begin van de reis want het is een Australisch Indisch koppel, 2 plaatsen die ik uitgebreid ga bezoeken in de komende tijd, en ze vertellen graag over hun thuisland net zoals ik ook graag vertel over Belgisch bier en Brughe en me moaten en welke saus je het best op je frieten doet. Trouwens dat is curry ketchup moest je er aan twijfelen. We spreken ook af met familie van hen in New Delhi en we hebben afgesproken om nieuwjaar samen te vieren in Sydney.
Mijn rugzak route plan heb ik met Bea in grote lijnen uitgezet. Grote stukken van de route is gestolen van boeken en internet. De mensen van AS Adventure mogen het niet geweten hebben dak hun boeken gebruikt heb om tips over te schrijven en landen over te tekenen van trotter en lonely planet. Mumbai India, 9 april, daar land ik. Mumbai is de grootste stad van India en de beste bestemming voor ons om dan zuid te gaan richting Goa, Kerala en het uiterste punt van India Cape Comorin. Ik spreek nu van 1.600 km richting zuid, daarna met de trein terug noord naar Nepal, 4.000 km (Belgie kan 107 keer in India dus de afstanden zijn groot :)) en 2 maanden verder. Via de friendship highway gaat de route van Kathmandu naar Tibet. Ik ga dat verzekers doen met de bus maar ben dat nog niet zeker. In Tibet neem ik de trein door China naar Beijing (http://www.chinatibettrain.com/beijinglhasa.htm) met de China tibet train. Nu ben ik 2 maanden verder en in het noorden van China. Dat is het meest noordelijke punt in China die ik wil bezoeken, hoger zal ook te ver zijn om terug zuid te gaan richting Vietnam, Laos, Cambodja. Ik neem ook 2 maanden uit om deze landen te bezoeken. Singapore is dan een grote gate naar Australie en Nieuw Zeeland dus wordt dat de bestemming om een vlucht te boeken naar Sydney of Christchurch. Als ik eerst naar Sydney ga, is dat omdat ik daar een paar maand ga werken, als ik naar Christchurch ga, is dat omdat ik goed bezig ben met geld, en nog geld heb om 2 weken rond te gaan. 9 maand verder zijn we dan, en dan wil ik naar Zuid Amerika, Peru (Lima is de goedkoopste bestemming vanuit Australie dus daar starten) - Bolivie - Paraguay - Brazilie - Argentinie om dan de 12 maanden rond te hebben. Alhoewel dat de tijdslimiet van 12 maanden niet vast staat, heb ik het zo vastgelegd om het kind een naam te geven maar daar stopt het ook. Als ik langer wil blijven is dat mogelijk en verlies ik geen geld aan geplande vluchten die ik dan niet neem. Veel trekkers scheuren daar hun broek aan en dat wil ik niet. Dat is in grote lijnen het routeplan, het is een idee en niet uitgewerkt maar de treinen, overnachtingen en al de rest vastleggen zal op het moment zelf gebeuren. De idee is om op het moment zelf te kiezen waarnaartoe en wat gedaan.
Mijn eerste blog is af denk ik. Wens me een goeie en veilige reis. De wereld is zot en ik ga het gezien hebben.
Ik denk dak er klaar voor ben, alles zit in mijn rugzak. Tijd om nog een laatste keer op de beste matras van de wereld te slapen,
16.09.09. Half-Round the world in 1 year / Kick off. 9th of April 2009, Mumbai, India’s biggest city, is our best destination to take the train south to Goa, Kerala and Bangalore. From there we go 4,000 km by train back to north India, see Karnataka, Rajasthan, the Taj Mahal, Varanasi and Nepal. In Nepal we do small treks in the Himalayas and visit Kathmandu. Over de friendship highway, the route goes from Kathmandu to Lhasa by jeep, maximum altitude 5250m and we get to see the Mount Everest. In Lhasa we take the train through China, see the Terracotta warriors in Xi'an, and go 3,500m north to enter Mongolia and arrive in Ulan Bator. In Mongolia we camp in the Khovsgol area near the Russian Siberia, and renew the Chinese Visa to go back south. The clock says 4 months when we trained through China and see Yunnan, South China with its wonderful terraced rice fields. We enter the tropics and after 6 months travels we are in Vietnam. 2 months after that, we should have seen Angkor, the beaches in Thailand & Maleysia ...<e.d. 25.10.09. There is a change of plan after Angkor: we fly from Bangkok to Manila, we go to the Philippines!!> and on a ferry to Indonesia. From either Kuala Lumpur or Bangkok, we find our way to Sydney and work for 3 months. We will have traveled for 1 year when we are in Oz and ... and ... and ... that is how far we planned. But we were supposed to come back in 1 year but we are only half around the world. Beatriz and myself love Asia!! So much for planning ahead and scheduling. Let's just see how we get on and the more exciting our trip will be. Wish us good luck on the trip!!
3de dag, 361 te gaan. Mumbai. Andheri, Noord-Mumbai. Voor de eerste keer in ons leven hebben we een koe zien slapen op straat. De 40,000 taxis zijn om 12uur snachts nog allemaal aan het werk. 
Dit is mijn eerste bericht op mijn blog. 
