tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2492899568938993412011-12-17T21:57:48.049+01:00mohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03657295257606676157noreply@blogger.comBlogger281100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249289956893899341.post-41598455182187888422010-01-03T02:32:00.026+01:002010-01-06T03:30:11.656+01:00

i spent the last few months of my working holiday in wellington, the capital located on the southern part of the north island. it is known for giving birth to a lot of nz creativity, its small village like personality, the sometimes never ending wind and blanket man. i met up with kay and kate whom i met in auckland a few months earlier. i worked with kay as a housekeeper at base and i met kate

mohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03657295257606676157noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249289956893899341.post-69420754340077809362009-11-18T09:17:00.072+01:002009-11-18T10:11:44.009+01:00

hello you lovely people! as you can see i've been changing my blog. my new zealand working holiday has ended and i'm back in singapore, yay! i'm kinda behind on blogging, but i'll just go on from last time... ...so i ended up staying in takapuna until the beginning of june. it was awesome and i've learned so much working at the restaurant. in the beginning i only worked a few nights a week, but

mohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03657295257606676157noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249289956893899341.post-54357463968889291142009-02-21T13:05:00.110+01:002009-11-12T04:53:33.427+01:00

i just realized that it has been forever since my last post...i'm chilling out with clare, mau and giles after a very very awesome week in sydney.i finally found a job in paihia the last two weeks of my stay there, but unfortunately they only needed me a couple of hours, so i didn't really make a lot of cash. the money i still had is all gone and circulating somewhere in the gay bars on oxford

mohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03657295257606676157noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249289956893899341.post-73645719860655574932009-01-23T06:42:00.038+01:002009-01-27T00:33:41.176+01:00

it's been a while, but i'm from now on able to go online for free, so i thought that was a nice opportunity to finally update my blog. i'm staying at a hostel two minutes from the gorgeous beach in paihia, a small touristy town about 4,5 hours north from auckland. a lot has happened since my last blog, so let me start where i ended last time...first of all some pics from auckland:some random

mohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03657295257606676157noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249289956893899341.post-23535873180604681882008-12-02T05:43:00.005+01:002008-12-02T05:51:47.295+01:00

...filled with partying, sleeping, wandering around and jobsearching i’m starting to feel more at home here. the first weeks are always weird, i know that by now, but when i left holland, i was able to spend time with my family, which makes homesickness more avoidable. when i travelled to indonesia by myself, i knew i would be back in singapore after a month. but this is something new and

mohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03657295257606676157noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249289956893899341.post-73717675376568409582008-11-16T08:39:00.002+01:002008-11-16T09:03:02.578+01:00

my camera broke!! it sucks ass, so i can't show you any interesting sights yet. i haven't been doing that much touristy things anyway, since i like to take pictures of everything, so i will probably just get extremely frustrated not being able to do that. i brought it to the sony shop and received an estimate: 400 dollars!! that's almost two weeks worth of accommodation, so that really really

mohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03657295257606676157noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249289956893899341.post-22169984392271436102008-11-08T04:47:00.002+01:002008-11-08T05:00:02.018+01:00

i've just arrived in hong kong. it's uhm, almost noon and my plane to auckland leaves at 7pm. went online to check the exchange rates (duty free shopping woohoo) and discovered that 200 cigarettes cost 24 euros :O. it's very strange, but it hasn't hit me yet that i will be gone for a whole year. singapore turned out to be absolutely fantastic, despite some moments of utter frustration. i've met

mohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03657295257606676157noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249289956893899341.post-86050935864003412632008-10-28T03:58:00.038+01:002008-11-01T04:24:56.912+01:00

to be honest, i'm not really a big fan of zoos for the obvious reasons. animals should live in the wild and be able to just be wild animals, but since we've destroyed (and keep on destroying) their homes, we have to take care of them. unfortunately many zoos treat their animals the worst way possible, locking them up in tiny oppressive cages, barely feeding them and not cleaning up. in the

mohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03657295257606676157noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249289956893899341.post-46928179308937827502008-10-21T03:10:00.017+02:002008-10-26T04:00:09.090+01:00

a couple of stops before the busstation in bukit lawang a guy started talking to me and asked if he could sit next to me. i thought to myself ok, here we go again, but he was really cool. his name was doni, born and raised in bukit lawang (left). he was living in a house next to the river, so during the flood in 2003 he lost everything, including his mother. after that he moved to medan and

mohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03657295257606676157noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249289956893899341.post-6831460234166949062008-10-14T15:04:00.028+02:002008-10-20T07:18:55.131+02:00

getting from bukittinggi to parapat takes about 17 hours (an aircon bus cost me 175000 rp which is about 14 euros). that is if your bus doesn’t break down... after driving for about two hours we stopped in the middle of nowhere, because the battery died. an hour later we started driving again, but a while later we stopped for two hours in the middle of another nowhere. it was a nightbus (saves a

mohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03657295257606676157noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249289956893899341.post-1851106039136132342008-10-13T04:39:00.034+02:002008-10-15T13:06:04.179+02:00

lala would take me to the lake in the afternoon, because i had to wait till 4pm to pick up my laundry. i was having some breakfast in turret café when he came up to me and told me there was a traditional wedding reception he got invited to and he asked me if I wanted to come. i picked up my camera and we walked to the house where the festivities would take place. the wedding itself had already

mohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03657295257606676157noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249289956893899341.post-41428758036241923192008-09-29T12:37:00.052+02:002008-10-11T16:02:09.447+02:00

siberut island is the northern island of the mentawai islands and the most important home for the mentawai tribe. a ferry leaves from bungus harbour in padang and arrives at bat obay, the harbour on siberut about 10 hours later. that is if the weather doesn't suck like it did for us...the ferry left around 9pm, so we all had bunk beds in the cabins upstairs. the passengers downstairs just sleep

mohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03657295257606676157noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249289956893899341.post-71254713035392038782008-09-24T02:22:00.026+02:002008-09-29T06:32:31.371+02:00

before i go on with indonesia, i really need to tell you that my new zealand visa application has been approved!!! woohoo!! so now i'm trying to figure out what the plan will be and what i still need to do in order to get all my documents right. health insurance stuff is very annoying and i will need to arrange everything before i leave, what a hassle, but it just has to be done.anyway, let's go

mohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03657295257606676157noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249289956893899341.post-53795864287388376402008-09-16T07:47:00.011+02:002008-10-26T03:57:48.564+01:00

padang is very very boring, but i didn't know this when i booked three nights there. if you're planning on going to sumatra and your flight lands in padang, make sure you're on a bus to bukittinggi asap! i stayed at a very nice homestay though, called maranatha homestay. i only had one roommate in my dorm, a guy called scotty, around 40 something and owns an island near padang. he was there on

mohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03657295257606676157noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249289956893899341.post-11230198751945550002008-08-30T14:44:00.002+02:002008-08-30T15:20:40.555+02:00

indonesia is awesome. right now i'm in bukittinggi and so far my trip has been nothing but fun. i'm not posting all my stories yet, since i obviously need to post pictures also and this computer doesn't really look that capable of doing that fast and i don't want to be stuck here for hours...i've been hanging out mostly around bukittinggi the past week after my three days in padang. it's a little

mohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03657295257606676157noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249289956893899341.post-26753729565020088862008-08-13T08:50:00.032+02:002008-08-14T03:05:26.304+02:00

check out this crazy palm tree! (the middle one on left picture) our driver pointed it out on the way back to puerto the next morning. i really don't understand why it would grow like this...below some on-the-road shots:i went to the crocodile farm, located near puerto. it was really cool, even though most of the crocodiles were sleeping...but there was also a nature park next to it with animals

mohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03657295257606676157noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249289956893899341.post-32084209878208858722008-08-13T03:30:00.038+02:002008-08-13T09:52:55.212+02:00

the second day we walked even more and checked out some gardens we hadn't seen the first day. dad and jade talked to every caretaker to see how everything was going and to discuss what still had to be done. since they only talk filipino jade did most of the talking and translated everything for my dad, but i usually just spaced out and enjoyed the view :) above the road leading up to the farms,

mohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03657295257606676157noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249289956893899341.post-51503072049571592872008-08-05T03:13:00.075+02:002008-08-10T18:26:49.724+02:00

before i continue my story i'd like to thank everyone who has commented so far, i really appreciate it. it's really nice to know you are enjoying my stories and i hope all is well in your lives too.let's see, where was i...right right, balut.we went to narra the next day. we first dropped of our stuff at the resort we were gonna stay at and then drove to the tree farms. our driver mike (puerto)

mohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03657295257606676157noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249289956893899341.post-54653771025022075912008-07-30T02:33:00.036+02:002008-12-10T01:51:47.257+01:00

the next day was beach day, woohoo! we went to the gorgeous palawan beach and i finally went swimming. the water was very clear and there were a couple of fish just hanging out there, which i've never experienced before, so that was very cool. also many tiny beach creatures in the sand (see picture left (click to enlarge) this is a sand crab, about 1 cm wide, very quick in hiding, so i'm glad

mohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03657295257606676157noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249289956893899341.post-91167519955121541792008-07-25T17:14:00.041+02:002008-12-10T01:51:54.101+01:00

puerto princesa is the capital of palawan and to get there, you take a domestic flight from manila, which takes about an hour and fifteen minutes. the airport is very very tiny (but i think they were renovating, so half was closed down) and there's only one luggage pick-up car so much waiting is expected. immigration is a joke: a guy sits behind a desk with a notebook, you give him your passport,

mohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03657295257606676157noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249289956893899341.post-74166865719149473442008-07-23T02:21:00.009+02:002008-12-10T01:51:55.553+01:00

i have been back in singapore for two days now and still need to unpack...(what do you mean i'm lazy?) it's raining like hell today, so i thought i'd finally blog today and clean up and unpack and stuff. i've kinda been avoiding posting about the philippines, because i know it will take forever since there is so much stuff to tell you guys....but i'll just start at the beginning:every

mohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03657295257606676157noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249289956893899341.post-77306607448563538372008-07-20T17:19:00.004+02:002008-07-20T17:23:49.563+02:00

my heart has been stolen stories and images will follow soon, there are plenty of those, trust me. now it's time to 'go where dreams like rivers flow', it has been a long day...goodnight my dear friend

mohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03657295257606676157noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249289956893899341.post-28341062503320492362008-07-05T16:32:00.019+02:002008-12-10T01:51:59.476+01:00

it's 22.30 saturdaynight. i went out thursday and yesterday, so i'll be turning in early tonight (damn you jose cuerva). i've done so much things this week and also went through my first homesick moment. since i've never been this far from home without knowing when i'll be returning, i've never felt something like it before and i guess it's normal to miss home, family and friends once the

mohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03657295257606676157noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249289956893899341.post-27766222610874579892008-06-25T16:18:00.039+02:002008-12-10T01:52:06.245+01:00

the last few days have been a bit slow sightseeing-wise, but i did go to a few museums which were really interesting. and the beach of course. i was also curious about the gayscene over here and got on the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit, a metro but also a monorail, the best way to travel here) to chinatown (aka 'gaytown') where the most gaybars are located. as in most cities, Singapore doesn't have

mohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03657295257606676157noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249289956893899341.post-2772214761151152002008-06-18T07:01:00.008+02:002008-12-10T01:52:17.390+01:00

I haven't found a nice looking site to post pics on yet, so i'll just post them trough my stories. I did manage to create a portfolio, so if you're interested in my (highly amaturistic) photographs, then just click on 'portfolio' under 'links'. underneath it you can also find a link to my dads website about his treefarm which we will be visiting soon. the mosquitos here are loving me and their

mohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03657295257606676157noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249289956893899341.post-51976928065392689142008-06-16T06:56:00.000+02:002008-06-16T11:46:12.495+02:00

I'm having a great time here. I've been spending most of my days with my family and haven't been sightseeing on my own yet, but I'll probably do that in a couple of days, when I've figured out how everything works with public transportation and stuff. I also haven't made much pictures yet, because i usually do that when I'm alone and getting lost and seeing things i don't see when I'm distracted

mohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03657295257606676157noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249289956893899341.post-64597816387610672792008-06-11T03:20:00.000+02:002008-06-12T03:58:25.518+02:00

i’ve just arrived. the flight went well, but after nine hours i was like ok, can we be there already...after some turbulence and lightning (really nice to see from an airplane) a few movies, an hour of old skool Zelda (gameboy color one, very retro) and some tv shows, we arrived this morning after a thirteen hour flight (for my biorhythm it’s night time). I sat with my dad in business class for a

mohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03657295257606676157noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-249289956893899341.post-64901177915824236322008-06-08T19:27:00.000+02:002008-06-12T03:45:41.829+02:00

hey, welcome to my world,I won’t be posting my whole life story for those of you who don’t know me, because nothing much has happened so far. few years of school, few years of work...a few months ago I made the decision to visit my dad in Singapore and also backpack by myself. we leave this Tuesday and I’m really exited. I don’t know how long I’ll be gone for, probably a couple of months, but I

mohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03657295257606676157noreply@blogger.com1