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Bassie From Hollandtripping July 07 FinaleHi there all! It's disclosure time. I have been back home for a couple of weeks and I have been settling back in my dutch way of life. I moved to a new appartment in the city where I will try to get my master degree. I have been catching up with my administration (the IRS was quite upset with me) and work has been catching up with me. Yes, it is life back home as usual. But I feel really comfortable now. Although the last months of travelling has been superb, I felt it was time to direct my activities back on study and working again. Something I really enjoy and looking forward to do. Also it was great to see long-time-not-seen friends and family! People sometimes ask me what my favorite spot was. This is a hard question to answer. The obvious response is: it depends. Every country has it's own charmes and annoyances. However, for me personally, I felt really at ease and was amazed the most in Cambodia. There was something about the country and the way of life that was so different from back home. I met some great people, and I have really nice memories of those times. This was also the first country that I went to on my own. The longer I travelled, the more it became apparent to me that actually the country does not matter that much. If you look back it are always the places where you had a great time that will stay with you, that will occasionally pop up in your head. Remember how much fun you had playing cards, or that cool party, or that romantic encounter. These are the kind of things you will remember. Not the statue of liberty. I have spoken with so many people from so many different nationalities. These were my favorite spots. I can say I have been a little bit in a whole lot more places and cultures. I know I cannot reach them all this way, but I would like to take this opportunity here to say Hi to all these fellow travelers and native people that made this journey so amazing. You were great! I am not sure what to do with this weblog. I want to continue it and write about non-traveling related stuff. This will probably about movies/music/computers/life and others things that interest me. Please check back once in a while! (Or use the RSS feed) Thank you for being with me and sending me mails, posting comments, etc! I really enjoyed that! Now as the finale, I have selected ten pictures that I have taken and found the most interesting or appealing. Here they are (in random order). You can click on them for high resolution pictures. May 18 New York City & WashingtonSome people call New York City the capital of the world. I do not dare to say that.. but it comes pretty close! This big city is a mix of everything you can find on this planet. Not only all the people that combined speak a 100 different languages, but it is apparent in the shops, bars, churches and restaurants as well. If you live here, well there is not much need to travel anyway..
I spent the last couple of days exploring New York City, visit some landmarks as Wall Street, Central Park, Empire state building, etc. It is pretty cool to walk around in the city, and then watch superman in the evenings to see the spots you just walked by :) There are some really good area's to go for a beer and I checked out already some arthouse/foreign movies here (I actually saw the dutch movie Blackbook/Zwartboek here which I found funny to do in NY).
Life in NY is pretty hasty. It is all about self-improvement, latest fashion, organic food, healthy fitness, etc. Which are in itself good things ofcourse (sometimes it seemed people in California were not even aware these things exists at all), but here it is really pressing on you. But I guess that's what makes the city. I felt much more safer in NY than in LA, although I probably haven't been in the bad neighborhoods here whereas in L.A. you can hardly avoid them.
Because I stay here two weeks I decided I had the time to go to Washington as well. I just come back from that three-day trip. It is about a 6 hour drive south. Well, there is as much to say about Washington as about any political capital in the world: nothing. It is one big gallery of monuments, museums (which are all free), memorials and governmental buildings. Ok, it is nice to see the white house once (pretty small) or the washington monument (pretty big), but after one day you have seen it all. All these big, grey, monumental, spiritless buildings get to you after a while. It was time to go back to NY..
I just checked in for the next four days before I fly (I leave monday, arrive tuesday) in the last hostel where I will stay. After almost 8 months abroad I have seen a lot of beds. It will be nice to have a bed to sleep in for more than just three nights :) My plans for the last days are just to chill a bit here before heading back.
Howdie! May 12 MexicoI made it into Mexico... and best of all, I made it also out of Mexico. There is something funny about the border between Mexico and USA. I guess it is one of the most heaviest guarded borders in the world, because of a lot of illegal hispanic immigrants trying to cross it. However if you leave the USA there is absolutely nothing else but a single door! No control, no searching, no check for visa, no questioning. Nothing. I have never encountered something like it.
The bordercity was Tijuana. And we went there with a group of about 15 people from the hostel. And it was big fun! Cheap beer, cheap tequila's, mexican steaks, bull-riding and good dance music! At about 5 a.m. we decided it was time to go back home and take the first tram back to San Diego. Mexico is very different from the USA, it was nice to get a night off from the 'western' culture :)
After a very short night I took the bus back to L.A. where I took the plane to New York City. I have been here for almost five days now, and I must agree with everybody that I have met so far who have been in NY. It is a great city :)
But let me tell you more about that next time..
I'm looking forward to see you all again soon!
Cheers, Bas May 10 Las VegasApparently you can see the lights from over 100 miles when you cross the enormous (deadly) nevada dessert to come there. It is amazing to cross through rough desert areas for hours and suddenly you arrive in this city which has about 1.6 million inhabitants .. and over 35 million visitors a year: Las Vegas. The world's capital of gambling. And house to 8 out of 10 of the world's largest hotels. And yes, this is one cool place!
Ok, admittedly there is not much to Las Vegas except for these four ingredients: Gambling, Shows, Eating and Drinking. But what they do, they do good. I spent three days in Las Vegas and spent most of my time just walking around and be amazed by the absurdly over-luxury and over-done buildings you will see. Imagine a 'small' eiffeltower recreated. With small meaning maybe half the size of the original. Or a hotel built as a resemblance of the most famous buildings in New York. And with a remake of the statue of liberty in front. Or imagine the channels you will see in Venice, Italy. But now inside and on the first floor. Complete with water, boats and singing boatmen and women. Yes, this is one crazy place!
I am not really in gambling, so I decided not too waste too much money on games. However, my first try on of the many slotmachines (about 2000 in every casino..) I made a profit from just $2 to $28. How about that :) I thought: 'I beat the odds, I beat the system, let's get out'. So I left the casino with profit to do all those other things in Las Vegas. And I think not many people can say that. Because Las Vegas is a place to spend money. And spend it big time. There are poker rooms with bets minimum of $1000. That will set you back unless you're really confident you know the game. Not even to speak of games like blackjack, where the house has always an advantage over you..
I spent the time watching many (free) shows like enormous fountains dancing to music, a sexy outdoor pirate show and a hilarious hypnosis show. I expected Las Vegas a mit more cheesy, but is anything but. Ofcourse it is over-the-top and ofcourse it is crazy. But is is done with style and everything looks very nice. Go to Las Vegas, prepare to spend some money and you'll have a great time!
After Las Vegas I decided not to go back to L.A. immediately, since it is not really a nice place to hang around after all. So instead I travelled to San Diego to spend just two nights there. What I didn't expect though, was that it turned out that I didn't see much of San Diego after all.. since I headed together with a small delegation from the hostel to Mexico! Now that was interesting .. but more about that next time! May 09 More of californiaOur apologies for any delays..
San Francisco is indeed a cool city. The city is build on 42 hills and ofcourse the best (well at least most fun) way to get around is by tram! There are still some old cable-cars (pulled by a cable under the ground) that will take you around downtown. Another way is hiking and this sure will get you in shape, as some hills are inclined at more than 15%! That is why people here are ordered to park their cars 90 degrees to the sidewalks, since some cars have the tendency to fall back otherwise.. San Francisco is compared to Los Angeles a hundred times more beautiful, with a beautiful harbour, the massive golden gate bridge (much bigger than I'd expected!) and one of the biggest inner-city parks in America. Maybe not directly known to anybody.. but S.F. is also home to Alcatraz, the famous prison-on-an-island where among others Al Capone has been locked away for some years. And is the basis for many movies such as The Rock with Sean Connery and Escape from alcatraz with Clint Eastwood. Ofcourse I had to find out if it really is impossible to escape from there so I visited the island and the cellblocks. Pretty impressive and I am sure it was impossible to escape!
S.F. is a hip city with many bars, clubs, etc. With some guys from the hostel we checked this out and had a great night out, although the party ended at 2 a.m. when everything in S.F. closes.. A little bit of a dissapointment. It is a good thing that I'm over 21 though, since they check everywhere here!
But now it was time for something all different.. it was time for Las Vegas! How it was? Crazy, amazing, impressive and better than I would have expected! But I'm running out of time so I'll keep you updated next time! April 27 California dreaming"It never rains in southern california". I can confess that this is not the case.
But that was only the first day. Ever since the weather has been beautiful, although the weather back home in Holland is going crazy now (temperatures reaching 28-30 degrees celcius!). What do the people in L.A. do on a hot summer day. They go to Venice Beach. This beach is maybe most famous for it's setting for the television show Baywatch. Ofcourse I had to check out if the lifeguards are anything like it in real life, so a busride took me to Santa Monica, the place of Venice Beach. Unfortunately, it was apparently too cold to swim as there were almost no people on the beach. So a quick trip to the famous pier with the fair on top of it, was the closest I go to see Baywatch in real life :)
People sometimes asked me if it was safe travelling in countries like Cambodia and Vietnam. I can now honestly say that L.A. was the single most hostile place of my entire trip! I'd rather end up on a countryroad in Vietnam than in a bad neighborhoofd in L.A. Which is ofcourse exactly that neighborhood where they put the greyhound bus terminals. The reason? I quickly found out that America is indeed a country of extremes. Sure, you have the hollywood richest. But on the other hand there are a huge amount of poor people, mostly immigrants. The number of homeless people, disables people and beggars is staggering. Especially when the sun sets down there arrives a hostile atmosphere in the city. And everybody acts tough. In the bus from Santa Monica back to down town L.A. for example there where two guys fighting in the bus, because one of them jumped the queue, or something like it. It was not the fact that the guy got mad about it, but the excessive amount of violence he used to make his point, that surprised me. And this was at 8 p.m. in a good neighborhood and a bus full of people.
And in the land of extremes, there must ofcourse be a counterpart of LA. I experienced that the next day when I made my day to Santa Barbara. This seaside town is the perfect resort for retired eldery, the nouveaux riches, and the holidaytourists. With it's beautiful mediterranean style building, wildflower, palmtrees, mountains and ocean it is a stunning city to see. This is the spot where you can spot your grandma driving that Porsche 911, or your grandfather in a Escalade.. One day is enough for plain sightseeing, so I travelled today to San Francisco. Home to the golden gate bridge and that olden-golden television show about a family of which I forgot the name. I just can remember it was the near-perfect family in the perfect city. I'll check it out and let you know the truth behind this!
Btw, some people asked me about the date I am to return home. The planned date is to arrive tuesday, 22 may at 13:45 at Schiphol. Just so you know.
Enjoy your crazy weather! April 23 To the U.S.A.Today I had to leave behind the big green parks, the multicultural splendid cities, white beaches, Victoria Bitter beer, kangaroos, other strange creatures. And no more 'cheers mate' and 'no worries'. But after six weeks in Australia, it was time to move on. Although there are many parts of the country that I haven't seen (most notably the west, north, south and middle areas haha), I think I have seen enough of Australia to really get a feeling of the country and the way of life. Although the beaches were nice to spend a couple of days, it were the cities that I liked the most. Specifically Melbourne and Sydney. Which one is 'better'? I honestly cannot decide. Although Melbourne has a bit less snobby vibe, Sydney has some amazing scenery through the city and surroundings that is unsurpassed. I enjoyed both cities equally well.
Ofcourse the best way to spend your last night in any country or continent .. is just partying! The ideas was in short this: I would drink a couple of beers, get a dance, go to bed late so I would be really tired. And then sleep on the 13-hour flight that was ahead of me. I succeeded in the former. In fact it was so late, I decided not to sleep at all. But the plane turned out to have this amazing, state-of-the-art, video-on-demand, high-quality featured super-cool entertainment console. Obviously I didn't want to wast my time sleeping when I can watch al the latest movies (like The Queen, The Departed, latest simpsons episodes, etc) all night long. Needless to say, by the time I arrived at my hostel in Los Angeles my eyes were twitching in an attempt to go to sleep.
But it was 7 a.m. in the morning. Whereas I departured 10.50 a.m. from Sydney. So I actually went back in time and arrived before I departed. Now that is a neat trick. After getting some well deserved rest I decided to go out and walk around.
I quickly figured out that LA is huge. Imagine a population that surpasses the population of a small country (for example say The Netherlands), divided over hundreds suburbs in bungalow styles, wide lanes in between in a nice evenly designed grid. That is how most of LA looks like. Massive, but not very interesting. Fortunately my hostel is situated in the middle of Hollywood. Within 5 minutes you are walking either on Hollywood boulevard, or Sunset boulevard. The former is dedicated to the art of moviemaking, whereas the latter is the place to be when the nightlife takes off. Ofcourse, a big part of this is one big touristic sight. But walking the walk of fame, bearing the names of 2000 hollywood stars, and the hollywood sign in the background tells you: yes, this is Hollywood. And I am in the U.S.A. April 18 Leaving Melbourne: back to SydneyMy apologies for the lack of logitems lately. I guess the main reason is that I have not been travelling that much in the last two weeks. And although I really enjoyed myself in Melbourne, there was not much to tell about it for you guys. I spend some afternoons playing soccers in one of the numerours parks, readings books in the botanical gardens or along the Yarra river. Chilled out on a free african music festival. Drank beer in the most dodgy metalcafe, and ordered cocktails in the finest R&B clubs in town. And everything in between. I watched free comedy shows on federal square, and went to the cinema's. One day I would visit a museum, the next I was jogging on the Melbourne F1 racetrack. I met a lot of nice people at the hostel to hang out with (for some reason a lot of germans) to spend the evenings playing cards, watching a movie or just having a chat. In short: I had a great time in Melbourne!
But it was time to move on, so last night I took the night bus to Sydney. Where I have already spent a couple of days upon arrival in Australia. Did you know that the cost of flying here in Australia is in many cases comparable or even cheaper than taking the bus or train? For a trip from Melbourne you would pay AUS$77 for the bus, AUS$79 for the plane and AUS$124 for the train. No wonder flying is so popular here! However I chose the bus option, since you save money on accomodation and shuttlebuses. And time is something I can afford to waste. And ofcourse it more environmental friendly (ha).
What more to tell. Could I live in Australia? I certainly could for a couple of years. Although it didn't capture my heart, there is something unique and refreshing about the easy-going lifestyle, a real multi-culture living environment (far more than in the Netherlands) and the joy of having great nature and wildlife on the doorstep of a cosmopolitan city. That said, in Australia it is still not happening. There is this sense that you are far and remote from the other western countries (which is true). As a global economic player, it has little importance. The influence of Australian music, movies or arts in the world is small. Maybe that is why the australian people are so focused on sports. In which they excel, having won relatively by far the most olympic medals in the world. All this is not surprising, ofcourse, since the total population of Australia is only a mere 20 million people. Barely more than in the Netherlands. But where the dutch people have a modest view of their small country's role in Europe and the world, Australia need in some way to compensate that justifies the occupation of a whole continent! Austrlian people are proud of their country. They make their own cars (Holden) and have their own fastfood chains. There is not a product or shop here that doesn't say 'Proudly Australian Owned' or 'Made of 100% Australian products'. Even on products where it highly unlikely that no other countries were involved in the production. And even then, who are australians? A population that has such a rich mix of people all over the world, now spanning from first to third generation, and still so young is difficult to just approach them by their common denominator: australian citizenship. The influences of all these cultures and foreign people is too important. I still do not really understand where this ozzie patrionism comes from.
I will stay in Sydney until Sunday the 22nd of April. On that day I will depart to Los Angeles. I am looking forward to go to the states. But still need to figure out the best way to travel there, and where to go to. I have spoken quite a few people that have been in L.A. and actually none of them really likes it; they all say I should go to San Francisco instead. So I will probably travel to there as well. There is not really a backpacker culture as here in Australia, so it will be a bit harder to get around and travelling. Maybe I can team up with somebody and hire a car for a couple of days. I figure that is the best way of getting around, as here in Australia.
I have been very lucky with the weather in Australia during my last six weeks here! Except for a couple of chilly nights in Melbourne, the sun was shining every day with good temperatures and most importanly almost no rain! Which is a good thing for me as a traveller, but a major problem for Australia where they face big drought problems this year. But not as extreme as back home, though! With temperatures hitting almost thirty degrees in mid-april... I am almost getting jealous!
I uploaded some new pictures as well. See the right side of this site.
I hope you are all doing fine! And enjoy these lovely mid-spring days coming to you.
C ya,
Bas
April 06 36 can play that gameThe other day I went to a match of Australian Rules Football (AF). For anyone outside of australia, where this game is practically unheard of, let me explain. Some hundred years ago, the game of cricket was imported from england and played everywhere in Australia. How to play that game, is still unknown. What was apparant, though, was that the game was very slow and could took hours or even days; a typical match may take up to four days. So the australians looked at this huge circular cricket field and they felt there had te be more to it than just playing cricket on it. So they invented australian football. A game now very popular in the Melbourne region (Victoria state). Some interesting key facts:
- The game is played on a regular (huge) circular cricket field
- Each team has at any time 18 (!) players in the field
- At any time there are 4 referees in the field
- Tactics are given to players by sending people into the field, during the game (dodging the balls as they come)
- The same for the people that bring water or refreshments to the players
- If a player is injured; the game goes on anyway
As you can maybe tell by now, this is a very hectic game! And played totally different than rugby, or american football. The main play is something about this. Get the ball, punch it forward to teamplayers (no throwing), or kick it. Catch the ball withing 50 yards of the 'goal' (two large poles), which is a mark. As a reward you get a free kick from the spot where you caught the ball, to shoot the ball between the big poles. Goal!!
For me personally, I had never heard of this game before, but I actually kind of liked it. At least compared to cricket is a million times more exciting and fun to watch! April 05 The australian way of lifeSorry I had you waiting such a long time. But here it is, the story continues.. For not apparent reason I can think of, but me and horses never seem to get along. Ever since I was a kid they didn't like me, showing it by nervously kicking around, and I did not like them. Showing it by mainly avoiding them, or for that matter any other animal which head is bigger than mine. So I was a bit nervous on my way to a real australian farm, located some 150km inland from Rockhampton, where I would ride a horse around the cattle for a few hours to experience that real australian-cowboy-outback-farmer-feeling. Fortunately I got a horse named 'Abba', which was as sweet and easygoing as the famous swedish musicband. Although she did not really act to pretty much any order I gave out by kicking and pulling, I got around and made it to a safe end. My anxiety for horses has at last been challenged! The stay at the farm was great. The farms are huge and so you have to go around on horses or motorbikes. They grow cows on that farm (not breed them), and in Australia this is a very good business. I finally got to see kangaroos in the wild, and toasted my breakfast above a big fire. Although I stayed only one day, I really enjoyed seeing this part of australian life after visiting all those beaches! If one travels up the eastcoast, one has to do the Whitsunday Islands. Or so they say. So off I went to Airlie Beach, the small touristic beachplace from which you can take one of the numerous sailing trips around the islands. I went on a one-day trip one a small family owned boat, which was great since the group of people is therefore also small and you get to know eachother better. We sailed around and snorkeled near a beach. I have done quite some snorkeling before, but this spot at the Great Barrier Reef was by far the best I have seen! You can spot over a hundred different kind of fishspecies, and many different types of coral. The broad colors, from black via bright purple to white is the finishing touch! But after seeing all these beaches and beautiful nature, I was ready for something different. So I decided to rush a bit up to Cairns, stay there one day and fly back to Melbourne. That day in Cairns I decided to take the leap and went bungee jumping for the first time in my life. I can tell you this.. it's much scarier than skydiving!! My scream, which was a mix of fear and joy, could have caused a small tsunami.. Next stop was Melbourne. I decided to slow down my pace of travelling, and to settle here for a longer time (some two weeks). Which will not be that hard, since there is a lot to do here! Melbourne thrives on vintage shops, bars, pubs, live music, cinema, comedy, festivals, food, etc! I am now staying a great small hostel with some nice people to hang out with and just explore the city. I just got back from my 2-day trip along the Great Ocean Road, a scenic freeway along the south-west coast of Australia. I will tell you more about this and australian life next time! Catch ya later! |
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