This transit is also the end of my 8 month trip to Asia.
I remember everything very well. My India experience started right here with a 3 hour quest to get my luggage back. Signing papers, filling out forms, showing passports, more forms, more signing, more checkpoints… I never realised until much later this was my first hardcore India experience. Indians with their formalities… you have to experience their system yourself to know how absurd it is.

Well being stuck here gives me loads of time to think about all the highlights:

• Taxi driver that tries to rip me of in my 30 first minutes in Delhi
• Delhi by night, my first real life “Purgatory” experience.
• Indian hospitality with Arijids family and his moms music school on Sunday.
• The ‘dont go there because its too dangerous for tourists’-Krishna festival and the “whoops”-wrong-ticket-now-stuck-in-standing-class train ride.
• The beautiful palace atop of the garbage belt in Fathepur Sikri. My first unexpected awe-moment. My first ‘only possible in India’-experience.
• The few days with the Sikh family.
• My first relaxing days in the Rishikesh with Eyal the Israeli commando and the lovely nepalese couple with their big hearts and great food.
• My one week in McLeod Ganj getting introduced to Buddhism meeting all these lovely people and teaching webdesign to the people from a Tibetan newspaper.
• Then Varanasi, city of the dead, the holiest(and craziest) city of India. My hairs still rise when I think about that place. Probably the most intense days in India.
• First taste of Kolkatta. Seeing people from different sex holding hands and showing affection on the street! (first time after 1 month). And whoaaah the food here tastes great!
• Culture shock arriving in Bangkok. “It seems all soo clean, fast and efficient”
• Thailand partying with couchsurfers, meeting Koen & Kim and going north looking for more intense adventures.
• Ending up in a tropical storm during the hiltribe trek feeling like Indiana Jones and spending a fantastic week on a bike, laughing non stop, with 2 french girls and a Mexican.
• Returning for Durga Puja in Kolkatta. Kolkatta rocks! I love this city. The more I know India the less I understand it. GREAT!
• The flowermarket in Kolkatta!
• Going north to Darjeeling and Sikkim with a group of 10 lonely travellers.
• The beauty of the “blah-blah I forgot the name”-valley. First rooftop ride experience!
• Crossing the border to Nepal on a 1km long bridge, being in no mans land and getting the call from my sister telling me she is pregnant. From all places :p
• Kathmandu and the hexagonal relationships .
• Nepal bus rooftop rides!

• Ending up with Rachel aka Spiderdyke, so far my best travel companion, having the one crazy adventure or amazing experience after the other. 100% pure travelchemistry.

• Beautifull and magical Bandipur. The untouched and most magic village above the clouds! Staying there untill we run out of money :d
• Sneaking in Prince of Persia style into the palace in Orcha
• Kamasutra temples and bumping into Angela(one of the lonely sikkim travellers) again
• Orcha all over again with different people
• Taj Mahal!
• Looking for the nothing in “Deeg” and being amazed about how much “nothing” offers in India.
• Rajasthan, Bang-lassis in Pushkar and the most awesome fort I have ever seen in Jodhepur.
• The full on Rajastan experience: opium drinking, pot smoking, bike riding in the desert, and the holy bike ritual. Thank to my awsome guide and crazy friend, Papsa!
• Bang cookie and meditative camel ride in the Jaisalmer desert
• The starlit sky with hundreds of falling stars in the desert.
• Last days in Delhi when the weather is bearable combined with 4 extremely positive couchsurfing experiences.

And I guess I forgot so many details after 8 months :p
And now I am just half way

The collective!

• My arrival at the collective and the craziest and warmest(hottest) “welcome to the job” I will ever have in my life.
• The fashion show on Christmas! Everything for free!
• The beach and diving courses on Koh Tao
• New year with my little fluo elf
• The crazy moving of 22 luggage bags and 12 hand-luggage trip from Phuket to Pai with 6 people. Everything went wrong but every problem ended up better than we ever could have dreamed.
• First impression of Pai. Going on a natural high for weeks.
• Bike rides in fantasy Pai valley!
• Finishing my first project
• John( love you too John ), Susi(miss you Dutchie), Andrew( amigo face(s) ), Jeff( tech buddy-”we hate servershit” ),TTT(always there, always understanding, peace & love from the heart), Casey( intercultural understanding), Jim( way cooler than Elvis), Mandy( lovely warm smile), Charish( crazy Charish), Elena(rrrooaarrr naughty Elena), Rachel (the world is not big enough for to like you )…  and all the others too of course! Every one of you guys where amazing experiences
• The people from the collective are just awesome!
• Getting abused by Shonali and her roommate Elena for one week :p
• Chiang mai with Shonali
• Moms visit in Thailand.
• One month of non stop working and partying in Pai. I could do this the rest of my life.
• More intense bikerides in North Thailand.
• My new roommate: the famous “The Rachel”-experience. .
• Making friends with the Phu-Pai Angels: Alex, my spiritual sister. Heather, yes English girls can be extremely hot too and Mod, full time party girl and owner of the best cocktailbar in Pai.
• Riding to Birma on a Honda 125. Pushing all my limits( and the ones of my bike)
• Birma hilltribes trek.
• More working and partying and doing nothing in Pai. I just can’t get enough of it
• Laos visa run with Alice.
• Gaye… sigh… this chapter is missing from my blog for a good reason. See what happens when you try to split the love atom. kaboom…
• The goodbyes
• The end of my projects
• TheMaehongson Bollywood adventure with Laura, David and Shonali
• and finnaly Shonali… Shonali… Shonali…

The end… ?

ik ben terug in Thailand en deze keer mag ik het land niet meer verlaten.(one entry visa ) Laos was “ok”. Een beetje te braafkes naar mijn goesting. Ik was mijn collega reisgenootje onderweg verloren en had een stoem boek bij de hand. Saaie reizigers in de bus en in mijn guesthouse… Tjah… Kben blij dat ik terug bij m’n vriendjes ben en terug kan werken. Serieus! Ik keek er zo naar uit om er terug in te vliegen. Anyway, 2 nieuwe sets op mijn flickr account: Laos en Birma. Enjoy

En voor de rest? 

ik ben aangenomen om voor CS te gaan werken maar dan moet voor 8 maart beslissen of ik met de groep naar Alaska verhuis voor deze zomer… hmmmm… Woeste locatie  als je het mij vraagt… Iedereen die er al geweest is is er super enthousiast over… choices choices… ik wil ook naar huis gaan om iedereen terug te zien en om te genieten van onze 2 maand durende Belgische zomer. En ik mis mijn lieve zusjes zooooo hard. *zucht*… en Floris, ik denk ook aan u en onze zeehond. Heel veel zelf. En al mijn maatjes… ja al mijn friendjes ginder aan het feesten, aan het salsa dansen(zonder mij ), frisbeeen of aan het bouwen… eigenlijk begin ik iedere en een beetje te missen… maar ik krijg ook de krop in de keel als ik er aan denk dat ik binnen een maand vaarwel moet zeggen aan mijn o zo goeie nieuwe vriendjes hier .

There is no such place like home and there is no such place like Pai…

Over the hills says a crazy old amican tourist in Myanmar. Go back to Pai “over the hills”. I am crazy too… I think… so in stead of taking the main road I take a crazy offroad part with no idea what I am getting into.

And then it started…

Don’t think I have to write a lot here. The expression on my face tells enough I think.
“Mijn gezicht spreekt boekdelen” they say in Belgium… by the way, is Belgium still there? Half of it maybe… I don’t care actually :p

And after 7h of bikeriding pushing all my limits to the max I see the Pai Valley! HOME I shout! Thank god…errrr… I mean Buddha!

Damn I am crazy indeed.

Harry’s owners try to sell me a tribe tour around the valley. I am interested but its too pricy and decide to explore the countryside my way. I walk into town and start talkin to motortaxiguys looking for a good english speaking guide to bring me to some villages in the hills. I find a old guy when I am about to get a haircut on the street. While the hairdresser gives me my burmese hairstyle “Iceman”, as he calls himself, convinces me that he is the right man for the job. He offers me a bike and a translator to go to the tribes for only half the price of Harrys. So here I go into the countryside. Once you are in it its even better than I imagined. I was so busy looking at all the picturesque scenes and huge crazy fuckin trees I had no time for taking pictures.

Our first stop is the Nat Min Khaung village( Nat Min Khaung? I’m not sure :s). A little bit spoiled by the few tourists but still quite impressive. Iceman shows me around town and shows me how they use nature to provide them everything. Water, electricity even fridges and music. Down the hill there is even a huge movie theatre with a very small tv screen for the whole village After that village we visit some more villages deeper into the jungle. More same same but different.

Iceman is Iceman because he owns an ice company and delivers ice all over town. He knows everybody and everybody loves Iceman (because thanks to him people can drink cold beer! ) Iceman ends every 2 sentences he says with a loud laugh so half of the time he is cracked up with his own thoughts and random comments. The only time he was not laughing was when I asked about the government. He says to me “Everything is fine, everybody is quite happy here, in two years there are elections and everything will change” (no laugh). He didn’t notice but I did.

There surely is something fishy living with the people there. Unfortunately I don’t know enough about the situation to ask the right questions. So I explore the villages and the valley. Visit the icefactory and a liquor factory and end the night with the one remaining American girl in the guesthouse.

I wake up in the bordertown Tachilek. As a tourist in Myanmar you don’t have too much freedom. You leave your passport at the border and get a Myanmar visa-passport that’s valid for 14 days. You have no other choice other than to exit the country again at the same bordertown. You also get a paper where they write down every step you make inside the country. You take the public transport or stay somewhere, you lose your new carton passport until you take a next step. So there is no ‘jumping’ off the bus wherever you want to. You have to do all the checkpoints and then you get your pass back at the planned destination.

The locals have almost similar restrictions. I heard one say that if they move for any reason to another town they have go to a checkup every 14 days and pay a little fee for their stay. No freedom, no human rights they whispered to me.

Tachilek – Kengtung

also spelled Cheingtung, Chiang Tung, Kyaingtong or even something else, nobody knows exactly. So Kengtong is my destination and the farest you ca go over land from Thailand. Like I didn’t really know what I would find there in Kengtung I expected everything. The first half of the ride is quite dull compared with the amazing scenery from North Thailand but once the ‘ok’-bus got over the hills and reach the Kengtung valley I could not wait to jump out of the bus and go explore that amazing countryside. The valley was with the many little streams, lakes and green ricefields and bleu sky with fluffy clouds a bit like teletubby land. It was even more beautiful than the Pai valley mostly because it all looks so untouched by civilisation and most of all untouchd by tourism.

I have seem some crazy shit in India and actually I thought to see crazy shit in Kengtung. You never hear about the good sides of Myanmar on TV. But in reality you don’t see much of whats going on on TV. Here in Kengtung people are going on with their life, having good times, working or going to school having a pretty normal life. The towns where not overcrowded and the kids played football on footballfields, the adolescents go to nightclubs, the working class is working and after work go play some tennis and women work in the shops till late at night while men sit in the bars and watch TV.
So I try to get lost in Kengtung hoping to see “something” that would really jump out. Unfortunately there was nothing really unique or special. Although the feeling that everything is untouched was quite present with me all the time and I can’t wait to go into the countryside again the next day.
I was not allowed for a tourist to take a Myanmar guesthouse so I had to take a touristy place. I find Harry’s guesthouse where I get the best bed in 7 months for 5dollar (inclusive a good breakfast). I meet some other backpackers at Harry’s and that night we decide to go out to a Myanmar Club. American hip-hop and Linkin Park mixed with Myanmar covers of American pop songs all night. Fun.

… and the ladyboys in Myanmar? 

Guys to the left, lady’s to the right, here I am stuck with some ladyboys in the middle :p After some flirting with the most sexy ladyboy I have ever seen(yeeees I knew it before I started) my friends thought it was about time to stop drinking that cheap wisky. They didn’t believe that I was the most sober of all! -”Denial”, the american girl replies… but but…:( The ladyboy is just one of the most beautiful girls I have ever seen! And while my mind said “you stupid arse, she is a he”, all my senses said Rooooaaarrrrr . Anyway, mind over body, right? So I go back to my friends and with NO ladyboy back to the most comfy bed in all of Asia.

From a Pai party….

So here I am in Pai. One month passed by and I have to make another visa run to the border. Because my urge for adventure grows stonger every day I decide to leave Pai with a few rules just to fully experience the unexpected wonderful surprises of life.

1. Leave Pai with max 3 people for maximum flexibility.
2. Do the whole road on the Honda 125 to maximize the freedom.
3. NO planning and let the randomness of life lead the way.
4. NO luggage on the start and buy everything you need on the road.
5. Don’t listen to second hand information and follow your heart, intuition and experience.

I put my trip on the CouchSurfing calendar and wait. After a week we are with 3. A week before we leave there are 8 people thinking about joining the trip. During that week we hear all kinds of crazy stories about Myanmar. The internet tells about dead kids on the street, foreigners getting shot, problems with American visas, etc… Hey that’s exactly why I wanna go there I say. And so… the randomness of life, bacteria and the fear and paranoia about the long trip on the scooter and Myanmar as destination leaves me, 1 minute before we are about to leave, back all alone on my trip. A bit disappointed I grab the first book I see ‘the alchemist’ and take my Ipod for company. I select my ‘best off all time’-playlist pump up the volume to the max and here I goooooo. Total freedom!

I get a Honda from the rental shop where the daughter of the owner has a crush on me. I tell her I wanna do a big trip and need a good bike. She gives me a bike, does a full check up and ask if she can join. I say, hell yeah, why not, I go all the way into Myanmar… She shakes her head and gives me the keys… damn…

VroooOOOOOoooom…. Here I do the 762 curves out of the valley in 2 h. After 762 curves I feel (and also cross my fingers) my Honda is a trustworthy steed to face the next 600km with!

Suddenly, on the main road to the north, I see a big sign “monkey school and snake farm” and hit the breaks. I never slept in a monkey school I think by myself so I go ask the monkey trainer if they also have rooms. Yes she says but she had to clean it first. Good thing because the room smells of monkey and bananas… Ah well… they offer food, show me around the snakes of the farm and show me the dancing monkeys. I end up spending the night playing old Nintendo video games with a monkey trainer and her kid on a snake farm… Life doesn’t get any more random than this

In my bed I start reading ‘The Alchemist’ by Paulo Coelho. A story about a boy who travels following his heart and the “omens” on his path not listening to anybody who tries to stop him or convince him to go back… Sounds familiar . Grabbin this book is a very good ‘omen’ I think by myself.

…to a Myanmar border-town brothel

7 am. I wake up early and get a spaghetti bolognese Thai style for breakfast because I’m a farang(foreigner) and the lady thinks that spaghetti in the morning is a normal thing in the west. I’m not complaining, today I will be driving at least 5h to the border so I need a kick-ass heavy breakfast. I make a little stop at the Chang Dao Buddha cave and continue to the golden triangle of Thailand to cross the border of Myanmar. I cruise through the mountains and valeys and some hours later go over more even more beautifull mountains and cut through even more gorgeous valeys. Time flies and I don’t get tired at all. The roads are perfect and my faithful I-pod and Honda give this trip just the perfect vibe to cruise on.

At 3pm I arrive at the border. I give my bike to a local and cross the border as fast as possible hoping I would be on time to catch the last bus to Kheng Tung. I stop a motorbike taxi and ask a lift to the busstand.
DAMN! Too late, fuck Im stuck in this shitty border-town. Well actually it was not that bad. On the way to the busstand I saw this bordertown is getting better the further you go from the border. I ask my taxidriver to bring me to a cheap hotel.

He stops at a gloomy garage port. “Hotel?” I ask but my taxidriver seems too busy with his bike. Inside there is a guy staring at a candle. When he sees me he points at a door and says “waiting room”… owkey… Slowly I enter the room and see a pink painted room with two comfy leather sofas, a big tv with surround system and pictures of cute ladies on the wall. What is this… I sit down and decide to take a picture before someone enters the room. I just didn’t expect such a nice and comfortable room anywhere in this town.
A girl enters the room and stands in front of the Tv. “Euh Hellow… I need a room…” I ask. She just smiles back and says nothing. A few moments later another girl comes in, and then another, then another. The six girls in front of me are not very talkative and their expressions dont look really bright either. None of them responds to my “room, bed or shower” questions. Only gigling and smiling. Then an older lady comes in and I try again. “Hiiiii, euh… I think I am in the wrong place here but I am looking for a room. Understand? Room? Hotel? Guesthouse? Bed?” … No problem she responds. “Room, bed, shower & boom boom all night, very cheap cheap”. Hilarious moment with the girls who only understood the word boom boom. “Yeeeees… I am aware of that part already but thats why I am here” …silence… the smallest girl breaks the silence and says pretty proud ” I had today” and shows me 4 fingers. “Gooood for you” I say while I stand up, grab my stuff and give her a big thumb up. ‘I have to kick my taxidrives ass’ I say to the lady and keep my “stay in school” and “keep up the good work” jokes for myself. I pass the guy with th candle and run to my taxi driver, hit him on the helmet and ask him to bring me back to the center to a real hotel.

I roam a few hours in the town and notice that all the women are working and all the men are sitting in the bar playing pool or watching TV. Its still like Thailand but different… “same same but different”.