Whow, its been a while I visited my own blog. Quickly browsing through all those experiences shows me how dull default life can be compared to the nomadic life of a backpacker.

The end of my journey, my first months home and my impact on the economic crisis.
So when I came back in Belgium everything in my life seemed to go as smooth as a babies ass. First I get an incredible job opportunity, I found a great apartment in Brussels and then I meet an amazingly beautiful, intriguing, travelminded and smart girl from Morocco. It seemed life at home would not be as boring as I expected it to be.
But then, because I had absorbed and used all the good vibes around me for the last year I think I brought the universe a bit out of balance. This had a direct impact on the world around me causing the economic crisis, …of course…   (yes I was living on wall street when everything started)
Yes, me and the world have run out of good vibes and by the end of the year everything goes from seemingly pretty good, to slightly bad, to terribly worse and I end up at the end of the year, single, with no job in Paris.
Yes, walking in Paris in the rain wearing a funky retro psychedelic shirt after partying for 3 days and going back home back to… my Mom… in the Aalter… a place where nothing ever happens. Bonne année 2009? Boah, after the past two years I imagine the best parts of 2009 to be not even close to the worse parts of 2008.

But slowly slowly (shanti shanti) I’m working on gathering some new the good vibes and started wearing my Buddha necklace again. (It helped  during my travels so why would the way of the Buddha not help me through default life. )

Becoming a world citizen?

A few days later I get a phone call from a guy called Stan, a journalist for ‘De Standaard’, one of Belgians best newspapers. He wanted an interview of my couchsurfing adventures around the world. So of course I say yes and one week later I wake up from an sms send by a friend saying I got a whole page in the newspaper and an extremely ugly picture of me. The title says “Becoming a world citizen by traveling“. Whoah yeah ego boost. And then a day later Stan called again telling me he had so much material from our interview he wanted to use it to write another article. How cool is that?

So I restart my life in 2009

- “And now?”

I felt a wind of change for the future en so time passes and in one month I got everything back on track. I live in Ghent now(yes it IS Belgiums most beautiful city!), got some really nice projects to work on, I teach webdesign for one day in Leuven and girls yeah Ghent has by far the most beautiful and cool girls in Belgium! By far!

- “So you are going to stay in Belgium for a while?”

Well, yeah… kinda… My plan was to stay home for a whole year and jump on a bike in 2010 and do an epic bike ride in India with my Australian friend I met 2 years ago in my Paris adventures(see blogpost 2007). But as usual, things never work out as I planned in my life… because 3 days ago I got carried away talking with a couchsurfer about India… and to make a short story even shorter: 3 days later I have booked a ticket to india!

- Whow, dude, back up a minute. What? When? WTF Are you serious? You are just back from a trip around the world isn’t it?

Yep, its serious. On the 5th of April me and 3 other couchsurfers who don’t really know each other are about to do yet another unforgettable trip in (my)worlds craziest country. Indiajajajaa!!! I guess my stories work inspiring on some people around me.

Yeah, I’m eager to see all my friends in Mumbai again. And of course my little miss Bollywood, Shonali

So, stay tuned for more crazy adventures.

View from space?

Burning Man was crazy
7 days a chaos of beauty, art and music. no rules, no limits and pure sensation! Impressions and expressions on a scale I didn’t think was possible… here is how it started:

“Burning man”. I heard about it before and read about it in magazines but I encountered a real “burner” for the first time during my travels in India. I remember it like it was yesterday. It was on a rooftop restaurant in Darjeeling where I started talking with a random American who was just like me enjoying the view over Darjeeling. We both agreed that India was a crazy place. He didn’t agree when I said the craziest place on earth. Close, he said, but there is Black Rock City. He talked about Black Rock City as if it was mythical city, or at least that was how it sounded to me. It was the biggest, best, craziest and insane city on earth where anything is possible, really anything. He went on and on about it.

Black Rock City is the city that gets build up in 3 days in the Nevada desert. The City layout is that of a clock with in the center of the clock a big structure called “The Man”. The Burning Man. People make artworks of themselves or put their artwork in the desert or even better, make artcars and drive them around. Every day the party and craziness grows till the man burns. The moving artcars make the scenery surreal and ever changing. Non stop things are happening everywhere. Art, performances, music and people doing their thing collide under the desert sun. Things are happening everywhere, non stop, you can not even imagine but they do. And then, after 7 days, the city disappears again without leaving a trace!

Intrigued by his story but still a bit suspicious about what he said. He was American so of cours its biggest, best, craziest and insanest thing on earth. Americans also say that Budweiser is probably the best beer in the world… not! So yeah, I didn’t really believe him that much

But the more “burners” I encounter the crazier the stories became. And yeah, of course almost all my American friends from CS are burners too. So when the plan was to go to Alaska I was thinking about going down the lower 48 to see SF, Burning Man and New York. I had to see it because everybody said the same thing:

‘I can’t really tell you what BM is like, you have to experience it yourself to grasp what is going on.’

So with that line my story in my blog stops because I simply don’t know where to start about it.

Also, I just arrived in New York and I’m not really in the mood for spending more time online at the moment. I’ll let the pictures talk for themselves. Also I don’t have too many pictures… Strangely I took less than 100 pictures probably because I didn’t want to feel like a tourist hiding behind the camera…

You can find the rest on my flickr account

I don’t take the time to write about all the stuff we are doing here. There will be a huge post soon(er or later). In the mean while: hows life here at the collective? I’m a bit privileged this time because I share a room with Shonali (and people rather spend their night the other side of the garden in a tent than taking the one bed that is still available in our room. Really, I wonder why :p).  So writing about my life here would just give a wrong impression about how life here really is. My ex-roommate from Thailand has a blog that gives a quite complete impression about life here at the collective.  This an excerpt from her blog:

For those who can’t wait for the big update. Here you can find some amazing pictures by my two favorite people in the collective!

Here some more Pai and Alaska pictures from Andrew

Here some more Alaska portraits from Shonali

Stay tuned!

Remember the 2 people I met in India travelling on a tandem across the world? Well they are still cycling and are now in Turkey. This is one of their latest movies and its about Istanbul and CouchSurfing. Love it Guess what my next stop might be!

[youtube fPudnD9q9kA]

See more Planète.D movies!

Their website

No more rss-feeding on my personal life using it as unreliable source of information for what is going on in the Alaska collective because now the collective has an official blog!…

By the way, for the people in Belgium. The weather here is euh very “Belgian” at the moment. A bit of rain, a bit of wind, a bit of sun and a bit of everything in between   Good excuse to stay indoors and work!

New map for Alaska! (old map of India is still available for the older posts)

Rss feed links in the sidebar work now

Here is the full “CouchSurfing Collective – Thailand 2008 Achievements” document!

“Wow” was my first impression when I read that document. Wow, yeah its tons of work the collective did there! I’m very proud that I was part of that amazing team and experience in Pai.

After 3 months of breathing down my neck and criticizing the collective I wonder what did opencs say about that document?
Well, I don’t think they would ever say “sorry for all the shit” or “thanks for all that good work” because that’s not how OCS works. No of course, they jump on that document like hungry vultures trying to find excuses to write some more crap about CS. And of course they did. Its funny to read.

Aaah why do I still waste my time with these guys?
Simple! Because they are sooo funny.
OCS is just (slightly) better than reality tv!

Anyway, so I have decided to go to Alaska!
Leaving on the 20th of May!

Why? I have some good reasons to go to Alaska:

• Alaska! Untouched nature and snowy mountains. Fishin, climbin, hikin, partyin, Midnight sun dancin, moose spottin,…
• The team! I miss everybody (really everybody) from our little “cult” :p. I will see most of them back in Alaska. Just can’t wait. And of course all these new and interesting people to meet!
• The community! I got tons of positive reactions from ambassadors and volunteers all over the world sharing their appreciation for our work. People using the site and other volunteers thank us for no reason whatsoever. Just to say thanks Heart warming!
• InterCultural understanding. Yeah, I help CS spread ICU all over the world but for me is living in another continent with people from all continents the best ICU school I could wish for myself.
• Because I can! My life here in Belgium hasn’t restarted yet so basically I am still free to pack my backpack again and leave for another lifetime experience.
• and of course my sweet Bollywood pricess … Shonali

Yesterday I picked my sister up from school. While we where playing in the garden she suddenly told me something extremely sweet. She said “you know, when you where in India and I missed you I wached Robin Hood (the old one with Errol Flyn) because he reminds me of you.” Well, when I was a kid I saw that movie maybe a hundred times but I couldn’t quite see the resemblance. So I google for some images of my childhood hero and yeah…

Doogie dressed up as Robin Hood

Errol Flyn dressed as the
Paper Peter Pan on the Paris CS Picknick

I’m just missing some lipstick and a tiny moustache

The pricetag for the complete 7 month trip was 7000€

This includes:

• Ticket Brussels – Delhi and back: 700€ + 100€ (change return date )
• Plane ticket Kolkatta – Bangkok and back: 400€ (back during Durga Puja festival: 280€ )
• 3Days Rafting: 100€
• Plane ticket Delhi – Bangkok and back: 500€ (end of the year prices and high-season prices back )
• Repair old Ixus Camera: 75€
• New Ixus Camera: 250€
• Plane ticket Bangkok Phuket: 35€
• Plane ticket Chiang Mai – Bangkok – Phuket: 50€
• Laos visarun with plane from Vientienne to Chian Mai: 350€
• Divecourse advanced open water in Koh Tao: 200€
• Taj Mahal: 10€
• Rent Honda 125cc for 3 months + gas +/- 150€
• 3 Day camelsafari in desert: 75€

That leaves me 3700€ for 7 months of:

• Public transport + Tuk-Tuks
• Clothes and underwear(that’s too small, god damn Thai underwear)
• Souvenirs
• Food
• Guesthouses & hotels
• Women
• Booze
• Musea & ruins & UNESCO heritage sites
• Movies
• All the other fun stuff.

Did I ever try to save money?

I never ever saved on food! Its too important for my health and mood!

Actually I tried to live according to my needs. I took more expensive guesthouses when I was tired or just had a long and tiring trip. Never took the cheapest guesthouse. (Avg price per night was 4€)

Same for public transport. If i felt a bit weak or tired I took a higher class in the train or a taxi.

I don’t think I ever skipped anything I wanted to do for the money reason alone.

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… ?

The collective has ended a few days ago Now its just Laura, Shonali and me who remain in Paradise Pai. Some of us went back home to the family, continue travelling or  hang around somewhere else in Thailand. It was such an incredible experience working with all these interesting and different people from all over the world. I wish it could go on and on and to be honest… I really don’t want to go back to Belgium… The last 8 months I felt better at home anywhere between Delhi and Pai than in Belgium. Its funny to get mails from Belgium. The main question I get is not “when are you coming back?” but its “How long you are going to stay in Belgium?”.

I tried a few times to describe the whole experience in one post but I noticed that’s just impossible. I’m just all messed up to write something coherent at the moment.  Its all a bit to intense… *sigh*. But don’t worry mom, I’ll be home the 6th :p

Here some movies from the collective:

http://www.couchsurfing.com/collective_thailand_slideshow.html

http://www.couchsurfing.com/collective_alaska_join.html