F.A.Q.: Hey Doog, how long will you stay in Belgium now?

A: I’m already packing for Alaska!

Alaska? Its cold there!

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Cold? Not while CS is around, baby!

E.T.D? … yeaah don’t know… but its soon!

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… ?