Ordinary life of volunteering

We traveled by Tuktuk to the place where we would stay for 3 weeks. 20 min far away from the bigger city Siem Reap, surrounded by green rice fields, cows, chickens, Palm trees, fluffy clouds and blue sky, we arrived at a simple Cambodian house. A dog and a little naked boy welcomed us. We got a small room with a thin mattress and checked the “toilet” and bucket shower. We were really excited about living 3 weeks without running water and a proper toilet. In the evening we met all the other volunteers and got explained how life works here.

The next day was our first day of working at school. Jeff started a project, building a football-pitch for the kids and I tried out the teaching. The kids are unbelievable cute and willing to learn. I am proud to be part of this school and their lives, also if it is only for 3 weeks. After work we went home and enjoyed the dinner that Radys wife cooked for us. And once again Cambodian kitchen is delicious.

In the weekends we had off and could do some sightseeing in the area or go out with the people from school and Radys house. We visited Angkor Wat, I was waiting for this already the whole Asia trip. We went there for sunrise, we were a bit to early so we had time to eat a pancake. Having a pancake at 5 in the morning and watching the sunrise over one of the most beautiful and inspiring monuments is just fantastic. We wandered the entire day between temples and ancient ruins. Words just can not describe how beautiful and mysterious this was.

One day we decided to go to a temple which belongs to the Angkor area but you don’t have to buy a ticket for it. It is on a hill in the middle of the jungle, more then 600 steps lead to it. At the bottom of the hill we met a tourist policeman. He wouldn’t to let us pass if we don’t pay 1$pp. Really nothing is for free in Cambodia. After reaching the top exhausted and sweaty, we were blown away by the view. You could see hundreds of km far, sun was settling and the moon was already out, big and bright. On the top were the ruins aflame. Just wonderful.

3 weeks passed by so fast. And it was so sad to leave Radys house and the school. We will miss our new friends. Thanks to all the volunteers, it was a really great time with you.

The capital of Cambodia

we stayed in the center of Phnom Phen at the laughing fat man hotel, which is literally ran by a laughing fat man. A cozy place in the middle of a pulsing city. Surrounded by bars and restaurants.

Phnom Penh made a big impression to us. If you walk around you see stunning temples, beautiful buildings, expensive cars and fancy hotels and restaurants. But around the corner of the kings palace or any other fancy building there are dozens of children begging for food and money. In the night you see them laying with their siblings on one little blanket in a dark corner of the street.

Restaurants are full with old western men in accompaniment of young Asian girls. Girls trying to escape poverty and build up a better life.

In all this poverty Cambodian people are always friendly and trying to please you. If you look back on their history, which is full with war and killing, it is just amazing that Cambodians are like they are.

The last war is still so recent and made such a big influence on the country we decided to find more out about it. We took a TukTuk to a place 20km away from Phnom Penh.

This place is called the killing fields. In the 70s the Khmer Rouge (a communist party) gained power and took over Cambodia. During their leadership the killed 20% of Cambodians population, which is more then 1,5 mio. They brought them to the place called the killing fields. Men, women and children were killed there in cruel ways and buried in mass graves. We got an audio tour and spent there 3 hours listing to the stories of survivors and explanations about the war. This time at the fields was so touching and heavy. It is just 30 years ago, so recent and so scary.

After a few days in Phnom Penh we have to move on to Siem Reap. Unfortunately Jeff wakes up sick on the day we left the city. A terrible bus ride through a beautiful country later we arrive in Siem Reap and were picked up by Rady. The director of a local English school.

Update

Check our new photos under the Vietnamese flag in the Photo Gallery!

Goodbye of Betsy

The last day with Betsy was not a nice road. Just highway but it needed to be done to make Ho Chi Minh city. Ho Chi Minh city also known as Saigon is big and crowded. It's the only city in Vietnam that really gives you the feeling of being big or better said massive although it has only 7 million inhabitants.

After more than 2500 km it was time to change transportation again. For selling Betsy we called the guys where we bought it from and of course it went as smooth (read as totally not) as when we picked Betsy up in Hanoi. But 10 phone calls and 3 times discussion about the price and refund later we successfully sold Betsy.

Helpless without our bike we booked some tours to see the surroundings of Saigon. We went to the famous cu chi tunnels which were used during the American war as hiding place. The Vietnamese did an impressive job with making whole villages underground. The tunnels being so small that western people can not enter them. To give the tourist (like us) an impression they made a special tourist tunnel and some kind of small theme park around it. Here you can see everything about life in that period. We made it to through the 150 meter tourist tunnel and where soaked. It's soooo warm in the tunnel you can't imagine.

To end our Vietnam experience we went for a 3 day tour to the Mekong delta in the south of Vietnam which will end in Cambodia. This trip turned out to be a rush through the delta. We saw a lot of places we could not really link with the delta. They only thing we really learned is about the “happy room”. Every tour guide we met proudly told about the room where you go stressed in and come happy out: The restroom hahahaha. (Most of time it was only the guide that was laughing which made it actually a bit funny)

We also visited the biggest floating market of the Mekong Delta. It was nice to see how Vietnamese people do the trading on the water. Everyone comes with his boat and hangs outside what the offer for sale on a long stick, so everyone can see it. It was mostly pineapple, potato, salad and dragon fruit.

Our last morning in Vietnam was long, waking up at 5:30 to hop on a boat to Cambodia. With some short stops at a fish farm and a minority village, we arrived at 10 at the border which we crossed over water. After both border offices and a new visa we are heading to Phnom Penh by bus.

Dalat

Dalat is located at 1500 m above sea level and so a bit colder than the rest of Vietnam. In the evening it was only 15 degrees and we felt like in need of a winter jacket. If you have around 30 degrees for two months 15 is really cold. Its built on hills and is divided by a river. Dalat has beautiful architecture, a lot of influence by the french. It is really a beautiful city.

Besides the temperature we had a warm welcome. The hotel staff was nice and we met some motorcycle tour guides. Although we are traveling ourselves by bike the tour they had to offer sounded interesting. This would be the opportunity to visit all the things we saw on the side of the road for the last three weeks. We went the next morning on the back of the bikes and saw a coffee-, a flower farm and a silk factory before we got all the insights of rice whiskey making.

The whiskey distillery had a bit of a side business, weasel coffee. Weasel coffee is really expensive because the animal only eats the nicest coffee beans plus the enzymes in the stomach makes the taste even better. It sounds interesting but the reality is a sad sight. The weasels are put in really small cages where they move their body nervously from right to left.

One of the nicest things that day was a walk down a really dangerous path, it was really slippery, wet and we had to crawl over stones. This path ended behind a waterfall. It was amazing to stand there, hear the water rushing down and fell the water spray.

The coffee capital

Buon ma Thuot is surrounded by coffee plantations and is also known as the coffee capital of Vietnam. We just came in after harvesting so lots of pieces of road were confiscated for drying coffee beans. We booked two nights in a resort called the coffee tour, so expected actually to get a tour. Unfortunately there was no tour.

Instead we grabbed our map and took Betsy for a spin towards Yok Don National park, hired a guide and hiked through the forest for an hour or two. The park is mainly dry deciduous forest and has a lot of wildlife. If you some spend some more time there you could see monkeys, deers, snakes, elephants and more. We were really excited to see an elephant in the park until we noticed it was chained. The elephant was there for tourists to ride on. Fortunately Yok Don is not really known by tourists. After our 2 hour hike we stopped at the river and took a local boat back to the entrance. When the guy arrived with his boat he had to close some holes with fabric first and empty the boat from water. We thought that it wont sink if he is still on it and so we trusted the guy and enjoyed our little boat ride through the jungle. On the way home Caro did her first longer drive with Betsy and she did a pretty good job racing through the countryside.

The old capital and the tourist Mecca of Vietnam

After the turbulence of the typhoon and to be stuck in the middle of nowhere for 3 days, we were happy to move on. The next destination was Hue, the old capital of Vietnam. We visited the forbidden city, it is the little brother of the one in Beijing. Took a ride with a rickshaw through the old town and visited museums. We spent the evenings with 2 guys from Britain (we already met them in Phong Nha, they are also on a motorbike tour through Vietnam) drank beer for free in their hostel and were eating delicious burgers while playing billiard.

It was not far from Hue to Hoi An but it took quiet a long time to go there. The road goes a long the coast and is really hilly. It rained like fuck and the wind was blowing hard. Unfortunately we were only equipped with a rain poncho and plastic bags, not like the Britain s ;)with their hightec gear. At this moment we were so jalouse about their equipment. But thankfully we arrived Hoi An save but totally wet.

Hoi An has an ancient habour and it is known for its custom made clothes and shoes. It is full with restaurants and Bars, little bridges and cloth/food market. The architecture is influenced by the french (Vietnam was a french colony). It just looks beautiful. In the eve we met again the Britains and some other people from the farmstay, it was like a reunion. We went altogether for some beer and an awesome dinner in a quiet chic restaurant. The next day we rented a bicycle and drove to the beach unfortunately we could not use it because the typhoon let its marks. We also let some custom made shoes done for us. Jeff has now custom made Flip Flops :). 

The flood

Making it to Phong Nha, a day later though, was nice. Also because of the warning for typhoon Nari, which should hit the coast that day. We checked in the Phong Nha farmstay - run by a Vietnamese Australian couple. 2 weeks ago another typhoon hit the Hotel, they had to shut down for a while. Still there were some after effects of this typhoon, like no electricity and hot water. We didn’t mind because the staff was really nice and the rooms were so comfortable. The next day we did a tour to the paradise cave (the biggest dry cave in Asia)and the jungle around the cave (has a lot of war history). It was raining really hard so we couldn’t do a hike in the forest. After all it was really interesting and beautiful to watch.

On the way back to the farmstay we noticed that the river became a lot bigger and some streets were flooded. A bit scared to see that, we hoped that the farmstay is far enough away to not be flooded.

In the night the wind was getting so strong and it rained heavily that we could hardly sleep.We woke up the following morning and found the entire area under about 2-3 meters of water. “luckily” the farmstay was on a little hill so the water only reached the entrance. During the day the water was rising and we started to move all the bikes on higher ground and shifted beds, generator, fridges and documents from the farmstay to the first floor.

As there was nothing to do anymore then watch the water rising, we opened some beers and had some nice chats with the other guests. In the eve the water stopped rising (a few centimeters from the ground floor, which still meant a rise of 1,5 meter from the moment we woke up that morning) and retreated the rest of the day.  

Going off-road

Day plan: make it to Phong nha Nationalpark, 380 km away. A long day driving but with good roads it should be possible. If we would have stayed on the good roads and kept the tasks separated, Jeff is the driver and Caro the navigator, it would have worked out. But Jeff trusting Google maps' suggestion led us to a road with tire tracks till half a meter deep and parts where Betsy couldn't made it up in first gear. This set us back 2 hours. It was exciting and we managed to do it but our time plan was totally gone. Being on tarmac again we went full throttle and still drove 240 km that day.

We reached Pho Chau (a shithole) and  found a "Hotel". Now we think that it would have been better to sleep on a field or in the woods. We tried to avoid our room as much as possible, so we walked around the town looking for food. It was hard to find anything (unusual for Asian countries), after a while we found a shabby street food stand. We went for the save option, fried rice and Pho (noodle soup). Next to us were some drunk guys sitting and off course they started to talk to us. It would not have been bad if we would not have been so grumpy and pissed of by the hotel. We got strong alcohol from them and to be polite we drank the first few ones. After 4 glasses of rice wine (more Schnaps then wine) we tried to refuse. I can only tell that this escalated a bit. 

Betsy's breakdown

The road away from Mai Chau is really exciting. Full of curves, paved and right true a lot of really small villages. After Betsy's rest day we expected to have her healthy back, till after 5km we got a flat tire. OK, a flat tire can happen to the best of us. A very kind young man called a repair man for us and 45 min later we were on our way again. During the waiting we learned the Vietnamese national anthem from a drunk guy that couldn't stop singing (he couldn't stand still either).

In the mountains Betsy struggled and it was getting worse. First climbing in 3^rd gear, the next mountain in 2^nd till after a few mountains we got to a complete standstill. After some attempts we got her running again and hurried to the nearest town to let the experts take a look. The engine gave up. It looks like a not so healthy engine with two people and our luggage driving in the mountains was too much.

Some calls to the guys we bought the bike from made them promise to give a refund for the repair costs. 4 hours, a new cylinder head, a nap in someones living room, and a good lunch (plus exciting journey to get it) later we could resume our trip to only the nearest big city before nightfall. We ended it up in Thanh Hoa.

Back to the main land

Leaving early for a 325 km trip to Mai Chau. It doesn't sound that far, but in Vietnam you need two days for it. You can not really leave the island in a rush 'cause the ferry only goes when there are enough people to make a profit. Waiting a little bit less than an hour for the first one and about half that time for the second we made it to the mainland in three hours. Heading for Ninh Binh, where we plan to stay for the night. We took the smaller roads to see more of the country side, which is really nice in this area. The roads here are all paved (read as: easy to drive) and the only real obstacle was a floating pontoon bridge which was fun to drive. We made it there in the afternoon.

The next day we discovered the fun of driving on unpaved roads. In Europe these roads would be designated as “off road” but here they're the only connection between the villages. It's good that we got more comfortable on the bike on these roads, well only the driving skills our asses still don't like the seat. We spent hours driving over sand, mud and gravel till Betsy gave up. We were really beaten her, even when all the oil came out of the front suspension we kept on going, but finally she made us stop.

Our luggage was sitting a full 10 cm lower than before. The luggage rack was bend down and resting on the taillight. Jeff's attempt to bent it back broke it :( Helpful locals pointed us the way to a welding shop. Happy to have customers three guys started to fix the bike right away. An hour later and only 50000 dong lighter (which is 1,75 euro)we hit the road again. What a wonderful country.
 

At the end of the day we reached our goal, Mai Chau. Mai Chau is a lovely little village surrounded by mountains and paddy fields. We gave Betsy a day off and let the suspension fix and went ourselves for a hike around the fields guided by a local dog.  

The beauty

Halong Bay is THE must see in Vietnam with Halong city as it’s closed place to stay, that’s why this city is overcrowded and the Vietnamese who live there are pros in ripping people off. We got the tip to not go to Halong city but instead to a little island next to it. 5 hours bike ride and 2 mini ferries later we arrived at Cat Ba. And really it is breath taking, beautiful nature, traditional fisher boats and friendly (not ripping off) Vietnamese people. We explored the little island with Betsy (our motorcycle) and of course we got lost. Suddenly we were standing between mountains, rice fields and cows. It was so wonderful; it’s hard to put into words.  We walked around and ended up at a little cottage made out of bamboo. A woman was trying to get away with her scooter, but she was a bit struggling, Jeff the hero helped her. We got invited to their house- the bamboo cottage, a simple bed in one corner and the big flat screen TV in the other corner.

While riding back to the village where we had our Hotel, we came along a sign for a cave. We stopped and there came already a guy and helped us parking the bike. He introduced himself as the security guy of the secluded village and the hospital cave. The cave we found out is actually a bunker from the war 40 years ago. The guy showed us around and told us that he was working and living in the cave when he was in the army. And of course we ended up at his house drinking tea and hard liquor with this really interesting persons, telling us about the war and Vietnams history. He also introduced us to his wife and daughter and his 10 dogs.

The following day we did a boat tour through the bays. We visited a fishing village with floating houses; even the dogs have their own floating hut. With a kayak we explored caves and beaches.

Good morning Vietnam

We left on the 3^rd of October China by bus. As soon as we walked over the border we felt the change and were happy to experience a new country. And yes, we had to walk over the border, get out of the bus, walk over the border, and get in another bus.

In our new, not that fancy, Vietnamese bus we could watch the beautiful scenery of Vietnam, people working on rice fields, water buffalo standing on the side of the street and the different architecture of Vietnamese houses.

The bus driver kicked us out in the middle of Hanoi. Traffic in Hanoi is crazy, 10 mio scooters, 5 mio cars, a few mio bikes; tons of smog and all of them are selfish. We survived getting to our hostel, where we found out that we booked the wrong date, shit. Unfortunately they were also fully booked for that night. So they brought us to a different hotel. Holy shit, it was the worst of the worst …. Molt really everywhere, sealing is coming down and bathroom was so dirty. We were asking around in Hotel/Hostels if they have a room for us but we were really unlucky and couldn’t find anything. Then next day we checked immediately out and got a room somewhere else.

Hanoi is so different then all the cities we have been to so far. It’s so crowded (Yes Chinese cities are crowded too, but not like this), so many tourists, everyone is trying to rip you off, the architecture is so different and so beautiful, food and night life are fantastic.

On the second day in Hanoi we tried to buy a motorbike for our journey through Vietnam. We talked to a few local garages and to private persons who want to sell their motorbike. We choose for some English guys who opened their Motorcycle business 2 years ago. We fell in love with a bike and bought it, a Forelli. ( it’s a fake Honda win). We paid deposit and would pick it up 2 Days later.

After 2 days we came there with packed bags and ready to go on the road. BUT the Forelli was gone, they guy who sold it to us was also gone…. They mate of the guy who sold us the bike was really embarrassed and tried to help us as good as possible. We made a compromise and choose for another fake Honda Win. It is a bike that’s not sure yet if it is motocross or a normal motorbike or a scooter…. It looks funny, but it will do the job, we are sure about that J

Bye Bye China

Nanning was more necessity than chosen for its highlights as our last stop in China. It has a Vietnamese embassy which we needed to arrange our visas. Nanning is a crowded city. All business during the day but really comes alive in the evening. Just around the corner of the hotel there is a wonderful food market. Around five they close the street for traffic and food stands pop-up. Vegetables, fish and all kinds of meat, everything was there and all super fresh. For example the fish stand. They displayed there freshly cut off fish heads on a table while the gill where still moving for oxygen. Some would think it’s cruel, for Chinese this is the only way to sell fish, seafood and meat (also in the normal supermarket fish are alive and wait for their new owner)

On the other side of the hotel is the Yong River that flows through the heart of Nanning. On the side they made a boulevard with the width of a six lane road (it’s build above the road) and it’s THE place to be in the evening. Every club or sub-culture gathers here. Dozens of dance groups (from line dance till break dance), tai chi, skate boarders, bikers and open air karaoke it’s all there. It’s wonderful to see everybody is doing their sports and hobbies out in the open. Caro was also trying some line dancing, but we found out very fast that she doesn't have any skills; also a personal coach didn't help J

Just outside the city is a popular beach resort, Beihai. A bus takes you there in “only” 3 hours. On a perfectly sunny day we discovered this almost empty Chinese beach. We enjoyed summer, sun, cold drinks, some nice chats and delicious shrimps.

After 5 days we had our visas. We could move on to Vietnam.

Xingping

After a 25 hour train ride and sitting 2 hours in the bus we made it to Yangshuo. Out of the bus we got attacked by taxi drivers who knew the way to our hostel for only 150 rmb (about 17 euro). Till know, our most expensive ride was about 20 and took about half an hour. We had booked a hostel just outside of this city in a village called Xingping, or that’s what we thought. Tired from travelling and the taxi drivers we found out it’s 30km away and we just missed the last bus.

Back to the taxi drivers the prices already dropped a bit. A young guy who’s English was decent would take us for 70 rmb by motorbike. We went for it and 5 minutes later we were on our way with 3 people on his bike, one backpack sideways over the gas tank and the other on Jeff’s back. He was sitting behind the seat on a metal frame. Driving on sand roads in the dark with potholes the size of the bike we were happy to make it in little over an hour.

The next few days we discovered Xingping and surrounding, mostly by rain. Hoping for better weather and our planned hike we came for. This area is famous for her karst mountains. Scenery so beautiful they put it on their 20 RMB billet.

Waiting for hiking weather we went to a market. Not our first market experience but definitely the most impressive. The first shock was a calf on the back of a motor bike that was delivered to one of the butchers. In only a few minutes only the skin was left. The rest was put in sellable pieces of meat. The real shock was yet to come. A dog, frozen in running position and stripped from his fur was laying around for sale. We arrived in the area where dog is on the menu.

After a few days we finally had good weather for our hike. Our plan was to take a bamboo (the local form of transportation; boats that were originally made of bamboo) to a village a few km upstream and walk back. Although we were bothered every day we got out of the hostel by women saying “bamboo, bamboo”, this day it seemed impossible to get one. As determined as we were, we inverted the route and started walking in absolute beautiful nature. Surrounded by Pomelo trees, Orange trees and Karst Mountains we are inhaling the silence and awesome atmosphere. A good 5 hours and 16km further we discovered that a bamboo for the way back was also hard to get. Apparently the river was closed for bamboos due to a government tour on the Li River. We had to wait an hour to finally take a bamboo that would take us secretly over the river till only 4 km away from our hostel. It was almost perfect and so much better than walking 16km back. It was a long day but the scenes were stunning and definitely worth it. 

Chengdu

Chengdu is a smaller city, only about 7 mio. citizens ;). It doesn’t have many attractions but it has a great and chill atmosphere. Monasteries and teahouses are everywhere, bars with live music and lots, lots of beer.  The hostel we booked is fabulous, great staff and great people. We made a lot of friends there. Out of an advice we decided to visit the national park, north Sichuan. Happy to have a nice hike in nature soon, we got in the bus for a 10h journey, without complaints. Driving through majestic scenery and a lot of Tibetan villages, we arrived at the park…… and we were shocked again. Thousands of Chinese tourists were there, it was like an ant village. Chinese people with money are lazy, so to our surprise there was a bus in the park, that ships a load of Chinese to the most important places. We decided to not buy a bus ticket and walk up, hahah you should have seen the surprised and wondering faces of the staff there, weird white people. But it was a good decision not to take the ticket.  We had a great hike, ALONE in beautiful scenery.

Around lunchtime we reached the middle, and figured out that they don’t check the tickets for the bus anymore, so we did the last 20 km by bus. (Not advised if you have claustrophobia) Chinese everywhere, walking slow, punching and pushing, spiting, farting and taking lots of pics.  After one day in the really beautiful but overcrowded park we just wanted to go back to Chengdu and spend some relax days there.

We experienced a Waterpark in the biggest building in the world (Global center), and really it is fucking big. The Waterpark was awesome; we had a great time there, although we had to wear a life vest in 1.2m deep water. (90% of Chinese can’t swim). We did some K TV, for the unknowing people it is Karaoke and it was great.

Shanghai

After 5 hours in a high speed train, travelling a 1000 km we made it to Shanghai, the city where fortunes are made and broken.  From a great distance you can see it spikey shape like needles in a pin cushion. Coming closer shows the needles in their true form, skyscrapers, lots and lots of skyscrapers.  

Expensive shops and luxury everywhere. A city full of change and progress. We came to China to see the real “it”, unfortunately Shanghai is not it. This is the place where people live “The China dream”. We decided to head up to the west. Chengdu here we come.

Beijing

We arrived early morning in Beijing, our Hostel is located in the middle of a Hutong/Beijings Old part. The streets were empty, everywhere was dirt… the first shock. But you should not judge because of the first impression. Beijing needs it time. In the morning the old ladies start to clean up, people place their food stand and start to cook. The whole city starts to wake up. Life is happening on the street.  Houses and restaurant located in the Hutongs don’t have their own toilets, so a lot of Chinese have to use public toilets. In the morning you have to stand in line with the school kids, in the evening with drunken adults (what can be a lot of fun too)

Sightseeing as an European in Beijing is fun as “you” actually become the sight. For every picture we took there where made 2 of us. Some try to ask but most of the time you just notice a smiling Chinese behind or next to you. When you look around the hidden lenses are everywhere.

This phenomenon is most noticeable in the Forbidden City, the biggest temple complex of china. It’s really popular under Chinese tourist from all over the country. The temples there are beautiful. Our first encounter with the traditional Chinese architecture. It’s really beautiful but after a few days seeing more temples it’s like watching churches in Europe. Every single one is beautiful but watching all is too much.

After the overcrowded Forbidden City experience we were motivated to search for a “quiet” spot on the Great Wall. The next day we left at 6:00 am for a 4 hour journey to the Great Wall. It’s further than the common spot to go but was definitely worth it. There were only a few people and it was a real ancient part instead of rebuild like the more popular places. We hiked around and were able to make nice pictures of the wall without people on it.

Next to a lot of temples and the wall Beijing has a lot of parks, really nice parks. Every part of green in and outside the parks is really in perfect shape. They say the grass is always greener on the other side but really; I think it is!

WE LOVE BEIJING

the eleventh hour

Dear readers,


Prepareing a travel besides studying for an important exam and rebuilding a house is a tough job.
But I can tell you, it is all done.

Jeff and me, we are offical smart now. He finished his bachelor study and I finished my Matura.

It was a hard time, beeing seperated and doing our "finishing" apart from each other. There was also lot of pressure behind it.
But it is over now and we are both relieved.

Our project house in Austria is almost finished. We removed wallpaper (a real shit job), painted, laid a floor and bougth some new furniture. Thanks to all participants :)

I also squeezed a girls holiday, on Sicily in between. It was awesome and I really needed the relaxing time. Thanks girls for that great week.

Tomorrow is the big day.
Around 10.35 am we will leave Amsterdam. The first destination in Asia is China, Beijing. We will arrive there on 04.09 really early in the morning.
Bags are packed and of course is mine heavier than Jeffs ;). I am already really curious and excited and can not wait till we leave Europe.


Caro

Jeff is already exhausted, even if the trip did not start yet.

 only really important stuff packed

Tony the Pony goes on a travel :)

 hard working in the house

 girls vacation

 Etna

 Stromboli vulcano

 Tony checks the map

 

 Family visit :)

 our little house in Austria

Introduction

We are Jeffrey and Caroline, a Dutch and Austrian mixed couple. This is our first blog, starting it without any experience and probably without any skills of writing, BUT maybe there is a little writer hidden. We will find out in our blogging journey.

The reason for starting this Blog is our big trip to Asia and in this way we are able to stay in contact with family, friends and everyone who is interested what we are up to.

We decided to tell our stories in English, because this is the only language we BOTH speak. English is not our mother tongue, so please excuse us for faults and the easy way of writing. There is hope for improvement :)



The DREAM: As a kid my parents travelled a lot with me in Europe, this showed me to respect and be interested in diversity. I became older and my longing for freedom and independence grew with me. With 17 I moved away from my parents, trying to satisfy my urge. 2010 I travelled through the Netherlands and met my boyfriend Jeff. 2011 I moved to Rotterdam for 2 reasons, first of all I was totally in love with Jeff and I wanted to live with him. And the second reason was my curiosity for this different culture. This was one of my best decisions I have ever made. In Jeff I found someone who shares my love for traveling and adventurousness.

2013 we decided to explore the world together, to leave everything behind that holds us back and feel free. The decision was made and the planning started. Our chosen destination….ASIA (I won this battle ;))





What is this Blog now exactly about...

It is about planning and realize our trip. It is about a dream coming true, with all it good experiences and all it bad ones. It’s about showing others who we are.





Caroline