Much to my own surprise I suddenly found myself excited about a cat café, in the middle of Tokyo. Our discovery tour of Tokyo was abruptly interrupted when my good friend Nobuko pointed at a fourth or fifth floor of a building. She said she wanted to visit the "MoCha Cat Café", [...]
Sometimes in life you meet somebody briefly, and you know it will be a friend forever. No need to see each other frequently; the friendship is there to stay. Our ship, the VOLENDAM, was only in Shanghai for two days. But after day one I already realized that my bond with Shanghai [...]
Do you think skyscrapers, and skyscrapers only, when one says "Hong Kong"? So did I. However, much to my surprise I saw an almost poetic entente between the dazzling concrete towers and a wide array of beautiful trees and city gardens. Do you think skyscrapers, and skyscrapers only, when one [...]
When I walk up early on our last full day in Saigon, it is still surprisingly silent in the port. Very slowly traffic gets going, a rooster crows on the boat next to ours. At 8:30 the bus is waiting to take us on a tour through the city. Saigon has [...]
So happy I got up very early this morning to witness one of the most beautiful sunrises of this trip. We leave early for the first visit of the day. We are in My Tho, which consists of 4 islands. We visit the largest one, Thoi Son, with a boat. [...]
A new day for us to discover Vietnam. We are in the Mekong Delta in southern Vietnam. We enjoy every second of life, and the scenery around us. Today we visit Sa Dec. First we visit the colourful Confucian pagoda Kien An Cung. It surprisingly has an open roof, so the [...]
It’s a new day and we are in a new country. Well, we still have to wait a couple of hours before the border authorities let us pass. Together with all kind of other ships we wait for our turn to get clearance. Meanwhile we enjoy a fresh coconut juice prepared by [...]
What a difference it makes. Yes, we are in busy, bustling capital Phnom Penh but we sleep on a ship. We wake up on the calm water, away from the city noise. So different to sleeping in a pink hostel years ago where, whenever I stepped outside, tuk-tuk drivers yelled at me [...]
Later in the morning we arrive in Koh Chen, where the locals are specialised in making copper and silver ornamental items. local hairdresser We walk through the quiet village to visit a local school. A school in open air of course. Math professor Um Son Thon survived the [...]
The magic of travelling on the water. In the evening you arrive, and you see nothing. No, they don’t have fancy streetlights here in Kampong Tralach. So, just imagine waking up on a riverboat, leaving your cabin and seeing just meters from the ship some kids waiting for you. “Hello, what’s your [...]
