Wim's graduation and my ecape from the Insead bubble

July 3rd 2008 ... I don't think I will ever forget this day ... Wim is graduating!

It was weird going to this familiar campus and seeing all these people and their partners and parents. Even though you saw all these frowned faces of students feeling melancholic that the year had come to an end you could also see the faces of the proud parents, the sad faces of the partners who would miss the nanny's, lunches and kids picnics and then there were the faces like mine ... relieved that the moment to leave the bubble and return to 'real life' had arrived :-) (and also proud of my partner of course ;-) !!!)

But of course the happy moment of returning to reality was delayed slightly by a three-hour ceremony where we had to listen to speeches that claimed all MBA's were special, they would make it in life, they were the future ... probably pretty painful to listen to for the 1/4th of the students that didn't find a job yet ... then a speaker came to explain us about ... well euhm I remember it was something about Finance ... the rest of the speech I was in a near comatose condition caused by his boring voice and overly articulate English accent. All this was wrapped up with the calling of about 400 names ... of each student who graduated and they also needed to be photographed with the Dean. But thèn ... after thinking you would either get a lumbago from sitting on the chair too long or melting away on it ... it was all over and done with and time for cocktails :-)

Good to see everyone again ... the smalltalk truly didn't take any effort at all :-)

Afterwards we went to diner with Wim's parents to Barbizon ... nice restaurant ... all full of students and parents who also did not want to eat in a restaurant without a Michelin star ;-)

The food was nice but not as nice as the bill afterwards would make you think.

After this there was the ultimate, final, last ever party ... we enjoyed the free flow of Champagne and drinks and had a great time.

We woke up as you should after having a great time at a party like this ... still tired from the few hours of sleep and with a mild hangover.

It was only in the afternoon that it hit me ... in the past 6 months that I have been on this stretched holiday I have met some great people. Ellie left us too soon ... we still miss her every time we're out ... and now the other people will also soon return to their parts of the world. Time will tell but I hope to see each of these wonderful people again many times in the future ... I hope we'll always keep contact and I hope the Insead-partner-experience-bond will always be there. All the times I've cursed about not having a job, not feeling of importance and many other things I nagged about all seem worth it if I think of all the wonderful ladies I have met during this year :-) sounds corny but I mean it 100%

Marrakesh

Since we thought the Insead graduation trip was a bit expensive for what it was (and we weren't the only ones with this opinion) me & Alice decided to take our guys to Marrakesh for a few days.

What did we learn from this experience: never believe an airline that says "any identification - as long as it has a photograph" is sufficient ... the result was pretty disappointing: we had to leave Alice and Jon behind in Charles de Gaulle :-(

After a delay of about 2 hours we arrived in Marrakesh in Riad La Maison Rouge. It was this small riad with fifteen rooms, all very cosy. You couldn't lock any of the doors there and if you were thirsty (which happened a lot in temperatures of 48°C) you could just take anything from the fridge and write it down on a piece of paper.

The day after we arrived we explored Marrakesh. Everything was walking distance from the hotel that was in the old part of town, but in this heat we decided to take a day ticket on this open-roof tourist bus.

I was really surprised: I never expected that Marrakesh would still be thàt poor. After visiting Asia we thought we would not easily be surprised anymore by poverty etc ... but here we were ... people still transporting food by mule and carriage and the cars and the taxis there were even worse than the ones we saw in Thailand or Cambodia.

We visited the main must-sees of Marrakesh like the El Bahia Palace, Jardin Majorelle, Koutoubia Mosque, Djemaa el-Fna-square, etc.

The food was also great ... we had this great discovery meal on this rooftop terrace ... they just kept on bringing the little tajines pots for hours :-)

The last day we were all sweated out in the burning sun and awful heat and we decided to spend our last hours by the tiny little rooftop pool.

We had a good flight back and when we arrived back in Charles de Gaulle at around midnight they noticed that all the staff in charge of passport control had already left ... so of course they decided to make us wait until they came back.

The trip started bad with Jon and Alice who couldn't join us and ended funny in Charles de Gaulle without the right staff to let us out of the airport building ... but in between Marrakesh was really beautiful and worth visiting.

More pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/wimdebruyne/MarrakeshJune2008?authkey=LRLTP1pCpWs

It's been a while ...

Well I must confess ... I have been neglecting my blog completely for the last few weeks. Don't really know why ... although the following might have something to do with it:

After the Summer Ball it all seemed to have hit me in the face ... I really lacked the energy to do any of this anymore: I was feeling bad of not being proud of who and where I was in life, I was feeling ignored and couldn't make the effort anymore of doing any kind of smalltalk with students or their partners, and I was feeling like there were only a few people on this planet that understood how it felt for me, I couldn't just talk about this with my friends at home because to be honest, I wouldn't even know how to begin explaining ... of course I mostly feared they would say I was crazy of doing all this. So safe to say June didn't start that well for me :-)

So I tried to 'cure' myself by driving back and forth to Belgium every weekend and spending time with my friends and family. And I tried to avoid campus, party's, ... as much as possible in the few days a week that I was here.

In Dutch we have this saying which if you translate it says "the last of the lead weighs the heaviest" which sounds pretty stupid if you translate it ;-) but anyway it means that even though the end of this crazy Insead year was approaching it seemed harder for me to cope with it and time seemed to crawl by.

Well somehow being back in Belgium, going out with friends (people dó like me), doing my own job interviews (people actually àre interested in what I studied and achieved so far), looking for a new car ... aaahhh life felt good again :-)

We've figured out we will live in Brussels after this and the past weekend I haven't only found a new (secondhand) car, we also found a duplex in Brussels we're crazy about ànd I signed my contract with Atlas Copco (starting July 28) as if this isn't great enough, we're also going to Marrakesh in less than a week with Alice & Jon, me and Wim will be doing our 'Road Trip the 3rd' (and they're always great and memorable no matter where we will end up) ànd we're also going to the Provence right before I start to work ... so even though the month started off like sh** ... it's ending great :-)))

(I've tried the Lottery immediately when all this luck was overcoming me ... but so far no luck in this particular area ;-) )

Even though I've made some true friends here ... with who I just know I'll keep in touch for years to come, I'm sooooooo looking forward to my life after Insead ... ME + WIM + "NORMAL" LIFE: I've really got a good feeling about all of this, even my own blog-Christal ball thinks so

:-)))

Summer Ball

About a month left to go before Insead will be over and I kind of like it here in Fontainebleau. We're about 4 hours away from family and friends and we plan on going back about every two weeks, so that we don't have to miss any 'big events' in Belgium. I'm working for Insead Career Services on a temporary project so that keeps me busy during the week, Wim has less classes and since the offers are rolling in it won't be long before we decide what we're going to do after Insead ... so things are looking good :-)

This weekend we had the Summer Ball at the Château of Fontainebleau, one of our friends came all the way from Belgium for this not-to-miss party.

There was this big see-through tent and there were a few rooms inside the Château. There was Champagne as much as you wanted, apetizers, a room with a live band, a lounge/jazz area and shortly after midnight there were fireworks and music above the lake.

Et l'histoire continue...

We've been back in Europe since one week now. After a few days in Belgium where we spent our time with friends, family and Wim's potential future employers, we drove back to Fontainebleau. Jet Lag is starting to get less but this is being fully replaced by another feeling that can be associated with a country where the wine doesn't cost 10€ per bottle: the mild hangover :-)

Our cute little studio in the centre is about the same size as our bedroom in Singapore but the fact that we don't have to share with other students totally makes up for that :-)

Waking up and opening the window, seeing a blue sky and the white houses across the street, hearing people speak French and seeing old ladies carrying baguettes (ok this last one is maybe a bit exaggerated ;-) ) ... this feels more like a holiday than Singapore ever did ... it's weird to explain. Maybe it's because this is a new experience again, or maybe it's because I'm seeing friends again, maybe it's because I'm close to home and get to go back every two weeks, maybe it's because it's the last period and knowing that this is going to be over soon ... but I feel more relaxed about the situation now. Let's hope this feeling is not just a side effect from the wine last night and that I'll still feel like this in a few days time ;-)


Wim's schedule is great too ... he almost has no classes so at least we'll have the work-free-weekends again ;-)

On Sunday we just hopped in the car and drove to this medieval town in Provins and just enjoyed how beautiful it is here. After a while of travelling in Asia you get used to nice beaches and temples and palm trees I guess and you get exited again if here you see an abandoned church and graveyard or even just a field with yellow flowers :-)

Off course I'm totally making this sound like a holiday but I am actually still hoping to get a job here because I had more free time during the last 4 months than anyone can handle. Hopefully this week I'll know more, fingers crossed.

Krabi & Friends

Our trip to Krabi was exactly as expected: a relaxing vacation with beautiful beaches and sunsets, delicious food and a fancy hotel ... just what we needed at the end of these 4 months.

The only ones trying to sabotage this tranquil holiday were the mosquito's that must have attacked me unnoticed from behind because the second day when I woke up I noticed that my back was covered in about 37 mosquito bites one even bigger then the other ... but even this awful itching couldn't ruin my mood :-)


After these 4 days of basically doing nothing but read, swim and sunbathe we returned to Singapore where again we had something to look forward to: the arrival of our Belgian friends.


We showed them around Singapore and completed the few things we also still had to visit before returning to Belgium (Wim finally managed to make it to Chinatown ;-) ).


After two days that went by too fast, they left to complete the rest of their trip.


We on the other hand spent that day scanning all Wim's courses on campus (about 1m of papers) ... which took us about 3 hours, and then we started packing all our things. It's going to be a close call to see if we're going to be able to take everything back home. Our housing agent gave us a hard time about staying 1 extra night, so we have to move everything from our place to another apartment in this condo and then tomorrow May 3rd at 22h55 we're coming back. We'll spend a few days at home with friends an family and possible future employers in Wim's case ... and then we're off to Fontainebleau again. I'll keep you updated.

Pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/wimdebruyne/KrabiThailandApril2008?authkey=uG4PGggO44A

Counting down ...

I know I kind of promised that my next post would be one of peace, tranquility and happy thoughts ... but somehow I feel that I cannot write about what I've been through here in the last 3,5 months without adding this next post. So in case you only want to read happy and positive posts about travelling and such ... you better skip this one ;-)

It feels good to get it out in the open but I'm counting down the days to when this is all going to be over. And with that I don't mean that I feel like I have to return to Belgium ... I just need this Insead period to be over and done with. And really, I can understand that for Wim this is one of the most exciting years of his life, and I am really happy for him ... but everything evolves around Insead Insead Insead.

In the beginning that I was here and we went to a party, some people at first probably thought that I was a student ... imagine the look on their face when I had to 'admit' to them that I'm just a "partner" and also one that gave up a job to be here with Wim. They all gave me a look like ... wow, that's just 15 minutes of my life I have wasted talking to you. Then after a while when people started to know me as Wim's partner they started asking different questions like "what do you do to keep yourself busy all day?" ... waiting for me to say "after having my hair done, I went shopping on Orchards Road and got a manicure afterwards" ... well the truth is that I really did enjoy myself the first 3 months (besides having to deal with these idiotic questions all the time) ... I met a few really cool people that I hope to always stay in touch with, I traveled a lot, I explored Singapore, I even followed Mandarin classes. But now that everyone has left Singapore, and after visiting about évery single place in Singapore (it really isn't thàt big), and after running out of a budget to be doing more travelling and after realising I will never ever in my life be able to say three phrases in a row that any Chinese person is ever going to understand ... I am just really ready to go back home. And the crazy thing is that with home I don't even mean Belgium, I just mean away from this entire Insead environment. Okay I must admit, I miss my friends like crazy and would do anything just to see them again so I could go out to diner with them, or for a drink or to a club or whatever. But I also just miss the friends I made here ... so to be honest I just miss having a job, I miss having people that I can talk to about other subjects than about their job before, the jobs they want to apply for, their stocks, the courses they are folowing, the work they have to do for these courses ..... AAAAAaaaggghhh, really ... enough is enough.

I just came back from a BBQ tonight in the condo next door and I stayed there exactly 40 minutes ... after the usual conversation topics and a few shallow how-are-you-doing's (on which I always reply 'fine' but lately I've just felt like skipping fine and shouting or crying instead) ... I came back home and afterwards I feel terrible for Wim, that I left so soon, but I really can't handle it anymore. And I know I'm kind of generalizing here, there àre some students that I can talk to and that I really enjoy hanging out with ... the problem is that of the hundreds of students here I can probably count these people on both hands.

I sometimes even started doubting myself here, thinking that maybe I've suddenly become this asocial person that doesn't want to go out anymore but that's so far from my real personality ... I would still love to go out almost every night, and be busy and surround myself with friends, I love meeting new people and I usually get along with many people from different backgrounds, with different jobs, different ages ... but it's just the circumstances here. I want to have a job again, and have people be really interested in what I do and have them know that I'm not this stupid blond bimbo that likes to shop all day and talk about the performance of her maid and nanny ... I also went to university for 5 years, but here because I don't have an Insead MBA, none of that seems to matter somehow.

I warned you this wasn't going to be a pleasant post ... but one that I really needed to get off my chest.

Reflexions ...

Today I was taking the MRT to again another random location to pass time ;-) and while I sat down with my music playing I realised that after 3,5 months of being here I still hadn't gotten used to some of the behaviours here. I started thinking about it when I noticed that the guy sitting across from me (big, tall and macho guy ... for Asian norms ;-) ) had nails that were about 1cm longer than mine and seemed perfectly manicured. Well most of the times it's just the pinkie nail but this isn't the first guy with 'female hands' I saw.

Okay this comes close to what I deal with on a daily base ;-)

Another thing I haven't gotten used to ... is the burping and the sniffing of their snot. People who know me can probably imagine the evil look I give them ;-) but they just continue sniffing away 15cm away from my ear.

Another thing ... now that I'm getting the hang of this ... even though I sometimes check my clothes to make sure I haven't accidentally forgot to wear clothes that day when some Indian guy is staring without shame and without looking away ... It also sometimes feels that to other people I could easily take the MRT naked and probably nobody would even notice ... that is to say that a lot of the times I just feel like I'm invisible ... and I guess this is one of the things that still annoy me the most. To give you an example: for the last 3,5 months, every time I walk to the MRT I always seem to pass two or three people walking next to each other and they NEVER move for me ... right before bumping into somebody I always have to walk on the street or in the grass because really, they don't move ... so I developed a new walk where I walk really fast and kind of slightly wave my arms when I march so they might get afraid of me ... :-) ... sometimes this works, sometimes I end up just "accidentally" hitting someone in the side. Today however I came home from the store and since I don't have a car here I'm always loaded like a mule with 5 bags in each hand ... while this tiny little lady and her husband were walking on the same path ... my arms were about to fall off from the weight ... I was like ... "this time I'm not going to move one inch" ... result ... frontal collision, where I almost dropped my bags and I started swearing in Dutch but she didn't even look back ... they just kept walking. Also, today, I was waiting in line in a store because I bought a new skirt ... when this lady pretends to be looking at something near the cashier and just cuts in front of me ... this is not the first time off course this happened ... so I said "excuse me I'm waiting here" but she just nodded like "yes, lady I can see that" and she didn't move. When the lady before me had finished paying it was a battle of who had the longest arms me or the other lady (which kind of made me feel like a 5 year old ... but she had it coming) ... so this was one of the times I was glad to be 1m80 and therefor have longer arms than the average population ;-)

Well enough complaining for today :-) ... normally I would complain to Wim about all this but he's back in Belgium for a few days and I should probably not nag too much when I'm on the phone with him ... because I'd like him to still come back ;-) ... but my next post will be one of peace and tranquility since it will be the report of me and Wim going on the first trip just the two of us since we've been here ... to lovely Krabi :-) :-)

Goodbye Party Ellie & Malacca

On Monday we held a party for Ellie who is leaving Singapore :-( We had a BBQ at our condo and it ended up being a really lovely evening. Priscilla, a Singaporean girl, brought her some durians because nobody can say they have actually experienced Singapore without eating one. I can honestly say that was an experience to never forget ... To give you some side information, durian is the fruit that is forbidden to take into taxi's and the metro ... Why? ... well the first time somebody told me "do you smell this, this is the smell of durian" I replied "I never knew I smelt it so many times before, I always thought it was the smell of garbage". This hopefully gives you an idea. Well tasting it wasn't much better. It was like a combination of garlic and onions that have gone bad for weeks :-) But besides the awful taste and the awful burping you get from it we got some great pictures out of it and at least we can say we've tried it once in our lives :-)

Ellie & Priscilla

Priscilla & Wim

... and me

The next day, me and Ellie left for Malacca for a few days and had to be at the bus station at 8am ... which isn't that early but early enough for two zombies who still suffered from drinking too much wine the night before ;-)

We arrived in Malacca with the sun shining and as soon as we had checked into the hotel and stepped outside it started raining ... great! ... we still decided to do some sightseeing because there were so many "must-sees" on the map that we couldn't waste any time because we were only there for 4 days ... little did we know we would have finished 3/4th of them after an hour :-)

The day after the sun was shining again and Malacca turned out to be a cute little town with nice houses and cheap little restaurants but 2 days is really the maximum anyone (that isn't above the age of 75) should spend there.

So we went into the tourist office and asked them about the tours we could do from there and they gave us back a look like we came from another planet ... they replied us there wasn't much else to do but the city centre. We could take a sightseeing bus to drive us to all the things there were to see in the centre ... the same things me and Ellie did by foot the day before in less than 2 hours ... can you believe that.

Anyway we decided to do the river cruise that one of our friends Alice advised us and when this was finished there was a guy handing out leaflets of tours around Malacca ... great! Our savior!

So he picked us up the next day at 9am and there was another Irish girl that joined us. Our first stop on the tour was an island (sounds exotic) that actually turned out to be an abandoned housing project on some sort of a hand made island with 1 mosque on it and about 50 empty apartment buildings. A great investment for us according to the guide who could already see him and his three new Western wives living there. Later that afternoon he would share with us that he had a friend who had two wives and while they worked all he had to do was take care of the kids which was great according to him because then he could watch TV all day ... you can imagine the kind of looks went back and forth between us girls :-)

Next stop we went to the jungle ... I already got a comment from him that my shoes were not appropriate to go hiking in the jungle which was kind of weird considering the jungle turned out to be a stone path through a regular forest. Here we got bombarded with questions like "Do you know what that is?" ... Euhm, yes a banana tree "have you ever eaten bananas?" Euhm, yes who hasn't? "Do you know what that is?" Euhm, yes an ants nest! I think he thought he could share all of is wisdom with the young Western girls ... me and Ellie were so ready to go back after this. In the forest he kept making comments about us moving there to come live with him, he even introduced us as his future wives to other visitors there. Ellie replied quickly "don't listen to him, the man's crazy" :-) Back in the car he drove by the place were we could get the visum if we were going to marry him ... and this continued all the way. He was supposed to drop us off at a water park that afternoon but we could already imagine him sitting next to us 'keeping an eye on things' so we asked him to just drop us back at the hotel. But he wouldn't before also showing us a Malaysian factory (?!?) and Malaysian houses (?!?) after about the 50th house which was either an old house, a new house or a Chinese house according to the wise guide, I was praying for this to end ;-)

After also asking if we would go to the disco with him (No!) or maybe the supermarket then? (No!) and after he drove by his "villa" (which if he hadn't bought, he would be so rich that all he had to do was wave his money and all the girls would sleep with him ... euhm sure man, they call them prostitutes) he gave up and just dropped us back off at our hotel ... we spend our last afternoon going to the cinema and were already counting the minutes we could leave Malacca.

But except for Malacca being small with not much to do I enjoyed spending the last days with Ellie there before she leaves Singapore ... I'm really going to miss her!

Here are the pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.be/claudiaclaessens/Melakka

http://picasaweb.google.com/ellieklerlein/SingaporeGoingAwayBBQ

http://picasaweb.google.com/ellieklerlein/MalaccaMalaysia

Change of Language

Since a lot of people I've met here can't read my blog in Dutch ... and definitely not if I write in my Antwerp dialect ;-) ... I've decided to improve my English writing skills.

My apologies in advance for any spelling mistakes, or wrong use of words, or when you just absolutely have no idea what I'm trying to say :-)

Anyway ... because I really want to keep in touch with all the people I've met here after I go back, I'll start writing my "adventures" in English. I just hope that with travelling less than now (or to less exotic locations like the Belgian coast) I'll have lots of other cool things to write about ... but I guess being with Wim, that won't be a problem ;-)

I will do my best not to become one of those people with a blog (like I read one this week) that writes a detailed minute report of their week including the daily weight gain of their newborn and the number of times they have given breast milk :-) )

Also ... the competition has started between me and Wim of who has the most blog visitors, how many times do they read, how long do they read, ... all of which you can track via the Google analytics site (that's what you get when you fall for an engineer who loves statistics ;-) )

So guys and girls ... keep reading ;-) ...

Cambodja (Kampuchea)

Dinsdag 18 maart

Vertrokken in Singapore naar Siem Reap. Tegen de ochtend aangekomen in hotel Ankoriana en nog wat slaap ingehaald totdat de ouders van Wim aankwamen. Zij zaten een 50-tal meter verder en een drie-tal sterren hoger in dezelfde straat ;-)

Onze eerste bestemming met de gids was een dorp bezoeken op de rivier ... ik had op voorhand heel weinig gelezen over Cambodja dus wist niet echt wat te verwachten ... maar hoe langer hoe dichter we kwamen bij de eindbestemming hoe langer hoe meer ik besefte dat dit het ergste was dat ik al ooit ergens gezien heb. Ten eerste de weg naar daar: ook in Vietnam waren er weinig goede wegen maar dit was een zandweg zoals ik nog nooit gezien had zoveel bulten en putten en al dat stof terwijl aan de zijkant van de baan gewoon allemaal hutjes staan. Van de kindjes die daar londropen heeft de helft zelfs geen kleren aan.

Ocharme de mensen die zo'n tuk-tukje hadden genomen naar de rivier ... die moeten echt zwart gezien hebben na aankomst :-) Toen we waren aangekomen op de plaats waar we het bootje moesten nemen vielen we bijna flauw van de stank toen de deuren van ons busje opengingen ... aangezien in de rivier al het water van Siem Reap uitmonde, en er allemaal dode vissen ronddreven was dat niet verwonderlijk. Dan het bootje genomen naar dat dorp waar heel veel arme mensen op het water met vanalles en nog wat leurden (vooral heel jonge kinderen). Ik denk dat daar bij kinderen de eerste woordjes dat ze zeggen niet "mama" of "papa" is maar wel "one dollar lady" :-)

In ieder geval ... 't was een indrukwekkend uitstapje .... wel vreemd om dan terug in uw luxe-hotel te komen. 's Avonds dan gaan eten in de Sofitel bij de ouders van Wim ... dat was de eerste uitgebreide diner van een hele reeks :-)

Woensdag 19 maart

Vandaag een aantal tempels bezocht: Angkor Thom ... wel de moeite ... vooral veel ruïnes maar toch heel mooi, ook heel anders dan alle andere Aziatische tempels.

Ook op een olifant gezeten :-) Ook het olifantenterras en paleis van the Leper King bezocht. En s'avonds, na eerste een duik in het zwembad, naar Angkor Watt gereden om daar naar de zonsondergang te kijken.

Hierna hadden we een buffet met op de achtergrond van die typische lokale dansen ... wat tof is om te zien en doen ... maar als dit de derde keer is begint de fun er wel wat af te gaan ;-)

Donderdag 20 maart

In de voormiddag Ta Prohm bezocht, de tempel waar alles overwoekerd is door boomwortels (aka de plek waar Tombraider met Angelina Jolie werd opgenomen). Dit was persoonlijk mijn favoriet.

Hierna naar de Lady Temple geweest.


In de namiddag zijn we nog eerst naar zo'n typisch toeristische silk-farm geweest waar ze u op vijf minuten rondleiden met de uitleg van hoe heel dit proces verloopt (wat heel interessant is om te zien) om u dan een half uur in de souvenir shop te dumpen waar alles vijf keer duurder is dan op een ander :-)

Meteen hierna na de luchthaven gereden waar we een interne vlucht hadden (in een mini-flower-power vliegtuigje) naar Phnom Penh. Hier bleven we alle vier in hetzelfde hotel waar we s'avonds nog maar eens een uitgebreid buffetje gedaan hebben (tegen dit punt in de reis was ik vermoedelijk al een drie-tal kilo bijgekomen, dankzij al dat lekkere eten ;-) )... en dan moe in ons bedje gekropen.

Vrijdag 21 maart

In Phnom Penh hebben we eerst het Paleis gedaan, waar in één of ander klein ruimteke de bewaker mijn toekomst wou voorspellen en na een kleine donatie (uiteraard) en na uit te vissen wat voor lokaal sterrebeeld Wim en ik waren, en na één of ander weird ding waar ik moest bidden met een boekske en weet ik wa nog allemaal ... was het verdikt: dat ik een goede toekomst ging hebben. Ik had misschien net een iets gedetailleerdere beshrijving verwacht maar allé ... beter dat hij alleen 'goed' zegt ipv 'slecht' ;-)

Hierna zijn we naar het nationaal museum gereden en als afsluiter: the killing fields ... de locatie waar de Khmer nog niet zo lang gelden rond de 1.500.000 mensen heeft afgemaakt ... je ziet daar dan al die schedels opgestapeld en mooi gesorteerd... vrouwen, mannen, kinderen, ouderen, blanken, ... en aan hun schedel kan je zien hoe ze vermoord zijn geweest (de ene heeft een verbrijzeling, de andere een kogelgat) ... ik voelde me al een beetje minder heel de dag, maar daar kreeg ik het natuurlijk al helemaal benauwd. En overal waar je loopt in die fields zie je nog stukjes tanden, beenderen, enz liggen. Het vreemdst van al is dat iedereen hier heel neutraal over spreekt, terwijl het toch gaat om hun grootouders, ouders ... de gevangenis zelf is ook de moeite naar het schijnt maar daar hebben we geen tijd meer voor gehad.

'savonds terug naar Singapore gevlogen waar we de komende drie dagen de ouders van Wim wat hebben rondgeleid (ook weer veel bars en restaurant gedaan en winkeltjes naturlijk). Zondag zijn we gaan wakeboarden met hen, dat was ook voor ons de eerste keer, en voor mij meteen de laatste. Het is nu donderdag als ik dit typ en nog steeds voel ik me 83 jaar ... elke spier in mijn lijf doet zeer! Al goed dat m'n blijnen op m'n handen al aan het genezen zijn :-) En moest ik nu nog kunnen zeggen dat ik tenminste zoals Wim had kunnen rechtstaan op het board dan had ik misschien nog kunnen leven met de pijn, maar aangezien ik alleen kan zeggen dat ik op mijn buikachter een speedboot heb gehangen is het wat minder ;-)

Hier de fotootjes:

Siem Reap http://picasaweb.google.nl/wimdebruyne/Cambodia_SiemReap_2008?authkey=WFeuKaDDhJM

Phnom Penh http://picasaweb.google.nl/wimdebruyne/Cambodia_PhnomPenh_2008?authkey=v0a5R9jUS4w

Vietnam & Kuala Lumpur

Maandag 25 maart zijn we nog iets gaan eten met Ellie & Will, Alice & Jon en Bettina & Michael als afscheid omdat twee van de dames terug gaan en daarna was het nog een afscheidsfeestje voor diegenen die terug naar Fontainebleau gingen. We spreken met onze reispartner Hugo (Portugees) af om rond 05.10u een taxi te delen naar de luchthaven. Feestje was leuk ... nog lang blijven plakken en de volgende morgend wordt Wim gebeld ... ik hoor hem zeggen "it's raining outside?" gevolgd door "we're on our way" gevolg door "opstaaaaaaaaaaan we hebben ons overslapen" ... in 10 minuten aangekleed en wat laatste zaken ingepakt ... een fantastische start om te vertrekken naar ...

Ho Chi Mingh

Tegen de ochtend daar aangekomen en in de taxi op weg naar het hotel dacht ik even dat het te vergelijken was met Phuket. Dat was tot er een tiental motookes rond de taxi reden. 10 minuten later waren dat er al 20 geworden 5 minuten later 50 en tegen dat we aan het hotel gekomen waren en rondkeken ... you wouldn't believe .... overàl motookes. Sommige met 1 persoon anderen met een hele familie (vader, moeder en twee kinderen) en anderen met ruiten, ijzeren staven, kamerplanten, 10 puppy's ... noem maar op en ge ziet mensen ermee rondrijden op hun motookes.

Dan zijn we de stad wat gaan verkennen:

Reunification Palace (buiten de laatste zaal waar heel wat wordt verteld over de geschiedenis van Vietnam zal ik dit onthouden als de plek waar ik het lelijkste interieur ooit gezien heb)

War Museum (redelijk choquerende foto's gezien en verhalen van mensen gelezen over de foltertechnieken, de gevolgen van de chemische bommen, enz ... maar super interesant om het verhaal van de Vietnam oorlog eens te zien van de zijde van de Vietnamezen in plaats van de zijde van de Amerikanen zoals we in de meeste films zien)

Ben Thanh Market, City Hall

Saigon RiverNotre Dame Cathedral.

S'avonds zijn we in één van de chiquere en duurdere restaurants gaan eten (rond de 2€ voor een hoofdschotel ;-) ) en dan moe in ons bedje gekropen.

De volgende dag arriveerden Alisa (Belize) en haar man Curll en hebben we een daguitstap gedaan naar de Mekong Delta. Hier zagen we de Vinh Trang Pagoda en deden we een boottochtje op de Mekong Delta (eerst eentje met motor daarna een soort van kano op een klein rivierke tussen allemaal bamboe)

s'middags hebben we 'Elephant Ear Fish' gegeten

dan terug naar huis. Ter info: als het lijkt dat we niet veel doen op één dag, hier de verklaring: in héél Vietnam is er één autostrade: route 1A :-) al de andere weggetjes (als ge dat al zo kunt noemen) hebben geen rijstroken en iedereen claxoneert bij iéder manouver o.a. naar links gaan, naar rechts gaan, voorbijsteken, ze claxoneren ook als ze een straat passeren, als er iemand wandelt, fietst ... na een halve dag went dit wel (uw natuurlijk overlevingsinstinct om niet alle dagen met hoofdpijn rond te lopen denk ik ;-) ) ... maar door die krammakelijke weggetjes doet ge in Vietnam dus 4 uur om 160 km af te leggen.

s'Avonds hebben we een Water Puppet Show gezien ... toen bleek dat dat van die houten poppekes waren die op water dansten en dat alles in het Vietnamees gezongen en verteld werd vreesde ik even dat dit de langste 50 minuten uit m'n leven gingen worden ... maar bleek uiteindelijk toch heel entertaining te zijn.

De laatste dag bezochten we 'The Great temple of Cao Dai Holy Land' waar er net een ceremonie begon...
en de Cu Chi tunnels (het tunnelnetwerk dat ze tijdens de oorlog gebruikten)

... diezelfde avond vlogen we naar Hanoi (Elisa en Curll bleven nog een dagje).

Hanoi

Het eerste wat ik deed bij aankomst in Hanoi was bevriezen van de kou :-) ... deed me terug even aan België denken (koude, regen). Ik, Wim en Hugo hebben dan een wandeling door Hanoi gemaakt. Wel tof: je hebt een vleesstraat, een kledingstraat, een ijzerstraat, een tuperwarestraat, een schoenenstraat, noem maar op ...

Hier bezochten we ook Hoan Kiem Lake, Ho Chi Mingh's Mausoleum ('t was net wel de sluitingsdag dus z'n lijk hebben we niet echt gezien), the One Pilar Pagoda.

De dag erna arriveerden Elisa en haar man ook en vertrokken we voor twee dagen naar Hallong Bay waar we een boottocht deden tussen de Limestone Cliffs en ook overnachtten op de boot ... dit was echt het hoogtepunt van de vakantie voor mij ... 't was precies of we in de Pirates of the Caribean film beland waren ... s'avonds die sterrenhemel en wakker worden met dat zicht was echt super!

We bezochten hier ook the Cave of Suprise

en s'avonds was het al weer tijd om terug te keren. Afscheid genomen van de anderen (denk niet dat we drie toffere mensen hadden kunnen vinden om Vietnam mee te verkennen) en dan vetrokken Wim en ik nog twee daagjes onder ons tweetjes naar...

Kuala Lumpur

Toen we daar in den donkere aankwamen was onze eerste indruk van Wow! We hadden terug een deftige autostrade, alles was er super mooi verlicht.

De dag erna was wel wat minder ... overdag zag je pas hoe vuil de stad was (Wim zag wél voor de eerste keer in z'n leven een rat en een kakkerlak). Het zijn er allemaal van die wolkenkrabbers enz... maar niks is mooi onderhouden. We hadden graag de brug bezocht tussen de bekende twin towers maar moesten 4 uur wachten en aangezien we terug moesten vertrekken hebben we dit gemist. s'Avonds konden we terug naar Singapore ... Home Sweet Home :-)

Meer foto's op: http://picasaweb.google.nl/wimdebruyne/Vietnam?authkey=jLkBjfQD9wo

en

http://picasaweb.google.nl/wimdebruyne/KualaLumpur?authkey=KYZKgsJuSLY