Dag 1 en een excuus voor dag 2

Na een rusteloze nacht met veel regen en onweer en de vraag of ik wel zou moeten gaan fietsen als het zo hard regende, bleek het bij het om 5 voor 6 opstaan alleszins mee te vallen. Het was droog, er waren niet al teveel wolken, alleen waaide het een beetje. Goed, dat kan gebeuren en dat kunnen we hebben dus vol goede moed sprong ik op de ligfiets richting Nieuwegein.


Ruim 52,9 kilometer verder en 2 uur en 18 minuten later stapte ik eigenlijk verrassend fris af in Nieuwegein. Deels met dank aan een forse rugwind, maar ik had me zo'n eerste dag eigenlijk toch wel uitdagender voorgesteld. Het ritueel met het washandje in het invalidentoilet was eigenlijk precies zo onhandig als ik me had voorgesteld, maar goed, er zijn ergere dingen in het leven. Dank aan collega Paul voor de leuke route om te fietsen.

Op weg naar de weg terug reed ik tegen collega Carolien op, die al haar charmes in de strijd gooide omdat ze morgen een lift naar Nieuwegein wilde. Nou ja, eigenlijk vroeg ze het gewoon, maar bij gebrek aan Maaike is er niet heel veel voor nodig om mij voor charmes te doen vallen. Dat betekent helaas wel dat ik morgen niet naar Nieuwegein kan fietsen. Nou ja, het kan vast wel, maar met 2 man op een ligfiets wordt misschien wel heel erg een balans-act.

Dus ik ben bang dat ik de spelregels wat moet veranderen. Als ik gehinderd word door knappe vrouwen, zieke katten, een Zweeds bikini-volleybal team, regen of wat nog meer leuk danwel ernstig genoeg is om mij van het fietsen af te houden dan ga ik m'n uiterste best doen die dagen nog in te halen. De week na de olympische spelen ben ik in ieder geval vrij, maar als we in die week nog niet aan de tien keer heen en weer komen dan ga ik als ik begin september terug kom van m'n vakantie weer gewoon vrolijk verder.

Met de rustdag in m'n achterhoofd en af en toe vol wind tegen begaf ik me weer vlot richting huis. (valt ook op een ligfiets nog vies tegen). Note to self:"Niet op wegen fietsen zonder beschhutting als er veel wind staat). M'n GPS logger mist een stukje omdat ik hem vergeten was aan te zetten, maar op de terugweg zag mijn route er uit als http://app.strava.com/activities/15524935 met nog een stukje verder naar Nieuwegein. De uiteindelijke tijd was ongeveer 2.5 uur en voor vol wind tegen viel me dat eigenlijk niet mee.

Hopelijk wordt dit verhaal woensdag vervolgd. Dan hoop ik ook wel dat het onweer dat beloofd wordt een beetje meevalt.

Generale repetitie

Maandag over een week begin ik met dagelijks heen en weer naar m'n werk fietsen. Bij het wakker worden schijnt de zon. Klinkt als een perfect moment om 'ns een stukje verder te fietsen dan 50 kilometer. Plan van de dag:"Den Haag, Hoek van Holland, Rotterdam". Dat zou een kilometer of 100 moeten toevoegen aan mijn trainingskilometers.

Mooi zonnetje, fiets helemaal klaar, bandenplakspullen in de fietstassen, tot aan Delft loopt alles helemaal perfect. En dan ergens aan de Abstwoude zijn wegwerkaamheden, ik rijd tegen een wat forse hobbel in het wegdek aan en m'n voorband loopt leeg. Grmbl!

Gelukkig had ik bandenplakspullen bij me, zelfs een rol plakkertjes, maar dan helaas weer geen schaar om die plakkertjes in vorm te knippen. Gelukkig bezit ook ik een innerlijke Neanderthaler dus met het betere scheurwerk moet het ook vast lukken. Bij poging 1 constateer ik dat er 2 gaatjes in de band zitten en dan ook nog wel vervelend dicht naast elkaar.





Gelukkig heb ik wel enige bandplak ervaring, dus hoe moeilijk kan het zijn. Beetje groot plakkertje erop, binnenband erin, oppompen.... #&*#$@!@# !!! Hij loopt nog net zo hard leeg. Tijd voor het zwaardere geschut, ergens in m'n fietstas leeft een spuitbus met instant bandenplak-spul. Ik schroef de spuit op het ventiel en hoop m'n band vol te spuiten met schuim. In eerst instantie gaat dat  best lekker, alleen spuit het schuim net zo hard m'n band weer uit. Niet alleen zitten de twee gaatjes vervelend dicht bij elkaar en ben ik blijkbaar te stom om een plakkertje er goed overheen te plakken, ook zijn de gaatjes groot genoeg om het schuim uit de spuitbus er weer net zo hard uit te spuiten.

Poging 3 is vooral erg slapstick en misschien licht pornografisch, uw schrijver wordt volgespoten met wit schuim dat uit zijn band spuit. Dit helpt ook niet echt bij het opplakken van twee nieuwe plakkertjes, die het gat wel redelijk af lijken te dichten. Alleen is redelijk niet goed genoeg, heel langzaam loopt m'n binnenband nog steeds leeg. Note to self: Je hebt fietstassen, gooi er 'ns een reserve binnenband in.

Gelukkig wonen we in Nederland, het land waar een trein-station nooit veel meer dan een steenworp verderop ligt. Dus met een langzaam leeglopende band begeven we ons naar het dichstbijzijnde station (Delft Zuid) en pakken we de eerste trein richting Rotterdam die we zien.



Ligfietsen in een trein blijven best wel groot te zijn, alhoewel de vraag van de controleur of ik hem niet op kon vouwen me dan ook wel weer verbaasde. "Zie ik eruit of ik dit voor m'n lol doe?" Wist ik met zwarte handen en zwarte vegen op m'n shirt en in m'n gezicht nog net uit te brengen.

Terug in Rotterdam is de conclusie dat 20 inch banden niet een heel gangbaar formaat is bij normale fietsen. Laten we hopen dat de webshop bestelling snel binnenkomt.


22/07/2012 11:57 weergeven op een grotere kaart

Eindconclusie: Zoals het hoort bij een generale repetitie liep alles niet helemaal vloeiend. Dat klinkt veelbelovend voor volgende week.

Oefenrondje

Goed, ik ben dus stom genoeg geweest om te beloven dat ik tijdens de olympische spelen dagelijks op de (lig)fiets naar m'n werk ga fietsen. Aangezien dat 50 kilometer verderop is, leek het me geen slecht idee minimaal eens te proberen wat dat met me zou doen.

Op 29 juni, op m'n vrije dag nog wel, heb ik de fietsschoenen eens aangetrokken en heb ik een poging ondernomen om naar Nieuwegein heen en terug te fietsen. Een vrijdagmiddagborrel leek me een goede reden om 'ns een stukje te fietsen. En als je op je vrije dag uiteindelijk niet op je werk uitkomt, is er ook niet noodzakelijk een man over boord.

Na deze testrun kwam ik tot een paar conclusies

1. Het is best ver
2. Het duurt best lang (momenteel minimaal 2.5 uur enkele reis)
3. Ik kan m'n werk niet vinden op de fiets

1 en 2 verrasten me eigenlijk niet zo, maar voor een plek waar ik al zo'n 5 jaar regelmatig kom, verbaasde het mij fors dat ik er toch nog in slaagde om mijn hoofdkantoor rechtstreeks voorbij te fietsen. Gelukkig kwam ik met een beetje omweg uiteindelijk toch nog op de juiste plek terecht.

Mijn terugweg werkte ongeveer hetzelfde, alleen wist ik mijn huis in Rotterdam dan gelukkig net weer wel terug te vinden (Ik woon daar dan ook al bijna een jaar langer dan dat ik in Nieuwegein werk):

Wat ik wel wat zorgwekkend vind, is  de tijd. Op de heenweg reed ik verkeerd en deed ik er 2 uur en 50 minuten over om uiteindelijk toch  in Nieuwegein uit te komen. Was ik meteen goed gereden dan was het in 2.5 uur makkelijk gelukt.

Op de terugweg wist ik echter waar ik mee bezig was, alleen had ik compleet geen kracht meer in m'n benen. Resultaat hiervan was dat ik er bijna 3 uur en 30 minuten over deed om terug thuis te komen. Als dat zo blijft dan wandel ik pas om half 9 's avonds binnen. Dat was om heel eerlijk te zijn niet helemaal mijn bedoeling. Vingers gekruisd dat dit de komende weken beter gaat. 

Deliver on promises

Voor de mensen die zich de tijd nog kunnen herinneren dat ik een weblog had dat zo nu en dan werd geupdated wordt dit misschien een verademing. Kans bestaat dat ik de komende tijd zo nu en dan weer 'ns een update doe. In een vlaag van verstandsverbijstering heb ik in ons bedrijfsblad (de Arinfo) onderstaand artikel geschreven.

Tekst: Selmer van Alten

Titel: Arinzooi

In de olympische uitgave van de ArinFo moet ook de Arinzooi gaan over sportprestaties. Aan mij de taak mijn olympische gevoelens, mijn successen en mijn medailles met jullie te delen. Hierbij heb ik echter één klein probleem: ik kan het niet. Schrijven is niet het grootste probleem. Ik heb gewoon geen aanleg voor sport.

Met zwemles keken mijn ouders vertederd naar vingertjes en de twee neusgaten die nog net boven het water uitstaken tijdens het watertrappelen. Met gym werd ik meestal als laatste gekozen. Niet dat mijn klasgenootjes mij niet aardig vonden, maar als je wilde winnen, kon je beter iemand anders in je team hebben.

Sporten met ballen zijn aan mij ook niet besteed. Ik vermoed door een gebrek aan oog-hand coördinatie. Knikkers moest ik bij blijven kopen, ik verloor altijd. Met voetbal was ik keeper omdat het dan met een beetje geluk maar een paar keer per wedstrijd opviel dat ik er helemaal niets van kon. Als mijn klasgenoten wilden lachen, speelden ze mij vrij onder de basket en lieten me daar net zolang proberen totdat ik scoorde. (Het verbaasde zelfs mij hoe lang dit kan duren.) Met softbal leek er heel even een goede, verrevelder in me te zitten, maar dat duurde slechts totdat iemand daadwerkelijk de bal het verre veld in sloeg.

Mijn judo carriere was nog de meest langdurige. Ik heb zeker drie jaar op judo gezeten. Maar dat lag niet aan mij. Toen ik na een paar lessen mijn moeder vertelde dat ik judo echt verschrikkelijk vond, sprak zij de historische woorden: ”Je leert maar dat niet alles in het leven leuk hoeft te zijn.” Pas toen ik naar de brugklas ging, kwam ik onder judo uit door aan te geven dat ik alle tijd hard nodig had voor mijn huiswerk.

Toch, als de ArinFo olympisch gaat, kan ik niet achterblijven. Onlangs heb ik in een vlaag van verstandsverbijstering een ligfiets gekocht. Je weet wel, zo’n rare fiets die je vanuit de auto meestal over het hoofd ziet en waarvan de idioot die er op zit je uren kan vervelen met verhalen over waarom een ligfiets zoveel beter is dan een gewone fiets.Maar genoeg over mijn volgende column.

Nu ik het stadium van omvallen bij stoplichten bijna voorbij ben, zet ik die ligfiets in voor mijn eigen olympische uitdaging. Als ik tijdens de Olympische Spelen in Nieuwegein werk, beloof ik dat ik daar heen fiets vanuit Rotterdam en ‘s avonds fiets ik dan natuurlijk weer terug.

Bij deze bied ik vast mijn excuses aan, aan mijn directe collega’s. Ik ben best bereid te douchen na een rit van 50 kilometer, maar helaas ontbreekt die mogelijkheid in Nieuwegein. Misschien improviseer ik wel iets op dat gebied. Met een spons en een emmer kom je tenslotte ook een heel eind. Dus, als jullie een consultant in zijn ondergoed op de parkeerplaats zien staan, wees niet bang en zeg even: Goedemorgen Selmer!

Plan is om de komende weken mijn vorderingen bij te houden met betrekking tot de uitwerking van dit (ongetwijfeld slechte idee). Watch this space!

Kitten update

Well... seeing as I managed to more or less end this blog with kittens arriving, let's pick up with the past 10 months of kittens. After being shy for a couple of weeks, a period of Wodan peeing places where he probably wasn't supposed to (including even once our bed), Wodan running away for a day and lots of shouting either:"Wodan, no!" or "Kissa, no!", both of them have settled more or less.

Wodan is now a giant red male cat who for some reasons loves running taps and doesn't even really mind if you try washing him under one. Then Wodan is obsessed with water, in the past 3 days, he knocked over a flower vase 3 times already (at the last attempt it broke, so I guess Wodan won). Kissa is a bit more slimmer and into high surfaces and jumping. Both like to watch stuff happening outside under our balcony. Both look suicidal enough for us to shout them away from their moments of:"Hey, let's look like we might jump down from this 4 floor high balcony".

As for me... I could be doing worse as well. Might update you on that one next time.

Her majesty

Her majesty
Originally uploaded by selmerv

Yes, I know, haven't blogged in ages. Am still alive, might have loads of things to tell you all about. Will probably have to do so more often. But let's start slowly. After buying a new camera last weekend I've been taking loads of photos of things. Really liked this one of Kissa staring at a fly.

Eeeek!

Yes, I'm still alive, yes I know that I managed to fail to write for almost 2 months. I've apparently been too busy chasing kittens (more pics to be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/selmer). They're currently working on severe demolition of the house. But after 2 months they appear to be almost used to living here.

Besides that I've obviously been working, I'm using trains more and more to get to work seeing as autumn traffic jams are not the ones you want to be found dead in. And tomorrow my mum is getting herself a new knee. Yes, loads of other things must have happened in the past couple of weeks but if seeing as I failed to write about them, I already managed to forget. Booh! Will try to be a better boy from now on.

The kittens have landed

More news on the kitten front. Last Monday girlfriend and I picked up our new kittens. After spending most of the evening looking at kittens sleeping in their travel-box we eventually spotted some movement. Kissa (Maaike's kitten) even walked halfway across the kitchen before disappearing back into it's travel-cage again. Wodan (mine) didn't move an inch all night.

On Tuesday we both had to work but after returning from work hoping to be greeted by two happy kittens we found out that the thing they currently do best is "hide". Kittens apparently fit behind anything you can think of (behind the washing machine, behind the stove, look at any place in your house which has a behind and you can hide a kitten there).

Personality wise one thing has become clear, there's one kitten that hides and stays silent and the other one hides and shouts "meeeew!" continuously. This turns out to be useful functionality. Because of Wodan's meeeew-function we're able to retrace the position of the kittens most of the time. We hope functionality other than hiding develops sometime soon.

Kittens!

After giving girlfriend a kitten for her birthday, we still needed to pick kittens. (Somehow an 's' crept in to the whole equation) Fortunately Karlijn came up with somebody with kittens and tonight we chose the ones we wanted: Introducing: Kitten one and Kitten two (we're still deciding on names, we believe). Maaike picked the grey one, the red one is supposedly mine. They'll enter our residence in the first week of October.

Note to self...

When girlfriend is out and you decide it's more efficient to place the laundry rack in the kitchen, try remembering this when you try raiding the fridge at 3am. That way you won't nearly wet yourself when you spot a weird shape in the kitchen.

Ooops!

Had the nerve to check what the summer did to my account balance, have to say it could have been friendlier. Then realised there still is a credit card bill coming in containing a washing machine. Might need to get a job on the side and live on water and one minute noodles for a bit.

Fun

Apparently time flies when you're having fun. And if that's the case then ever since coming back from my roadtrip, fun I must have had. In the space of two weeks I saw girlfriend finish uni and get herself a proper job, I somehow managed to hit the Utrecht night-life dressed as a gnome and I managed to get away with giving girlfriend a voucher worth "once castration" for our 3 year anniversary. Oh and yes, I've still got both balls, thanks for asking.

There probably isn't too much to say about girlfriend getting her uni-degree, I fear that I didn't have too much to do with that one besides sit, applaud and give a present at the appropriate time (well, actually a couple of days late but let's forget about that). The same thing with the job-interview, girlfriend did three of them for the one job she really wanted and I basically just kept my fingers crossed that we wouldn't end up being a single income household for the next decade (I heard they never have the money to buy gadgets )

As for the gnome-thing, Ingrid threw a p-party at her place because Karen and some other foreigners were visiting. For the occasion, I decided to dress up as a gnome. Not that the Dutch word for gnome 'kabouter' starts with a g but we've got quite the tradition of gnomes starting with the letter 'p' in .nl. For the foreigners that are interested, there's 'piggelmee', 'pinkeltje', 'paulus' and ofcourse Plop.

The party turned out to be a big success, as did the gnome outfit... until somebody decided that we should all hit the streets and go clubbing, that is. Well... actually, that was a big success as well. If I had known how popular gnomes are with girls, I would have taken to dressing as a gnome for clubbing 15 years earlier. Apparently if they're up for it gnomes really do get all the action. After passing out in Ingrid's bedroom and waking up still dressed as a gnome, the Sunday was spent recovering.

And then last Tuesday girlfriend and I celebrated our third anniversary (eek!) after which on Wednesday it was girlfriend's birthday. For some reason I decided to swap the presents so that they wouldn't make sense to girlfriend anymore, due to which she received a voucher worth '1 castration' for our anniversary. Because of this girlfriend decided that her birthday present would be so horrible that she'd want to castrate me.

After getting her birthday present (a food bowl for the cat that somewhere in the next couple of weeks should be entering our place), she replied:"But this is a really nice gift, why would I want to castrate you for this??" After that I told girlfriend that I was hoping she'd be using the castration on our new kitten. There's still fear that she'll decide to use it against me somewhere in the next couple of months though.

More Holiday!

Just returned from 2 weeks of holidays, half of which was a roadtrip with McR, Nicktor, Karen and a Dutch girl called Ingrid, only Karen had met before. The other half was a meetup with the people mentioned in the previous sentence and lots of Australian people I had met during my days in Perth. Fortunately Ingrid turned out to be a lot of fun, so the first half was a big succes. My Australian friends were still fun, so that was quite successful too.

Obviously all the pics are up at http://www.flickr.com/photos/selmer

So what did we do?
day 1: Rotterdam->Den Bosch->Vlotho (Germany)
Picked up Ingrid in Den Bosch, got to meet her mum (who was apparently a bit anxious when her 20 year old daughter shouted out:"Mum, I'm going on a 2 week holiday with 3 random 30 year old guys!") Then drove on Germany-wards. Nicktor almost managed to badly dent my door at the camp-site but fortunately I was paying attention. Found out pretty early in the trip that apparently I did bring my mp3-player but that I forgot to bring the cable to connect it to my stereo. Argh!

First night consisted of card-games, beer, wine and lots of fun.

day 2: Vlotho->Berlin
Woke up to McR and Ingrid going swimming at subzero temperatures. Eventually packed and drove Berlin-wards. Stayed at Ulli's place. Discovered gnome-juice (liquor with a picture of a gnome on it)

Went clubbing in a pretty cheesy club. They did play Ice Ice baby though and there were naked women dancing. May have had a bit too much to drink that night. Then we probably all did.

day 3: Berlin
Picked up Karen at the train-station. Walked through Berlin, had Indian food. Eventually ended up playing cardgames at night.

day 4: More Berlin.
Saw a museum, spent time in a RC-airplane shop, had a really good dinner in an African restaurant. Tried clubbing but somehow failed. Played cardgames instead.

day 5: Czech republic-wards.
Karen kept trying to convince us that driving through Poland was the smart choice. In the end Nicktor put his foot down claiming his car wouldn't be able to make it through the mountains. The hills in the Czech republic already showed us that he might have been right there.

Camped near Terezin and had a really good hunting session in a supermarket.

day 6: Towards lake Balaton.
Nice camp-site at the lake. Good restaurant. Probably a bit touristy. Lots of alcohol and cardgames.

day 7: Lake Balaton
Lazed at the lake, swam a bit, read a bit, walked around a bit. My life is hard.
See yesterday for the night entertainment.

day 8: Lake Balaton->Budapest.
After lazing for most of the day at the lake, McR and Nicktor told us they were bored and wanted to leave. We let them. Somehow managed to find the Budapest apparetment without sat-nav and/or a proper map. Yay Karen! Arriving there we found out we only knew the street name, not the house-number. Looked up phone-number of house-guy on the internet, he was kind enough to drop us another set of keys. Let ourselves in, mooned the camera, drank all the beers in the fridge and then had a big reunion when everybody walked in and shouted:"Weren't you arriving tomorrow?"

Went out for food with the 5 of us, had cocktails (hic!) and came back to a sleeping house. Played cardgames.

day 9: Budapest.
Looked around, saw red bull air-race preparations. This means planes but no people (yay!) and drank beer. (Yay! again) All the girls went to the baths and Ingrid managed to lose her contacts. Till Tuesday (the day Ingrid leaves) McR is nice enough to borrow her his glasses. Seeing as he's only got his prescription sunglasses and his normal glasses this renders him blind at night.

day 10: More Budapest. Walked around with Christy, Sar and Jess. Had a good laugh while looking at the twins taking identical pictures of all the sights.

day 11: Even more Budapest. A national holiday. Spent most of it sitting in a park playing cardgames with Kaz, Ingrid and Mike. Got shouted at by McR when we more or less left him standing in the rain getting wet.

day 12: The day Ingrid took off. Walked around castle hill with Mike and all the girls. Decided to do a self-guide wine tour, where we bumped into McR, who had already been wine-touring for an hour. Tried tasting all the wines and after that things got a bit hazy. Woke up at 10:30pm lying on the couch thinking:"Hmmm... let's get McDonald's" Did just that. Apparently there was chunderage at the wine-tour.

While I was passed out, Maz managed to sit on McR's glasses. So he's still blind at night.

day 13: Felt somewhat hungover (wonder why) Took a boat-trip on the Danube and looked around a bit in the end-village. Still felt somewhat hungover on the way back.

day 14: The last day in Budapest. Spent shopping and doing Mario Kart. Dinner at night. Sadly no big party because many of us had to drive.

day 15: Driving back. Fortunately Kaz had decided not to go to Greece but to come back with us so that we could drop her off in Gent. Stopped for the night near Nurnberg. Lots of beer, card-games, snuff tobacco and kangaroo impersonating Germans might have been all part of the night. Fun!

day 16: Nurnberg to home. Mainly lots of driving and me slagging off Belgians because Kaz thought they might be cute. Eventually made it back home, where I got to cuddle girlfriend. And look at the Polish girl she brought in.

Holiday!

Was far too busy playing with my DS to update the diary, then a copy of "Bit of a Blur" by Alex James showed up and there was even less an excuse to update the diary. Really love the book, now need to find a way to have good looking hair. (Apparently all you need as a bass player is good hair)

In another couple of days my second big holiday of the year should take place. This time it'll be a roadtrip with Nicktor, McR, Karen and a girl only Karen knows called Ingrid. It should be taking us to at least Berlin, Budapest and Vienna and it should be a blast. Willl try to have lots of fun while traveling.

Nintendo!

After last week's budget-chicken, where I told Nicktor that I'd get a Nintendo DS if he'd get one. There's now a new addition to the Selmer and Maaike househ0ld. I'm still trying to work out whether now having a DS means I won or I lost. Our collection of games is still limited to two (which might either be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how you look at it) but both have received quite a bit of gameplay already.

Mario-kart DS just needs to be played so that hopefully eventually I'll be able to spank Lorraine's behind from one somewhere in the near future, while Mario & Luigi (partners in time) needs to be played because it's the other game in our household and because, while it started off dead boring for the first 3 hours, it's slowly starting to pick up its pace. Yes, there's also Sonic but that one's more a Maaike thing.

Owning a DS also makes for a great excuse to take the train into work. Somehow playing while driving is still not on my skills list. Now can Zelda and the new Lego Star wars please get released?

Still alive

Hi all, got told off by Ellen, Lorraine and girlfriend for considering ending this blog. So... that must mean that I do have readers ;-) I'd better get back into writing interesting stuff soon then. Sadly tonight I'm too busy to write because somehow I ended up buying a Nintendo DS. I blame Lorraine and Nicktor's eager-ness to join in.

Lunch!

Went bookshopping in the morning, then teamed up with Ruben and Wendy for lunch. They managed to make us eat all the things in the "what to eat in Singapore"-booklet, which we failed to cover yesterday.

Eventually left Ruben and Wendy behind and did the night safari in Singapore zoo. Recommended.

Back to Singapore!

Flew back to Singapore, got measurements made for a suit for lots of money (still a whole lot cheaper than at home though) and eventually teamed up with Ruben and Wendy for food, food and food.(Ruben is trying to get us to eat all foods of the "what to eat in Singapore" booklet within 48 hours. We're not complaining ;-) Walked around town for more food, tea, coffee and nice views. Got told off by a police officer for not sitting on a bench but on the handrail behind it.

Also bad news, they changed our flight back home from a 12 hour day stopover to a 14 hour night stopover. Because we already booked a flight with a 12 hour stopover we're not getting a free hotel.

Templed out.

After visiting 3 more temples in the morning, we ran out. No more temples to be seen in Angkor. Our tuctuc-driver advised us to take a boat-ride on the lake, which we did. An interesting boat-ride but for the $20 each the 1 hour trip was probably a bit expensive. The boat-trip only taking us to an overpriced restaurant made it feel even more of a scam. Still.. interesting to see how people live on boats.

More temples

Woke up really early to catch the sunrise at Angkor Wat. Nice. At the same time this meant that we were finished looking at temples around noon. Slept most of the afternoon, then had dinner in Siem Reap. The city center looks like more fun to stay than our place. Still.. for $USD 12 the room is really nice.

Angkor

Day one of visiting temples. Slept in, booked ourself a tuctuc-driver for the next 3 days (USD $60), got access passes made for Angkor ($40 each) and set off to look at lots of temples. Really interesting, really hot and sweaty and every other step 10 childeren will jump you to try and sell you something. (Usually "only 1 dollar") Still definitely worth it.

Crossing Thailand.

Woke up in Bangkok, had a bit of trouble finding the place where we were supposed to be picked up for the next bus (arrived there at 6:50 while we were supposed to be there at 6:30) and spent an hour wondering whether we were still on time. Just as we started to consider whether we should book a place to sleep for the night, we got picked up for another bus which would take us to the Cambodian border.

After getting our visa we were told to follow a Cambodian guy, who'd take us to the other side and who first told us to get lots of Thai Baht out (which I failed to do) and then on the other side told us that we couldn't pay in Thai Baht and that we'd have to change all the Baht to Riel (the Cambodian currency) because all banks would be closed in Siem Reap for the weekend.. Fortunately we had been warned that nobody uses riel for anything so we skipped that part of the scam as well.

After a long, hot wait at the border, we got to spend 7 hours driving the last 150 kms. Eventually made it, booked into the hotel and found out that:"Yes, the non-existing ATMs in Siem Reap do actually hand out US-dollars."

Leaving Chiang Mai

In the evening our Bangkok bound bus would pick us up. Till that time we stocked up on books, fruit and other useful things. I'm now finally the proud owner of "Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance", Mangosteens and anti-diarrea medicine.

Managed to get picked up by the bus and spent the rest of the night bussing.

Cooking Class

Woke up and did the "chilli club cooking class". Mr. Visutt is still the brilliant teacher I remembered him to be and girlfriend and I got schooled in Thai cooking + food decoration. Still suck at the food decoration, still having trouble finishing all the food. Did survive though and eventually at dinner time set out for a look at the night market. Failed to buy anything useful.

Thailand it is.

Woke up early, crossed the border on a boat and after a little wait at a guesthouse on the Thai-side (why wake up early again?) we made our way to Chiang Mai. I spent quite a bit of time there 4 years ago but apparently most of it was spent drinking beer seeing as I can't remember seeing much of this town.

Walked a bit around town and tried booking a train out of town. Found out that that train would miss the connecting train Cambodia-wards and decided to opt for the hellish 24 hour bus-ride instead. We'll probably regret it later but at least we'll spend an extra day in Chiang Mai, which means we'll be able to do a cooking class there (which I already did 5 years ago but a bit of a brush up won't hurt, I guess.)

Spent most of the evening reading outside. Until girlfriend went to bed and I decided to walk a bit more to see if I could find more recognisable things. Really bad news... on this walk I finally found where all the hookers lived. If only I had known 5 years ago! :-(

The river continues.

Up early again, into the boat and then did basically the same as yesterday. Arrived late in the afternoon, found ourselves a guesthouse, had dinner and passed out.

Floating up the Mekong

Got up fairly early and set off for the boat-station. Here we hopped onto a slowboat, which took us slowly up the river to Pakbeng. Floating slowly upriver means staring out at scenery (mainly trees and bushes with the occasional cow, goat, fisherman and elephant.) Still good fun for the 10 hours it took to get to Pakbeng.

There our bags got dragged off the boat by a friendly local, who offered to carry them to our guesthouse. When I tried tipping him, he reacted offended by the size of the tip and demanded a tip, which was even more than the price of a room for the night. Eventually had to push him out of our bedroom and shut the door on him to get rid of him. Apart from food and a river there's not much to do in Pakbeng. Fortunately sitting in a boat for a whole day makes you sleepy.

Luang Prabang

Walked around Luang Prabang, looked at temples and got soaked in sweat. Looked at some more temples, had dinner and did some shopping at the night market.

Oh, we also managed to book the boat out towards PakBeng and Houayxai (sp?). Over the Mekong. That should take us most of the next two days.

Argh!

Today only a 200 km bus-ride from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang. That can't be too challenging, can it? Actually, our expensive bus turned out to be fully packed with foreigners and legroom was a bit of an issue. Also, apparently it is possible to take more than 6 hours to travel 200 kilometers. (Then there was a mountain in between)

Eventually did make it though, found a guesthouse, had dinner, looked around a bit at night and then passed out in bed.

Floating...

Had break-fast, jumped on a songthaew and got taken 15 kilometers up the road for some caving, some trekking and eventually some tubing back home. The caves were really cool, 1 with a big Buddha shrine, one with really sharp, slippery rocks and one which we swam into floating on inflated car tubes.

After lunch we trekked back to the main road, caught a car back a bit and then jumped into the river to float back to Vang Vieng. Floating on a river is quite relaxing, especially with all the beer-bars with flying foxes surrounding the river. Eventually made an arse off myself falling out of a flying fox and made my way back to Vang Vieng for food and internet.

Another day, another road

After seeing enough of Vientiane, we decided to move on to the next place. 150 kms of travel took about 6 hours. Eventually we made it though, checked into a guesthouse and walked around town (which consists of 2 streets), after which we had dinner in a restaurant showing simpsons-episodes (somehow it seemed a better choice than the place which was showing Friends). Tomorrow we're going trekking caving and tubing.

Vientiane

Spent the day walking through Vientiane, checking out temples, bookshops and other things to do. A nice, small city but also somewhat warm. Had food and beers on the riverside at night.

Another bus, Vientiane this time.

Seeing as Savannaket wasn't the most exciting place ever we took the first bus out in the morning. Actually, we skipped that one, it left at 6:40 but the 8:15 bus did the trick as well and seeing as Vientiane was only 400 kms further up the road, how long can it take?

The answer: Apparently 10 hours. Locals have to get on and off the bus all the time, the bus-driver needs a break every 2 hours, etc. A tuctuc-ride later we found our hotel in Vientiane then had a drink and some food at the river and passed out early.

Savannaket

Got up at 5:30, got in the bus and landed in Savannaket at 4 in the afternoon. This envolved several busses, and while at the first stop they told us:"No, you're not supposed to enter the bus to Savannaket all other tourists just entered", at the Lao border they made us enter that bus after all.

Not much happening in Savannaket, except for a torrential rainstorm for which we had to take shelter under some random person's house. Had dinner, sat outside, walked around for a bit and then went to bed.