Tag : Asia

This was really a great experience! The guy who did the actual canoeing for us told me that the water around the rocks is 1 meter deep. He showed us also a place where not many people come. He called it “VIP area”. It was very nice!!! less people, lots of great images. The guy called himself “Men” or something like that. Men thank you to show is this beautiful place!

In 1974 the James Bond movie “Man with golden gun” was filmed here. Now a touristic chaos!. But when you look around and find a good spot you can make some nice images and have the feeling you’re alone there. Check for yourself:

Very nice fishing village build on stilts by Indonesian fishermen. Now a touristic attraction. It was nice to see, but not that spectacular.

A wonderful cave with a gold plated buddha is laying and monkey’s walk freely around the area!

You can see some white spots in the image, when you click on it you goto other part of cave. Or click on the red location points on the map!

A 360° image of the mangroves in Phuket. It was a very dry season so we didn’t see it all. But the impression is nice!

360° view of the snorkeling spot near Phi Phi. And learned how to add the map, so you see where this 360° is taken.

Less text lot of images !!! It was great yesterday !!! Went with a boat to the islands, nice crew on board and after the first snorkeling location we had lunch and was  very good! Weather was nice, sea was quiet so had a great time yesterday.

It was a long day… Mini-van in, Mini-van out. Walking around for 10 or 20 min then back in the mini-van. Here the list of all destinations:

Most of them where nice to see. Some i din’t like. The money show and Snake show. It seems that the animals like it…. but no. Every hour a person make the snakes angry or afraid to show the tourist how they react. That is not Entertainment. Show a video with this, then walk around and tell something about these snakes.  Later the day we went to the Waterfall and Gibbon Project. Gibbon Project is to get Gibbons who used for tourism industry. Strange that earlier the day you see a monkey show, and later the day a rescue project for Gibbons.

For a visual idea of this Sightseeing see the images.

Its happend…. got food poisoning. Damn what a hell. Spuw and diarrhea … Sleep al day and try to drink water all the time but my body says no…. And spit it out again. After a long sleep i tried it again, yes the water was accepted! Now i have to go out for some food… Went out to “Familymart” but there it goes badly wrong. Saw stars, saw black and when i went outside i got my “blackout”. A pharmacy worker saw it happen en took me inside. Directly he take all the medicine i needed. Explain everything and advised me what to eat.

I went to the restaurant next to pharmacy and got some soup. But my body says no again. I felt horrible again and took the soup with me to my room. Again went to sleep. Today i was planning for excursion but im not going. Feel to weak. Hope this all will end soon, so i can enjoy my stay in Patong…

This hotel is from a Russian company. I didn’t know that and thats ok. The style of the hotel is how you see some interiors in Russian buildings as well (Never been their, but saw some images). Lots of Russian visitors here and Scandinavian people. The Russians are loud, hard talking, smashing the doors. I cannot say if thats normal for their culture but when you in bed and you hear many sounds in the hallway its annoying. After 23:30-00:00 is almost quiet.

The hotel is clean! And its 5-10min walk from the beach. There is a little swimming pool so when you want cool down at the end of the day. After i went to the beach i goto the pool, lay in shadows and relax then go upstairs to get a shower and put aftersun on my body.

I have a good signal of the WiFi, better then the WiFi connection in Novotel in Shanghai and Beijing… So im very happy because i can upload my images without timeouts!

My view is nice. At the highest floor and see the ocean. The sunset is always nice to see!!

So this evening i went to the streets where it all happen, drinks, beer, shots, ladies, boy’s ,food on the streets … you name it and you will find it here. On every meter they try you to get into their bar and have some drinks. On every corner you see a group of ladies for a massage… At “The Paradise Complex” you see the lady boy’s, and the gays walking around.

Near the beach you will find many restaurants and food on the streets. This is always so difficult, because the food on streets is do delicious but mostly fish, chicken, beef, or something between, without vegetables… When you goto restaurant you will get everything, but its more expensive.

I have made some images only for a little impression what you can expect here:

This is not about the beauty, not about happiness, but a little reflection of a person who live in Thailand.

I was chatting on a gay app called “Grindr” yes, for those who didn’t know. Im gay. but whatever…
I was chatting with a guy and was a nice conversation. We talked about some simple things and he told me he work as massage. I wanted goto a Thai Massage, but around my hotel lots of lady’s ask me: Wanna Massage… Wanna Massage… and it didn’t feel good. So i asked him where he worked.

He give me his location and i went to his salon. I told him i will arrive around 14:00 and outside he was waiting. Off course he was at work, so we went to the room and started the massage.

We talked also, normally you lay down and relax, but we had a conversation, a good one. I asked him some questions and he asked me questions. At a certain moment we talked about difference of Thailand and Netherlands. I asked him what i get per month for this job. He told me around 7000-8000 bath. It depends on how many customers he had. Yesterday he had 2 customers so get 100bath per customer. I paid 400bath (10 euro) for the oil massage. So 300bath goes to the owner.

He also told me that it isn’t enough for living (8000bath is around 204 euro). He send some money to his parents more land inward. They are not able to work anymore. So he has to live from 204 euro minus the amount he send to his parents. For me was that a moment of reflection.

He asked me to sit, so he can do my back and told me i was a very “friendly person” he said: lots of customers are touching me and are rude. After that saying to me i had again a reflection. How can someone rude agains a person who worked hard for his money? Work 6 days between 12:00 – 23:30 and 1 day off.

After the massage was done i thank you him for the open conversation and the nice massage as well. And people think now im crazy, but give him som extra for his family and himself. Because i will survive when i help someone… He need it.

True, its the normal way of living here, but if every tourist can be little more generous then the Thai people can live little bit better.

Here a nice image of the Great Wall of China in 360°

And another nice 360° image. This time of a shopping street in Beijing.

I went to the Olympic Park and visit the “Bird Nest”. This was the stadium where the opening of the Olympics in 2008 started. Its a impressive building, from the outside but also from the inside. Its huge, but feels small. I walked around and went also to the top to see the whole area. It was amazing to stand there, ok it’s not the premiere feeling of a opening, but still… We saw it on TV, we saw the firework and now im standing there.

After my Olympic Park visit i went too 2 temples: Lama Temple and Temple of heaven. Both very crowded with people. And seems i was the only white guy around there. The temples where colored so nice, and everywhere people pray, and give money to the buddha. When i was in temple of heaven 2 times people want on a photo with me, so i was the only white guy there, and a new attraction was born…

Today i went to Great Wall of China. This is the longest wall ever made by humans. Total length around 10.000km.It was a long journey to get there by bus. I was happy that i did a excursion otherwise i wasn’t able to find it my own and public transport. At this period of the year it was the best. Less people around so have some nice images created. After we went back in the hotel i had a dinner with a couple from Norway. Was a nice conversation and in meanwhile we ordered some delicious food in the upper floor of a shopping mall!

This morning went to Shanghai Railway Station to take the High-Speed train to Beijing. The ride was perfect. I bought a 1st class ticket and had almost my own cabin haha. The train will stop several times between Shanghai and Beijing and the whole journey took 7 hours. I shoot some images of the locations and now you have a little impression what i saw the whole day.

A cup of coffee cost 2,- euro, so thats normal. After u arrived at Beijing South a bought a metro card. When you know the metro system in other big cities, then every metro in every city is easy. Sometimes you have to ask something. There was a short part of the route with a old part of metro. So no signs, no map, nothing. I had to ask for it.

After i arrive at my hotel i booked my excursion to Great wall, costs 39,- euro. Pickup from hotel to Great wall, a guide, and when i arrive at Great Wall i will use a cablecar to get higher in te mountains. But you will see the images later.

Now below you can see some images i took in the train. Ohh im so happy with my Nikon 24-70mm f2.8. The train had a speed of 305km/hour. And all my images are sharp 😀

I went to the old city of Shanghai… Was difficult the find it because all small streets are filled with people and little shops. You have to look very well to see the beauty of this location. This location was build in the “Ming Dynasty” by a rich family the Pan-clan. It has been destroyed several times: Opium War, Taiping Protest.

They renovated all and you can see this, because it look old but it isn’t. Its ok, now we have a idea how it was in that period.