Tag : Tourism

So finally have a nice 360° image of the beach of Patong. You see its not crowed with people. Most of the tourists here are Russian and People from Scandinavian. Sometimes you hear French and i didn’t hear any Dutch.

Every day i goto the beach for some hours and rent a bed include a parasol for 100 Bath (2,60 euro) for a whole day. Around 13:00 i walk to the boulevard and there are the street food motorbikes again. Buy some nice lunch an walk back. Have a nice view with nice food and even more nice weather. Even Patong is very touristic its nice.

Maybe i will move to Kata Beach for 1 week, seems a beautifull beach as well and always good to see other locations.

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.

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!

I was at my hotel, little relaxing and i saw a very nice oppertunity to shoot Shanghai Skyline in a different way. The sun and sky was so nice, i shoot some images and this one is the best. I love the colors, and you can still see the buildings and know its Shanghai.

At moment of my stay in Hong Kong the weather was not best. So i had to struggle with clouds and took me some time to create this image.

Original file:

Filesize: 244mb
Pixels: 12185 x 3727 (45,4MP)

So, first morning in Shanghai. It was a very unpleasant start. I arrived at my hotel in Huangpu District. Went to my room and with every step i feel more and more sad. Smell was like shit, the smell of wet dogs, 100 of them in 1 room. I opened my room and was almost crying. This was not the view how Hotels.com show the room. Was sitting on my bed and look around. Took some images because i want this for my memory (i’ll create a book of everything).

After 30minutes i decide to check-out and booked in meanwhile a other hotel. The reservation was ok. But because of my lost of my Macbook and the Payment of my Hong Kong Hotel and some other payments i knew my CreditCard limit was almost there. But ill took a taxi and went to “Novotel Shanghai”. Arrived there and explain everything (Thanks god they talk little bit english). It was no problem at all and they make a deposit of the amount i had on my CreditCard. At my room i called Rabobank and they give me the instructions to transfer money from my normal account to my Credit Card so i can use it when needed.

For now im at my hotel room, not coming out this day. Have to settle, have to be relax about this. I know problems are everywhere and you can solve it out. Im gonna edit my images, my panorama’s and my 360 degrees images. Next post will be a post of my Hotel in Hong Kong of “99 Bonham Hotel” that was a nice one! Loved it. Cheers

First 4 images was my previous hotel in Shanghai.

Below you see a 360 degrees of my current hotelroom.

It was a experience !!! I was at the “New Bridge Rd” near my hotel. Crowd of people waiting for the countdown, Dragon dancers entertain the people. Most of the people are tourists. Some locals told me that the Chinese community are at home and watch the countdown on television.

It was also the first use of my lens i bought weeks ago. A Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 and its amazing what i can do now!!
Shoot night shots without a tripod. Ok off course its better to use, but when objects moving you can setup your camera well so its not needed.

It was a great night. I loved it, I enjoyed it, I was there!

Yes, something else then travel, but i explain why.

I promised 2 years ago to a boy who died about aids. This teddybear lost a his friend because of aids. There was a demonstration on “Museumplein” Amsterdam to “Stop Aids Now”. You can take a teddybear and make a photo with hashtag #stopaidsnow. of yourself include the teddybear.

At that moment i did a promise to that for me unknown kid: I will take this teddybear everywhere. So spiritual the kid will see the world how it looks like, and will remember forever.

So this journey is also a little journey for this kid and this Teddybear. You will see some pictures of this teddybear to remember everyone:

“Stop Aids Now”