| In October 2005 Rianne visited South Korea for a conference meeting. To enjoy not only Seoul we went a couple of days earlier to experience some culture and nature elsewhere in the country. This econimically growing country, especially Seoul, looks Western, but the lack of the English language makes that you really feel you are in Asia. Although people are friendly, they do have some strange habits, e.g. pushing and passing in waitinglines, and taking only pictures showing the finger peace-sign. |
© Bart Everts
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| We were inivited by my parents to join them and my two sisters to Thailand in July 2007 for a three week holiday. I had never been to Asia before and I was of course curious what it would be like. We'd heard all kind of good stories about Thailand so we had quite high expectations. Luckily, we were not disappointed. We now understand why it is the single most polupar holiday destination in Asia. The combination of delicious food, good weather, very genuinly friendly people, good accomodation, and beautiful natural and cultural sights, make it a wonderful destionation. In addition, everthing is still very cheap (at least compared to European standards) and the infrasturcture is also very good, allowing you to explore most of the country fairly easily. Although we all have our own prefences of how to spend our holidays, in every place we visited there were enough things to do that suited everybodies needs. We travelled independently by local public transport without any problems. During these three weeks we were able to visit only the major highlights: Bangkok, Chiang Mai and surroundings in the north, Old Siam apital Sukhothai, Khao Yai National Park and Koh Samui in the south. |
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| Japan, the land of the rising sun. I was fortunate enough to be able to participate in an international conference for my work in Kobe in october 2008. Getting to Japan wasn't as easy as expected: it took me 3 days to get there. As a result I missed half of the meeting. Fortunately, I had planned an extra week of travelling through Japan to get a first glimpse of what this country has to offer. It is a fascinating country. On the one hand it is highly modern. They use state of the art technologies for communication and transportation. Yet on the other hand, Japanese people are also very traditional. They are very formal in greetings, and they are proud of their cultural traditions and cuisine. As a foreigner, travelling in Japan is far mor straightforward than I expected it to be. First of all, public transport is very well organised. In addition, with hardly any crime it's very safe to travel around. And importantly, the people are very friendly and always willing to help you out with the few words of english they speak. Of course Japanese cuisine is a feast for the tastebuds, as long as you like fish. Perhaps the only downsight is that Japan is an expensive country and comparable with western European countries. To save money, getting a Japan Rail pass that allows you to travel by JR trains, including bullet trains, all over the country, is highly recommendable. During this one week in Japan, I visited Kobe, Kyoto, Tokyo and Nikko |
