Digital Backpacker 2000 Articles
Digital Backpacker 2000 #7September 20th: The Big Mango
After three weeks I felt it was time to leave Indonesia behind me, looking back I guess I liked Samosir Island the most. So many people with their interesting stories. On one of my last days there my neighbour asked me to join him for a cup of coffee at a [...]
October 8th: Motorbike repair shops
The nightbus brings Janne and I comfortably to Chiang Mai. At about six in the morning the first monks in their orange clothes can be seen on the streets as they collect their food from the people in town. It looks like a picture in motion out of one of the [...]
October 2nd: Eyes say it all
After clearing customs it is clear from the first moment that I’m in a different country. The roads look like the surface of the moon except that they are filled with mud and water. The further part of the journey to Siem Reap we sit in the back of a [...]
November 2nd: Twilight over Burma
From the airplane I can see the shimmering reflection of the golden Shwedagon Pagoda, a promising entrée to this new country. Waiting for immigration I adjust my watch, half an hour back this time.
I try to walk past the exchange counters but two officials stop me and accompany me [...]
November 10th: The New Light of Myanmar
In Mandalay I take the boat to Mingun, an “ancient city” north on the Irrawaddy riverbanks. The town welcomes me and two other tourists with a signboard “Welcome in Mingun”.
We instinctively understand that we shouldn’t visit the small office underneath it. As we walk past it an official [...]
Digital Backpacker 2000January 4th: India
Hello rupee!! Hello chocolate!!
Holland welcomed me with a cool breeze and the German words “Noch immer Radarkontrolle” along the highway. It wasn’t a feeling of coming home at all. I missed the palm trees and the crowds walking the streets at night. Back home the doors are closed all day, even in [...]
December 8th: Cabbages and Condoms…
Ubon Ratchathani is one of the larger cities in Thailand, the local TAT
(Tourism Authority Thailand) tries to promote the area as “The emerald
triangle”, in counterpart to Thailand’s Golden Triangle. It refers to the
relatively intact monsoon forest in this part of the province. This area
shares borders with Laos and Cambodia, it’s safe [...]
November 24th: Loy Krathong
Seven hundred years ago the daughter of a Brahmin priest, Nang Noppamoht, lit the candle on her little, lotus shaped boat made of banana leaves and put it into the water. Slowly the boat, filled with flowers, drifted away on the high river. It was meant as a ritual to attempt to [...]
September 9th: Senior High School
After 14 horrendous hours in the bus I arrived in Bukkitinggi, a mountain town, the main street filled with bars, hotels and restaurants. This town is sometimes referred to as Kota Jam Gadung (big clock town), after its landmark, the Minangkabau-style clock tower that overlooks the market square. I did [...]
September 1st: Fly to the Moon
Medan is the third largest city in Indonesia. Most people use this town as an entry or exit point as it has few sites of interest. I stayed a little bit longer, discovered an interesting Chino-town and a kind of “little India” too, with temples to make you forget that [...]
