Slow life

Our lives are incredibly slow, relaxing and predictable these days, which is the nicest life with a child, since when they know what to expect they are more relaxed and open to fun since they don't have to put energy into finding out what's what and what's where. And so it is the same for us grown-ups! So wednesdays and sundays there is market, in itself amazing with the weirdest items on sale, like 100 pair of used running shoes selling for 2,50 a a pair but no ordinary Thai (which are the folks that visit this market) would ever think of going for a run so it's hard to imagine how this is a good business. Or fried eggs the size of a tiny little cookie, and they come in cute little cups with a tiny little yellow yolk in the middle, or again the head of the pig that we have seen more often, or a whole heap of intestines (darmen) on the BBQ. Yum! Why we come to the market is for the big jumping cushion for kids and the trampoline that you can be on for 20 minutes for a whopping 50cents. Salome loves it! And she gets better and better at it. And it is a great idea! This market is a real-life Thai experience of course complete with very loud music, preferably two or three kinds competing with each other, blaring out of the speakers.
We also get to use a big private pool in the garden nextdoor (belonging to the owner of this hotel) and everyday we have jumping-sessions of about 100 times, giving you that good old chlorined-feeling of when you were young. Salome decided she no longer needs floats (bandjes), and after holding on to the side of the pool for 2 weeks since she is well aware that she will drown without them, she now taught herself to swim, this morning she swam 2 metres by herself, in the deep pool.
Another good example of Thai culture: we were looking for a cardboard box to make a doll-house, I was in the supermarket, everywhere cardboard boxes, I ask for one, but they say: no have. huh???. So I naively think they don't understand and try to explain, pointing at the boxes, telling them what it is for, but you look at this blank face with no effort to want to help you whatsoever, and the guy says: solly no have. So this is Thailand: some people will help you in unexpected circumstances in ways beyond your expectation and others won't help you at all in situations where you would expect it to be normal. So far for the culture gap.
It is just wonderful to be here, to be outside all the time, to enjoy this easy quiet time in our lives, riding our bike in the sun, visiting here and there, reflecting on our lives, meditating, having time for dreaming and taking naps, reading books, and being taking care of by these wonderful people of Dune Hotel. So, if anyone needs running shoes: let us know!

Foto's and Salome's Party

I tried a few times to upload our foto's but to afraid to delete it.We lost already 1 camera full of great pictures so i promise 1 march they will be online.

Fro Salome's Party if you like to give a present wich is not necessary she loves horses and a cheap digital camera she loves making foto's,her camera died here unfortunatelly.

Love

The Monks Birthday

Today again an amazing meeting with something you cannot plan. Here in Thailand you see and meet new impressions in life. Like a mother who clean her daughters hair from lice with the fingernails and eat the founded insects, prostitutes cutting the footnails from her white lover near your breakfast table, a mothers hitting her child in front of Salome, a pig head for sale on the market & more of these interesting attitudes in life. Today i cycled along a little village passed the thai boxing school and saw a lot of people circling around, in front and nearly on me on the way to the temple on the hill. Normally no people here just a few monks, today thousands of people everywhere. I stopped the bike and walked with Salome along and through the human mass of sweating souls. Poor Poor Poor people from everywhere. They all tried to touch Salome who didn't like it and I had to punch the people away. The old women were really behaving a bit freaky today. People were standing in long rows. I didn't know what was happening and we sat down to look at this chaos. After 5 minutes a young lady came to us and explained the situation. The main monk had his 54th birthday today and everybody received free food, drinks and the poorest people received clothes and bags with food. Amazing situation. We ate great veggi food and met nice people, a young lady and her friends who lived 10 years in Holland but missed her country so now started an ice cream shop in Hua Hin, a nice man who has a company with steel attributes for your toilet and shower, bath attributes. Nice conversation about life,buddhism, greedy people, angels and their 7 levels and after that the 3 levels of the angels. Interesting and a lot in common with sant mat.
Radha Soami

Dear friends thanx for all your mail,amazing so sweet

Today we found out how to see the reactions from the readers of our blog.Thank you it makes me smile, so happy to hear from all of you.

Love

Yade geboren!

24 januari is onze lieve Leonie bevallen van dochter Yade! Leonie is niet alleen een goeie vriendin maar ook de verloskundige die de bevalling van Salome heeft begeleid. Wat heerlijk en fijn en bijzonder dat alles goed is gegaan (spoedkeizersnede) en we wensen Orkun, Leonie en Yade een prachtig en gezond leven toe en vooral heel veel tijd om met elkaar te zijn! (Orkun woont nog in Turkije)


 Nogmaals 27 februari 16-17.30 tea party voor Salome's verjaardag. RSVP!

Chicken fight

Just cycled into an new adveture.Cycled around today to buy Birthday presents for Salome,her 3th birthday is 19 february but we give now some presents because she can use them now and looking for a present for my beautiful wife we are 3 years married on 7 february.I saw a big fight between 3 chickens with some guys around them.Crazy ,it looked like a training for a big event but so strange that people do this.Sometimes i feel i am in the middle ages driving on my aluminium horse and meet strange and also interesting situations.

On Sunday 27 februari we plan to give a party for Salome in Holland between 16.00-17.30 tea and cake.
So if you're close send us an email and we put your on Salome's party list

Love

Salami

Oke allemaal, nog 4 weken te gaan, en voor iemand als ik betekent dat: al bijna inpakken geblazen haha! In mijn hoofd ga ik al een beetje terug naar Nederland, voorbereiden hoe het leven daar alweer zal zijn, net zoals ik al n paar maandjes in Thailand zat in mijn fantasie voordat we maar in het vliegtuig zaten.
Ik vraag me af hoe alle mooie zwangeren eruit zien die we in Nederland hebben achtergelaten, Maaike, Leonie en Babet en wanneer de eerste baby geboren zal worden, nog voordat we thuis komen! En of er nog eentje stiekem zwanger zal zijn, maar pssst dat is een geheim, en ik ben het natuurlijk niet zelf! Allemaal duimen.......en nog meer duimen.........Hier in ons luxe hotel-leven worden we heerlijk verwend. S'ochtend na het wakker worden kunnen we om half negen terecht voor het ontbijt dat op het dak in een mooi restaurantje met uitzicht op zee en palmen wordt geserveerd door n allerliefste Tai (zo heet ze echt) en het aardigste kokkie van wie we de naam niet zo goed kunnen onthouden. Die roepen in koor: Salami! Want de hele staf (en dat zijn er nogal wat ondanks dat er maar 5 kamers zijn die nauwelijks bezet zijn) vindt Salome helemaal geweldig en noemen haar dus Salami. En Salami vindt hun ook helemaal geweldig, met als gevolg dat wij rustig ons krantje kunnen lezen en genieten van lekkere vegetarische Thaise soep met superverse groenten en lokaal fruit als guave en watermeloen. Salami en de meisjes praten eigenlijk niet, het zijn prachtige oosterse meisjes met zeer veel innerlijke rust en er ontstaat n soort mime als ze met hen speelt, ze noemt hen allemaal 'mijn vriendin'. Het is leuk om te zien en ik denk dat kinderen het leuk vinden om met kinderen, dieren en andere volwassenen te spelen en leren in hun leven.
Ik hoor Salami komen en verstuur snel dit bericht, tot n andere keer!
Amira

Making holy music with the monks

Today was great.I went cycling with Salome and if you go into little villages and follow litlle streets you visit places you cannot plan.As i am a musician and hearing music the first thing i do is filtering if it's a cd or live music.I cycled in a remote street and the music catched my ears and it came from a temple. Salome and i parked the bike put of our shoes(rule no.1 in temples) and there was a big orchestra playing. 3 big gongs 3 sets of 20 gongs on wood 2 xylophones, 4 cymbal players 1 big bass drum like a dholak from india and 1 set of 20 little dholaks tuned that you can play melodies amazing tuning and 3 flute players.We sat down and listened the drummers invited us on stage while playing there parts of music we climbed on the stage  and we sat next to 3 drums and i played along. In there brake i played all the instruments and sung some impro song, they were impressed by my skills and before we knew we were members of the orchestra.I played the drums and the big gongs and learnt the repetoir.At another brake Salome played with a  big cat who scratched her after 15 minutes so we left.Again riding a way we don't now.Before we knew we were in the hart of an elephant camp were Salome hugged really big elephants.It's special but also  a bit scary.These animals are so big it's impressive to feel there nose sniffing around your body.After 40 minutes we drove back to the orchestra first we went listening and the parts i played before were sounding different to me.The gongs are so magical and important for this kind of music.They saw me and invited me back on stage it was so special.The conductor gave me a new piece of music and i was in heaven.After 2 months of not playing music it was a relief to play again, and such different music and instruments i used to play.After 3 sets they invited us for lunch and Salome loved to play the instruments as well.The magic of this orchestra is there is no competition at all.No competition but everybody thankfull to play together,This spirit is missing in most musicians i play or see playing.No ego no competition but harmony.This is how the way music is ment for religious warming the soul and having fun together.It's nice to be in the reallife as an member of an orchestra then you feel you are living the live and not a tourist doing nothing but develop and meet new skills.After this great adventure we went back and slept in our paradise.We woke up jumped on the bicycles again and went to a big market for thai people,it's great to be under the people and not in the tourist traps.There were big jump cushions and plastichorses who cyrcled with the power of a fan.The creativity here is so big.Make something of nothing.The we cycled to a luxuriuos resort because on all the signs there was organic food.We ate 2 delicious salads and Salome fried rice with vegetables and cashew nuts.Amazing service when we wanted to leave the crew gave us there number and told us the road is very dark and if we had an accident we could call them.How nice.
Sleep well xxxx

Cycling the roads

Everyday we tour around the 40 km.Sometimes it's very hot but mostly ok with some smoothe breezes.The people love Salome and sometimes give here little presents.It's nice to cool down in the sea or a nice pool and relax.

Love

Hua Hin Cycling club

Today we cycled with the Hua Hin Cyclists.We arranged an early fried rice soup and got on our way to the Railwaystation were great bikes were waiting for an wild ride.Fantastic people and a big group who lost each other in the first 20 minutes and also  the route was impro what is a great talent ofcourse for people who live here for 5-7 years.Amira kept flowing in the middle group and i was in the first group off road,down hill and gardensightseeing.Fantastic.Thank you dear friends.

Puppies

We get the ins and outs day by day.Yesterday we found a playgarden with workout garden on the beach for kids an adults.The coincidence our animal karma is still allright there are 3 puppies living there and today we cycled again to the playground and playing with animals is Salome's favorite thing so lucky we found animals again.Tomorrow we gonna cycle with the local bike club.No idea what surprises we get.

Love from a cooling down Hua Hin

Hotel DUNE Hua Hin

We feel like a million bucks in this beautiful hotel called DUNE, in a modern nice beachtown called Hua Hin,  it is in fact our dreamhouse! We wish we could live in a place like this with the most amazing view of the sea. There is only 5 rooms and everything is just equally pretty and welcoming and luxurious but you still feel a home and not in a hotel. Yesterday I met a woman who was vacationing in Thailand and she shared her experiences about being here 6 years ago in the very heart of the tsunami together with her husband and 4 kids, all of them swept away by the wave. They all made it safely in the end, but it changed their lives, and it was good to hear in detail this story and the effect on their lives since the tsunami-past is still so present everywhere in Thailand! To hear someone's personal story made all of that come alive for me. This trip makes us again deeply aware of how grateful we feel for all we have in our lives, to be safe, healthy, to have love, a connection with spirit, a roof over our heads, money, to belong somewhere in a place that feels like home, to have fresh foods in any quantity we enjoy, the ability to develop yourself.
And the small things like how great it is to have productstickers that actually come off again (what an invention!) (you know like when you buy something at Hema or Blokker everything has a sticker?), here they just never come off, you can scratch for hours at them but the glue doesn't come off.
So what else is really fun here: the food-culture, there are thousands or even a million people in Thailand I daresay, driving around in the most unexpected places with little outdoor kitchens made on scooters with all kinds of treats to eat, soups, stuff on sticks with little barbecues, corn on the cob, fruits, etcetera, people are always eating here, and they really enjoy it, and it must be somewhat allright stuff since there are not a lot of fat people here. One big sectret is I think that nobody eats wheat products. A street can be empty and within 30 minutes the whole place is transformed into a restaurant area with tables and chairs and fresh foods and women cooking in big pots. and of course a lot of people eating it! It starts at 4 a clock until midnight and then they all clear the place again to start all over again the next day. Our favorite is Green Papaya Salad (Som Tam) a salad with a great spicy dressing, lots of vegetables and some nuts.
Okay, lots of love from paradise!
Amira
Something peculiar also is to be in a country without any playgrounds, they just don't exist here. In all of Thailand we saw 2 places with swings that were completely overgrown and falling apart.

Cycling in the night ,hope to find a Hotel!!!!!

Yesterday it was what you can call a heavy day &it was also fun and full of excitement. First we left our horseranch were Salome drove on very big horses.Then we went to the tourist office to change our busticket to Bangkok to Hua Hin, i asked the clerk 100 times if the minivan and the bus could take and she assured me :Don't worry.Then we went to the house of Ed & Marianne 2 dutch people who live in ao nang and are so sweet and nice people.Then we rented a motorbike to get to Krabi town to get a new Visa.It went ssmooth in 1,5 our we arrived back at Ed & Marianne were we drunk coffee ,did a swim in their pool.After 2 hours they left and we could stay to wait before leaving to get the minivan.So far so good.at 14.00 we cycled from the house to the Starbucks were the minivan would come to pick us up.It was not coming at all and i called the office 4 times and there the tough work started.1 fully loaded pick up truck with backpackers and big rucksacks arrived,the driver got out his car and the first welcome he had impossible no way you can bring the bikes and this cost you a lot of money.I ignored him asked the backpackers to help met to get 1 bike on the roofrack, they helped really fantastic and Amira left with Salome and 1 bike on the roof with a lot of nearly accidents and here bike without ropes dancing on the roof she made it.For me another pick up arrrived with even more bags and people on it but with again fantastic help of backpackers i arrived to.The new challenge : get on the big bus.The Chef called Pakman came immediately to me with the information:Impossible to bring your bikes.I told him don't worry and i help you but every minute he got more angry and stressed out,again i ignored the crazy moneywanted thai freak(ofcourse most thai are great and nice but some thai people working with tourists are sometimes big stinking rats) and stayed in my own energy.After twenty minutes he came to me and told me : Now it's no problem and all the people got in and packed the bus.I had the honour bading in sweat to try to get our bikes in the luggage compartment after giving birth to the first bike the chef came again and said you have to get out it will not fit,then i gave him 200 baht and he said no problem again.But there was a problem there was not space.But with a lot of tears and sweat i finally got the stuff in and we left the south of Thailand in heavy rain.We had the luck we had a bus with upstairs 50 places and downstairs a table with around it seats it was full with a french family,brothers and sisters who let us in their camping car vibe.It was a great time with them Salome had a new friend and they looked together to a little dvd player the movie Lion King.At 3.00 in the night i went to the bus driver if he didn't forget to stop in Hua Hin and 3.30 we arrived at Hua Hin.It was dark,some drunk people and we a family with a little girl getting the wheels on the bike and all other articles we had to remove for the bustrip.Then our night cycle tour started.In the bus i already booked a hotel but we had no clue were we were.We cycled and all hotels were closed.Then there was a tourist and we asked him a hotel and he told me were he stayed we went there and when a was calling :Heloo,Sawadee at the reception desk the clerk slept under the desk and we got in the most stinky hotel with a lot off animals who normally don't live in a hotel.But i was happy we had a room.Amira went up i unloaded the bikes,paid,locked the bikes and went to the nightmarket to get apple juice for Salome.When a walked through the hotel i heard all the beds making music of the rhythm of old white people making'love with young thai woman.We didn't saw or heard much of this industry till now but now we were in the middle of the heat.We slept got breakfast and cycled away to find a place were we feel good and can relax.In this tour we met 2 world cyclist  talked with them and also bought a new pump wich we lost during our journey.2 hours of searching and no place at all,Salome saw a place with rabbits in all colours of the rainbow she said there it is.We stopped at a imense luxury hotel and Salome played with the Rabbits,while Amira checked the room and the pools 1 on the roof and 1 at a big garden with soft grass with an amazing seaview i told here it's great &fantastic but really expensive.She told me ok now you look,i went to the room and it was a place so beautifull,there was a sweet pepermint smell and view is amazing.I tried to do my best to get a better price they started at 5000 and finally i made it to 2100 baht per night(wich is a lot in Thailand already but in Europe nothing for this quality).We stay here 7 days and then they are full and we have to look for a new place.We feel like a king,Queen and there princess.Amazing service,free dvd library,internet,toothbrush,shaving equipment etc. etc.In Thailand you live 1 moment in hell an the other in heaven.We really love it here.We took a swim in both swiming pools,went to the evening market and now we gonna look a dvd .Fantastic

Love you all

Leaving Southern Thailand

Hello everybody! We have decided to leave the beaches and islands of southern Thailand in peace. Our plans to bike south are impossible because of heavy and continuous rainfall all over the deep south and Malaysia, the monsoon is unexpectedly late this year, it should have passed over end of november already. Supposedly it has to do with El Nino. We have been waiting here for 10 days (again) to see if it would clear up (we have been waiting since we first came here actually) but it is not changing any time soon. So there, our cycling trip ends for now, we shift perspective from being cycling hero's to enjoy the rest of our time vacationing, we are taking a bus back north and will try renting an apartment in a little beachtown some 200 kilometer below Bangkok. Anyway our butts are sore! So we can have some rest, (we find traveling around so much with a little kid pretty exhausting!!!) enjoy our own place and space and some good wheather at last (it is dribbling raining or overcast here in Krabi as well quite often, as well as being 30C so very hot and humid). Other than this traveling stuff the BIG Event was that Salome decided she no longer wants to wear a nappy, and she is now 100% zindelijk' (potty trained though there actually never was a potty) Hip Hip Hurray!!!!!! We are very proud of her, amazing to see how she makes these kind of decisions in her own time, knowing when she is ready for something. We love her so much! So who is who: David is the guy pulling the logistics together and getting good deals, Amira is the navigator and the food shopper, Salome is making funny jokes, spotting animals and very inspiring with a sunny mood whenever mom and dad are a bit worn out from traveling and slightly lose it.

Everybody enjoy yourselves!
Love Amira

Tips for cheap ticket Bangkok Barcelona wanted

Dear friends, our adventure is injured by the weather, going south is rain only so no option.Yesterday we met 2 great and friendly worldbikers and we wish them good luck in the rain.Tomorrow we take the bus to Bangkok and want to fly to Barcelona this is our first choice.Otherwise Malaga Spain,or Faro Portugal.If somebody find a ticket from Bangkok to a place in south europe please let us know.More souls can do more.Here it's great but now we know Thailand and the culture very well and like to use our time left for a new adventure.There is a company called wicked campers and you can drive a camper from Rome to Barcelona.If you see something let us know.Our first plan was to go to Australia but with all the fluds the company advised us not to do this.

If you have ideas please let us know.

Happy vibes from Ao na Mao

Our country is our paradise

Traveling is great.We love the adventure but...............After some time from home we clearly see what we have and that's a lot/We have great jobs(we can't wait to start work)We live in a great house and we have lovely friends and family.We dreamed and had a lot of fantasies about emigration,travelling forever but we see now we like the adventure and go back to our own paradise.The only problem in the netherlands is the weather for us it's rainy and cold but having a place were you feel happy is the most important thing.So now on adventure and then back to our paradise.

Cycling around Krabi & advice from the weather guru

Yesterday we met the weather guru of ao nang it's Will a dutch friendly and handsome man who advised us about the weather and what to do.He's also a cyclist and gave us a lot of info and nice routes.Thank you Wil.Today we cycled to the magic spicy garden of his friend Piet,Who teached us the beauty of nature,We now know how they make kortizonen and more.Dear Piet and Wil thank you for the support.This adventure came in the air when we met Marjan who is the sister of Wil and lives next to him.She was so kind to bring us to the MAkro(with the beauty car of Piet and Wil).Today we cycled around 45 km and enjoyed the big fish in a fish farm.Now time for sun and a little nap.Happy new year

Animals

We are still on the horsefarm, and we are still the first and the only guests there, it is superquiet with a beautifull view of the Karst Mountains of Krabi and a supersize swimmingpool!! Salome rides the horses everyday, she now has a collection of Dutch, French and Thai animals she knows and loves and our bedtime song becomes longer and longer since it is about all the animals and Salome together wearing 'bandjes' in the swimmingpool and having fun. So we have the elephants Namphet, Lumyai, Dao Ryang, Mao and Baley, We have the horses Magnum, Smile, Jennifer, Samphet, Reglisse, Hazel, Maaike, Luna and Taelong, We have the dog Mickey, Lisa the pig and Truus the Cavia. Good thing we don't have to name the fish we see!
Krabi is on a beautifull bay, the sunsets are great, we go out to a little pier to watch the local fishermen and their boats and watch it go down, then we eat some food on the street, you can buy 3 good tasting meals on the street for the price of 1 starbucks coffee! So if you stick to the local stuff you can get by kind of cheap but not as cheap as we thought. We try to eat as raw as we can and we manage quite well, there's plenty of pineapples, mango's, apples, nuts, greens and veggies and Salome likes Durian! (THE king of raw fruit and it grows here) We add some rice, rice-noodles, yoghurt and we are thriving from the exercise, sunshine, swimming and yummie food. We have not been cycling a lot since we were warned about drunken driving around the holidays, 400 accidents a day and I read in the newspaper that some children were killed or wounded in their sleep by stray bullets that came through the bambooroof (many people live in houses made from bamboo) from guns fired by drunken people at newyearsparties in small villages up north. WOW.
So far so good, We are continuing our adventure......
Amira

Happy new year from Krabi

Happy new year,love and health for all our beloved ones and of course to you.Thank you for follow us, your support and tips.
3 days ago we left koh lanta and cycled to Pak man Beach we stayed there in a fishermans hut with a lot of little kittens and again a lot of heavy rain.The news was bad weather and no way to leave this strange place a boulevard with poor people try to sell their food but nobody was there because of the rain.Supermarket no food for veggies at all and even the yoghurt tasted like bubble gum.How can we leave this strange place and main question north or south it would be again a long trip in the rain.We did not have a plan did a afternoon nap and went out for our detective program to find food.There she was pink big and shiny: a touring car and in the restaurant in front around 15 tourists eating a fish dish.I walked to a lady and asked her if she speaks english: ein bischen.Next question: where you go? Krabi but then the thai touroperator interupted and told us it was a private group and impossible to join.I tried and when i picked up the plan to ask the group,Hans a german group member stood up and asked the group to vote if we could join them to Krabi...........All the hands flied in the air and the lucky guidetour travel agent called Baba Ji helped us again.Radha Soami.We ran to the fishermans hut put all the stuff in our panniers jumped on our bikes ,when we wanted to leave the hotel owner asked what we are doing: i told here it's raining we have to cycle.We hurried and the time the bikes were loaded in the shiny bus the people entered the bus.Now we felt like members of a german tour around Thailand.Funy it was.Again German friends thank you for your support.We arrived in Krabi beach and first went out for diner, we were hungry after diners with bubble gum yoghurt.After that we find a great hotel were there was place for 1 night.Next morning we arranged another hotel for 4 nights it looked great but after a few hours the smell came out the shower,toilet like rotten bodies wich were hidden there for years.Sick and not our dream we left today.For the first time Amira and were awake at 12 o'clock and saw a beautifull fire work show 15 meters in front of our room.We found after searching and following the good feeling of Amira a great place with swimming pool.It is open 1 week and it's also a horse range.Paradise for Salome,At for the owbner called us and picked Salome up for a ride. Fantastic.
Yesterday we went to another horse farm were they gave me a big horse and i walked for 30 minutes with Salome on the beach proud as an princes on a big horse.Amazing people here.

We love you.

David,Amira and Salome