Being the the first weekday in the Netherlands, and a foreigner with a Working Holiday Visa, I had to register with the Vreemdelingenpolitie (Stranger Police). With my visa sticker in my passport came a letter telling me that I have to register with the Stranger Police in Zutphen, and then within three days of that… Continue reading Day 16: Zutphen
Month: April 2005
Day 15: Veluwe / Posbank
Today we went for a walk in the Veluwe which is a kind of National park. I enjoyed it a lot because I was walking in a completely new environment with strange trees and landscapes. The park contains some of the hilliest terrain in the Netherlands and is favoured by runners and cyclists for the… Continue reading Day 15: Veluwe / Posbank
Day 14: Deventer
I was woken rudely at 6:21 by a bird call that sounded exactly like an alarm clock beep. I tried to get back to sleep with no result, my brain hammered by this bird. I listened to its call, a repeating pattern: 5-5-4-5-5-4 (five beeps, followed by a pause, then five, pause, four etc). Being… Continue reading Day 14: Deventer
Day 13: Kuala Lumpur to Amsterdam to Zutphen (April 1)
We spent 13 hours on the plane. The food was OK. I didn’t watch any movies as I cannot hear on the plane because of the background noise. The entire flight was in darkness and I slept for over 8 hours, in twenty minute bites. Arrived in Amsterdam at 7:06AM on the 1st of April,… Continue reading Day 13: Kuala Lumpur to Amsterdam to Zutphen (April 1)
Day 12: Langkawi to Kuala Lumpur
In the morning we went for a farewell swim in the sea, showered and got a cab to the airport. We were flying AirAsia again and so had to get there early to be in the front of the queue. The flight was uneventful, I saw some wide areas where the forests had been raped… Continue reading Day 12: Langkawi to Kuala Lumpur
Day 11: Diving with SHARKS!
We got up early and were ready to meet the van which took us to Langkawi Yacht Club where we hopped on a boat. The boat took us and 30 others to the island of Pulau Payar, a very small island about 45 minutes boat ride from Kuah. The island is in the middle of… Continue reading Day 11: Diving with SHARKS!
Day 10: EARTHQUAKE!
At about 12:30AM on the 29th of March 2005 an earthquake measuring 8.4 on the Richter scale occurred off the coast of Sumatera, not too far from us. We were violently awoken by the bed flipping, Exorcist style, and the creaking noise as the highrise hotel tried to twist itself apart. The main part of… Continue reading Day 10: EARTHQUAKE!
Day 9: Pulau Penang
We slept in and had a lazy morning just swimming. We took a cab to Kuah and then caught the ferry to Georgetown (Penang) which is scheduled as a 2.5 hour journey. About 90 minutes into the voyage we stopped dead in the middle of the sea and were dead in the water for 45… Continue reading Day 9: Pulau Penang