Start doing the things you love

Welcome to my world. I’ve always had a predilection for writing. I just love the power of words and especially in writing. Once put in black and white, they cannot be forgotten. They can get lost in a pile of paper or unfindable on the world wide web. But generally, they are there to stay. Not like the spoken word, which can only be remembered for some time. It slowly but steadily becomes a vague something in your neural network, until it finally is forever forgotten. But the written word is there to stay.

I have one even bigger love: travelling the world and exploring new places. Immerse myself in different cultures, meeting new people and learning from them. The world is just so much more than your own backyard, your safe haven. As I once read in a guestbook in a hostel in Thailand during one of my first backpack trips:

...my favorite book that is....!

And boy, do I want to read. Do I have an urge of devouring each and every single letter, sentence and chapter of this book called earth – and even beyond, if it were affordable.

So I have been spending the last few years practicing to travel and practicing to write. It all started with my graduation research in the vibrant city of Vanderbijlpark in South Africa. I’ve lived there for five months in '06/'07. That’s when I also started to write a travel blog, to keep my loved ones overseas updated on all my adventures (and hard work ofcourse). After that I’ve packed my backpack several times and visited Thailand, Indonesia and Laos. Although my first big love was Africa and Asia did not really appeal to me, I fell in love with the far east, too...big time! And I also discovered that the writer's block I often experienced being sucked up in my ordinary corporate life in Holland – my mother country, the frog country – disappeared like clouds before the sun when I was travelling.

So here I am. Combining my two biggest loves: travelling and writing. Please join me on my journey!!