Sally and Peter's Adventures » peter

Travel to Laos

peter — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 08:22:41 +0000

After we were released from the vipassana center we were thrown back in the noisy world called Thailand. The meditation was qui(e)t(e) an experience, but now we had to get our mortal bodies to Luang Prabang. Everything went remarkably smoothly and even Sal was not stressed when we arrived only 30 minutes before the flight at the Vientiane airport (I was the stressed one though)…. amazing.

First impressions: Laos is quiet something else, probably the most backward area I have ever travelled in, but it is amazingly relaxed. The people are friendly and it feels like Thailand used to be….

What meditation does for Sally

peter — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 08:26:21 +0000

Uhm… well just watch the movie

Click here to view the embedded video.

Pain is just weakness leaving your body

peter — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 08:02:37 +0000

It’s very hard to describe what is means to be in solitaire confimement for 10 days, not speaking to a single soul except your alter ego and meditate 10 hours a day. The experience is intense but since nobody has the same experience here is my take, in pics

Offline for 2 weeks ….

peter — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 06:04:08 +0000

The next two weeks we’lll disappear from the face of the Internet planet because we’ll be in a meditation center. Imagine Sally and Peter silent for 2 weeks (no talking at all!) and Sally eating only 2 times a day! Wow! Enjoy the old stories and we’ll post as soon as we’re online in Vientiane, Laos!

Buddha Magic Garden … so where is the Magic?

peter — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 06:31:32 +0000

Although my back was hurting still from the powerboat wake-boarding we decided to go to the Magic Buddha Gardens of Samui. After we dealt with all the chores (buying tickets at Time to travel [by far the best travel agent we saw]) we set off around 4PM to the gardens which are around the highest point in Samui. We had a Automatic scooter which was good at cruisin’ the roads of Samui, but as we found out, not the slippery muddy mountains. Halfway up the mountain, it started to smell like a dry cooking water kettle and lost all power: result Peter drove up helping the bike, and Sally had to run uphill (“good for bum” I assured her). At 5.45pm we finally arrived at the Magic Garden and we shot the following pics: [Gallery=12]

The last pic is the result of the way down: halfway we had a flat. Perfect timing, it was getting dark and we had no clue where we exactly were. Luckily after half an hours walk with the bike, we reached the main road where an industrious Thai had set up a bike repair store just there… how convenient! I guess he had seen these stupid farangs (Thai for ‘Foreigner’) before, trying to scale the mountain with rented Automatic city bikes!

Sally’s Field research

peter — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 07:13:18 +0000

On our way to the waterfalls at Koh Samui, Sally really needed to check out TESCO. Since Sally is going to work at the European HQ near London, I found this a bit nerdy but why not. But I could not resist I just had to shoot this little movie …

Click here to view the embedded video.

And there was wind….

peter — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 15:58:50 +0000

Finally there was enough wind to get my kite out of the package and so I did, but now it was the lack of kite skills which prevented me from getting it up immediately. When my skills slowly improved, the wind decided to go on holiday and my kite fell out of the sky. Sal did her best to register my feeble attempts on camera, which means that she had to shoot really quickly to get a pic of me on the board….

Kite surf (frustrat) ing

peter — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 09:14:14 +0000

So I took my kite to South Africa and there was no time in between visiting family and friends to surf. Besides the water around Cape Town was too cold anyway. Then I took the kite to Hvar, Croatia. Nice weather, nice wind but no beach to start! So I took the kite unused back home and now I took it again to Koh Samui, Thailand and my favorite website is Windguru which is supposed to predict wind and waves…. Everyday the site makes sure I jump out of bed at 8 to check the palm-trees outside our cabin…. dead still. Another day to sleep in. Then I check the site again inn the afternoon and it says that there will be wind tomorrow…. and this is how a website keeps me busy and hoping for wind. I’m so desperate for wind that I almost wanna hire some Thai to fart simultaneously to get the wind going.

Lookie-look: the naïve Dutch man

peter — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 06:00:44 +0000

Sal crashed in bed and was not planning to move. The jet-lag had seduced her and taken her away. I just had to answer some email regarding my latest job opportunities and since the Hotel Internet machine was occupied by a overweight Chinese 9-year old who was playing online poker games I thought is was wiser to find a Internet bar outside.

A guy asked me whether he could help me and I said that I needed the Internet. “Ahhh” he said “Lookie look?” “Yes” I said “lookie look”. He was leading the way and before I knew I was standing in a large room full of naked big breasted (fake I assumed) Asian ladies. I said again to the guy “I need Internet you know, lookie look at email!” He said “but this is real thing … much better you know!” So I gave up the quest and walked out in the street suddenly realizing that we slept in the Singapore red light district: all the places around me looked like the one I just visited.

After some precarious querying I finally found a Internet bar where most of the screens were occupied by guys scanning for porn … I guess its’ cheaper. Suddenly the concept I learned at my INSEAD MBA of choke price made more sense.

Fleury Pics

peter — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 12:45:55 +0000

A few pics of where we stayed at Chateau Fleury