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7 Countries In Asia
7 Countries In Asia
I have visited seven countries in Asia: Bali (Indonesia), Jordan, Hong Kong (China), Mongolia, Russia, Singapore and Turkey. All of them were different. Jordan is a Muslim country, and I happened to visit during Ramadan, which made the experience very unlike Singapore, a place almost obsessed with deciding which food to eat that day. In Jordan’s cities, I wasn’t allowed to eat outside during the day because of Ramadan. I had to buy my food and eat it back in my hotel. Besides the differences in food culture, the way I travelled through these seven Asian countries also varied, especially when it comes to hiking. I hiked in four of them, but not in Turkey, Mongolia or Russia, and I’m not interested in hiking in those three countries either.
Hiking In Petra, Jordan
Hiking In Petra, Jordan
In Jordan, I hiked only in Petra, back in 2008/2009. Petra is one of the Wonders of the World, and despite the intense heat and the large number of tourists, I managed to take beautiful photos with hardly anyone in the frame. I travelled through Jordan with a group of tourists from The Netherlands and Belgium. One of them was a photographer, and she took a portrait of every group member. I still cherish the beautiful photograph she made of me.
Hiking In Hong Kong
Hiking In Hong Kong
I didn’t hike in Hong Kong during my 2014 visit. I only took a short city walk around my hotel, which was located in a busy shopping district. I didn’t see much of the city, as it was just a stopover on my way back to The Netherlands at the end of my Tussenpensioen, a 5,5‑month journey through the Pacific. My stay was too brief to visit what must be a beautiful hike: the Peak Circle Walk.
Hiking On Bali Around Ubud
Hiking On Bali Around Ubud
In 2014, during a short break from Australia, I hiked around the village of Ubud in Bali. The route was an official hiking trail described in a booklet, although it wasn’t marked. It wasn’t a wilderness hike but a walk along paths through villages, meadows and rice fields. There were several memorable moments. The most important one was at the end, when I became a bit lost, but eventually found my way back to Ubud. The moment I cherish most happened when I sat down in a meadow. An elderly woman opened a coconut for me so I could drink and eat it, all while she kept talking in her local language. I had no idea what she was saying, but I enjoyed the encounter. Another highlight was the quietness of the trail. It led away from touristic Ubud, and I hardly saw any other visitors. Most of the people I met along the way were locals.
Hiking In Bukit Timah Nature Reserve
Hiking In Bukit Timah Nature Reserve
My five‑and‑a‑half‑month sabbatical across the Pacific began in Singapore, which served as my stopover on the way to Australia in 2013. During this sabbatical, I had two assignments for my company, Butterfly Effect LTD: creating several digital courses and writing guest blogs. The blog, ‘Interviewing for a guest blog during my travels through the Pacific’, tells the story about interviewing in the Pacific (Singapore and Australia). Singapore also gave me the chance to ease out of my working life in The Netherlands and into travelling as a digital nomad. I was fortunate that the photographer from my trip to Jordan knew a Belgian photographer living in Singapore. She arranged for me to stay with him and his wife in their guest room. They lived in a guarded compound with a swimming pool, close to the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. I took a beautiful nature walk there. The terrain was hilly, and one unusual sight was people of Chinese descent climbing the hill backwards, supposedly for good luck, and also for strengthening leg muscles. I tried it for a while, but I preferred walking normally so I could enjoy the scenery. Along the way, I saw monkeys and passed the old train tracks that are no longer in use. This section of track is part of a larger hike known as the Rail Corridor.
Related blogs on my website
Related blogs on my website
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