Denmark

September 18th 2010, exactly one year ago, I boarded a flight to Fiji starting my sabbatical, my year off, my adventures, my trip around the world.  When I landed again in Amsterdam in June, a new kind of adventure started. Real life, kind of. I had still not decided on where to settle, not even in which country since my desire to live in the United States had not diminished after the past 5 weeks there. However, the financial crisis has hit hard in the US and my wish to move there would be accompanied by a lot of practical obstacles, working permit among others. My first plan was to spend the summer in Denmark, visiting friends and family, enjoying the long light days. And maybe look for a job. 

As often happens when I get an idea, things I had not planned start to happen. A few days before I arrived in Denmark I got an email with a job offer in Aarhus. I was to replace my colleague Lotte for 6 weeks when she took some time off.  It was a splendid opportunity to get a feeling for Denmark, to make a little money and to see if I liked it. It went very well except my Danish vocabulary had gotten a funny twist to it after so many years abroad. I worked my butt off for 6 weeks. I saw long lost friends and family and thought it would be nice to stay. There is not a full position for me at Rygcenter Vester Allé, however both Lotte and Christine are both quite busy which means that there is potential and since I have 20 years experience and great skills, I believe there is a way to make it work.  

Those first 8 weeks were emotionally very trying, though. Breaking up and settling down a new place brings up feelings of immense uncertainty and separation. Uncertainty is part of traveling the world and therefore exciting. Uncertainty in small amounts are like pleasant surprises. However uncertainty in large amounts can become overwhelming. I was still living in a suitcase but not really on the road anymore and I was back in my own country. Good old friends opened their homes to me however I felt homeless as ever and became homesick for all the things I had left behind in Holland. I just felt like jumping into the car, head back to Holland, lock myself into my old apartment, make a cup of coffee and sit down on my old couch and just - be home. All so familiar. Which of course I could not. I sold it all. I had burned the bridges so to speak.

This emotional storm could not go on. I needed to make a decision. I had to give Denmark a whole hearted chance. Lotte asked me to stay in the clinic to build up a patient base and we agreed that I should start September 1st. I went back to Holland for two weeks to finish off open ends and arrange the moving company to ship my stuff. It will arrive next week. As usual, when I take action things happen and within a few days I found a place for rent in Skæring 15 kilometers north of Aarhus. It is a small house a few hundred meters from the beach and just one street down from my brother's. 

It is good to have a place on my own. It's good to settle. I believe I make the right decision by moving back to Denmark. At least for now. I will always be a globetrotter and I will travel again, no doubt. Though my adventures are over for the time being I thought I would finish the blog with some pictures from my beautiful little country. Just look at those clouds! 

USA East coast

In 1984 I stayed 6 months in California and from 1987-1991 I studied in Iowa. Ever since I have had a love for the United States that goes deeper than USA being a great country with beautiful national parks, big cars and lots of possibilities. I am not sure what it is but I do know that I feel some kind of freedom when I am here in a way I never have felt in Europe and I also know that the experiences we make when we are young and our senses are open and unspoiled have a profound influence on us for the rest of our lives. 

After Hong Kong I completed my trip around the world by landing in Holland, only to continue to Florida on May 10th in order to attend the 2nd Annual Conference on Functional Neurology in Orlando. I was looking forward to meeting my colleagues and to listen to world class scientists presenting their newest research. I wasn't sure how my own brain would function after an eight months long break but I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I knew more than when I started out on my trip. So it is true that knowledge sometimes has to sink in!

After three awesome days at Omni Resort in Orlando among old and new friends, enjoying a bed the size of my room in Hong Kong, indulging in chiropractic and functional neurology, sipping long drinks at the cocktail party and dancing at the awards dinner, I packed my suitcase Sunday morning as I have done for 3/4 of a year, rented a car and headed north along the East coast to Savannah and Charleston, the first stops on my 5 week long road trip from Florida to New York.  And how I love driving in the United States! The roads are wide and clean, it was hot and the sky was blue and I cruised along at the comfortable maximum speed of 65 miles an hour, radio at full blast. And best of all, very little traffic.

Savannah in Georgia and Charleston in South Carolina are both beautiful cities with old houses reflecting the past wealth from the times when there were huge plantations with slaves and abundant commerce with The Old Country (read England). I visited a former slave farm, Magnolia Gardens, and learned that plantations in South Carolina had gotten wealthy on rice production, and not cotton or tobacco as I thought.
                              

Next stop was Charlotte in North Carolina, visiting good old friend Ulla Svane and her family. She had a yoga course in Ashville that weekend so we drove up to the mountains the next day. For many years I wanted to see Smokey Mountains and I was not disappointed! They looked pretty smoky to me besides providing some nice hikes, the first ones since I sprained my ankle in New Zealand.   

It seems like I know people all over the world and whilst in North Carolina I paid a visit to Myron and Charlene Brown in Rockville, just 20 miles south of Charlotte. Myron is my old mentor from when I studied at Palmer College in Iowa, a chiropractor who has had a lasting influence on the way I practice. 

On the way to Washington, DC, one passes through Harrisonburg, Virginia. But I more than just passed through because while attending the conference in Orlando I met a colleague, Jonathan and his beautiful wife, Liezel who live in Harrisonburg. They suggested I come visit them. Unfortunately, by the time I got there, they were away for Memorial weekend. However, they had arranged that a friend of theirs, Butch, would take me out for dinner. What better way to experience Virginia than being shown around by a local, a real Southener? And mind you, Americans are gentlemen - besides taking me out for dinner, he also took me on a tour in his Mercedes on 'Skyline Drive' in Shenandoah National Park, an extension of Smokey Mountains' 'Blue Ridge Parkway'. If one is open for adventures and don't mind surprises, life can be pretty exciting.

I get plenty of excitement and experiences on my trip and what happens next is that I need some days to relax, reflect and just do nothing. Or read a good book in the swing, listening to birds chirping and crickets sing (or whatever crickets do), chill out to the sound of running water in a fountain, the humming of the bees - or the grunt of something I'd never heard before and interpreted as a bear! According to Charlie Dixon, the owner of Shenandoah Valley Farm & Inn where I stayed, there are bears in the forests on his land. I believe him, and I got rather suspicious on a hike when I saw something that sure enough could be bear shit. 'I went up the mountain this morning as you suggested', I told him one day. 'Did you bring one of the big sticks from the basket over there?' he asked. 'No, eh, why?' 'Because of the critters! It's good to have if you run into a racoon or a bear'.

Oh well, it seems like I had just avoided yet another disaster, but it kind of spices up the adventures and I safely made it up to Washington, DC. As usual without a GPS and with only one or two wrong turns. Of course I'd have to see The White House on the way up north, but my purpose was mainly to visit a friend: coach, life designer and author Renessa Boley. I very much enjoyed driving through Virginia with its rolling hills and vast landscape, knowing that from now on that my trip would be dominated by big cities and traffic jams. 

The Capitol, The White House, Pentagon, numerous war memorials and nineteen Smithsonian museums! That's just a small part of Washington DC. I got on the hop on - hop off double decker bus and viewed the major sites from there. I hopped off and saw several museums. The Holocaust Museum had the largest impact on me. For days, you just can't get those images out of your head. The Air and Space Museum was huge, Museum of Natural History was huge, Hirshhorn Collection boring, American Indian Museum interesting and the Museum of American History huge and interesting.

Also very interesting were the conversations I had with Renessa. She is a very clever girl who can initiate a thought process in you without a hint of prejudice. I don't 'think' as much as I used to, probably because the adventures quiet my otherwise analyzing mind. People ask me what this trip, these nine months have meant to me and how it has affected my life and me as a person. I didn't know when I started out last year because I was tired and stressed and slightly worn out (though I loved what I did, my profession is my passion) but I needed a break, also I never wanted to grow old in Holland. I had to make this move and traveling has always been my passion. Giving up the clinic was a huge sacrifice, though.

So what has it meant to me? I have become a much happier and more satisfied person. I have become more curious, more interested in other people and I live more in the present, or as Eckhart Tolle would say, I live in the Now. It's powerful. I laugh more. My passion for life has returned. Of course I still have days when I become frustrated, irritated or I procrastinate. However I have learned that the fastest way back on the track is to take some kind of action. It doesn't really matter what action it is as long as I do something. It could be as simple as a walk down the road. I have learned to take my self less serious. Who cares anyways? I had to come back to the US to be able to put the rest of my trip into perspective to fully appreciate what I've experienced so far. The most important thing might be that I do not regret anything. 

Borneo and Hong Kong

Borneo was an extra add on to my trip after Bali. When I planned my trip last year it was always in the back of my head to visit Encarna and Greg in Miri, Sarawak and if going to Borneo of course I should also see wild Orang-Utans in the more northern part, Sabah. I spent the first ten days with Encarna and Greg who gave me what they call the 'Miri Experience'. I didn't know what to expect in a Malaysian town that has the reputation of being kind of boring and I won't get into details but let me say this much that I participated in about six parties in ten days, the first one being the expats yearly 'Play Back Show' where I got to know everybody by their stage name. I promised not to post pictures so please enjoy the daily sunset from their back yard instead. The Play Back Show was a lot of fun, 'say no more'!

  

To see the wild life I flew from Miri to Sandakan in Sabah. I went on a three day trip up the muddy Kinabatangan River which winds it way for more than 500 km. It is one of the places where one has a high chance of seeing wild life as Orang-Utans, Proboscis monkeys, Macaque monkeys, pygmy elephants, crocodiles, hornbills, water monitor lizards and more. I saw them all and it is amazing how a wild animal just catches your attention in a different way than when locked up behind bars in a Zoo.

The Proboscis Monkey is a funny looking animal. You can recognize the dominant male in a group by its long nose and large belly, which is longer and bigger than the other males. The Malay name for Proboscis Monkey I forgot, but I know it means ' Dutchmen' - not a very flattering compliment to the early colonizers of Borneo.

Pygmy elephants are smaller as the name indicates. On one of our cruises up and down the wide, muddy brown river, we spotted a group of three adults and a baby, the baby being no bigger than a Shetland pony. The elephants are difficult to find so it must have been my lucky day. 

Just as I was lucky to see a large Water Monitor Lizard. And a crocodile! They are abundant in the river but you hardly see them since they are very sensitive animals and usually dive into the muddy water when they hear the engine of the boat. Seeing ones makes you even more sure why you don't want to go for a swim..

Three days on the river cruise were very intense. Eyes were wide open all the time - listen, look, listen, look - or we would miss out on these fantastic creatures. They are abundant along Kinabatangan River, however their habitat is becoming smaller and smaller every day due to humans cutting the jungle and making palm oil tree plantations instead. Most of the wild life is indeed endangered. 

After the river I flew back to Kota Kinabalu on the East coast of Sabah and met Encarna and Greg who came up for the weekend with their children Sammy and Maya to enjoy the lively town and the white beaches. I loved to walk around on the local market and watch people. The women wear head scarfs in all kinds of colors beautifully decorated with a bling bling, gold or silver pin. 

My originally planned trip around the world came to an end with a stop over in Hong Kong. From wild life in Borneo to the jungle of the city. But what a city! Especially at night when all the buildings and bill boards are lit, it becomes a 'Symphony of Light'. That is also what the evening spectacle is called when at 8 pm each night a laser show makes the high rise buildings of Hong Kong Island come alive. 

So is this the end? Well, no! Nothing is ever the end. Just transitions. My adventure continues a few weeks more. After a couple of days in The Netherlands where summer has arrived before spring, I fly to Orlando to attend The 2nd Annual Conference of Functional Neurology. I have had enough time off from my wonderful profession and I am looking forward to learn some more, to meet my colleagues and to get the newest research. However.... when in the USA I might as well enjoy my freedom just a little bit longer. The next 5 weeks I am going to drive up the East coast before I fly back to Europe from New York. But that doesn't mean the adventures are over either. I actually think they are truly just to begin when I must decide on where to settle. Will it eventually be Denmark? Time will tell..

Jakarta and Bali

The heat and humidity, the chaos, colors and smells of Bali all around me fill my senses to a point where I start longing for vast, serene landscapes like in Australia and New Zealand. Still it is very relaxing to be in Bali. Probably because there is no rush, nothing seems urgent, things just take the time they take. The heat slows you down. There is no reason to get stressed.

After Gili Trawangan and Sharon’s party the weeks have passed by quickly. Sharon and Tony have generously opened their house to me and I have stayed here most of the time, using it as a comfortable base. During the Bali Spirit Festival I rented a bungalow in the center of Ubud to be closer to the happenings. For four days there were yoga and meditation during the day and concerts  in the evenings.

During day I’d walk around Ubud taking pictures of ill looking Bali-dogs, women selling colorful spices on the market, mean looking masks and fat little Buddha’s. Where ever you look, there is something that catches your eye. Then I'd find the perfect café to get my daily cappuccino. The quality of the coffee is important but so is the place, the atmosphere or in other words commonly used here: the energy. There are lots of cafés and restaurants in Ubud, something for every taste. From small, cheap warungs in the street to very expensive restaurants overlooking the rice fields.  

Bali is very spiritual, there are good and evil spirits all over. Offerings are laid out every morning and evening to keep the spirits happy and good natured. Evil ones are being chased away on ‘Nyepi’, the day of silence, and they can also be ‘extracted’ if they possess you. One day I went to see a traditional Balinese healer. First we talked for about an hour and he gave me good, sound advice on general issues in life, for instance that I am the only one to know what is good for me or where in the world I shall settle (if I am to settle, that is). He then proceeded with a full body massage, and not just any massage but a thorough, deep, painful massage. For some reason I had imagined healing to be kind of soft. When I asked other people what Traditional Balinese Healing is like, they’d answer that ‘it is always an interesting experience’.

Tony and Sharon had told me how different Jakarta is from Bali and it was hard to imagine until I got there. One day I saw women in Bali carry heavy loads of dirt and rock on the head or kids beg for money on the road. The next day I was in Pacific Place Mall in Jakarta where elegantly dressed women shopped for the most trendy bags to fit the color of their high heeled shoes.

I went to Jakarta to see Tony’s clinic and to evaluate a couple of his patients with my skills in functional neurology. I was especially happy to realize that I had not forgotten my knowledge by being off work for more than half a year, also happy to remember how much I love my profession. I am starting to miss it which is a good sign because up until now I just felt I needed a very long break.  

I didn’t really see Jakarta, it’s such a huge city with over 20 million inhabitants and the traffic is terrible. But I enjoyed my trips to Starbucks Coffee on 4^th floor in the mall while Tony worked. One day I went to another mall, the enormous Grand Indonesia Shopping Center that spans over several blocks. Best of all, however, were the Chocolate Martini’s at the prestigious old Hotel Dharma Wangsa.

Back in Ubud with only 10 days left I still hadn’t been to the central part of Bali so I hired a driver to take me up to Kintamani and Lake Batur, a beautiful blue lake in the crater of Gunung Batur, a volcano. However the clouds were hanging low and the fog was so thick that I saw nothing. It is often times like that in the mountains and my luck has not been with me lately when it comes to the weather.

Instead the driver took me over to Pura Besakih. Perched nearly 1000 meters up the side of Gunung Agung, it is Bali’s most important temple, dating back to prehistoric times. A big ceremony was taking place and hundreds or maybe thousands of gorgeously dressed Balinese turned up with beautifully arranged offerings – and umbrellas because it rained heavily. True torrential, tropical downpour that turned the stepped streets into rivers.

It was still interesting to see the temple, though, especially during a festival. The next day the sun was shining so I jumped on the bicycle and went into Ubud to get a massage or two. Refreshed and relaxed I headed out of town. You only have to get one or two kilometers out of town to be alone, surrounded by lush, green, green rice fields.

Another day I went up to Bedugul with Risa, a beautiful Japanese woman I met when I first arrived in Ubud. We hired a driver and gradually left the rice terraces behind while we ascended into the cool, misty mountain country around the lake, Danau Bratan. Of course it started raining so we had him take us around the Botanical Gardens in the car.  Further up in Candikuning we bought strawberries, spices and vanilla at the colorful local market.  

Pura Ulun Danu Bratan is a small but important Hindu-Buddhist temple build on small islands, which means it is completely surrounded by the lake. The classical Hindu thatch-roofed meru (multi roofed shrines) reflected in the water and silhouetted against the cloudy mountain backdrop provided a true Bali-photo-cliché, just as it is described in Lonely Planet.

During the past seven weeks I spent in Bali I got to know quite a few people, most of them through Tony and Sharon. Some of them we invited over for lunch on Sunday to a little make-shift birthday party, far away from home, but none-the-less a mile stone worth celebrating. I am not particularly attached to numbers, I must say. 40 or 50, who cares when you feel you are 30? J  

On the day itself, I treated myself to a couple of massages and later I got a Tarot card reading by Szilvia from Hungary. My future looks very bright according to the cards and more adventures are to come. Taken that life is one big adventure in itself it is up to ourselves to make the best out of it. Most important it is to stay curious with an open mind. Then anything can happen!

 

Gili Trawangan

Sharon’s 50^th birthday continued for another three days on Gili Trawangan. Next morning, fourteen of us, mostly Sharon and Tony’s family drove to Denpasar, then boarded a small plane bound for Lombok, drove another hour on very poorly maintained, winding mountain roads just to make the misery (read: hang over) worse by entering a small boat that took us over to our resort, The Beach House.

But soon all misery was forgotten! The larger villa had a swimming pool and four rooms, big enough to accommodate Tony, Sharon with kids plus Penny and Lee. Bernice, Robert, Lizet, Mark and I got individual bungalows at the back. The open restaurant was right on the beach, sand on the floor, serving tropical drinks and playing good old music, perfect for our age group. It is quite funny that tropical islands play the same kind of music as when I was backpacking in Asia 1982. Reggae for the most part of it. Newer names suitable for beach bars is Jack Johnson.

The Gili’s are three tiny islands just off the west coast of Lombok. One can easily walk around Gili Trawangan in less than two hours. There are no cars and only a few restaurants have internet access. It has a reputation of being a party island. All the way along the north-east beach front, restaurants and bars were lined up as pearls on a string. In spite of the group being slightly ‘worn’ from partying the previous night, the spirits soon rose to higher levels when we got a Gin Tonic. Tony and Sharon treated us all with drinks and food that night. For days we have been talking about how wonderful of a time everybody had and some suggested that it was because of the nice group of people attending and no doubt we all contributed to that (we really were nice) but Tony and Sharon Dawson deserves full credit for putting it all together.  

Sharon had planned, arranged and cooked for weeks. Hospitality at the highest level!

I feel very lucky that I came to Bali at this very moment. Thanks to Face Book I got contact with Tony. Hadn't talked to the dude for 20 years. Then I met his beautiful wife Sharon, who put me up in their guest house and she invited me to her birthday party including the trip to Gili Trawangan. After traveling on my own for 5 months it has been wonderful to be part of a family and be with like minded people. Traveling on your own is great fun, too, but after a while I started missing being with people I know. It takes a few days to get to know people and I got more than that. I got friends for life.

Several times I have referred to myself as a flashpacker, i.e. a backpacker who uses a suitcase or travel bag instead of a rucksack and who has a little bit more money on their account than the average (younger) backpacker. When I was picking out a suitable size lobster for my dinner I felt flashier than ever, remembering the daily plates of fried rice which made up my diet in 1982.

Besides having a good time enjoying delicious food and wine in the evenings we relaxed to the max during the day, whether it was in the pool,  on the beach or by walking around the island. One morning Sharon, Lee, Penny, Bernice, Robert and I went horse riding. It was rather hot but still fun, especially along the beach. That’s always a treat whether on a horse or not.

 

We even squeezed in a snorkeling trip on the last morning. We saw two large turtles, the average tropical fish and some corals; nothing spectacular compared to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, but non-the-less a treat for the eye and always fun to be on a boat on warm waters.

Today, 20^th of March is the date I was supposed fly back to Amsterdam via Hong Kong. At least that was the original plan when I booked my ticket in September. It would be the end my 6 months sabbatical. Six months go way too fast!!

But I haven’t seen enough yet and I am not ready to settle. Traveling is fantastic so I have postponed my ticket in order to be able to attend the Annual Functional Neurology Conference in Florida in May. I am looking forward to see my colleagues and get 'into it again' after an eight months long break from chiropractic and neurology. I still haven’t decided where I want to live next and I am not at all worried about not knowing as long as I have money on my account – it is actually a wonderful thing to be able to ‘go with the flow’ and let things unfold along the way. Life in Europe can be rather rigid.

This trip was the right thing to do, something I will never regret. When will I ever again get a chance to do what I do now? I don’t remember who said it but it could be Anthony Robbins: 'It is better to regret the things you did than to regret what you didn’t do'.