On your marks....ready....set.....
Door: Gerben
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Gerben
22 Juni 2009 | Nederland, Utrecht
Ni hao!
Since this is my first message I post for this trip, I'll first shortly give an explanation in Dutch why I will be writing in English.
Hallo allemaal! Ik heb besloten voor deze reis weer een blog bij te houden, zodat iedereen aan het thuisfront die dat wil mij weer kan volgen. Omdat er ook veel mensen zijn die mee willen lezen maar geen Nederlands kunnen, en de meeste Nederlanders toch wel een woordje Engels meespreken, heb ik besloten om de hele blog verder in het Engels te doen. Je bent verder natuurlijk vrij om je reacties in wat voor taal dan ook te posten, dan zie ik wel weer hoe ik eruit kom.
So from here on in English: my trip, the Xiamen Express. What will be happening? First of all, as many of you may know already, I am going to study abroad the next semester. In Xiamen, China, to be precise. This is quite a big city (more than 1 million inhabitants) and is at the coast approximately at the latitude of Taiwan, in the Fujian province.
This in itself is quite a big adventure, seeing as I have never really traveled anywhere outside of Europe, and I'm most likely in for a high voltage culture shock.
Before I get there, however, I still need to actually get there. So far, when I went on my trips I usually found it very convenient, cheap and easy to hitchhike everywhere. This, combined with, in no particular order, 10 weeks time to get there, a lack of money, a dislike of flying, the fact that I can try, the luring adventure of different countries and strange people, some friends I can visit on the way, and a mild case of lunacy, made me decide to try to hitchhike to Xiamen.
Now, I have no idea whether it will actually work out this way, or whether I will have to take the train or bus for some bits, but the plan is to simply go and see how far I get. I do, however, have a rough idea of the route I am going to take, as some preparation in the form of entry visa was required for this trip. In one week exactly, on Monday the 29th of June, I will be leaving from Maastricht, together with Hanne, a friend, to hitch to Istanbul. On the way we'll probably stop in Slovenia and Bulgaria for a few days. On the 10th of July, Hanne is taking the plane from Istanbul to Israël, and I will go on alone. I'll travel along the Turkish Black Sea coast to Georgia, where I want to spend a few days in the mountains, some smaller towns and in Tbilisi, the capital. From there I will go to Azerbaijan, where I will meet up with friends whom I know through my studies, and where I will stay for about a week and a half. Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, is located at the western coast of the Caspian Sea, and on the other shore, a bit to the north, lies Kazakhstan. That's where I'll be going next, although when I will cross over is arguably the most difficult thing to predict right now. The problem is: there are no ferries...
There are freight ships, however, that do take passengers, but they leave approximately once a week and unannounced. From what I read while doing my research, I found that I will most likely simply have to call twice a day to find out if the ship is there yet, and if it is, hurry to get there in time before it leaves again.
It's been done before, that's al I'm going to say about it...
From then on, I'll be in Asia. There, I plan to travel to Almaty, the former capital of Kazakhstan, before going into Kyrgyzstan. While looking around on the internet I found some amazing pictures of this country and a friend of mine also told me some good stories about it. That's why I decided I would like to stay there for about 2-3 weeks, trekking in the mountains and just looking around, before going into China.
At this point the dates start to get so uncertain that I will have to make my plans for traveling through China once I get there and once I know how many days/weeks I will have left. All I know is that I will probably enter China near Kashi (Kashgar) in the Xinjiang province, and have to get to Xiamen, 5000km further, by the 7th of September.
So, having shared all of this with you, I hope you will have a good time following me here. I'll try to put up some pictures on the way when the internet connection allows it, and I hope you will send me a message/react to my stories from time to time. :)
Cheers!
Gerben
Since this is my first message I post for this trip, I'll first shortly give an explanation in Dutch why I will be writing in English.
Hallo allemaal! Ik heb besloten voor deze reis weer een blog bij te houden, zodat iedereen aan het thuisfront die dat wil mij weer kan volgen. Omdat er ook veel mensen zijn die mee willen lezen maar geen Nederlands kunnen, en de meeste Nederlanders toch wel een woordje Engels meespreken, heb ik besloten om de hele blog verder in het Engels te doen. Je bent verder natuurlijk vrij om je reacties in wat voor taal dan ook te posten, dan zie ik wel weer hoe ik eruit kom.
So from here on in English: my trip, the Xiamen Express. What will be happening? First of all, as many of you may know already, I am going to study abroad the next semester. In Xiamen, China, to be precise. This is quite a big city (more than 1 million inhabitants) and is at the coast approximately at the latitude of Taiwan, in the Fujian province.
This in itself is quite a big adventure, seeing as I have never really traveled anywhere outside of Europe, and I'm most likely in for a high voltage culture shock.
Before I get there, however, I still need to actually get there. So far, when I went on my trips I usually found it very convenient, cheap and easy to hitchhike everywhere. This, combined with, in no particular order, 10 weeks time to get there, a lack of money, a dislike of flying, the fact that I can try, the luring adventure of different countries and strange people, some friends I can visit on the way, and a mild case of lunacy, made me decide to try to hitchhike to Xiamen.
Now, I have no idea whether it will actually work out this way, or whether I will have to take the train or bus for some bits, but the plan is to simply go and see how far I get. I do, however, have a rough idea of the route I am going to take, as some preparation in the form of entry visa was required for this trip. In one week exactly, on Monday the 29th of June, I will be leaving from Maastricht, together with Hanne, a friend, to hitch to Istanbul. On the way we'll probably stop in Slovenia and Bulgaria for a few days. On the 10th of July, Hanne is taking the plane from Istanbul to Israël, and I will go on alone. I'll travel along the Turkish Black Sea coast to Georgia, where I want to spend a few days in the mountains, some smaller towns and in Tbilisi, the capital. From there I will go to Azerbaijan, where I will meet up with friends whom I know through my studies, and where I will stay for about a week and a half. Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, is located at the western coast of the Caspian Sea, and on the other shore, a bit to the north, lies Kazakhstan. That's where I'll be going next, although when I will cross over is arguably the most difficult thing to predict right now. The problem is: there are no ferries...
There are freight ships, however, that do take passengers, but they leave approximately once a week and unannounced. From what I read while doing my research, I found that I will most likely simply have to call twice a day to find out if the ship is there yet, and if it is, hurry to get there in time before it leaves again.
It's been done before, that's al I'm going to say about it...
From then on, I'll be in Asia. There, I plan to travel to Almaty, the former capital of Kazakhstan, before going into Kyrgyzstan. While looking around on the internet I found some amazing pictures of this country and a friend of mine also told me some good stories about it. That's why I decided I would like to stay there for about 2-3 weeks, trekking in the mountains and just looking around, before going into China.
At this point the dates start to get so uncertain that I will have to make my plans for traveling through China once I get there and once I know how many days/weeks I will have left. All I know is that I will probably enter China near Kashi (Kashgar) in the Xinjiang province, and have to get to Xiamen, 5000km further, by the 7th of September.
So, having shared all of this with you, I hope you will have a good time following me here. I'll try to put up some pictures on the way when the internet connection allows it, and I hope you will send me a message/react to my stories from time to time. :)
Cheers!
Gerben
-
22 Juni 2009 - 17:09
China:
Good luck!
Be honest, this site might be too much red for me. -
22 Juni 2009 - 19:18
Cecilia:
Wau. I like the "mild case of lunacy" statement :) You're gonna have an amazing time. Please take loads and loads of pictures so I know where to go when I pull this one off ;) I possess a jar of caviar given to me by the President of Azerbaijan. You should try to get hold of one too :D See you still before you go? For some beer crate carrying perhaps ;)? -
22 Juni 2009 - 20:01
Wendy:
Try not to lose the camera this time ;)
Have major fun!
-
22 Juni 2009 - 22:30
Dennis:
God almighty Gerben, that's a hell of a trip you've got in front of you! Hope you enjoy every single bit of it. Best of luck to you, I'll keep my fingers crossed... D. -
23 Juni 2009 - 07:09
Gert:
Great trip Gerben! And, once in the mountains always remember: Don't eat the yellow snow! -
23 Juni 2009 - 07:21
Celine:
Wow, this sounds like an amazing adventure! Good luck hitchhiking and I'm looking forward to your stories! -
23 Juni 2009 - 14:19
Claire:
leuk gerben!! have fun!! -
23 Juni 2009 - 20:17
Maaike:
What can I say, a mild case of lunacy might run in the family...
I wish you lots of luck (could come in handy at certain times) and let's keep each other posted, little brother! -
27 Juni 2009 - 14:04
Johnathan:
Crazy man. -
27 Juni 2009 - 15:06
Annika:
Gerben, ich weiß dass du auch ein paar Worte Deutsch verstehst, darum machen wir's mal multilingual hier :-) Ich bin tief beeindruckt jedoch nicht wirklich überrascht von deinem Mamuttrip und ich werde sicher oft an dich denken müssen. Für Montag wünsche ich dir schonmal einen guten Start und gute Fahrt durch Deutschland, für den Rest werde ich gute Wünsche zu gg Zeitpunkt nachschicken. Sei gedrückt und reise unter deinem besten Stern!
Mit vielen Grüßen aus Stockholm -
27 Juni 2009 - 18:47
Kasia:
W-O-W!
It sounds like THE journey of your life :)
I am sure you gonna have a lot of fun but also will be shocked by some pictures you'll see.
Wish you a wonderful but also SAFE journey :) -
27 Juni 2009 - 21:09
Joris:
Good luck Gerben, you'll be doing what I want to do. It's a monsterly big project but I think you can pull it off. -
29 Juni 2009 - 08:24
Merel:
Wow, sounds amazing!! Good luck hitchhiking all the way. And of course, most importantly, have a lot of fun!! -
30 Juni 2009 - 15:20
Guido:
Hi Gerben,
du should maintenant be unterwegs. Heel many spass et lots de geluk!
Esperant dat you kannst comprendre this tekst, je wish dir a sehr bon journey. Ich kijk forward bientot wieder quelque iets of ton reise te read.
Au wiederlesen!
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