My life in Asia

In my early twenties, I spent 3 years in Asia. The first country I visited and lived in was Japan. Tokyo to be precise.
In a very short time, I met a few amazing people there and some of those have been friends ever since. I am still in touch with a few of them!

In the photo on the left, you can see me with my friend Hazel. She and her sister were from England and we soon became very close. After I returned to Holland, I visited Hazel's sister Amanda in England and a couple of years later she visited me in Las Vegas!

The girl in all the photos with me is my good friend from New Zealand. We became inseparable shortly after we met and stayed in touch ever since. She visited me in Holland a few years after we met.

Due to an emergency I had at home, I had to cut this visit in Japan short and I was back in Holland for 6 weeks.
I had the plan to make it back to Japan, but never did. Instead, I ended up traveling around a few countries in Asia.
The first country I visited after Japan was Hong-Kong, but I didn't like the feeling of being packed on top of other people so I only stayed for 3 weeks.

I traveled on to Jakarta, Indonesia and after some great adventures there and other places in Indonesia (maybe I'll tell you one day...) I had to leave unfortunately. There were riots due to the upcoming elections and foreigners were asked to leave the country for their own safety. Not long after this, President Suharto resigned, after being in office for 31 years.
Of course, I hadn't planned an exit strategy and had no idea where to go so that was a little problem.
Also, I had a job in Jakarta and things were very unsure from that moment on.
Not long before this, I had met some people from Singapore and they told me that if I decided to visit there to call them.
And so I did. I decided to go to Singapore and just to see where it would take me.
My ultimate plan was still to get back to Japan...
Little did I know that this move was the best thing that could have happened to me.

Struggles and friends in Singapore

At first, the place took a little getting used to. Singapore is so clean and well organized. After my time in Indonesia, I wasn't used to this! The upside of traveling alone, I find, is that you're easier to approach and it wouldn't take me long to get to know a few of the locals. One day I found myself looking around in a shopping mall in the Far East Plaza on Scotts Road and ended up talking to some people who invited me for a drink at the Kiwi Pub (which has long since been closed). One of the people there was Michele, who has been my dear friend ever since! 13 years later, after a long time of radio silence, we met again when she was traveling Europe and stayed with me for 3 months.

In the larger picture, Michele on the right.

The photo below that: me and two of my friends Shawn and Marx. The three of use have been through some crazy shit together and Marx used to call me in the middle of the night, I'd hop on a taxi, we'd have a (illegal!) smoke and talk till the early morning. I am still in touch with both of them! They are very special to me. Shawn since moved to Thailand and Marx lives in Shanghai.

When life throws you a curve ball

There was a man I dated for a while, until we decided we were better as friends (and we still are!). One day, we were out in the city, he introduced me to his ex-wife Tracy who he bumped into. At first, it was a little strange, not knowing him very long, and already being introduced to the ex.... But what followed is something I wouldn't have wanted to miss for all the money in the world.

A week or so later, I was out on my own when I ran into Tracy, the ex wife. We ended up sitting at the bar together and talked pretty much until the place closed. She asked me where I lived and when I answered, she raised an eye-brow and said: 'That's probably the worst place you could be! It's a dump!' I knew this of course, but there was no other option as I was still on the look-out for work, which was hard to come by as a foreigner if you didn't have a workers permit.
She said: 'You know what? You can live with me. Come with me now and if you like it, you stay, if not that's fine too.'
Her nephew and his best friend were living with her too.
So off we went, to her tiny apartment. The place was located on Toa Payoh rise. There were a few apartment buildings that used to house nurses that worked in the nearby hospital that was already closed at the time.
Only Tracey's nephew Chad was there when we came in, she told him that I might move in and he grinned and nodded.
I was sold! The next morning I collected my things and moved to this little paradise.

Bus stop and little alley going up to our apartment, through a little piece of jungle

The apartment was small, only a living room with a small kitchen and bathroom and one large bedroom divided in two by a huge wardrobe. She slept in one part and Chad and his friend Ash in the other. This place and the people in it, were a huge part of the happiest year of my life.

To this day, I believe that the location was one of the best places to be in Singapore. We were not too far from the busy city life, but all around us there was green. It was like living in the city but also in the jungle. I loved it! There was a certain energy in this place, it's hard to describe, but anyone who ever came to visit always came back. It had some kind of pull on people. So, especially on the weekends, we always had a full house.
My roommate's best friends Chester and Shangiff were there almost as often as we were!

It was great. There were times when we would come home after a night out and talk, listen to music or play cards till the early morning. We were all very young (Tracey being the eldest) and of course we smoked weed and sometimes tried other things. Another perk of traveling alone and being Dutch is that wherever we go, there is never any need to 'look' for smoke etc. People automatically assume that we smoke so they offer it! In my time there, I met the 'In-crowd' and could always get anything my heart desired. Chad asked me one day how I did it. He said: 'What the hell! You've been here for a little while and you know Yoga (a guy that ruled the city pretty much) but when I pass him on the street he doesn't even know me! And you can get anything you want, while I have to search for it all the time!'
Years later, our roommate Ash told me, after I 'found' him on Facebook, that they all used to call me the 'Acid Guru'.
Now that's something to tell my grandchildren years from now...😆

The best food in the world is in Singapore, for sure!

Oh my, I miss the food. Almost as much as I miss the people.
It was complete nonsense to get groceries and cook your own food, because for a few dollars you can take-out food or eat at one of the many food-courts. Our favorite place to go to, especially after a night out, was Newton Circus.
It's a huge food-court where you can get any kind of food your heart desires. From Chinese and Korean to Malay to Indian or Indonesian, it's there.

Newton Circus

My travels and the boat on Sentosa Island

I traveled to other places from Singapore. Mainly Malaysia and Thailand. In Thailand I would buy gold, which I would sell in Little India in Singapore. This is how I made the money to live and travel. It wasn't something that would make me rich, but it served the purpose. In my last months in Singapore I had gotten into some trouble. I worked illegally at this place, and they got busted. The police was holding my passport until the court case was settled, which took a while.
So of course I couldn't leave the country right? WRONG!
I happened to know a Dutch guy who was also the captain of a freight ship traveling from and to Singapore.
Once a month, his ship would go to Thailand. So I traveled with him, illegally and without a passport, whenever I had the chance. We did this a couple of times. He wasn't even holding a passport and had done this for years!

Sentosa is a little island that belongs to Singapore. On weekends the place is packed with locals who are trying to get away from the city. On weekdays, the place is so quiet, the beach will be clear of footsteps.
My first week in Singapore, I was there for a swim. I got bored and decided to go home. When I walked past this man with a little Hoby-cat (small catamaran) he asked me if I wanted to go out on the boat with him. I did. We became friends. He was a pilot for British airways and he shared his apartment and the boat with his colleague. If he wasn't there, his colleague would be. I ended up going out on trips with that boat with either one of them, nearly every week.

In the photo on the left, there's me and Chad, my roommate and Tracey's nephew. To the right, Tracey and I. Below that, our friend Chester (the only person we haven't found) and the guy in the army gear is Ash. Besides Chester, I am still in touch with all of them. Tracey lives in Oregon, US now, Chad in California and Ash is still in Singapore.

Left: Me and Chester, right: Marx and I. 😍 (I had a little bit of a weak spot for him...)

What made this place so special? The food...Oh yeah the food...but...

First of all the people. A near stranger took me into her home and we became family instantly.
We all had some crazy adventures in that place and beyond.
I can't even begin to tell you (I'd have to kill you LOL).
I love them all and will never forget those times.
It was the first time in my life when I felt completely free, even though we were living in quite a constricted country.

Either one of us could go out at night, but we never stayed out, we always came home.
Coming home to that, to those people was a treat every time.
Turns out: it wasn't only my happiest time, it was also theirs.
I miss them all dearly and in the back of my mind there will always be the urge to see them again.
One day I will. Leaving Singapore was like leaving home.
After my return to Holland I knew, for the first time in my life, what it meant to be homesick.
I was. I was literally sick to my stomach for over a year.
And I have never been the same since.

Fellow travelers will understand - the others... just don't.

I can still smell the scents of the streets. The malls. The food courts. The place where we lived.

I will never forget the good times and the bad, even though the bad was still relatively good.

One day, hopefully not in the too far future, I will return to the place I still call home.