Expatriate life after retirement

‘Where did you travel?’ many of our friends asked us in disbelieve. ‘Why do you go there, what is there to see?’.

The short answer would be: ……….

During the many hours of self-isolation throughout numerous Covid-19 lockdowns, I started to jot down my thoughts about how this crisis and no doubt future crises will affect me. Quickly I added other topics beyond this crisis which will affect all of us in the future: - my next book project was born. I researched topics like demographic developments, climate change,…..

Flores is part of a volcanic belt which stretches from Sumatra through Java and Bali to the Banda Sea in Indonesia. More than 17 volcanoes lie on this mountainous and rainforest covered island. The starting point for our road trip through Flores was the coastal village of Maumere. One reason Francien and I travel to these of-the-beaten-path destinations is to learn and better understand them. But did we do that on this trip?

Tioman Island, located off the coast of Peninsular Malaysia, is known for its stunning white sandy beaches with palm trees swaying in soft breeze and pristine coral reefs. But this island has much more to offer.

Tioman Island, located off the coast of Peninsular Malaysia, is known for its stunning coral reefs and palm tree fringed beaches. But this time we explored a rather unknow parts of the island.

Francien and I settled into our narrow seats at the front of the Twin Otter plane. This plane can only take 19 passengers, it’s a STOL (Short Take-Off and Landing) plane, has no pressurized cabin and ….

The pandemic has ended a long era of freewheeling global travel. It is already certain, no matter what the ‘New Normal’ after this will look like, it will be without the most recognizable airplane in our skies: the 747 Jumbo jet will be no more. The ‘Queen of the skies’ is phasing out. And I have to admit, I am a bit sentimental about that.

7 Countries, 25 weeks and 15000 km travel through Europe. We have been living seven years in Malaysia and it was a privilege to spend half a year traveling through ‘our’ continent. How to capture so many impressions and experiences in a single blog post? Let me be upfront, it was about how……

19 weeks ago, Francien and I left Malaysia on a trip through Europe. After many months of lockdowns and other corona restrictions, we decided it was time to travel again and Europe was the place to do just that. We visited The Netherlands, Germany, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Cyprus and Portugal…………….

'What did you expect from this city?' she asked us. ‘Honestly, nothing in particular, because this part of Europe is rather unfamiliar to us.’, we replied to our friend who calls Tallin her home………

‘Those crazy Dutchmen enjoy walking in deep mud’, I read in a pamphlet in our hotel on the shores of the North Sea. Together with four friends, Francien and I indeed did that: crossing the Wadden Sea on foot during low tide. The Wadden Sea, a UNESCO world heritage site, is an intertidal zone in the south-eastern part of the North Sea.

Our first flight in 17 months. I wondered if I had forgotten my time-tested air travel rituals and wearing face masks, using hand sanitizers and maintaining social distancing would spoil the fun of traveling?

The light at the end of this seemingly endless pandemic tunnel is that jab in your arm that makes you immune to this terrible virus and prevents you from spreading the virus to others: the COVID-19 vaccine. Much has been written and said about Pfizer-BioNTech, Sputnik, Sinovac, AstraZeneca and it feels…….

I flipped my calendar from 2020 to 2021. Less than twelve months ago I dare say, you and I had never heard of COVID-19, let alone had any idea of how this miniscule virus would end up turning our lives upside down. 2020: a year unlike any other. The pandemic brought you and my world to a screeching halt in March 2020 with the first lockdown. More shelter-in-place orders followed to curb the spread of the virus. You know the story all too well.

Perched high on a branch a fish eagle looked at us drifting down the murky Muda River. The road to the Ulu Muda rainforest cut through thick forest. It is an isolated and hidden away place close to Malaysian -Thai border. At a small jetty……….

With plenty of affordable flights and interesting destinations to visit in South East Asia, we spent most of our trips outside Malaysia. However, with the corona virus travel restrictions in place, we cannot travel aboard. Instead we supported the local tourist industry. We drove up the East coast visiting several islands in the South China Sea, crossed the mountainous core of the peninsula along the Thai border to…….

Was there life before the corona pandemic? Yes, but how do I write about traveling in such different African countries like South Africa, Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya just a few weeks before the world came to a standstill due to Covid-19? This blog is about more than one story. It is about the beauty of Africa, about its people, its complexities and its history we have seen on this journey. This blog will pull you back and forth between those four countries as I try to explore the differences as well as commonalities between them. It has snippets of our own personal memories from living in South Africa many years ago, therefore it will also pull you back and forth in time. When this makes you curious, please do keep reading.

70 Days ago our lives have been paused by Covid-19 and now Francien, Marcella and I slowly find a way to push the play button again. Kuala Lumpur had fallen silent. After the first relaxation of the lockdown three weeks ago the city initially remained quiet, much to our surprise……

‘Did he skip one week?’ I hear you wondering. Yes, I did not publish a post last week. There simply was little new to add. Francien, Marcella and I are still doing very well, albeit stuck in a narrow daily routine. I also did not want to add to the overload on social media of emojis, funny videos and pictures. The news is repetitive with endless COVID-19 statistics, numbers and graphs. I follow this increasingly superficial, but rather focus more on how life will be after this lockdown period.

But now I want to share some real news.

Being cooped up at home is beginning to test our patience. Five weeks, with no end in sight, feels like an eternity. Fortunately, the three of us help each other to propel us through our daily motions……..

Expected, but still a bit disappointing: the lockdown here in Malaysia has again been extended another two weeks until 28th April. By and large, this means for us no change of our daily routines.
Francien, Marcella and I are still observers in this crisis, not directly affected apart …..

Do you remember when you had a meal in a nice restaurant with family or friends? 8 days ago, two weeks, one month? What day of the week is it? I must admit, my sense of time is playing with me. The lockdown still means Francien, Marcella and I are not allowed to leave the apartment other than …….

Allow me to start on a positive note: we got to talk to family and friends we had not talked to for a long time. Our second week in lockdown here in Kuala Lumpur has felt different from the first. In the beginning it was like a kind of weird holiday, a new experience for the better or worse. But the second week ……

They call it movement control order in Malaysia: lockdown. Francien, Marcella and I are looking at the weeks ahead and how we will keep ourselves busy without going crazy. We try to find a new rhythm, being confined to our 150 square meter apartment on the 24th floor of a condominium complex in downtown Kuala Lumpur.

Sitting on our balcony overlooking a main traffic artery, I miss all those food-trucks and food stalls which normally line the streets. I note that the sound of the few cars ….

Only a few days back we watched people stare at a TV broadcast in the impoverished downtown area of Nairobi, announcing that a first case of coronavirus infection was discovered in Kenya. Starting 15th February, we traveled to South Africa, Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya. As we explored these countries, met up with old friends, enjoyed the fantastic sceneries and wildlife Africa is known for and learned more about its cultures and habits, the COVID-19 pandemic in the rest of the world was a daily news highlight. But Africa seemed not to be affected yet.

I am not sure how to start off, but let me tell you that in 8 weeks we visited 8 countries and met up with 70 friends, parents, brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, ex-colleagues, old neighbors.

‘You must be crazy to travel so much!’ some of them said. Indeed a whirlwind of encounters with people we know well. Those 8 weeks we slept in 15 different beds, drove in left and right-handed traffic, stayed in tiny villages and big cities, jogged along seaside’s and hiked in mountains. Francien and I spent quality time with family and friends speaking four different languages, using three different alphabets. Most of them we met in their own environment on their own terms.

Francien and I visited Europe recently and we took that opportunity to visit the European parliaments in Strasbourg and Brussels and as well as the Flanders Fields in Belgium. We had hoped to better understand the workings of the European Institutions and get a better appreciation of the notorious WW 1 battle fields along the border of Belgium with France. What a contrast we experienced!

Much has been said and written about this country, putting me in a dilemma to decide what to write about and what to leave out. I decided to focus on snippets of our first-hand more unusual or less mentioned observations and experiences. We traveled through this country of 1.4 billion people, which is still an enigma to many of us. Francien and I visited the cities of Lanzhou, Xining, Beijing and Guangzhou.

Francien and I have developed into 'new experience' collectors. So what made our venture to Mongolia matter more to us? Our 4000 km journey through this most sparsely populated nation in the world started at the Erlian border crossing. We had boarded the Trans-Mongolia train in Beijing 12 hours earlier