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Thailand - Hua Hin

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Vietnam - Hanoi

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Thailand - Hua Hin

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Vietnam - Hanoi

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Rooftop infinity pool Bangkok

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Temples of Bangkok

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Vietnam - Catba and Han la bay

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Sunsets

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Good company, drinks and a beautifull sunset... what more do you need?

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Fastest way to gate 25!

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11-19/02/2017 Camiguin Island On our last day in Siargao, we had a minor accident with the motorbike...the consequences looked bad at first. Apart from a few scratches on our elbows, Sams knee quickly swell to the size of a small melon. Painfull and limiting movement, it didn't look good... We feared for the rest of our journey. The doctors at the hospital relieved us with good news. Nothing got damaged internally. Rest and a few painkillers should do the trick... With wheelchair assistance we bypassed the queues at the airport and before we knew, we were on our way to paradise! Once in the air, we looked at each other and without saying it we realized that luck is still on our side.... Paradise! That's the least you can say about Camiguin. Just google it and you will see why. We were welcomed by Diggi and Valerie in Kurma resort with local made coffee, a smile and a genuinely interesting conversation. After staying a week in cockroach hotel, the bright and clean room was a welcome relief. Kurma resort offers a freediving course. Diving on a single breath. Free of heavy oxygen tanks, free to move up and down as you want and ultimately free from thoughts. We were immediately attracted by the combination of sport, challenge, and the meditative aspect of freediving. Sign us up!! The next days we stayed in bed, listening to the rain, only getting up to enjoy the incredible food at the restaurant. After 4.5 months of 'doing' not an easy task! But the knee forced us to this regime of eat-sleep-rest. We evaluated the healing everyday and on day 5 we were ready to start our freediving adventure. First the theory! Because knowing what happens in the body when you hold your breath is the first step in accepting this very uncomfortable feeling of wanting to breath! Guess what, it is actually ok not to breath for a while. There is plenty of oxygen in one breath. It is the rising level of CO2 that comes knocking on your mind, telling you to breath. We as mammals have something in us called the dive reflex, a series of changes in the body that help conserve oxygen and allow you to stay under water for longer. The same thing dolphins, wales,... Have. We learned techniques to trigger this reflex and give us superpowers! Sounds good on land but the key is to apply this theory in the big scary blue ocean. The basics, including safety and rescue procedures were practiced in the pool but we soon swam out into the ocean for the real stuff! Starting at a depth of four meter, we pulled ourselves down the rope. Wow, this new environment sure feels strange and a little bit scary. The trick with freediving is to let go. Let go of worries, fears, bad thoughts, happy thoughts,... Just be! Be with the rope, the water and feel your body. Slowly you will start to feel more and more at ease below the surface of the sea resulting in deeper, longer and most important more enjoyable dives. We all had challenges. Problems with equalising the pressure and preventing us from diving deeper, problems with relaxing or problems with finning. Very individual problems, possibly leading to frustration. But we really handled it as a group, talking about it and helping each other. Especially keeping the spirit up! Stretching together in the mornings with sunrise and discussing our dives over a beer at sunset. Yes! For us, this is it, this is living, this is travelling how we like it. Diggi and Valerie guided us through the week with a never ending smile and they constantly adapted the program to the needs of the group. The last training session was replaced by an adventure dive. Now we could try our fresh learned skills in the beautiful corals around Mantigue island. It really showed us how much we had learned in just a couple of days. Snorkling to the next level! In the end, some of us got certified as level 1 freedivers. Nice and sure something to be proud of. But... we all had fun and learned a personal lesson. And that is something to be really proud of!!!

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6/02/2017 - Island hopping around Siargao island

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6/02/2017 - Siargao Some pictures of our traditional style house on Siargao island (Phillipines) Noticed the motorbike? It is ours for the week and it's the best way to explore the island and find the best snorkeling and swimming spots!

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Last week of January: Wwoofing at a pepper farm We spent our last week in NZ close to Auckland in a pepper farm. We helped out Warren and Denise with weeding and mulching. In return we could stay and eat on their wonderful property. Again we experienced and loved the farm life. Sitting on our knees between the plants is so relaxing. In our free time we chilled, planned the rest of our journey and listened to the awesome stories and opinions of our hosts. Warren, being from Schotland treated us to an evening of whisky and belgian beers. The evening was great, the morning after not so much 😊. The week at Peperamore charged our batteries for the intense, final 😥 month and a half. Southeast Asia, here we come!

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3-5/02/2017 - Siargao Island After the mountains of the Himalayas and the extraordinary landscapes in New zealand, it is time to explore the sea. Part three of our journey: The Phillipines! 4 flights later we have arrived on the island of Siargao. This is the place to be for surfing. The island is packed with cool surfspots and surf resorts. To get around, we have rented a motorbike for the week. We are still recovering from our long journey and haven't done a lot of things but this going to be an awesome month! So, more news to come! Ps: to capture our moments here we have bought an action camera so expect some wicked moving pictures! To see the movies you can visit the tumblr page. (Samandanouk.tumblr.com)

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20-25/01/2017 Bay of plenty We drop our anchor in what is known as the bay of plenty. A favourite holiday spot for many kiwi's and a port for large cruise ships. Hiking up the iconic mount Manganui that rises directly from the sea we immediately understand why this place is so attractive. The turquoise water of the Pacific, the small islands in front of the golden beaches and the icecreams being sold along them. Get the sunscreen out this is holiday! Hold on... This is still NZ and if anything about nz is true then it is what they say about the weather. It changes every 20 min. From boiling hot to wet and windy and back. One night we feared for our tent as it was blasted by the westerly gale. We didn't close an eye but our Hilleberg lived up to its pricetag. many trees and tents did not survive that night. We have been skipping on the payed activities but with the end of our trip in NZ coming closer we felt it was our last shot of seeing dolphins so we booked, as the slogan says, our best day ever!.... Twice.... Yes, on our first trip on the bay explorer, the weather (i know i talk a lot about the weather) was soooo bad we didnt see any wildlife apart from a shy sunfish. Wasn't exactly the best day ever but still fun. Let's forget about that and fastforward 3 days. Waking up to a blue sky and not a breeze in the air, we started the day hopeful. The crew, Sam, Saoul and skipper Brandon welcomed us aboard the vessel and confirmed our premonition "today is gonna be the one!" And they were right, 5 minute's after leaving the port, the first signs of wildlife starting popping up. "One of those days" we heard the captain yell through the deck speakers. He steered the boat into the direction of every splash we spotted and not long thereafter we got our first reward. A massive blue shark! Sometime later we chased a pod of dolphins, unable to interact with them we continued our search. And then it happened, out of nowhere a large pod of dolphins surrounded the boat. The stayed with us for at least 10 minutes showing of their tricks. An emotional moment! You don't know if you should laugh or cry. Magical! There were many more encounters with wildlife that morning, just to much to sum up. At lunch we stopped in a picturesque bay, fired up the bbq and had a go at stand up paddling and kayaking. We found seals playing by some rocks and Sam didn't hesitate. He paddled back to the boat, got diving goggles, paddled right back to the seals, and jumped in. Swimming with wild seals is surely on of the highlights in our 6 month adventure! We headed back to the port of Tauranga with nothing but smiles. Thank you bayexplorer crew for the best day ever!

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Look what i found