My 2012 in 12 Pics

January - Cathedral of Orleans - France

February - Winter landscape in countryside - Belgium

March - Older Karen Long neck lady in Mae Hong Son - Thailand

April - Main gate of Gyeongbok palace in Seoul - South-Korea

May - Beijing Opera in Taipei - Taiwan

June - Splendid Mt Fuji - Japan

July - Panda cub sleeping in Panda research and breeding center in Chengdu - China

August - Junk in Victoria Harbour - Hong Kong

September - Sansiantai island - Taiwan

October - Nice weather after Typhoon in Seoraksan National Park - South-Korea

November - First month of my son Tristan - Thailand

December - Lanna dances in Chiang Mai - Thailand

Suvarnabhumi pictures

Travelling a lot means seeing a lot of airports and spending too much valuable time at these transport hubs. Taking pictures is kind of killing the time. Here are some from Suvarnabhumi, Bangkok's international airport.

My first Taiwanese interview

During the International Travel Fair in Brussels from 2-6 February I promoted different trips for my company. A new trip that I was in charge of developing is a combination tour of Taiwan and South-Korea.


The first day of the fair a lot of international media were present especially for Indonesia, the host country this year at the fair. But some Taiwanese media were interested as well in or product and so I gave 2 interviews for Taiwanese reporters. One of these interviews was done for CNA Video News and a piece of this interview in integrated in their broadcast, you can find me on halfway the video.

My 2011 in 12 Pics

January - Historical City of Brugge - Belgium

February - A Sunbird on my neighbour's roof - Thailand

March - Monument of Love Taj Mahal - India

April - New SMAK museum in Antwerp - Belgium

May - Citytrip to Roma - Italy

June - Jogyesa temple Seoul - South-Korea

July - view on Sun Moon Lake from Lalu hotel - Taiwan

August - Jade Dragon Snow Mountain in Lijiang - China

September - Night view of main casinos - Maca

October - Daibutsu in Todaiji in Nara - Japan

November - Loy Krathong festival in Chiang Mai - Thailand

December - Mural Paintings in Wat Pho in Bangkok - Thailand

Top 5 most annoying things on airplane

As I fly quite often for work I like to get to the next destination as quickly as possible. Listening to music, reading, sleeping all help to let time pass faster. But some things, especially fellow travellers can be so annoying that it almost ruins your flight. Here is my personal top 5 of annoying things during flights:

1. Reclining chairs
I completely understand that people want to relax on airplanes, but when space is already limited and people are reclining the chairs at full stretch it can really get me angry. When food is served there is almost no space to manoeuvre your cutlery. When watching TV, the screen is so close that you can only see your own reflection. I try to never recline my own seat as I know how annoying this can be, but if the dude in front of me finds it necessary to click it all the way I have no option than to do this myself too. Of course in business class you wouldn't have this problem. but not everyone can afford this. So when I flew Ryanair a few months ago I was happily surprised that the airplane chairs could not move! Why can't it be possible for all flights.

2. Armrest wrestler
Again this is a concern about the limited space in airplanes. So when you are sitting by yourself, especially in the middle seat, and the person next to you clearly shows his territory by occupying the full length of the armrest it makes your blood pressure rise. So you start a psychological battle of pushing bit by bit and occupying the armrest yourself when this person leave his chair. Annoying to have to spend time like this in the air.

3. Kids screaming , kicking
Sitting for several hours on a plane with a kid or baby crying for the full length of the flight is another very irritating thing. I do understand that kids are tired and that sitting still on a flight can be a big challenge for them. But is it so difficult for the parents to ask your kid not to kick the chair in front of you or can't the parents try to hold the child until it stops crying. Anyway trying to sleep is out of question and you might get of the plane with a major migraine if you didn't provide some earplugs.

4. Never-ending storytelling
It seems like some people are telling their whole life to each other on the plane. When those people are sitting right next to you are behind you and you would like to get some rest during the long flight, it can be a real burden to suppress your feeling to tell them to shut up.

5. Toilet blocker
When you are sitting in the middle or window seat you might want to wake up the people next to you when you need to go to the toilet. Some people or in such a steady sleep it's not easy to wake them up and of course you will get some angry stares. It's also annoying if that person doesn't get up to let you trough but just bend his knees. On the other hand if you have a aisle seat and the person next to you needs to get out all the time, that is a pain in the ass as well.

My modeling Career

Generally people think that when working in tourism you get a lot of advantages like free hotel rooms and flight tickets.  Actually these benefits are almost non-existing, although you might get some reductions on hotel rooms. But the great thing in tourism is that you get to meet a bunch of people from all over the world.

Chinese people, especially those who haven't seen a lot of foreigners, are very curious about our different lifestyle. Mouth-dropped starring is quite common, especially if you would be tall and blond.

This Chinese curiousness can be very annoying, as when you get stalked to see where you're heading. Or as people check the groceries you bought in your supermarket trolley.
On other occasions it can be very charming in interesting. Being a foreigner in China can bring you to stardom in this Communist country.

So far I have acted on local TV and did two commercials.
A few years back I got a teacher's job in Hong'An county, Hubei province. For the annual Christmas show in the local TV studio I was one of the three TV hosts. This was broad casted in Hong'An TV.

One day I needed some call credit for my Chinese telephone. At that time I was guiding in Chengdu, Hebei province. I couldn't get any prepaid card at several kiosks. So I decided to go to the local China telecom shop. Upon entering the shop on man was acting very exited. After I got my credit he tried to explain me they had a promotion period for a new phone and he wanted my help for this promotion. I had to hold the phone and smile while he was taking some pictures. I guess he made some posters out of it, foreign models are very sought after in China, so he immediately saw an opportunity.

I played model one more time, advertising a new hotel. For my guiding job I was inspecting some hotels in Shanghai. After visiting some fancy places the Millenium Hongqiao hotel was next. This hotel held its "soft" opening, which means the hotel receives guests and tries to invite travel agencies for inspection, but is not 100 % operational yet. I was very well received and got the whole tour, including spa, swimming pool, all type of rooms and restaurants.  In the lovely restaurant one of the assistant managers and I were having lunch, when suddenly she got a phone call. She ended the call and asked me if I had time to come back in the evening. That day the Millenium hotel held the photo shoot for its website and catalogue, but their international model had just cancelled. The high-payed British photographer could not be cancelled and I was asked if I could help out. Of course, no problem. So I got back in the evening. I dressed up in a neat seat and got my instructions. I had to stand at the front desk, pretending to check in and keep looking in the eyes of the girls at the desk. Standing there half an hour, gibbering with those girls, wasn't an easy task.
The Millenium Hongqiao hotel used following picture for nearly 2 years on there website, but nowadays new pictures have replaced my glorious picture. So my modeling career is silently getting to an end.

Maybe I will encounter some new opportunities in China!

Kiekeboe - Tienduizend dagen

Kiekeboe is the best-selling Belgian (Dutch language) comic book. Mr Mehro, the designer of Kiekeboe went last year to Japan. I accompanied him for 2 weeks and give him some advice about Japan. I also helped translating some simple phrases in Japanese for his comic book.
As a result I am mentioned in Mr Mehro's new comic book as "adviser". 'Tienduizend dagen portraits the family Kiekeboe on an adventure through Japan. The encounter, geisha's, sumo's and the vicious yakuza.

It seems I even have my own page on "Stripinfo", a website dedicated to Belgian comic books!
Talking about web pollution.

Penthouse party

At the end of June Nok and I were invited to a special party in Bangkok.

One of Nok's close friends is working for the Thai edition of the famous magazine PENTHOUSE.

So we arrived at the party a bit after 19.00 (as in Thailand discotheques have to close at 01.00).

The party was held at Inch discotheque on Ratchadaphiset.

We arrived in the pouring and dried ourselves at the free bar while enjoying some drinks.

The attending crowd was mainly male. And coinsidence or not they all were armed with a big camera, I suppose most of them were professional photographers.

But of course we should speak about the ladies. 12 Thai beauties were parading the whole night in different acts and in different outfits. Some games were organized on stage. Putting condoms over bananas is a classic one, which I brilliantly won!

The crowd got some penthouse stickers and as the ladies walked by, every person could choose to put a sticker on. At the end of the night the lady with the most stickers won.

Better include some pictures!