Home sweet home!

Thank God for people who do not secure their wireless network. At least I have internet. I am home now. This is truly the end. At least there is sunshine here too.

The trip home was tiring and I am exhausted. Next trip 9/11 to Bali. See you then!

The final 24 hrs...

I can't say I really took advantage of my last day here. I slept for just under 16hrs and woke up around 15:30. That leaves me with under 4 hours here and I might as well spend those freshening up, having a nice dinner and relaxing some more. The weather may have been fine, I don't know. At the moment it is partially clouded. I am sitting on my balcony enjoying the nice breeze.



I am afraid that Nairobi has been reduced to a simple stop along the way.

Something is telling me that my body and mind will take some time to readjust to being back in NL. I can't believe that in less than 24 hours this will all be over and 'normal life' begins again. I can hardly remember what that looks like. That 'home sweet home' feeling has gone away completely and I would prefer to add another 6 months to my sabbatical. Alas, the money pit is now completely dry.

See you all soon.

PS: I really am a sun god. This is what happened fifteen minutes after I woke up (and thus 5 minutes after the previous picture...)

One final piece of (upgrade) luck....

When I checked into my room it turned out my airco as well as my bath were defect. All I wanted as compensation was a 7PM check out. What I got was a 7PM check out and my final suite upgrade of this trip. Excellent service here at the Fairmont Norfolk. At least I am ending it in style.







Not too shabby!

Hakuna Matata!

Jambo!

After a rather long yet not too tiring trip I have arrived at my final hotel for my final night of my sabbatical. It has been raining three weeks straight in Nairobi but currently the skies are clear and they expect a sunny day tomorrow. I am almost starting to believe I am a 'sun god', since the predictions for tomorrow where dire up till last night. So I hope below is where I will be spending my last day.



Sebastian (my cab driver) is picking me up at 7PM tomorrow since it is a working day and the drive to the airport can take up to 2 hrs. It is still unreal that it will soon all be over. I better check in for my flight tomorrow before I change my mind and stay here...

Edit: I have checked in. It is really done now.

Greetings from London

Arrived on time in London. It is a bit weird to be so close to home knowing that you'll fly 8,5 hours out and back again. The weather in Nairobi is miserable. I am not worried. Taxi to hotel. Sleep. Eat. Sleep some more. Eat. Sleep. Back to airport. Wish me luck!

Bye Bye Florida!

I have enjoyed my time in Florida. It was particularly nice to get reacquainted with Natascha and to meet her kids, see where and how she lives. I have recuperated a little bit from my feverish state of 'under the weather-ness' and no doubt settling in to my favorite seat on a BA 747 (62K) will do wonders for my mood.

Ending the sabbatical is more enervating than starting it. I must admit there even is a sort of nervousness that accompanies it. The last 2 years or so I was either preparing for this sabbatical or I was on it. Now all of a sudden I need to shift my focus back to everyday life in NL. I am less than enthusiastic about that, I can tell you. What I can also tell you is that I am definitely going to take another sabbatical in 5 years (so 2015) and this time for at least 6 months. Even though I am more than ready to go home this has - in my mind - nothing to do with the duration of the sabbatical but merely with the approaching end thereof.

I am trying to look forward to Nairobi but in reality it is just a nuisance. It will take me 2 hrs to pass customs, 2 hours to get to the hotel and the same the next day in reverse order. NBO is also the worst airport in human history, even when traveling business.



I am thankful BA is not on strike and at least we get normal food on board. I will update you from London.

The last pieces of lead... :)

I did not drive up to KSC today. I am not feeling that great. I am sure that by tomorrow I feel a lot better. I have checked in to my hotel next to Miami Airport and it is great. Nice pool, great suite, comfy bed. I am going to fill my belly with vitamin pills and aspirin and hope for the best.

The weather is still great by the way. 30C and sunny. I believe that in between rainstorms there is one sunny day in Nairobi too. That will indeed be the day that I am there. Prepare for a heatwave in the Netherlands, starting May 25th.

See you soon!

Return schedule

22/5/10 - 17:15PM
MIA - LHR (BA206) A: 06:35AM

3:40 hr layover

23/5/10 - 10:20AM
LHR - NBO (BA65) A: 21:00PM

26 hr layover at the Fairmont Norfolk Hotel in Nairobi

24/5/10 - 22:20PM
NBO - AMS (KL566) A: 05:35AM

Collect rental car at Schiphol: 06:00 AM
Dead in bed at home: 07:30AM

End of sabbatical...

Not to worry...

It is almost not funny anymore. Yesterday evening the weather forecasters on the local news predicted that the rainy season had started and we would not see the sun for at least 5 days. Look what I saw when I opened my balcony doors this morning...



I need to go charge people for this. It is unbelievable. So all in all I spend half a day at the pool and the other half packing and sweating in my bed. I am running a slight fever. I think that I might have caught something from Natascha's family. They are all in perfect health, but me not being a parent makes me particularly vulnerable to all kinds of diseases that families with children don't even notice. It has happened to me before...

Tomorrow I have to check out at noon (bummer) and I will drive to the Kennedy Space Center if I feel up to it. Long drive but no problem if the weather holds!

Ciao 4 now.

Rainy end to a sunny sabbatical

It is really almost over now. Today I will be repacking my suitcase to extreme travel mode and doing some last minute washing. There is a washer/dryer in my suite, so I can come home with freshly washed clothes. Quite nice actually. I had hoped to spend the last two days relaxing by the pool in this wonderful resort on Key West but the weather is not cooperating. Such a shame.

Deaf ears

Although I am known for my financial foresight it seems my desperate cry for action in January fell on deaf ears. The Euro keeps tumbling. The last part of my trip is already 20% more expensive than budgeted. Annoying but survivable. I do think I will have to ignore Natascha's advice and not order a Bentley as my new lease car though. I am sorry dear, next time... :)



I agree it is the perfect car for me. It is however more likely I will be ordering a Mini.

Ok, I'm done

Seems like the negative end to the wonderful time I had in Costa Rica has ended my holiday spirit as well. I am ready to return home. Still looking forward to spending some more time with Natascha, but I could have done without the Keys and the extra night in Nairobi. It is a good thing that my global nomadism is cured for a while, I think. I don't think it is a good thing I let a stupid thing like theft from my hotel room influence my mood so much. Maybe it is just the catalyst for my 'home sweet home' mood.



Nice things to look forward to as well. Olaf has kindly invited me to The Hague Jazz and the night ends with Kool & the Gang. Now there are some memories for you. Nice to see Laurien and Denise there and I hope lots of other old and possibly new friends. Hasta pronto!

The other half...

Once upon a time, many moons ago, I met Natascha lying on a couch at the Gedempte Gracht in The Hague. She was 'new' to our circle of friends. She was attractive, but a bit strange and rather 'lively'. I decided she was probably a ship that would pass in the night and honestly thought she was a bit of a bimbo...

Over the years we kept in touch (more or less) through mutual friends and I understood she is actually doing rather well. She married a Frenchman, had three wonderful kids, built and sold a watch brand etc. I met her again for the first time in over 15 years yesterday and although she still looks as attractive as she did 25 or so years ago when we first met, she had clearly matured on the inside. Or maybe I just did not see it all those years ago. All of a sudden on the beach lay this wonderful, successful woman readying herself for a new phase of her life. The girl I thought was a 'bimbo' in 1986 is now by far the most successful of my friends. Not because (as I thought at first) she married money, but because she worked hard with her husband and built it all from the ground up. I have nothing but respect for her, raising three kids (of whom one is rather ill) at the same time.

I hope this turns in to a new friendship (since oddly enough we never really were friends...) and I hope to be visiting her a lot more often. I will respect her privacy by not posting pictures of her, but I will show you the outside of her wonderful 'casa'. She designed a lot of it herself and it is simply stunning. It really was like finding out how the other half lives.





Not the best pictures in the world, but you get an idea. I think her house symbolizes her. Beautiful, quaint, stylish and expensive. :) We will hang out again today or tomorrow before I go to the Keys. It has been a pleasure meeting her again.

Miami

Today I left Costa Rica. I negotiated with the owner of the hotel and explained to him that only his maids could have stolen the money (opportunity) and that the modus operandi (stealing small amounts) is characteristic of 'in house theft'. He acknowledged that but said that for them to do that I had to have left my keys 'lying around' so even then it was my fault. Now how am I supposed to take my keys boogie boarding exactly? I tried giving them to the reception, but they did not do that either. He has a fool proof policy that leaves me without a leg to stand on.

When I explained that my MasterCard was blocked (albeit per my own request) and since he did not accept AMEX he had to wait for me to wire transfer the money after I settled matters with the insurance company he became aggressive and stated: if you don't pay me today, you are not leaving Costa Rica. At least not in good health. I know how it looks from his side. It could be me scamming him just as easily of course. That is why this crime is always so successful. There is no proof. I did appreciate that he was genuinely upset this had happened but I was a bit surprised that he did not make a single gesture. Quite the opposite. He made me pay taxes (17%!) over the part I now had to pay by credit card. Another $130 down the drain.

In total this little incident has cost me $930 (+ the loss due to the Euro falling). Luckily I have all kinds of travel insurance so I am covered up to around €700. But still... It was not a happy end to two of the most relaxed weeks in my life.

Ah, South... no, make that Central America. How nice to be robbed!

Today was the day that I had to pay my hotel bill in cash. I brought $2300 of which $1820 was to settle my bill here. Because I was a bit hesitant at first I did not pay the bill straight away but left the money in the safe. Distributed over 3 wallets, nicely separated in 23 bundles of 5 $20 bills. You know, where you fold the 5th bill over the other four for easy counting.

I never touched the wallets again here and only checked them once or twice to find that they still contained all the money. Or so I thought. It turns out that a very clever thief had taken 1 or 2 bills from every bundle (in total $820) so that I would not notice the money being gone. From the safe, mind you. It is an old fashioned one with a key but I never left it in my room unless I was close by. The only people who entered my room where hotel staff.

The manager wants to make me belief that I must have left my key laying around and a thief used it. Yeah, right. With an iPad, a laptop, an ebook reader, 3 cameras and a lot of other stuff just lying there he goes and finds the safe, opens my wallets, carefully removes a couple of bills instead of taking everything. That sounds about right. This is very typical for the way hotel staff steal from guests, because it is hard to prove.

The manager told me time and time again she had called the police but guess who never showed up? No police report, no insurance. They were probably too busy...

I am having breakfast with the owner tomorrow. I have $1100 left and that is what he is getting. The picture below is quite representative of my mood.



To be honest, the female manager did seem genuinely upset too.

BAck on track

Looks like all my flights are operating as normal. The 15th it is of to Miami and the 22nd to Nairobi via London. The 24th I will be flying back on the KL566 and pick up my car at AMS the next morning at 06:00. I am ready to come home. I had a blast (and will have one in Florida) but I am ready to get back to work and see my friends!

BAck with a vengeance...

BA (British Airways) have announced a new strike that lasts effectively 3 weeks, starting May 18th. I am not too worried, since they managed to get a lot of airplanes up in the sky last time but with my complicated itinerary for my return (Miami - London - Nairobi - Amsterdam) it might have an impact. Thank AMEX for travel insurance and maybe (just maybe) I will be stranded in Miami until mid June. (I wish...)

Samara Sunset

Although Samara does not have a traditional sunset (as in: sun setting on the horizon), dusk is actually a beautiful time here. The light is fantastic, it cools down a bit and everyone settles down with a drink.







Best thing is that the days seem to last forever here. It has only been 6 days and it feels like I have been here for a month. In a good way.

SWF

The 'mystery' of the abundance of attractive Single White Females here in Samaya is finally solved. I spoke to a group of them and they come here for the hotblooded, attractive and macho Costa Rican men. "We just want sex", one added. "but they hope for an American girlfriend and maybe a green-card." The reason there are no Single White Males here (apart from me) is that they don't stand a chance here. It simply would not be fun for them.





Today was another beautiful day. I am keeping the tradition "everywhere I go the sun shines" very much alive. Apparently they have not had a first week of May as nice as this one in years. It is almost getting old...

Here are some pictures of people enjoying the surf.









Another fun-Playa-Samara-fact is that the local conquistadores have divided up the beach. In front of the TreeHouse Inn seems to be the losers corner. No big surprise as this is upscale accommodation and thus mainly inhabited by older people or newly weds. You want the place in front of the backpacker hotels. All these guys do all day is drink beer and stare at girls using a very expensive set of binoculars. The latter no doubt refunded by an insurance company by now. They don't move. They are there from 9AM till 6PM all day, every day.



I am falling totally in love with this place and it is now firmly in my Top 3:

1. Bali
2. Playa Samara
3. Koh Phangan



Another fun fact: Costa Ricans have the honour of being the happiest people in the world. That is probably true. They are so nice, relaxed and easy to get along with, it is almost unbelievable. I can see why so many people never leave here.

Hasta Pronto!

I love Playa Samara

I am nothing if not ambivalent. I am now totally in love with Playa Samara and Costa Rica. The people are friendly, the weather is lovely (the rain at night is wonderful), my cabana is fantastic and I have met some wonderful people here. Who would have expected that one of the best Italian restaurants I have ever eaten at would be here?

Playa Samara also seems to attract a large population of very attractive surfer chicks. The seem to come here in large groups. You won't hear any complaints out of me. It gives you something to look at from the hammock.





What a lovely place, no? :)

I think I will stop complaining now...

Last night's storm cleared the air and cleared my head. So maybe there is a lot of rain. Maybe there is no airco. That may all be true, but there is this.

The beach in front



My cabana on that beach



As seen from the ocean



So I drank a nice cup of shut-the-fuck-up and am enjoying myself with a good book in my hammock.



Pura Vida!

Raindrops keep falling on my roof...

At night the rain is unbelievable. It is a downpour so heavy that it makes about as much noise (if not more!) as an airliner lifting off. Combine that with almost continuous thunder and lighting and you can imagine it is a little hard to sleep... Thank God I bought that iPad to play with.

To give you a little feeling for it...



No lights. No flash. All the light provided for by Thor, God of Thunder!

Maybe I am gone too long...

I am nearing the end of my sabbatical. Less than a month to go. In fact, three more weeks and I am back in NL. That can always change of course, since BA is threatening another strike and right about the same time as I am due to fly from Miami to Nairobi via London. It will be interesting to say the least.

So, where am I now? I am now in Playa Samara in Costa Rica. Costa Rica is that country under the big white cloud from a few posts back and believe me, the cloud is still here. At the coast it is always a little better, but I have not chosen the best time to come here. I even start to wonder whether I have chosen the right place at all. Samara is lovely if you are a 25 year old backpacker or surfer but it is a very basic little village with hardly anything in the way of facilities.

Just what I thought I wanted. However, it turns out that the lack of air-conditioning is more of a burden than I thought. There is simply nowhere to ever be cool. Humidity is very high and to add insult to injury, the tradewinds that are supposed to cool things down at night are almost absent. Something to do with El Nino they tell me.

The hotel where I am staying is by far the most expensive one in Samara and interestingly enough also one of the most expensive ones on my entire trip. Still there is no water pressure (so a cooling shower is out of the question too) and a the plumbing, the internet connection as well as the fans are in a constant 'state of repair'. You learn to laugh it off. The view from the room helps...



I have convinced the owner to set me free if he gets a walk in for more than 5 days. Fingers crossed. Knowing me by then I will love it here though...

Living La Vida Pura!