damian1

Guatemala, a country that has a good number of volcanoes. To be precise, Guatemala has 37 volcanoes, one of which is the Pacaya Volcano. You can see this volcano from Guatemala City and Antigua. In the past I have blogged about my visit to Antigua, but not yet about my visit to the Pacaya Volcano. More about this in this blog.

Pacaya volcano eruption

The Pacaya Volcano is not only well known among the many tourists and the Guatemalans, it is also one of the most active volcanoes in Guatemala. This week the news came to my attention that the Pacaya volcano has erupted. Read more about this at the website below.

https://www.dailysabah.com/world/americas/guatemalas-pacaya-volcano-erupts-for-2nd-time-in-3-days

My visit to Pacaya Volcano

My visit to this volcano dates back to 2016, when I booked a day tour to this unique location. The climb to the volcano itself is quite doable, only the heat and the loose lava sand make the trip a bit tough. The starting point of the Pacaya hike is at 1,680 meters in the town of San Vicente Pacaya while the summit is at 2,500 meters. We did the trek with a tour group, with some people opting not to climb to the top but to rent a horse. To each his own, but if you don't climb you haven't really been to the volcano. :)

The hike does not go all the way to the top of the volcano, as this is not possible due to the volcanic activity of the Pacaya. However, once at the top you do have a great view of the volcano itself, standing on hot lava rocks to enjoy the view. It's a great climb with beautiful views of the surrounding area. In addition, the descent is also very nice, where you can descend through lava sand. Some even chose the fast route, by just jumping down and landing in the soft lava sand.

All in all, a visit to this volcano is well worth your day. A great hike with many beautiful views, and also the volcano itself is very impressive. At the top, the tour guide even made marshmellows warm between the lava rocks. So if you happen to be in the area, be sure to visit the Pacaya Volcano.

Thanks for reading and take care! ✌

The good weather is coming again. Spring brings more life to the streets and the sunsets are getting better too. At this time of year it is wonderful to take a walk outside and enjoy the weather and hear the birds singing. In the video below you can see the harbor where I often go for a walk in the evening. I had no choice but to grab my camera and shoot these videos. Watch the video and enjoy (hopefully). ✌

Cinnamon video

https://cinnamon.video/watch?v=529584798683891475

Tuindorpbad is a beautiful place in the historic neighborhood of Tuindorp 't Lansink in the Netherlands. It is a natural pool close to my home, where you can enjoy swimming in the summer.

Last weekend it was extremely wintry weather in the Netherlands. Due to the extreme cold, this place was transformed into a true paradise for ice skaters. I decided to take a look and took some beautiful pictures which I wanted to share with you.

Hanoi's train street is an surely world-famous place that you've almost certainly seen pictures or videos of at one time or another. It is a street in the city of Hanoi in Vietnam. The street is full of stores, cafes, and houses where the locals live. And now I hear you wondering, what makes this street such a famous place. And the answer to this question is simple, namely that a train passes through this busy street several times a day.

It is a beautiful location which should definitely not be missing from your bucket list when you are in the city of Hanoi. We went to this beautiful location after I had seen some photos and videos of this special place.

We arrived at the street and were immediately amazed. A train track in the middle of a street with houses. I had never seen such a thing and was amazed that this was allowed in Vietnam. In Europe, I know, this would never have a chance of success. It was nice to see how the locals lived their lives there. What was the most normal thing for them was very special for us as tourists to see.

There is laundry and other stuff in the middle of the train track. And once the train arrives, the locals quickly come out to grab their stuff and usher the tourists to a safe place. So is Hanoi's Train Street safe to visit? The answer from me is Yes! But you can quickly make it unsafe yourself by not listening to the locals. This is because the train is approaching quite quickly and there is quite little space between the train and the houses. There is often no more than 1 meter between them.

The place is really great and definitely worth a visit if you have the chance. I found out that I had shot some images of this place. Hopefully the video of Hanoi's Train Street will give you a good impression of this impressive location!

Cinnamon Video

https://cinnamon.video/watch?v=509319685737547416

Pictures

It has been almost a year since I took a trip to Thailand. You have been able to read about all my experiences and adventures in my blog series here on coil. I would love to plan another trip, but with the current COVID-19 pandemic this is unfortunately not possible. Fortunately, I have been able to visit many beautiful places in my life and I can certainly not complain. Hence this blog about one of my most beautiful destinations: Antigua – Guatemala.

Antigua city

Antigua is a city that is included on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Antigua is a city with a great center with some beautiful churches and monuments. The center is really beautiful with the most beautiful buildings and colors. There is plenty to do! An afternoon sitting in the park that is in the middle of the center is already great. Locals quietly spending their day there and vendors selling all kinds of things. From ice cream to nuts and from souvenirs to shoeshiners.

Arco de Santa Catalina

The Arco de Santa Catalina (header image) is, however, the most beautiful spot in the entire town. This historic arch is located in the heart of the centrum and brings with it amazing views. The photogenic streets come together with the amazing view just outside the town, namely the volcanoes located just outside the village.

Cerro de la Cruz

The best view of Antigua is from the hill north of the city: Cerro de la Cruz. We went there with a tuktuk which could just get us to the top of the mountain. On top of the mountain is a large cross which looks over the city. A great view over the town and the three surrounding volcanoes.

Awesome memories made in a beautiful city. Cherish the memories you have made and relive them by viewing the photos and video. Especially at this time in which travel is not possible! Hope you enjoyed this beautiful town in Guatemala and my photos.

Today I will take you on a digital trip to M-Pai Bay village. During my 6 week trip through Thailand and Cambodia this is one of the islands I remember most. What exactly is the reason for this? You can read this and more in my blog about M-Pai Bay village, Cambodia!

What is M-Pai Bay?

M-Pai Bay is a small fishing village located on the island of Koh Rong Samloem in Cambodia. The island has several destinations that can only be reached by boat. Me and Niels decided to go to the less touristic village M-Pai Bay. Which also made it a challenge to come here.

M-Pai Bay village - Koh Rong Samloem, Cambodia

Our trip to M-Pai Bay

First we took the boat from the town of Sihanoukville to the main part of the island of Koh Rong Samloem. This part of the island was easily accessible. Once arrived, it was quite a challenge to find a boat that could take us to the smaller fishing village.

Eventually we were able to take one of the goods boats that brought new (food) supplies to the villages every day. This boat trip was quite an experience as we were surrounded by local Cambodians who didn't see many tourists on this boat. The boat trip took about an hour and we arrived at our final destination M-pai Bay Village in the dark.

Goods delivery boat

What we didn't know was that at the exact moment that we brought a visit to this place the pier of the island was broken. So we had to walk through the water with all our luggage, including backpack bag and a smaller bag with all the important stuff like passport and camera's, up to our waist. A nice experience and fortunately the locals were ready to help us get our stuff dry ashore.

The pier of M-Pai Bay village

As always with our travels we had not yet booked accommodation for the night. So we decided to hunt for the perfect place to spend the night on an island. After a short search we found the perfect bungalow. It was located at the quiet side of the island where almost no tourists came. Our bungalow had only the basic essentials like a watertap, shower, electricity, mosquito net and last but not least a hammock.

The bungalow

From the balcony of the bungalow we overlooked the sea, of which we could admire the sunset in the evening. A wonderful place on a fantastic island. It was also a nice place to dive and snorkel. Only for me personally this was not a success because of all the loose rocks in the water.

The view from our bungalow

The best thing about M-Pai Bay village was the atmosphere, the tranquility, the locals, the cheap life and not having a wifi network. This combined with the few tourists made it the perfect place to relax and see how the locals live on the island and walk along the long beach. There are only a few places that still have the looks and the feeling of the real cambodia that M-Pai Bay had in 2017.

Main road of M-Pai Bay village

Cinnamon Video

Also make sure to watch this outstanding video made by Niels of this incredible place! I guarantee it will be worth your time!

https://cinnamon.video/watch?v=177887473316136346

The future of M-Pai Bay village

My expectation is that the last period and the coming period will change a lot for this beautiful island and the locals. Although they were not (yet) fully dependent on tourism, this will change in a fast pace. Chinese investors have leased large areas of land to build a resort for Chinese tourists which are already in large numbers on the neighboring town of Sihanoukville. M-Pai Bay is going to change drastically and chances are that this will bring mass tourism. Unfortunately, this is often accompanied by loss of character of this great island, changes for the locals and damage to nature in the form of pollution.

The local population will certainly not benefit from this new flow of tourism. Since the Chinese resort will mostly employ Chinese personnel. All very unfortunate to see and know that these times are coming. A new visit to this beautiful place would certainly have been high on my list.

Bonus pictures

Thanks for reading! ✌🙏

Small update blog. Where have I been? Why haven't I written blogs for more than a month and posted them on Coil? In this blog I'll tell you all about it!

My last blog on Coil dates back to November 9th 2020. So it's been a while since I took the time to sit down and write a blog.

I noticed that I've written a lot of blogs from March until October, while I normally never did. I spent a lot of energy writing my blogs and editing the videos about my 3 week backpack trip to Thailand. After my blog about Groningen I decided to slow down a bit, and not much later corona came into my life.

At the end of November I got complaints that looked like corona. I ran out of taste and smell, and I was very low in energy. I felt a lot less fit for almost two weeks, of course because of the corona virus. After this I had little motivation to write and I noticed that I was very tired when I finished working in the evening.

Luckily everything is going much better now. I feel like picking up the blogger's life again. It felt good to write an update first, before I start writing about travel and other things again.

Thanks for reading and I hope to be back soon with a more positive blog. I hope you all had a good Christmas. Stay safe and have a very happy New Year!