Pictures make me happy!
Good Pictures make me even Happier 😀
Here are a few that I really love. I am posting them here as a test to see how my blog fares with embedding Instagram pictures…
Here goes:
This might seem like a bizarre confession.
But I really get inordinately excited when we ride by others on Big Bikes that are obviously on an extended journey like us. It’s especially exciting when we actually get to stop our motorbikes, meet and talk!
Meeting other riders while having coffee in a gas station in Argentina
I might have mentioned it before, but Big Bikers usually acknowledge each other on the road. With a nod, a wave or a thumbs up, we show our respect and communicate that even though we’ve never met we are “brothers” on the road.
Sometimes our paths take us along the same stretch of road for a while. And when this happens, further along the road (perhaps after riding “together” for 15mins or so) we usually find a way to stop and have a little chat.
This has happened to us a few times and it’s been one of the highlights of our journey.
Crazy Gas Station 2 hour Convo with Leco Bezzi and Friend from Brazil
To be honest riding around Argentina was sometimes boring. It’s a huge country with looooooong straight roads with nothing on either side except fields of hundreds of cows or the desert.
Crazy Brazilians Dudes traveling the Pan Americana on ONE motorbike!
So it was quite fun to meet Leco and guy friend (so sorry, I forgot your name) who were 2-up on an 800cc BMW. Seeing 2 guys on a small-ish motorbike without any riding or winter gear in the middle of Patagonia was fascinating.
We talked for about 2 hours in the gas station where we saw each other.
They explained that their trip was very spontaneous and that they only had 6 months to travel through both South and Central America. This was also why they had no proper gear. No motorbike boots. No winter clothes etc.
They kept warm by wearing their rain suits and insulating it with pieces of cardboard.
We wouldn’t recommend their method but they seemed quite happy and were eager to share with us what they learned on the road.
They were literally zooming through, traveling 500-600km per day so that they could visit all the places they wanted to visit in such a short amount of time.
We kept in touch and last we heard they had crossed back into South America (shipping their motorbike on a fishing boat across the Darien Gap) en-route back home.
On earlier trips they rode through North America and Africa so we’ll definitely ask them for tips when we get to those places.
Meeting Modesto and Ale from Quito, Ecuador
First time meeting Mo and Ale in Rio Tranquilo, Chile
After crossing the border from Argentina to Chile we ended up in a little town called Rio Tranquilo.
It was cold and rainy but we were excited to be on the Chilean side of Patagonia.
To our surprise, when riding around looking for groceries in this tiny town, we saw a bike almost identical to ours parked by a restaurant.
This was exciting, our BMW GSA1200 Triple Black 2017 model is somewhat a rarity here. And we really wanted to meet whoever was riding the “twin” to our bike.
It might seem frivolous to those who don’t travel on Big Bikes but meeting someone riding a Bike Bike is fun, but meeting folks who ride almost the exact same bike as you is doubly so.
There is so much to talk about! Learning about how folks pack their gear on their bike or how they maneuver the non-paved roads, where they are from, how long they are traveling for etc.
We wandered around the front of that restaurant for a while, hoping to meet them, but we started feeling a bit “stalkish” so we rode off and decided to finish our grocery run.
Later on, we went back into town to look into doing the Marble Cave Tour and guess who we bumped into? Our twin bike and the couple the that was riding it!
It’s always thrilling to meet other couples 2-up on a motorbike. We feel like long lost friends almost immediately!
We chatted about everything and anything in a bit of frantic way as we had no idea how long the other couple had to stop and talk.
We learned from them that going further down south into Patagonia, during that time, was not so convenient when on a motorbike because it was really getting too cold and rainy. Being cold while riding on a motorbike is one thing but being COLD AND WET is miserable.
So we took their advice and headed north instead of continuing down south. And I believe we haven’t regretted that decision.
During our shortened trip into Patagonia we got to do the Marble Caves Tour, Stand Up Paddleboarding in Lake General Carrera and our much-anticipated Glacier Hike which is one of the reasons we wanted to visit Patagonia.
We had to wait almost a week until the weather was good enough for the glacier hike so this confirmed our decision to go north instead of trying to reach Ushuaia which is the final stop for most travelers traveling the Pan Americana.
The best part about meeting Modesto & Ale is that we managed to stay in touch and when we reached Quito, Ecuador (several months later) they invited us to stay in their beautiful home.
Spending a week with them, as part of their family, was truly memorable.
HU meeting with loads of other wonderful riders in Ecuador 2018
We got to attend the Horizon’s Unlimited meeting with them, Stefan and Modesto had fun fixing and adding new gadgets onto our motorbike and we even hosted a dinner party together where I got to practice my slightly-rusty cooking skills (I made Pad Thai and Chicken Adobo as we couldn’t decide if we wanted Thai or Filipino cuisine) …and Ale made Stefan’s favorite Blueberry Cheesecake which was absolutely delicious!
They even took us out for a day trip into the nearby mountains in their 4 Wheel Drive…
Mo and Ale, if you are reading this, THANK YOU again from the bottom of our hearts for everything!
Riding with Juan and Carlos to Medellin, Colombia
Riding behind Juan and Carlos 🙂
Riding in Colombia is CRAZY! But what makes matters worse is that there are hundreds of motorbikes weaving in and out of the traffic.
I think besides Thailand, Colombia has the most motorbikes/scooters on any given road.
What makes Colombia extra crazy is the fact that they have only 1 two-way road connecting the big cities of Cali to Medellin and most of it is getting repaired or under construction.
This meant that traveling the mere 430+ km from Cali to Medellin would take around 8-9 hours and we had to complete it in ONE DAY due to our container appointment in Cartagena.
We were dodging incoming trucks, potholes, other motorbikes and getting stopped for 15-20mins at a time due to road repairs. At one point we had to stop at a roadblock for about an hour due to an accident.
We were despairing that we would ever make it to Medellin but then we saw these 2 other bikes weaving in and out and we thought why don’t we stick with them!
This is how we met Juan and Carlos and riding with them absolutely cheered us up.
We thought we’re pretty daring riders, due to our experience with Bangkok traffic. But Juan and Carlos were a step above. They weaved in and out, overtook everyone and almost everything, and probably helped us cut about an hour off the torturous ride.
We did have a pit stop on the side of the road due to Carlos needing his motorbike chain fixed, but between all 3 motorbikes, we had the tools to get everything fixed up enough to make it to the city.
Stefan lending a helping hand 😀
And when we found a place to stop for lunch, Juan invited us to stay overnight at his farm right outside Medellin.
Lunch with Juan and Carlos
That was a treat. No need to look for a place to stay. No worries about secure parking etc. He even gave us his room and electric blankets to use as it was cold up in the hills.
Thanks Juan for being our Guardian Angel that day!
Thanks Juan for having us!
Dear Blog, long time, no see…
Yup, I admit to having a pretty severe case of writer’s block. And definitely not due to a lack of amazing things and awesome experiences to write about…
Maybe it’s because our internet connection has been awful…
Maybe it’s been because my laptop was hi-jacked by Stefan due to his Mac crashing on him…
Maybe because…well honestly, I could come up with a million of excuses and no-one but me is interested in hearing them…
Or maybe I’ve just been plain lazy…
Oh well, enough introspection… I’m just happy I have now found some writer’s juice…
So yes, without further ado, I’m ready to share what’s been happening with us for the last little while…
Bare with me, it’s been 3 months so I might take a while to refresh my memory ?
My last real post was about our “Cash Crisis in Argentina” so I’ll pick up from there.
After enjoying city life in Buenos Aires, we headed north, towards the famous Iguazu waterfalls.
Tango in the streets of Buenos Aires during Carnival season
Colorful street art gives Buenos Aires extra character (this piece of street art features oil paint, bits of cardboard and plastic bottle caps)
At the Illustrious La Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aries
Sadly, it was a very wet and rainy day, so our video footage and pictures were less than optimal, but the sight of the massive Iguazu waterfalls did not disappoint.
We even saw our first “wild” crocodile! The other crocs we had seen were either at the zoo or at the infamous Thai crocodile farms.
I know it isn’t the biggest croc around, but it was special because he/she was our first “wild sighting” ?
We also saw our first over-friendly coati. They act a bit like the monkeys in Koh Samed, Thailand. They have no fear of humans and will do their best to steal your food!
Another first wild sighting for us. The coati!
Sadly we didn’t get to experience a wild sighting of a puma…but there was the hope!
No pumas to be found 🙁
The Iguazu waterfalls create a natural border between Argentina and Brazil so it didn’t take us long to decide to hop across and enter Brazil. After chilly Buenos Aires and rainy Iguazu, we wanted some sun and beach time, and Brazil was looking like the place to be.
Not the best picture, but these are the Fabulous Iguazu Falls
This is how we found ourselves “Illegally” entering Brazil.
We had no intention to do any wrong, and we tried our best to legally cross the border, but we found ourselves at a loss when we got into Brazil.
This is how it went…
The border crossing between Argentina and Brasil near the Iguazu area is in a tiny little village called Porto Soberbo. After getting stamped out at the little Argentine Immigration office you travel about 3-5mins down the road to a little boat powered ferry to cross the Iguazu river.
Getting stamped out of Argentina went without a hitch. We tried to get our temporary motorbike import paper canceled (like they told us we needed to do every time we crossed a border) but no one seemed interested to help us with this.
This should have been Red Flag #1…
But since everything was going quickly and smoothly we went with the flow.
We arrived at the little ferry, rode our bike on, chatted in embarrassing Spanish and lots of sign language with the locals crossing and in 10-15mins we were across the river and in Brazil. There were no other foreigners were on the ferry, only Brazilians, and Argentinians…
This should have been Red Flag #2…
We again traveled down a small road for about 5mins and stopped when we saw what we thought was the Brazilian immigration desk. It looked like a road toll booth, but no other building in the area had any government or immigration signs so we figured this was it.
There was a guy sitting at a computer in the little booth and we stopped by his window and showed our passports. He waved us through.
Hmmm, perhaps this isn’t the immigration booth? We asked the locals around and they pointed right back at the booth we had just visited.
We were very confused. We were in Brazil and we knew we had technically crossed the border, but no one was interested in getting our passports, stamping us in, checking if we needed visas etc.
Back to the “toll looking” immigration booth we went. This time, I got off the motorbike and I pushed our passports and our papers through the window to make the guy look at them.
I mimed stamping my passport, I tried to converse with him about what papers were needed for the motorbike and nada. He refused to do anything.
It was obvious we were foreigners. It was obvious that our motorbike was a foreign vehicle but nope, he didn’t care. He just gathered our passports and stack of papers and pushed them back at me and waved me away…AGAIN.
I had absolutely no idea what to do next. I jumped back on the bike and we thought perhaps there was another “more official” immigration desk down the road. We rode around town again, asked the locals again about where to get passports stamped, got referred back to the same place…
We had enough, we felt like we were going around in circles. We were hot, hungry and tired and we were already stamped out of Argentina so we decided to go forward.
We had inadvertently entered Brazil illegally :/
We later learned that the border we crossed was mainly a border for locals (Brazilians and Argentinians) crossing back and forth. The few tourists that do cross that border just cross for a day or two to see the “Brazilian” side of the Iguazu waterfalls. So while the Argentine side has an official immigration office, the Brazilian side does not.
This is why the guy at the Brazil checkpoint (I really shouldn’t call it an immigration desk) refused to look at or stamp our passports.
Fortunately, both of us have visa-free entry into Brazil so no “real” immigration law was broken. But it was a certainly disconcerting experience.
We stayed about 3 weeks in Brazil and got as far as Florianopolis when we decided not to go any further as we had no idea how crossing back into Argentina through another border would work with no stamps and no motorbike papers etc.
We retraced our steps and found ourselves crossing the same border again. This time the Brazilian checkpoint logged us out of Brazil on their computer. I have no idea how their system works as we were never logged in when we originally entered Brazil, but they didn’t seem to think there was a problem. Again, they gave us no exit stamp, they just handed us back our passports after logging in our info.
We crossed with the ferry and it was at the Argentine immigration desk that we found ourselves questioned. They saw their own exit stamp but could NOT see where we had been for the last 3 weeks. Of course, it was easy to figure that we had been in Brazil as that tiny border was specifically for crossing into Brazil, but it was a bit of a dilemma for them.
They did admit that it happened before and that we probably shouldn’t have crossed this border if we wanted to stay in Brazil for more than a few days, but there was no big consequence.
They eventually stamped us back into Argentina, explained that this border had no official Brazilian immigration (why let us cross in the first place???) and gave us a bit of grief that our temporary import paper for our motorbike was not canceled. We tried to explain that we tried but couldn’t find where to do it the last time we exited Argentina. Fortunately, one of the immigration guys took pity on us and decided to help the confused foreigners out.
He went with Stefan to get our original temporary import paper canceled and helped get a new one sorted out.
We are very happy for Happy Ending to this story…
But the lesson to be learned from our experience is DON’T CROSS INTO BRAZIL FROM PORTO SOBERBO!!!
We were lucky and very grateful not to have had any serious problems. Apparently, the worse case scenario would have been having our motorbike confiscated in Brazil due to not have the proper temporary import papers.
We definitely pushed our luck by staying in Brazil for 3 weeks without any legal status. In hindsight, we probably should have crossed back into Argentina the following day and found another proper border to cross into Brazil.
But this is what makes overland travel exciting. We never know what is going to happen next! ?
Our short foray into Brazil went smoothly after our questionable border crossing.
Our first stop was to wild camp near Lagoa da Fortaleza, a sweet water lagoon right next to the coast. These are the GPS coordinates of where we set up camp https://goo.gl/maps/8D4biadxvzL2. You can search IOverlander for reviews about the spot. We thought it was cozy and pretty safe, but during the weekends some motocross/ATVs do drive around the nearby sand dunes to party and have a good time. Their music can get pretty loud, but during the week the spot is pretty quiet and secluded.
The blue flag is where we camped. We found a spot a little bit away from the lake surrounded by pines.
Our Wild Camp in between the Pine Trees
Brazilians are so friendly… ?
Folks would go out of their way to talk to us and even though we spoke pretty much no Portuguese, we would have full on conversations using Google Translate. TIP: make sure you download Spanish/Portuguese so you can use it while offline!
Here is a list of the places we stayed at and some of the amazing activities we did.
Florianopolis ⇒ we stayed in this beautiful coastal town for almost 2 weeks. We stayed at Camping Rio Vermelho most of the time. Check out our video to see the beautiful campsite and their almost private beach.
Things to do in Florianopolis:
Colorful Florianopolis, Brazil
Torres ⇒ Another coastal town with amazing beaches and unique landscape.
Torres, Brazil
We stayed at Camping Das Furnas, a small campsite right beside the beach and near several restaurants and small shops. Check out our video below to see more details about the campsite.
Things to do in Torres:
Serra Do Rio ⇒ A “Must-Ride Road” for motorbikers! A fun and challenging road with many switch-backs, sharp curves, blind turns and narrow passes. Be prepared to squeeze in-between trucks and the cliff face. It can also get very foggy, so ride this road with caution and extra bright fog lights.
Serra Do Rio drone view
Enjoying the company of other motorbikers at the Serra do Rio viewpoint
It’s always great to meet other bikers!
We stayed at a unique “indoor campsite” called Camping Ronda. We chose to stay inside one of their rooms as it’s hard to set up our style of tent on the cement floor. Watch our video to have a closer look.
Riding out of Camping Ronda
Things to do at Serra do Rio:
Cute and over-friendly coati at Serra do Rio viewpoint
Gramado ⇒ A clean and orderly little town up in the mountains. After the Portuguese founded the town there came a large influx of German and Italian immigrants so the houses and town layout will remind you of a ski village in Europe, albeit minus the snow ?
We stayed at Caso do Juliano, a cozy and private 2 bedroom cottage with our own grass lawn. We felt completely at home, watch our video below to see why…
What to do in Gramado:
Lago Negro Plague proudly stating how it’s trees are imported from the Black Forest in Germany
Hey Guys, I know it’s been ages since have posted a workout…or ANYTHING FITNESS RELATED…if we’re going to be honest with ourselves :/ :/ :/
I guess we have sort of taken a Sabbatical from our personal training careers…
We have been working out and staying fit, but because our workouts are very basic and “maintenance” oriented, I guess we felt they were a bit boring to share.
Sorry, if some of you missed our posts/emails about fitness and healthy recipes.
We’re honestly going to start sharing some stuff about fitness more often. We promise! ***with our fingers crossed behind our backs*** 😛
So for the first workout post, we have Ruby to thank. She liked our 1000 Rep Workout Challenge (back in our Maxfit days) and wanted to do it again, but she couldn’t remember the whole workout, so she contacted us…
So Ruby, here it is, just for you…and of course for anyone else who wants a good challenging and sweat inducing workout!
Please note that it’s a bit revised (from the one we did at Maxfit) as we know not everyone has tires, battle ropes or sledge hammers available 😛
Happy Workout and May the Muscle Aches Be Kind to you the Day After 😛
Let’s backtrack a bit and step by step I hope to fill you in and (update this lazy blog) about what’s been happening with us for the last month since we started our “Americas Adventure”…
Step 1: Landed in Buenos Aires, Argentina (7 Feb 2018) and checked into a cute and comfortable apartment in the city center. We stayed there till the bike arrived from London.
We scheduled our bike to be flown into Buenos Aires a bit later than us, to minimize any possible airport storage fees. We also wanted to make sure it avoided arriving during the weekend or Carnaval holiday which of course would have equaled extra storage fees.
Step 2: Cash Crisis!! We did a bit of research about whether to withdraw cash at the ATM in Buenos Aires or to bring a bunch of Euros/Dollars with us. We read that Cash is King in most of South America, and specifically Argentina, so we intended to bring a stash of Euros with us.
But due to me being quite ill and our excitement about finally starting our “Americas Adventure” we ended up checking into our flight and walking past all the ATMs in Schiphol airport. By the time we remembered ‘Oh yes, we need to get our hands on some Euros’ the only ATMs available were charging some ridiculous ATM fees.
We decided to ignore the advice we read about bringing a good amount of cash, and learned the hard way that Argentina has EVEN MORE ridiculous ATM withdrawal fees/withdrawal limits—much MUCH worse that in the “Checked in” area of Schiphol airport…
Argentine ATM fee (for foreign accounts) is a flat 200 ARS (8 euros) no matter how little you withdraw….
Argentine Withdrawal Limit (depending on your bank) is 3,000 ARS which amounts to a meager 120 euros. Obviously, this would last 2 people only a couple of days…and if you are staying in Argentina for any amount of time this will get frustrating.
We had some pretty hefty fees to pay to get our motorbike out of customs, to get our motorbike import papers, to pay our customs agents and of course the airport fees. There was no way we were going to spend hundreds of euros just on withdrawal fees.
A couple of the fees we managed to arrange to pay by card, but the rest needed CASH! US of A Dollars preferred!
If we had brought Euros with us we would not have had any problems because we could have easily exchanged our Euros to Dollars or just paid with Euros. But because we were naive and didn’t believe that in this day and age it would be a problem, we were really stumped about how to get a hold of enough cash in time to get our motorbike on the day it arrived (yes, we didn’t want to leave it in the airport any later than necessary)
And oh, did we mention they have a daily withdrawal limit? Even if we used both our cards and withdrew from different ATMs–the maximum amount allowed–we would have had to visit the ATM a minimum of 10 TIMES, over the span of a week, to get approximately 1000 euros out of our accounts and of course spend a minimum of 8o euros in the process….
Add on our apartment, food and transport fees and of course we needed more than 1000 euros so our dilemma was QUITE ridiculous!
Perhaps for some, 8 euros per withdrawal isn’t dramatic, but we were used to ZERO withdrawal fees and very high withdrawal limits so this came as a shock!
After a day of stress and frantic Googling we decided to give Azimo a try. This was a bit of a risk for us as we never even heard of Azimo before. But we read favorable reviews, they have a 100% money back guarantee, and they had an easy connection with our Dutch ING bank.
Money Gram and Western Union was out of the question as they have pretty high transfer fees, and they would not have been able to get the cash to us in time.
We had only 1 day (due to the Carnaval holidays) to send our money from our Dutch account to Azimo, to be transferred to Argentina, and then be picked up by ourselves (with our passport and some other special questions to verify ID) at an Argentine bank which served as the Azimo representative.
To make a long story short. We downloaded the Azimo app. Made our Azimo profile. Connected it with our bank. Sent our money to ourselves. Waited a couple of hours for the transaction to go through (they do warn you that it might take 1-2 working days, depending on your bank) and fortunately our transaction only took a couple of hours…and wallah, we got the notification that our money was ready to pick up at any of their local bank representatives.
The notification email reminded us to bring the correct pre-arranged ID and gave us a list of banks we could pick it up from.
We chose the one that was in walking distance. There was que of a about 15-20 people also using Azimo services and with a bit of mumble-fumble, showing the correct ID and awkward sign language (the guy behind the heavily barred counter didn’t speak a word of English) we walked out with our bundle of much needed cash!
We say BUNDLE, because while they DO have 500 peso bills…they don’t seem to use them much, so we got stacks of 100s, 50s and 20s.
There was no way we were going to count our crazy amount of cash in front of all the people in the que (it was a bank, but it looked like more like a black market currency exchange) and we were so happy that so far, our risk taking was paying off, we decided to cut our loses and make a beeline to our apartment with our bulging bag of cash.
When we got to our apartment, we were pleasantly surprised that the amount we received was correct to the Peso.
A picture with a fraction of our Azimo transferred cash…
While the whole pick up the cash experience was a bit disconcerting, the actual process of using Azimo was rather smooth and we saved a lot of time potentially stalking numerous ATMs (they regularly run out of cash, so you have to visit a few ATMs to get the maximum withdrawal) and miserable ATM fees.
So please learn from our lesson. Bring Euros or Dollars with you when visiting South America–specifically Argentina!
Traveling around the world with a Philippine Passport is a Challenge!
For those that know us, you are aware that we are a Dutch/Filipino couple aka “Hollapinos” 😀
And while that nickname is cute and funny (thanks Russell Peters) our legal hurdles (particularity mine) are not so funny.
This series of blog posts will be about how I got and applied for my Schengen, US, Argentine & Chilean Visas all while my 5 year Filipino passport is aging closer and closer to it’s expiry date.
I hope the “process” I’m going to share will be a help to some of you. And if it’s not applicable to your situation, I hope it’s an entertaining/informative read.
My Schengen Visa:
Actually this was the easiest visa to apply for. I had gotten 2 Schengen visas for previous visits to Europe.
The first Schengen visa was valid for a single entry of 30 days. The second one was a multiple entry visa valid for 1 year with 90 days stay duration within a 6 month (180 days) period.
The third, and my current visa, is valid for 4 years with the same restrictions–90 days stay in the Schengen zone within a 6 month (180 days) period.
All my Schengen visas were applied for and received while we were living in Thailand.
Please note that I didn’t pay more, or apply for, the different lengths of validity of my Schengen visas. They just seemed to give me longer validity each time I applied.
I got my first Schengen visa when we were still dating and not legally married if that’s a comfort for unmarried couples. I did apply in the family and friends category, if you aren’t visiting family or friends then you can apply for a regular tourist visa.
The second Schengen visa I got was when we were already married but I had not changed my surname. I again applied in the family and friends category.
When I applied for my last one they barely looked at my papers, and when they noticed I visited Europe pretty much every year, the visa officer asked if I’d like a longer validity for my visa. I said “Sure, the longer the better, as that would save me the trouble of applying every year or so.” She then decided to give me a Schengen visa valid till my current passport expired.
Needless to say that was a pleasant surprise, and this has definitely been a help during the European leg of our Ride around the World.
But having a Schengen visa does have it’s limitations. We intended to travel through Europe over the span of 6 months. We had thought there was some way to “extend” my 90 days allowance in the Schengen zone, but we discovered this was not possible.
Because we had less than 90 days (we stayed a couple of weeks with Stefan’s family before we left) our journey through the Schengen countries was rather rushed and I had to quickly exit out of the Schengen area into Croatia a couple of days before my 90 days allowance were finished to make absolutely sure I didn’t overstay.
Fortunately, I had a multiple entry Schengen visa. And IF you don’t overstay your Schengen visa you automatically get visa free entrance into Albania, Macedonia, Serbia and Bosnia & Herzegovina.
The main difference was that there were border checks (some were a bit stressful and confusing with little bribes here and there) and I had to make sure I got stamped in and out of each country.
Having to be out of the Schengen zone wasn’t a total loss, I did miss out on visiting Greece, the UK and Ireland, but I got to hang around the cheap Balkan states for 90 days and when I could enter the Schengen zone again, we completed the other Schengen countries we weren’t able to ride through on our first round.
So that’s the long and short of how I was able to tour Europe for over 6 months on a multiple entry Schengen visa. In hindsight, we probably should have found a way to apply for my Dutch residency, being that I am married to a Dutchman, and perhaps our Europe trip would have been that much less rushed and stressful. But because we were eager to start our journey, we skipped that step, and I suppose we are living and learning from that decision.
FYI: Being a Philippine passport holder means I need a visa for pretty much every other country outside of the SEA. And if I hadn’t had a multiple entry Schengen visa I would have also had to apply for visas for each of the Balkan states which would have meant a lot of wasted time and extra visa fees. Thankfully I did have a multiple entry Schengen visa which was valid for several years so I didn’t need to apply for individual visas in the Balkan area.
Here are the links to the visa application process in Thailand and the required documents.
Online visa application: http://www.vfsglobal.com/netherlands/thailand/
Info about visa for visiting family or friends in the Netherlands: http://www.vfsglobal.com/netherlands/thailand/visiting_friends.html
Documents needed if visiting family or friends in the Netherlands: http://www.vfsglobal.com/netherlands/thailand/pdf/Schengen-Visa-Application-visiting-friends.pdf
Info about getting a tourist visa for the Netherlands: http://www.vfsglobal.com/netherlands/thailand/tourist.html
Documents needed if visiting as a tourist to the Netherlands: http://www.vfsglobal.com/netherlands/thailand/pdf/Checklist-for-a-visa-application-tourism.pdf
I used Bupa Travel Insurance:
https://global.ihi.com/travel+insurance/single+trip/buy+schengen+travel.aspx
Bittersweet beginning to our South to North American journey. Stefan will take the bike to London on his own which means we will be apart for 4 days…this is the longest we’ve been apart since we married and I hate missing out (didn’t want to spend the mullah and the time to get a UK visa for only 2 days)
..but oh well, every dream has it’s sacrifices.
On the bright side.. ARGENTINA HERE WE COME!! ?
Happy 80th Birthday Oma and Happy 2nd Birthday Sem!!!
It’s been awesome that Stefan & I have been able to spend so much time with the family before we’re back on the road again.
Here’s a quick peek of our crazy family shenanigans! There were 30+ of us all in one cabin!
Luckily there were enough beds, 2 kitchens (sort of), ample dishes and dishwashers, lots of chairs and several WC’s otherwise it would have been complete bedlam 😛
We really did have a grand time–with very little sleep 😀
Hi All…
Seems like our blog has started the new year on a tardy note..SORRY.. ?
But to make it up to you…
Here’s Stefan being a crazy fireworks unicorn for the New Year…
We gonna write more, we promise!
Right now we busy prepping for our South American journey.
And it hasn’t been as straight forward as we hoped. Visas…bike transport…route etc…
But we’re gonna get there ?
But for now we’re off to a holiday cabin to celebrate Stefan’s Grandma 80th birthday…
Catch you laters xxx