***Hollapino Definition: Holland and Filipino (credit goes to Russel Peters :D)
Our journey began at 7am on the 3rd of June 2017…
Thanks Bill from Asian Tigers for sponsoring some of our trip..means a lot to us 🙂
It was a chilly morning, but the sun was out and it looked like a perfect day for riding.
We hooked our boxes on, strapped on our waterproof bags full of camping gear and we were ready to go.
Carmelo, Stefan’s uncle came by with his Ducati to drive with us for the 50 kilometers, which was fun. It’s always more fun when you ride with other bikers 🙂
That’s something that’s universal. Big Bikers will pretty much always acknowledge each other on the road. We all consider ourselves as part of a special club and a nod, or a smile, or a quick upraised hand (that doesn’t quite translate into a wave) communicates that we are brothers and sisters on the road. If you ride a Big Bike (no matter what brand you drive) you will know what I mean.
Leaving the Netherlands on the way to Denmark
Driving a motorbike in Holland is rather uneventful, especially when one compares it to driving in Bangkok, Thailand (which was our previous experience) and it almost is boring.
This is not a criticism, rather it is a realization that we were so used to being ultra-alert on Bangkok roads that we almost felt lulled to sleep by the Dutch safe and by-the-rules driving. They drive so well in Holland that it was almost hard to believe that any accidents could happen. No one over took us from the right, no one cut us off unnecessarily, no one changed lanes on a solid line, everyone merged politely and zippered when needed. It was so relaxing, we had a hard time staying alert. I guess this is something we have to get used to.
Passing through Germany
Unlimited speed on our powerful GSA1200 is awesome! I think we clocked our fastest speed of 180km and it felt like we were cruising…
Don’t worry, we remembered that we are no longer in Thailand and we stayed true to the speed limits and the flow of the traffic…speeding fines in the EU are NOT a joke!
It also started raining a bit and we were able to test how our new gear would fare against the wet and the cold.
Dry and enjoying a German sausage in Hamburg despite the rain in our Rev It rain suits
We will make a post detailing what we learned about our motorbike gear. But happily, we made pretty much the correct choices and we were warm & dry most of the time.
Arriving in Denmark (our first stop)
Denmark is GREEN during the summer!
Denmark is beautiful!!!
It was surprisingly green at this time of year. The wind was cold, but the sun was out and the drive was invigorating despite us arriving around 8pm that evening. ***The sun sets around 10-11pm at this time of year…
Crossing the Dane border means taking a 40min ferry from Fehmarn, Germany. This ferry was the biggest ferry I have been on and it felt like I was on a floating airport. They had duty free shopping, a cafeteria with a buffet and could load massive trucks and buses on it. They called it a Hybrid Ferry.
Danish efficiency was impressive, considering how massive this ferry was, we were all loaded and leaving the pier in 5mins. I was also impressed with how we had to strap our own bike on for safety—fortunately another Big Biker was behind us so we just followed what he did to strap his bike on 🙂
40mins later, we were docked in Denmark and 5mins later we driving down the highway towards our friends (Mr. Bo Grabowski) summer house. Thanks so much Bo, for letting us stay at your cozy summer house, it is truly beautiful and we loved spending time with your family!
Note: There is a random border check and we were recommended to have our passports ready, but us bikers weren’t picked so we just breezed on by.
Interesting fact: The border patrol seem to be manned by teenagers, are they really super young? Or do they just look super young? Anyone else notice this?
Dinner with Bo & Family
Sorry for the terrible photo, I guess after 12 hours of riding taking the nominal photo is challenging
Cold enough to make a cozy fire…of course Stefan volunteered 😛
Bo’s Beer Can Chicken BBQ…it was delicious!
1st Day in MØn, Denmark
Denmark is similar to Holland in that you can easily experience all the seasons within one day. It started off cold and rainy and we thought our plans to visit MØn’s Klint was over, but around 2pm the sun started to come out and the rain dissipated.
Bo was our very knowledgeable tour guide and we had the pleasure of his daughter, Mia, and her friend, Anastasia, for company. We climbed into their car (as the chance of rain was still around 80%) and we headed off to MØn’s Klint which is a massive chalk and flint cliff where dinosaurs and other pre-historic fossils were discovered.
Watching a 3D movie about dinosaurs
It was really educational and a beautiful hike despite it being quite a cardio workout to climb up stairs. The climb down was deceivingly easy, but the climb up was our 1st mini-workout for our stay in Denmark (994 steps down to the cliffs and of course you have to climb back up!)
Mon’s Klint on the way down (994 steps) to the chalk and flint cliffs
About 6km of beautiful white cliffs
After that hike we had built up an appetite and were quite warmed up, so it was unanimously decided that we should have the famous MØn’s Is (MØn’s Icecream) at the dairy farm and it was DELICIOUS!! It is seriously THE BEST ice cream I have ever had; the flavors (I got 1 scoop of Baileys and 1 of Chocolate) were to-die-for!
Stefan’s Selfie Fail 😛
Trying to get the “Danish” cows in the background…
After all the excitement of the day which began at 2pm it was time to head over the grocery shop to get stuff for dinner. Most shops is Denmark (esp. in the countryside close at 5-6pm but we fortunately we found one (Fakta) that stays open till 9pm. But today we will try the much recommended SuperBrugsen instead…
This concludes our 1st day in Denmark. Do keep visiting and we will write about our other adventures as frequently as we can …
Yesterday we climbed into my parents truck with 2 suitcases each, some carry on baggage and…OUR CAT! Yup, we were about to let Nikita take her first flight. And it would be an almost 24 hour affair, but she made it–or more like–we made it 🙂
She was a star! As soon as folks realized we were traveling with cat they were all smiles and wanted to take pictures with her
We’re proud to say that she did really well. She DOES NOT like cars but as soon as we got to the airport she was an angel. She meowed a bit, but she didn’t scratch and try to escape the carrier while we were checking in, buying her ticket (yes, she has to have a “ticket” which cost only about 100 euros, as she flew in cabin with us) eating breakfast, shopping around to finish our last few baht etc. I guess we were expecting the worst so we were pleasantly surprised.
Once we boarded the plane, she was a bit restless, but fortunately those sitting next to us were very accommodating and her meowing and fighting the carrier was only during the first 15 mins and perhaps a bit mid-flight because by then she had been the carrier for about 8 hours.
We felt a bit bad for her as she’s not allow any food or water in case she gets motion sickness, but that’s apparently the only way to travel with cats in the cabin.
If you’re planning to travel with cat in cabin on an airplane here are the tips that worked for us:
Get your cat used to the carrier–we bought her carrier about 5 months before the flight so she had time to get her used to it.
Get your cat used to riding in a car/vehicle–we ride on motorbikes so she doesn’t mind motorbikes at all. But because we didn’t get her used to riding in a car, as soon as she gets in one, she becomes a little hellion. I don’t know if it’s because cats easily become claustrophobic or because she was motion sick, but she seriously did some damage to the carrier trying to escape.
Feliway spray is a life saver–it works! We accidentally forgot to spray and bring it along when we took her to the vet for her last de-worming and tick and flea treatment and she was crazy the whole trip there and back. But when we sprayed her carrier on the way to the airport she was almost 80% calmer!
Don’t feed your cat 8 hours before the flight–yes, this seems cruel, but we did this and she didn’t get sick, puke, or anything, so this suggestion works. They also say don’t give water, but I felt too bad for her so I let her have some water before the flight.
You need a leash–most cats don’t like being on a leash but you will need one as there are a couple security checks where you will have to take the cat out of the carrier and carry through the x-ray etc. Without a lease you might find yourself chasing your cat around the airport…cats are darn fast when they want to be!
Bring a blanket–it get’s cold on almost any airplane so be sure you have something to cover the carrier to help keep your cat warm and it will also help “mute” any meows…
So that was our Jet-setter Kitty adventure. Hope our tips help you if you are planning to travel with your cat in the cabin of an airplane 😉
Safe and sound in Schiphol airport and the whole family (including Oma on the left most) came to welcome us 😀
It’s funny how we appreciate things more when they are gone…or SOON to be gone…
We feel a bit in awe about leaving Bangkok. There are so many things that we are seeing in a new light simply because we took them for granted because we have lived here so long.
Sadly, we were not able to fly our drone over the tallest building in Bangkok, because it isn’t completed yet and because drone flying is getting rather strict nowadays.
But we were able to take some amazing footage of the Bhumibol 1 bridge 🙂
Forgive the amateur footage, we are still learning…
And do visit again, we will have a video compiling our GoPro5 footage along with our drone footage soon.
NOTE: If you are interested in getting a drone for yourself, do use OUR AFFILIATE LINK so that we can get some much needed commission and possible sponsorship from DJI…Thanks in advance:)
Our Maxfit journey has been AWESOME!! We’ve met, trained and become friends with so many wonderful folks that we’re not sure how to say “Good Bye”…
We started out doing bootcamps in the park with 5-10 die-hards…Rain or Shine we were out doing push ups and burpees in the early hours of the morning and after sunset at night…
Humble beginnings at Benjasari Park
We then managed to move indoors at Fit Studio and we had some grand sessions there! We even had a bootcamp in the parking building across the street…running up and down those ramps and dodging cars that were not expecting 10-20 sweating folks jogging around and “squat-walking” across the empty spaces…
Sessions at Fit Studio before we got our own place!!
I really enjoyed those long early morning walks, after bootcamp, with good friends, Adam, Swanti, Karan and a few others who would walk with me all the way from Pleonchit back to Prompong where most of us lived…
We then got a bit more settled down and were able to open our bootcamps in the Capitol Club.
The Maxfit Family grew to up to 300 members at one time and we had groups of 30+ people doing crazy antics with us…
Crazy Big Bootcamps at the Capitol Club
Our stay at the Capitol Club wasn’t long but we forged a bond and when me moved to Sukhumvit Soi 31 we stayed together and had an opening party that raised over 100,000thb for Charity in a couple hours 😀
Yup, we transformed our gym in a Bollywood Palace for our Charity Event 😛
Raised 100,000thb from our Bollywood Party for our Launch Party at Sukhumvit Soi 31! Thanks to all who had a part!
After a few years of large group training Stefan & I decided that we wanted to focus on smaller groups and personal training. Our Maxfit family became a bit smaller but much tighter. Some of you we saw almost Every Day. It was Mi Casa Su Casa and we were privileged to be part of your everyday lives…
Madness At Maxfit in Sukhumvit Soi 31 😛
We LOOOOVE Planks and Burpees! 😛
We had a run of almost 4 Amazing years at Sukhumvit Soi 31 but due to the severe flooding in Sukhumvit 31 and the long commute so that we could continue training folks at Maxfit near Nichada, we moved our home and gym from Sukhumvit Soi 31 to Sukhumvit Soi 26.
Maxfit @ Nichada “Drones and Tires” Day
Smaller but loyal Maxfit Crew!
Anyone remember our crazy Nights Out with Maxfit??? 😛
Less expense, a smaller place to manage, which also suited our smaller group training better…
Our cute studio in Sukhumvit Soi 26…
Maxfit Bros!!
It was also around this time that we had decided that it was time for us to put some action into our dream of traveling around the world on our motorbike and training folks online.
It’s amazing what can happen in less than a year!
In less than a year both our Maxfit locations were taken over by 2 awesome trainers.
Maxfit in Sukhumvit is now in the capable hands of Mr. Adam Mather and Maxfit continues on without us…
Maxfit in Nichada is now the capable hands of Joanna Brittingham and will be reborn as Das Power Haus…
That’s the Maxfit Story in a nutshell…
Another Epic Maxfit Night Out! Work Hard in the Gym…Play Hard at Night 😛
Thank you so much to those who have been with us from the very beginning! We couldn’t have done what we did without you all!
Thanks to those of you who trained with us, became our friends and gave us advice during the rough times.
Thanks to my parents, Paul & Sunny, who were there for us helping us set up & build parts our gym (3 locations in total)
Setting up our gym from scratch! That’s my Dad behind Stefan making sure our lines are level 😛
My cool parents who worked along side us during this awesome journey…
They also share our love of traveling on motorbikes!!
Thanks to my personal friends who came and trained with us and advertised Maxfit like crazy to help us get off the ground..you know who you are!! 😀 😀
It has been an honor and a pleasure getting to know you all!
To end this post, here’s a crazy video of our Zanook Water Park adventure. To those who couldn’t make it, perhaps we’ll see you about town before we leave…
It was really educational and a beautiful hike despite it being quite a cardio workout to climb up stairs. The climb down was deceivingly easy, but the climb up was our 1st mini-workout for our stay in Denmark (994 steps down to the cliffs and of course you have to climb back up!)
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