Author: vanderkuyl

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Canada, eh?!

Our last stop on this journey was Canada. We planned to spend a month with family in Victoria and friends in Vancouver. It was the third time in the last four years that we came here, so we did not expect to discover new adventures. Yet we surprised ourselves by finding many cool activities we had skipped the last times without even knowing it.
This post is about our last stop in British Columbia, Canada.

We have also listed some great, memorable activities that we would recommend. Wildlife you can expect to see when coming to Canada you can find in a different post. Enjoy!

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Meet the Beasts! Our Canada Wildlife Encounters.

Before my (Alex) first time in Canada my vision of this vast country was rough. I just pictured a massive untouched forest with menacing wildlife and tons of bears in particular.
After being with Britt for four years and having visited British Columbia three times by now, I have a more diverse and realistic view.

A lot of things come to my mind while thinking back on my time in Canada.  The imagery in my head is filled with polite people who “eh?!” a lot, camping trips, Britt’s family, a beautiful modern chinese town called Vancouver, the chill vibe of Tofino and much much more. And yet the stereotype of a massive forest remained. Why? Because it is true! And there is a lot of wildlife to see for sure.

The idea of this post is to share our very personal wildlife spotting locations from our three recent trips (mainly to B.C. and Vancouver Island in particular).
Especially now that more and more friends are coming here to enjoy the wildlife, maybe this might be a good inspiration for you guys where to look closer for the cool stuff.

Continue reading “Meet the Beasts! Our Canada Wildlife Encounters.”

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Kecil Island – The Movie!

As serious hobby photographers we just could not help it. When you are on Kecil, the smaller of the Perhentian Islands, off of the east coast of Malaysia you just need to take photos and film. And that is great! See the director’s cut of our Perhentian Island (above the water) experience below.

Enjoy!

For the underwater experience check this post. And the full story is here.

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Reunion in Malaysia – Our Last Days in South East Asia

We met again! After being separated for more than one week, with Britt taking care of stuff in Germany and Alex spotting orangutans in Sumatra, we met again in Kuala Lumpur on the 16th of July, our wedding anniversary day. Good timing, huh?!

 

In this post we summarized our experiences of our last days in South East Asia. If you consider Kecil island being part of your next Malaysia itinerary, we have some tips for you. Never heard of the Perhentian islands or Pulau Kecil?! Then this read is a good inspiration for sure.

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Alex alone in North Sumatra and Britt’s short trip to Germany

When Britt left for Germany I was left alone in Banda Aceh. A little reminder: Britt had to fly back to Germany to finalize university registration and wanted to come back to South East Asia after one week. I (Alex) was left alone in Banda Aceh with 7 days to myself.

 

There were still so many things we wanted to see initially in Sumatra and one week was not enough, considering that one has to travel vast distances between the points of interest we  picked. So I had to decide what to do.Our change of plans came rather suddenly because of Britt’s departure. So I spent the first days undecided staying in Banda Aceh, which was interesting…

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Indonesia, Pulau Weh (Finally we are Underwater Ambassadors)

There are some bucket list items that one always wants to achieve but keeps on postponing in life. When one is finally ready to go for it something pops up and one has to postpone it  again. For us this bucket list item was diving. We wanted to do our PADI Open Water Certification for so many years, yet we never managed to find the time. When we finally had the time one of us caught a cold and we had to cancel. Then when we started travelling in 2018 we decided now is the time! However when we reached the Andaman Islands in Spring 2018, with the PADI Open Water licence at the very top of our list, the government put a ban on all diving activities for a couple of weeks (to regulate the market or something). We personally believe they did it to screw us over.

 

Not this time, not in Indonesia! We decided to go to Sumatra with just the mission of going diving. We were recommended by many other travellers to go to Pulau Weh in particular. (Pulau Weh is so far North in Sumatra that it could be one of the Andaman islands). And so we went. This blogpost is about our time on Pulau Weh and Britt’s bad surprise after the course. 

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Kuala Lumpur and Kapas Island, Malaysia

Kapas Island beach

After Laos we flew in to Malaysia. Britt has already been here for a couple of days. For me it was the first time. I had zero expectations. For me it was just a cheap flight and gateway to Sumatra (our next stop). Still it turned out to be again a great venue.

We decided to spend a couple of days in Kuala Lumpur (KUL) and a couple of days on an island. After some research we picked Pulau Kapas because it was small, easy to get to from KUL, less touristy (because of its size) than some neighbours and still affordable for budget travellers. In this post we have summarized our experiences in both Kuala Lumpur and Pulau Kapas. Do not underestimate Malaysia as I did, it was far better than we expected.

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