Back in the Netherlands

Last story was many weeks ago, and I've been back in Netherlands for about 6 weeks already, but somehow this blog doesn't feel quite finished without a concluding story. It feels like my observations of Phuket and my first weeks in the Netherlands belong here as well and friends seem interested as well. After a journey this impressive it's hard to see your own country the same way as before. And that might not be a bad thing.

After Bangkok and its big New Year's celebration, sex industry and the temples that characterizes Thailand, I went to Phuket. With prices three to four times as high as in Chiang Mai or even Bangkok and signs such as "leklokal för barnen" and "дешевая косметика" it definitely was more touristy than any place I had ever seen. And it felt a bit weird. Big spenders seem to attract people that are out for your money, rather than a nice atmosphere. And the Russians on this beach did not have the open or considerate attitude as the ones I had met in Hong Kong. It seems that this big stream of rich people changes what locals and other tourists once thought was a very nice and relaxed place to hang out. But no worries, I still had a great time learning to surf and playing beach volley with a Burmese lady and a bunch of Westerners, and clearing my head staring at the beautiful sunset.

It does make you wonder how travellers should behave to keep traveling fun for, let's say, the next generation. Whatever you do changes your environment, and in Asia it seems to adjust extremely fast. Coming from the not at all touristy China it was strange to see the influences tourism has on the local cultures. It took away what I liked most about them, actually: their interest in foreigners, the patience, the friendliness. I see that there is practically no way you can visit a country without having any effect on how they handle visitors, but do we have a big effect on it? And if you try to "improve" things for the locals, according whose standards would it be better exactly? Perhaps the locals don't want to have our safety rules, or hygienic standard. Maybe what they have works much better for them, maybe their priorities lie differently, but that doesn't mean they're bad.

In the Western world we seem to really like labelling things "good" and "bad", and "right" and "wrong". There are all these things that are "too much", or "not enough", as if it's all absolute. We don't seem to see it's all a matter of perspective. From one point of view eating banana's seems healthy, but if you've already eaten twenty banana's in the past hour, it might not be so healthy anymore. Wouldn't it be better to see things in perspective some more? Wouldn't that free us from restrictions we make up for ourselves and help us live a relaxed and happy life?

And we have all these expectations. We want a big house and fancy car, and expect that others want that too. And if we somehow meet someone who doesn't want the same, we often think they're weird and should be convinced of our ideas. So if you're not very sure about what you want, your ideas are easily overridden by others. We more or less force our ideas on others. And then we wonder why people aren't comfortable with what they do...

I'm not saying it's bad - I'm quite sure it has some advantages as well - but this is different from what you see in other countries. Less irritating differences I noticed when coming back to the Netherlands are that people in Asia focus more on the harmony between things (rather than just having a lot of either one) and seem to interact with strangers more. And people here suddenly appear to be very assertive, seem to work more efficiently, and have so many things industrialized that we don't really need to think for ourselves anymore. The GPS will tell us where to go, and the recorded voice in the bus will tell us the name of the next stop. And again, both worlds have their advantages and disadvantages, and - how I love this as human movement scientist - we adapt and learn to live to whatever we have.

Realizing all these things about my own country and how they make me feel makes me wonder how I want to live my life. I might not be sure where I'll want to work after my studies, but I am sure that I want to free myself from the expectations from others, the things I "have to do" according to others, and let my actions be led more by what I want, what I feel like. Because honestly, that's the best compass I've had in many years.


Thanks to everyone who has read or commented on my stories and to everyone else for all the positive energy. It has been an amazing trip, and that was partly because of you. I hope you liked reading these stories as much as I liked writing them. Who knows, maybe some day there will be another trip that needs writing about. ;)