When happiness got infected
Reading Time: 12 minutes They were happy. Their stories nudged me to dream of ways to perhaps make my happiness simpler, less cluttered. They lived simple lives, the world came to them and a better future finally seemed within their reach. No, they were not happily simple. They simply were happy. That was last year. That was a lifetime and worlds ago.
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#WomenStories | The challenges of being a woman in Peru
Reading Time: 4 minutes There’s a place in this world where being a woman is even harder than in other places. A place where, if you have a coffee with 2 girlfriends, one at the table has or will suffer physical and/or sexual violence. And that violence will come from an intimate partner.
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#HappinessStories | Coming out as gay in Venezuela
Reading Time: 10 minutes This is the remarcable story of a Venezuelan who opens up about his journey to neighboring Colombia and his struggles of being openly gay in a very conservative family and an equally conservative country.
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In numbers: The Venezuelan refugee crisis in 2020
Reading Time: 7 minutes 4.8 million people have already fled from Venezuela. It is expected that in 2020, the Venezuelan refugee crisis will suprass the Syrian exodus at its peak. This is the real magnitude of the Venezuelan drama
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Venezuela: The sad taste of candy
Reading Time: 12 minutes I’ve travelled across South America to get an in-depth look at one of the largest refugee crises of our times
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In pictures: A year of travelling the world
Reading Time: 6 minutes In the last hours of this whirlwind of a year, it’s only fitting that I’m on a plane again. This time, I’m doing it like back in the day when I still knew what city breaks were supposed to be.
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I went to ‘real-life’ Macondo and discovered Colombia
Reading Time: 7 minutes Three weeks into my travels throughout Colombia, I took a bus from Santa Marta to Aracataca, looking for the real Macondo. I found something else.
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Will Colombia and Venezuela go to war?
Reading Time: 7 minutes I arrived in Colombia at a very interesting and complicated time. No sooner had I managed to find my way through the streets of La Candelaria, that, as I was visiting the police museum in the Capital, one of the officers there told us the breaking news of the day: some FARC rebels decided to ignore the peace deal and rearm in the jungle.
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Sri Lanka in 2019 | The quest for peace
Reading Time: 6 minutes Take most popular books, TED talks or viral videos these days. There’s a quest for meaning in this world that seems hooked on that instant - and fleeting - validation that comes with a like clicked by people you don’t even know, but whom a Silicon Valley company describes as your ‘friends’.
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The unhappy Chinese man whose Paradise is for rent
Reading Time: 7 minutes This is the story of a self-declared unhappy man who discovered how to ‘rent’ his very own version of Paradise. Spoiler alert: it’s a paradise more and more people, myself included, are pursuing these days.
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My complete TRAVEL BUDGET | Here’s how much money I spent in Asia
Reading Time: 8 minutes Flights, accommodation, food, fun things to do - a breakdown of every single expense during my long-term trip across Asia. PLUS: some tips for you!
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Japan vs China | Stop and listen to what they sound like
Reading Time: 3 minutes I travelled across Japan and was deeply fascinated by what I saw. Then, I went to China. I never expected the shock that I got there.
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Finding peace on the railway tracks. A Buddhist monk’s lessons about happiness
Reading Time: 8 minutes He says that we’re looking for happiness the wrong way. Many people I’ve met over the past months told me the same thing. This is the story of a fortunate day when I found peace on the railroad tracks in Sri Lanka. A day when I lost myself on a path to happiness.
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3 months ago, I set off to rediscover THE WORLD. It’s now time to rediscover HOME and the next journey
Reading Time: 4 minutes Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Singapore, The Philippines, Japan and China. Looking back, I feel like I’ve lived full years condensed in some tens of days. It’s now time to go back home and take my things out of the backpack for a while and prepare for the next journey. This is what I go back with.
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I just had an accident in the Philippines. It taught me one of the most important lessons on the road
Reading Time: 9 minutes Everybody’s swarming around us, as if they have well established tasks. My husband and I are sitting face to face, on some chairs that appeared from nowhere. Some boys are cleaning the blood on his head. A hand gives me a chunck of ice and a bottle of water. The ambulance comes, but all it has on board are two small children and a driver.
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Decades after the Khmer Rouge, Cambodia says NO to the comfort of forgetting
Reading Time: 8 minutes After more than a month of talking to people about happiness, I had an encounter with the most profound sadness and pain you can imagine.
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#WomenStories | Her life in the Netherlands was all planned out. Until she decided to see the world
Reading Time: 4 minutes Naomi, a 22 year-old over-achiever from The Netherlands, was 4 and a half months into a trip around Asia when we met in Sri Lanka. There we were, in the middle of Hill Country, two transitioning control freaks, talking about travelling the world in order to rediscover it and ourselves. I was just beginning my journey, she was half way through.
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#WomenStories | She works without pay and and that’s alright with her. A young Sri Lankan mother describes her happiness
Reading Time: 7 minutes Two years ago today, Dinusha and Maleesha were married. He was 22, she was 19. Since then, their days have had a comforting ritual to watch.
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How much does it cost to travel the world
Reading Time: 8 minutes Flights, accommodation, visas - a breakdown of all my expenses for a 3-month trip
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The Happiness Stories from around the world
Reading Time: 5 minutes What makes people everywhere happy? How do children play? When does a woman decide to become a mother? These are stories we need to see
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Letter to a tired country
Story published on 19 February 2019My first plane ride was a much needed time to reflect on what I was leaving behind. As I always do, I did that in writing. This time, in the form of a letter.I'm looking for stories on the world. This is why I left. Still, there's...
PHOTO GALLERY | My travel bag for 3 months
Reading Time: 5 minutes How many things do you really need in your life? My own answer took me by surprise. This is everything I packed in my bag to travel the world
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“What is the answer?” The man who says it best – in under 1 minute
Reading Time: 5 minutes "I want to find out why I’m working. It can’t just be to pay bills and pile up more money"
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Every day, we bombard you with information. It is dangerous
Reading Time: 6 minutes It’s the paradox of our times. We have information at our fingertips more than ever before, but are less informed. Let me show you how that happens.
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I quit my TV job in order to rediscover the world. A story I never imagined I would tell
Reading Time: 9 minutes I spent my 20s as a workaholic journalist. Then I retired at 30. A very personal account on why this happened
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