Travel story: Noah the Dutch

Cameron Highlands famous Boh tea plantation.

Travel Story

Travel story anyone? Yes, please! When you are traveling for a longer period of time, you have a great opportunity to meet outstanding people with amazing travel stories. This is what makes traveling so much more appealing. In the Diary section, we will share with you stories about other travelers who we met along the way. It is a part of our personal experience that we would like to share with you. Besides that, we found those people very inspiring.

It was just another cold morning in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia, we were having our morning coffee and staring into the foggy horizon when our gaze was interrupted by a calm voice: it was Noah, who was staying at the same hotel. Noah Van god knows what from the flatlands aka Netherland. He was an experienced traveler, who saw a good piece of the world. I can still remember how tranquil he was, far from aimless hippy style to be clear.

Another Photographer

He was quite a funny guy and when it came to his travel stories, we were just amazed. When we were listening to his travel stories, we had to admit it, we felt like our life was so boring. He had a hammock with a mosquito net – his equipment for sleeping in the jungle – and a vintage analog camera. As a photographer myself, I acknowledge that his photographs were amazing, with great composition and nice calm natural colors, which I personally like.

Wherever the road takes me

Dangerous Grounds

The tour he did in the Middle East was the one he really enjoyed, even though he went a bit too far outside his own comfort zone. Once, he was escorted by the local police, just to make sure he would survive this “tourist tour”. As he said, the feeling to be guarded wasn’t nice. Especially not in the case when someone else is risking their life just because of your curiosity. But he appreciated the policemen’s dedication, and in the end, all of them had a great time. This wasn’t the only time his life was in danger: when he was wandering around somewhere in Iraq, he smelled something familiar – if someone from the Netherlands can’t smell out marijuana, then who can. As it turned out it was a massive field, full of weed. He wasn’t alone there, people were guarding the growing plants and from the hill above the field, the guards started shooting at him with machine guns. Bullets were flying above his head while he was crawling on the ground, trying to get out of the shooter’s sight. Somehow, he got away from this one – luckily!

You are never alone

Cheese Knife Accident

There was also a funny cheese knife threat. He was somewhere in South East Asia and a taxi driver drove him out of the city and demanded $100 for taking him back. So Noah took out his cheese knife (yes, a cheese knife! Dutch people are amazing, right?) and started negotiations. Noah gave him a choice: to drive him back or he would totally f*** up the car. Apparently, a few stabs were enough to convince the taxi driver to drive him to the right location. What was the fare, in the end? It was a normal price, despite that the taximeter was off.

Anyone can choose more adventurous travels if you have a feeling that visiting tourist sites is boring. The most important thing to remember here is that he is a very nice guy and it wasn’t the possibility of danger that drove him to travel more and further, but rather the real experience and meeting pristine local people. He was living with locals and soaked their culture in like a sponge, with amazing rewards. In Jordan, he got access to an amazing mosque, which probably hadn’t been seen by any other tourist before, and for an adventure photographer, that is the biggest prize. So what did we learn from him? His stories about camping and sleeping outside gave us food for thought, and one day we will sleep outside for sure! And we don’t mean it with tent and camping, more like the homeless, gypsy style.