41 florida sunshine second time around

it's always much more relaxing if you do a tour that you have done before. it is a huge difference. i am starting to get a bit afraid of my new england trip as that will be totally new. i am looking forward to the trip itself but not to the questions the people will ask me. guide book never mention things that bus passengers want to know. (that restroom thing is really such a problem)

we have better weather than last month. there was less traffic as well. even less tourist then end of august. everything looks dead here. key west was EMPTY. it is extremely hot here and humid. i don't like that weather at all. it's sticky. you want to shower all the time. key west is nice but it was my fourt time and there's really not that much to see and do there. it is also very expensive.

the airboat on the everglades was ok but we didn't see any wildlife either. my guess is that they never see animals cos the guy gave us a totally differen reason this time to the questions why there were no animals. last month the reason was that the birds and the alligators were staying at their nests to hatch the eggs. this time the reason was that the water is too high and that the animals look for places in the everglades where thne nwater ins lower...

the alligator show was cooler though. we had an earlier show so the alligators were hungy. they made these cool noises and the guy almost had his balls bitten of when an alligator runned towards him in the back. the amazing thing was that everybody saw the alligator run to the guy and nobody yelled: Watch out. i think everybody thought it was part of the 'show' but the guy was really lucky... those jaws.... wow.... there were lots of animals i the safari park so that was cool because last time we didn't see them...

i didn't go to the beach in naples as i had to drop off that one person oin fort myers beach. but the beaches on the westcoast of florida are so much more beautiful than in miami and the east coast. really if you go to florida for a beach holiday go to the west, the gulf coast. the beaches are AWESOME. really.

i bought that belgie t shirt in tampa which was on sale. i hadn't founf it anymore in the US, just there in tampa. cool ha to find a t shirt in the US with BELGIE on it and ot belgium or belgique... i also bought a NFL shirt from a quarterback called FAVRE. sounds like Favoreel so that's cool. i just don't see myself walk around with a shirt like that.

in orlando now. bored again cos i don't get free tickets to the fun parks here. will read about new england and check my mails

bye bye to you all. i miss hanging out with you guys and girls.

40 the pax on the bus

a new tour. new people on the bus. they seem okay and i feel like they are nice people. but they didn't tip the driver well so i'm afraid about my tip too. we'll see how it goes. some just gave half of the minimum. i don't understand that at all.

the most expressive person on the bus is mrs vanderzee. an older dutch woman from amsterdam who lives in almere and has diabetis. now one of my best friends is a diabetic (ja jij danny) and he even agrees on it: diabetic people can be SO annoying... she mentions it like 4 times a day that she is diabetic, as much as she has to get her insuline. she brings insuline but is then suprised that there is no fridge on the bus and that it is hot in florida. so the driver has to buy a cooler in the bus. she ends up giving him 3 bucks for three days in tipping. the bitch. then she forgets her insuline in naples when we already are in fort myers beach. we have to drive back and get it goes she cannot buy that stuff in the next town and might faint and stuff.. no problem in getting back to the hotel but please if you are diabetic that should be the first thing to check if you leave a room. then in tampa she gets off the bus and falls flat down on her face. she's fat so that sort of broke her fall. but then she complains about everything. about how hot it is in florida. how there is no decent food in the us. how there are so many immigrants in florida. (you don't see white people here. it almost as bad as in amsterdam) she likes me though but i just don't understand people like that who go to another country and then constantly complain abotu that country. she's the one who complains about the immigrants in amsterdam not integrating but she doesn't either. her best friend is called samson and is jewish. she talk about how amazed she was by the jewish people in antwerp when we talk aboutn antwerp and its problems.. i didn't know she was jewish so i say: yes it's just like with the moroccan community they just do not really integrate... because they were really having racist talk and of course the person turns out to be jewish and feels offended. too bad... the diabetic should be called samson as she has white hair and has a round face. so that's why i always deliberatly make mistakes when i say her name
haha

three young couples on the bus. honeymooners from mainz. very cool. the kind i would befriend. then one italian/spanish couple also from mainz. she is absolutely gorgeous and he is cute too. i pick up some spanish talking to them. they are really cool. then a couple from saarland who are really so nice to watch. they look alike (both a bit fat and shy) but it's clear that they are in love.

then some older couples. one of which is called JESS which makes me think of the JESS connection from ghent. i really had to think of you gus when i first met the family. they look so uncool. they are okay but just have a very stern look. they do not look rock and roll at all which i would associate with the name jess of course. the other couple is swiss and speak this german i have a hard time understanding of course.

then a german family who have done this tour already two years ago. no idea why they would do the same tour over again but they apparently like it. mom dad and 25 year old son. they get along fine and i think the guy (huge, fat, funny) is actually a nice guy although i wouldn't want to get hit by him. the other family is from south london and is very quiet. the girl is 20 or something and travels with her parents too. whatever.

then two british couples from liverpool who had just done a cruise. they look like hooligans. at least one couple and they do like soccer. but they are very relax really. they do not mix at all with the others on the bus.

then there's a south afrcican on the bus. he's 72 and been on the road for two months now. his son lives in vancouver canada and he visited him first. then did a tour in canada. a tour in the north east and now florida. he has an intersting life story. he's an important person in the national cricket association in south africa. he's part a black/asian mix and has suffered from apartheid of course. very smart man. would love to hear his story.

there is also a lady from ireland on the bus who is staying in other hotels every single night. it is a nuisance because sometimes the hotels are one hour away from each other. she had booked this trip with her husband but he got his appendix removed a few weeks ago and couldn't go on the trip. i am not sure what to think of her. she is nice but i have the feeling that she does't listen at all and she is very posh.

oh well

39 music 2

i finally found a cool record store in front of our motel in naples... a used record store.. i had five minutes to pick out some cd's... i bought nine inch nails (only is a huge radio hit here the rest of the cd is soso but i think only is such a cool track and has a cool video).. the bravery (an honest mistake is one of the best songs of the moment... probably not on stubru yet.. it's like the killers and it sounds cool.. the entire cd is okay not excellent.. i just love that eighties rock pop sound.. the songs have the bassline of old duran duran songs, the electronic beeps remind me of depeche mode of course and i hear the smiths and the clash in there as well... i really like that sound... i also bought a groove armada cd as i didn't bring along any of them and it was only 3.99 dollar... haha... superstyling.. you should see me dance in my motel room with my disc man on.. haha... then also jamie cullum... i liked him at werchter festival but the cd kinda sucks.. however the people on the bus liked it very much as it's not too hard for the older people and not to uncool for the younger people... eighties compilations also do it great in the bus...

i miss going to concerts and parties and just listening to new music and stuff... i really miss that.. and i haven't gone out dancing in six weeks.. help...........i hope i get some time in boston to do some gigs and some clubs..

38 music

i finally bought a cd player. i hadn't been listening to music since i got here. apart from two cd's i bought for the bus. one being sacred spirit II and the other being cowboy classics. i like that stuff when you drive in arizona.

however i finally hear my music. blackstrobe remix of the world is mine is still the best dance track of the year. i just so much love that song.

i don't miss brussels at all. but i want to go dancing in the fuse/la demence/strong. i really need that. i hope i can go out to twist tomorrow in south beach.

on my mind because on the radio here and in all the shops. dontcha van the pussycat dolls, city of bright lights van u2, the killers met smile like you mean it, sheryl crow met haar nieuwe, and a lot of green day and lifehouse and 'alternative rock' bands.. but also nine inch nails met only...

ok time up again at the internet shop

37 big blue bus number 3

i love taking bus number three that goes from the airport to santa monica. it is such a cool bus cos you encounter so many different people. first you have the european tourists who don't mind taking the public transport. you will never meet americans on that bus. ever. they just don't take the bus. then you have the mexicans of course as 70 per cent of the people here seem to be mexicans and the african americans. you have the kids, the mothers with their babies, the semi homeless, the drug addicts... they are all the bus... today was crazy again. this black crackhead woman started fighting with this tatooed bum and the bus had to stop to first throw the guy off and then later the woman. fun!!!!!!!!!!! then there was this tourist who was SO lost on the bus that they started making a fool of him because he showed he was afraid. there was one seat empty but he didn't take it because it was in between two heavy hiphop dressed mexicans. so they did address him about it. if he was too afraid to sit next to them. they guy pretended not to understand them.

i sat in the cool corner in the back of course. next to me a mexican kid with some tijuana music coming out of his headphones. then opposite of me this heavey latino gang member kind of guy who was just released from prison and a black women next to him. also in my corner: one super hot latino girl and a black girl who was playing with her dreads. some other black kid (typically dressed as if it's freezing outside with oversized nfl clothes) tried to impress the hair playing girl and actually made a pass at her which was really cool cos she played along and it was like watching blind date on mtv or something. next to me was a cool older guy who looked like celso and who stole my heart of course but he was almost falling asleep until he got interested in the dating game and gave comments on the guy how he could never impress the girl talking like that. so after like 30 minutes 5 people were following and arguing about how to make impressions on girls.

those are the bus rides i love..................................... i really love that kind of stuff

i ended up meeting the celso lookalike in the third street promenade and had a talk with him. he used to be a drug addict and homeless and did now some volunteer work. he had no teeth and he was around 50 or so but he was cool. we talked abot the social system here and drugs and stuff. he's the kind of guy i would write an article about. i gave his society 5 dollars but that was primarily because he reminded me of celso. haha.

36 escape of the brazilians

so far i have been lucky with encounters of brazilians. i have not met many and the ones that i have met didn't really leave a lasting impresions. ha. i do have to be located in a hotel in el segundo that is the hotel for the flight crew of VARIG. so i do hear portuguese all the time. however, none of the flight crew people are bahian. they are all from the south.

there was a funny brazilian taxi driver in las vegas who was very eloquent and knowledgeable. he wanted to bring us (me and the young kids on my bus) to a brazilian bar with brazilian girls and boys. however. the dutch youngsters wanted to go to sleep. duh.

celso fonseca performed in a club here in LA. i wanted to go see the show but it was too far away. as with everything in this metropolitan area.

so basically i have not been brazilianised so far. hehe... oh well...

35 florida and new england

my schedule has changed again. these are the tours that i will be doing starting saturday

first: florida sunshine german/english/dutch... with the cool news that i have one irish lady who need to be dropped of in another hotel every single night. can you imagine that> she's the only one who took an upgrade

second: best of new england. german exclusive. i need to read so much about new england. i have never been there before. i am looking forward to it but it is again a new tour for me. hope ze germanz will be cooperative.

third. best of new england. german/english/dutch... same tour but with more experience

fourth: florida sunshine again. not sure what languages

34 natural and other disasters

so i arrived in miami when huriccane katrina struck and i am going back to florida after hurricane rita came through. i have seen some footage of key west and it doesn't look nice there. i hope most of the people on my bus cancel there trip. but i don't think that will happen.

these hurricanes are quite something. i hear rita has changed into a category 3 hurricane. so the damage wont' be that bad. today i thought. maybe the gas companies made a deal with god cos you should see the prices of gas here. of course it is still nothing compared to what we pay in europe. but still. it's double to four times as much as when i lived here six years ago. i saw the images of the people from houston fleeing out of the city. did you see those traffic jams. my god. i would never want to be in there. i think i would stay.

i felt an earthquake yesterday. it was really weird cos i was sitting on my desk at the office and suddenly my desk was moving. i had talked about earthquakes on the bus coming into LA and i did tell the people that you have a lot of earthquakes in LA but i didn't exect to feel one while i was here.

another thing happened when i was in the office. everybody got up to look outside for a plane crash. it was really hilarious how everybody just let everything drop to go see the crash. i continued doing what i had to do (look up stuff) but all the other were in total excitement of seeing a plane crash. there was disappointment when the plane landed safely in LAX. i watched the news later on the day and it was pretty spectacular though how that plane landed. they had blocked off all the highways and roads up to LAX so also the street where the office is at. and the plane did fly in over our boulevard.

33 santa monica

i had a great afternoon yesterday. i hung out with this guy i only met a few days ago but who i got along with instantly. he doesn't stop talking about silly stuff (star wars) and serious stuff (racism, bush); has a cool sense of humor and has travelled the world. he is the kind of guy who hates the west hollywood queens who dress up and wear a 150 dollar jeans to go out but have slippers on in stead of shoes. (he loves to step on the slippers as they walk by so that they might tumble) (haha)

we went to santa monica, had dinner in a thai restarant (forgot the name but is was good), he made me drink some hot tea with cinnamon that i loved and just took me to all the cool shops on the third street promenade. urban outfitters didn't have the belgian shirt. i have to get it in tampa. there's also a shop where they sell massage chairs. 3990 dollars for a chair that looks like wheelchair of christoper reeve with a remote control that regulates the massage that you get. it is really freaky. stephin, i hope this doesn't become standard cos you'll run out of business. but i didn't like the chairs at all. we did try all of them. it was cool fun.

so yes i had some fun in los angeles. i don't really like LA as you all know. but santa monica is cool. i stay in a hotel in el segundo near LAX and there's nothing to do there. i did go to a mall in manhattan beach which is close but i wasn't impressed. the weather has been really weird in la. i even saw some rainshowers. oh well.

32 ten most asked questions on the bus

here's a lis tof the ten questions that have been asked most on my western highlights bus.

1) where are the restrooms (upon arrival s omewhere) (as if i should know that, i have a huge bladder, i don't have to go to the restrooms at all)

2) are we there yet? / how long before we arrive at the hotel? (djeezus as if i care when we'll be there)

3) do you know a good restaurant in the neighbourhood? (a- i hardly ever eat out and b- i am new to all these places too)

4) what bird/plant/flower is that? (they ask it after you have just past it)

5) how long have you been doing this job? (duh)

6) when will we get the luggage in our rooms?

7) why do we have to stop here? (official tour bus stops filled with tour busses and filled with tourists)

8) why can't we stay longer here (because we have a timeschedule to respect)

9) why did we have to stay here so long (because some people on the bus might find this place interesting)

10) when do we have to be back at the bus? (after having said it 3 times already)

31 the office

the horror!!! there's am american version of the british comedy series The Office on television. it sucls. it is not funny at all. some jokes are just literally the same as in the original series and the office itself also looks the same but it does not make it funny at all because it just is not believable. i don't know why they had to make an american version of that show. it's crap.

the actor who is starring in the office has a big comedy hit in theatres now. i haven't seen it yet but i hear it is funny. the 40y old virgin. reviews were bad but the people who have seen it found it very funny.

but talking about MY office. i went to the office and found out that the company i am working for is a sinking ship. you cannot believe how badly organised it is and in what deep shit they are in. they don't find tour guides, they don't find drivers, they don't find hotels. the company has downsized by 2/3 i guess. it has changed a lot in 6 years time. although some people still work there.

i was contacted by a guy in june who wanted me to come over. he quit in july. a girl took over but she quit in august. then a new guy took over and got everything set for me but guess what. that guy has quit too now. so in the period of 4 months i have had four different contact persons. the person running field ops now is christine. yes, piet, angie, ann and dave: christine. she's back.

to my old colleagues:

guess who's still working for ATI? some asian guy named John who used to work at customer service and at the furama hotel. you know who i am talking about right? well i had totally forgotten about him but he remembered me and had the typical LA cry when he realised it was me: Oh my god, nico, is it realy you, oh my god. we haven't met in ages. that is so cool. what are you doing here. my god. i cannot believe you are here...... add some 30 more lines to t his and you get the picture of how he reacted... funny thing: he still keeps in touch with frank of all people.

anyways. it was really weird going back to the office after six years. it's funny how some things never change. like the vendor car in front of the building and the drivers on the shuttle busses. you remember the columbian drug dealer driver? i have seen him. i haven't seen Hernan though. oh well... memories.. i passed by our apartment block too. safeway doesn't exist anymore. but peppy's is still there. i miss my bike......

30: california coast

i love the californian coast. we didn't drive all along the Highway one but we did drive a bit of it. we left LA and drove along the coast to oxnard. so we passed by surfing malibu and the pallisades. we had a 2 hour stop in santa barbara which i think is way too litlle. i love santa barbara. sure, it looks rich and posh and clean. but it's so beautiful. i could have spend a week there. the beach is incredibly. the shopping street is even nicer than the third street promenade in santa monica. i love the fact that there are no high building in the city and that everything looks so colonial spanish. yes. i want to move to santa barbara asap. we did however spent the night in santa maria which is such a crap city. there is nothing to do there. honestly. i talked to some of the youngsters there working in jack in the box or other resto's and they complain too. however, they don't know nighlife in brussels and amsterdam so they do not feel the frustration that me and the pax thad when we arrived in santa maria.

we also stopped in solvang which was okay. it's a danish city that really looks unique. you don't feel in CA at all there. they even have a belgian bar where the menu is written in fucking french and where they only serve stella artois. i did speak to the owner of the cafe who is german. he said he would look into changing the menu into either just english or both french and dutch. i am sure he won't.

monterey is a bit boring and carmel is incredibly nice but too small. my passengers didn't like it at all. but i do. i really do. bye bye

29 back in LA

so i am back in la. i couldn't stay in san francisco. they flew me back to a cheaper hotel in el segundo, near LAX. i'm fine with it. i just have a lazy day today. it rained. how great is that. i have no single drop of rain on my tour. i have a few days off and it rains. fuck that. whatever.

i don't have a car either. so i am basically stuck here. i am so tired. but i feel fine. the dutch didn't tip well at all because of that lousy city tour in las vegas. so i am disappointed about that. but i am glad they are gone. some were really so annoying. that mr budding guy didn't give me any tip at all. some only gave me 5 dollars. even the nicer ones.

there: the shortest post that i have created here...

28 cosy night at the mormons

i haven't told about my night at the mormons. after the hectic day in bryce canyon i arrived at bryce canyon pines, a motel run by a mormon family. we were supposed to be staying over at ruby's inn where i had stayed the week before with the other group. a place that i really like. but this was a hotel that my company does not use that often. i arrive there and one of my customers (one of the annoying foursome) came to tell me someone else was still in their room. i gave them my room keys but i was left without a room. some miscalculation or whatever. there was no hotelroom in the neighbourhood and the hotel manager asked if i wanted to stay in her private guest room. i didn't mind cos i had no other choice. apart from staying in a room with one of my passengers. the weird guy actually suggested it.

it was a nice gesture and i really liked the room. but it was above the lobby so i was awakened by telephone calls all the time and every half hour there was an old clock going 'ding dang dong'. i didn't sleep at all. i had a long conversation with the hotel manager and also with a girl who helped out there. we talked a lot about religion and it was really interesting. we talked about polygamy of course and other things. some villages still have polygamous mormons (orderville for instance) but they are not recognised by the mormon church anymore.

i want to spend more time in southern utah. i really like it there. need to go back to that hotel. i'm sure i'll get a discount. she was really sweet.

27 johnny depp

i took my people on a city trip to los angeles yesterday. always a hazzle. it went okay, but people are always so disappointed by LA. OF COURSE. LA IS DISAPPOINTING. i took them to olvera street, the oldest part of the city with the oldest house and a nice mexican feel but not everyone liked it. we want to see LA not Mexico is what i hear. by the annoying guy of course and others. DUH. Los Angeles IS Mexico. i mean. there are so many mexicans here. there are more mexicans here than cubans in miami. you see them everywhere.

the hollywood strip has changed a lot and is much nicer than before. there's a new building called the Kodac Center which is really nice. it's the place where the academy awards are held and where you can see the hollywood sign. the man chinese theatre was closed off because JOHNNY DEPP had just come to do his hand print in the concrete. now it was the girls in the bus who complained. one of them, a funny one, said: nico, you are a bad tour guide because you didn't arrive in time to see johnny depp. i want my money back. i'll file a complaint. haha.

we missed johnny depp. but there are so many lookalikes walking around on the strip these days. that wasn't the case before. so we did see johnny depp at least a lookalike.

other complaints: rodeo drive ('we don't see any stars shopping'), beverly hills ('all we see are fences and trees, where can we see the houses?'), freeways ('we paid money to wait in a longer traffic jam than in holland'), distance ('so we cannot walk to the centre of LA?'). DUH. even when you tell them twice how LA works they still don't get it.

26 universal studios

my people had a nice day today. i took most of them to universal studios and they loved it. we did the backlot tour which has a few cool new features like the plane crash from war of the worlds. the new Mummy ride is cool too. not spectacular but cool. Jurassic Park ride is always fun. i managed to get that annoying couple on the boat hoping they would get soaking wet but he had bought a raincoat. haha. i had no problem with him today. i didn't hear him complain cos i didn't really hear him at all.

the fear factor live show was fine too. they take 6 people from the crowd who have to compete in a show. first task is easy but difficult: hang on to something high up the air and keep hanging there as long as possible. second task is grose. drinking a smoothie made by sour milk, bugs, rotten fish and pig eye balls. i am not sure if i would do that, unless i would have to compete with that one guy from my bus. haha. and then last task was something stupid with electricity shocks.

the van helsing ghost house is a laugh. a waste of money. shrek 4D is really cool. i liked that one. other things? i did the backdraft thing again but that's it. i have been to universal before. i went to the movies in stead. oh yes. i never watch the show but because i have to find a t shirt of squaresponge bob or whatever that character is called, i start to really like that character. and his friend patrick. they have so many cool stuff with spongebob. i really need to see this cartoon.

24 lord of war

i saw my second movie here. lord of war. i really liked it. it's a political movie but very well done. it's a bit like three kings where they show something gruesome with humor. i had to laugh a lot in this movie although it does show very serious stuff. nicholas cage is this weapon dealer who makes deals with war torn countries like Liberia and Sierra Leone. the cool thing was that they don't point the finger. i mean, nobody says cage's character is wrong or good. they just portray a weapon dealer who does his job. nicholas cage can be good if he wants to and he is very good in this movie. i really liked this one. i preferred it to the constant gardener who gets better critics. it's not as good as cidade de deus and three kings but it's again about war and violence but not gratuitous. i actually think of giving it the best rate of the year. xxx1/2 not sure yet. need to think about that.

23 future

i got my next tour information: grand eastern cities. in stead of giving me a tour i already know they give me yet a new one again. i don't know if i can take that. but then again. that way i get to see nyc, boston, washington, niagara falls. philadelphia. FOR FREE.

i think i will go though.

after that florida sunshine again.

22 adventure in bryce canyon

a lot of things go wrong on this tour due to bad organising and just inexperience from my part. the coolest thing that went wrong was my walk in bryce canyon. i wanted to do the whole walk down the canyon which takes like 1h30 but with my group we spent 2h there. i sort of didn' pay much attentin and went on in the canyon realising that the road wasn't going uphill which it should. i had taken them further in the canyon than planned. we turned round and went up the good way with my people doubting if we would ever get out of the canyon. the sun was setting and it was getting dark and cold and some panicked. i thought it was adventurous. and hey they will remember the bryce canyon walk. but then something else happened. the old people who didn't walk the trail and were supposed to meet us at the end of the trail were getting cold and got on the bus that was parked further away. and then it went wrong. i still had people behind in the canyon that i had to wait for but by that time i arrived on the top with them, the fitter people had already walked back to the starting point in stead of going to the bus. so i had people on one end and people on other and i didn't find the bus. while i was looking for the bus and getting the group back together it was getting freezing cold. and we just had t shirts on. i had to get a hitchhike to the other parking lot on an open truck (in my t shirt) and get the bus asap to the other people. which i did. but my heart beat so fast. cos i thought the older people were lost too.

but please visit the navajo trail in bryce canyon. it's really the most beautiful hike you'll ever make.

21: expeditie southwest

it's going to be a long one, but you'll have to laugh... read on

i feel like i'm on expidition southwest, my own variation of Expeditie Robinson (the dutch/flemish version of Survivor). it's like i'm the leader of Kamp Noord. One Flemish leader with a bunch of dutch particpants who do not get along.

i almost finished my western highlights tour and i will be so happy when it's over. dear god. some people can complain. but more about that in the next post.

the people on my bus are all dutch. two of them are the most cliche example of the dutch person that we hate as flemish. they are loud, arrogant, nag all the time, never listen and are of course incredibly 'mean' in the sense that they hate spending money. they are called Mr and Mrs Budding. God, it is so incredibly difficult for me not to lash out at them. i so much want to ridicule them for the entire bus, but i don't. i did say one thing yesterday that made some people laugh. he had slammed an overhead compartment while i was standing in the bus talking holding me tight to the compartment. my middlefinger got hurt and he said: i hope you don't have to play piano tonight. so i said for the entire bus (microphone); no piano no, but i might need to stick up my finger later on....

the guy has a hearing aid but he still speaks so loud that the entire bus hears him complain and moan and just be an asshole. his wife is so stupid. but hey, she's married to succesfull businessman. i'm sure the guy was succesfull but he's not the one to make decisions on my bus. which he tries to do. a few days ago he told me that a lot of people on the bus don't think i'm clear. so he spoke for the entire group. i told the group (microphone) that if someone thinks i'm not clear enough that they have to say it to me and not via someone else. of course nobody came to complain to me because most are okay.

one guy isn't. he's even worse than the old guy because he's smart. the old guy is just old. he just left the tour (planned, not forced) and refused to pay for the city tour in las vegas that i conducted because he didn't get to see any show. duh. whatever. his wife seemed nice though. but he was just too much. i'm glad he's off the bus because he and the old guy just try to bring a bad atmosphere in the bus. i did bring on the drama. i am such a good actor at times. and they ended up giving me half of the tip they needed to give me. especially because his wife started to feel sorry for me. she was actually very sweet.

so these are the two assholes that made this trip hell at times. however, i am lucky the others. cos they could start complaining too but they don't. there's one guy with his wife, his sister and her best friend. i like them. they are quite old but i see sparkels in their eyes which is good. then there are two sisters who also left the group today and whose words were very touching. tears came to my eyes and it wasn't all acting. there a very cool middle aged couple on the bus who have a son in chicago and they are cool although the guy hangs out with mr budding. another couple hangs out with mr budding too but that's because they are so incredibly dependent. i hate that. some people need to be hold by the hand. i am so not a good tour guide for those people.

and i forgot miss tarnowska. i don't know on what planet she lives but she's polish and married to an older dutch guy. i don't understand that lady and she doesn't understand me. she just goes on and on and on but she says nothing. we did a walk in the bryce canyon and i constantly had to ask her to move on. she was constantly filming in stead of emjoying the walk. she's too weird to describe. there's another weird guy on the bus but he's okay. a bit creepy but so lost in the world. i thought he would be a problem in the beginning but now he seems to be happy. mr budding is trying to get him on his side. that old guy is really playing a game. you cannot believe how he tries to influence others. the lost one took 20 pictures of me and offered me a place in his room that one night i didn't have a room. he also wanted to see an erotic show in vegas and asked if we sell that as an excursion.

there are also two lady friends on the bus. i thought they were lesbians but they aren't one of them has a son like me and she's so motherly to me. it's nice. she's sick today. had to throw up and shit at the same time. hooray. but she's very sweet although everybody thinks that she and her friends nag so much. they really complain but it's girly complaints. they laugh with my jokes so that's good. i talked about how they have found shit of the old native american tribes, dissected it and found that there were human bones in it. i talked about how cool of a job that must be to like study shit that is 600 y old. moest aan jouw denken danny. haha

and then i have a bunch of young people who get along very well. they are really a group and i would love to hang out with them more. i took them to the hard rock cafe but the last couple of days i was too tired to do something. they did go out in flagstaff to the student bars and i wanted to go but didn't and yesterday they played volley in the swimming pool.

cynthia mulder is a cool girl. she has a good sense of humor. debbie de jong is very cute but she's a bit bored on the bus really. she's on a holiday with a friend but not her boyfriend and gets along great with another guy of the bus who's here with his best friend. then you have an uncle and his nephew who are really cool the uncle is like the oldest of the young group and the nephew is the youngest on the bus (19 or so) but he's so funny. they joke with me but i joke back. i'd love to do a great tour with them. another young couple is a bit distant from the group but the perfect tourists. alwasy on time. do what they want to do and don't really complain or need too much assistance.

did i forget a dutch person? oh yes one nerdy guy who doesn't really hang out with the young group but who is accepted by them. we talk about star wars.

writing this i'm thinking why do i make this tour be so cold because of those two assholes one of which left today. oh well.. tomorrow universal.

twenty: western highlights for friends

the other day i was dreaming away about guiding a bus full of friends in the south west. that would be so cool. i was thinking about who would come along on the bus. (44 seats) and what itinerary i would come up with. if all you guys would get along. etc. i would have to do the tour in flemish/french/english/portuguese (haha)/german.... that would be a challenge. i'm really happy here right now and coming back to brussels is the last thing on my mind right now. but i do think about my belgian connections a lot. and of my chat buddies all over the world as well. that doesn't change. but i wish i could somehow make you enjoy what i am enjoying too.

kisses/kusjes/beijos/Kuesse/bisous

ps. kim clijsters won and americans like her a lot. i have found the cd of millionaire in the record stores. (import) and guess who 's saying that PBS is necessary in television ads (the only non commercial television channel that is boring as hell)? yes, helmut fucking lotti.

nineteen: yosemite sickness

hilde, remember how we had to drive out of yosemite in the dark and how long it took us and made us feel dizzy. well, same thing happened today. going out of yosemite wasn't so easy. first i had to get 13 germand on my bus who where part of a group of which the bus had broken down. so that gave us a delay and then i had two people missing in the park. i joked about them being eaten by a bear but after 20 minutes i did start to go look around. we ended up driving out of the park at 4h30 and although the sun sets at 18 it did get pretty dark in the park as it's a valley. the people in the bus got really sick after two hours of climbing in the sierra nevada bend after bend. there's wasn't really tension on the bus, but the dutch really don't like the germans. we know this to be a fact, but it's very deep with them. the jokes they made were funny but offended the germans. i have again a lot of young people on the bus who are typically dutch. i like that: very frank. but it is difficult to deal with. the jokes i had to hear about the belgians and the flemish. whatever.

i didn't get to see much of yosemite as i had to deal with the other tour guides. but i still like the tunnel view where you see the granite rocks El Capitan and Half Dome. i didn't have time to go see the big sequioa trees. am in fresno now. boring fresno. the middle of nowhere. the fruit basket of the states. with free internet. hooray. tomorrow on to vegas. again. i have such a great job. i think you guys must be tired of reading about this 'cos i would be if someone wrote about seeing all the things i see. i'm sorry about that.

eighteen. castro night out rocks not

piet, i missed you yesterday. i went out in the castro. and i know why i never had a gay fling in sfo. it's way too caucasian. way too asian as well. after all, 33 percent of the people here are asian but i have the feeling it has grown to 50 percent. whatever. i was a bit disappointed though. not much has changed in five years time. it would have been so cool if we would have hung out together like in the old days. we really should go out again. i talked about the polyester club to my people. remember that night? i did go to the cafe but it was too early to be filled. i went to the edge (my god, gay sfo is OLD) and badlands (crap music: mariah, britney). i went to eat at that cool mexican place where they have the best buritto's. and you know what that was basically it. i really didn't feel like the castro had changed that much. nor that it has changed much for me. most of the people in the castro are just not really the people that i want to hang out with. i did hang out with a cool 42y old electrician kentucky born african american who was celebrating his b-day with his partner and friends. as it goes with americans, i was invited to party along very quickly. however, 10pm and i wanted to go sleep. i am so tired.

my second favorite cd store in sfo has changed to a second hand dvd store. boring. i should remove that streetlight records sticker on my car. i didn't make it to amoebe although i wanted to. it's weird how even san francisco brings back the rocker in me. you go in a store and you hear the foo fighters. you walk on the street and you only hear rock in the cars driving by. i go in a record store and i hear the virgin prunes, a band that i associate with my 120minutes period back when i was like 18. even here in the hotel lobby they play rock music. there's no room for dance music.

seventeen: first dutch impressions

so 29 dutch on the bus. i only met 25 this morning. the other arrive from hawai or something.

first impression is ok. they laugh with my jokes. i have a morbid and very frank kind of humor. but they dig it. one of them is a bit weird. he's really superdependent and i have to repeat everything 10 times. i don't really like people like that but what can you do. we were in the castro and he asked: so can you see who's gay and who's not? duh. we drove in the castro and i shouted: look there, a little gay guy and look there, two gay bears... let's wave and of course they waved back being san franciscan. i have two lesbians on the bus. at least i think they are. and they are cool. the love my flemish accent.

most of the people are a bit older but there's some young people too. one young kid. a bit lost, but okay. and then a few typical tall loud dutch guys making joked about the belgians. whatever. i'm flemish. i laugh with belgians too.

i don't know i think it's an okay group. there's one polish woman on the bus who really wanted to go to alcatraz and asked where the black market was. hm. this is not poland. she looks 35, her husband 60. and then you have these old ladies friends. they are fun.

my driver has never done this tour before, me neither... wish me good luck

sixteen: san francisco cold

i think i got a cold in grand canyon.. the heat in vegas didn't do me much good either.. and it's very cold in san francisco... the people moan but that's not new... san francisco is always cold

i arrived after midnight in sfo to find out that i had to do a city tour at 9 am. i had not prepared a city tour at all and i really wanted to spend a day in sfo on my own. i got mad at the company who really do not communicate at all. it's amazing how much responsiblity they give to people like me when they haven't even met me yet.

the tour was excellent. i told the folks: 'listen, i haven't been here in five years and i didn't prepare but i love this city' and there you go... i didn't stop talking for one single second... san francisco... god i love this place... it was really cool to be back.. it felt like i just left yesterday.. nothing has changed that much... there's a new tram line going to fisherman's wharf from market street and union square has changed a bit and there are less homeless in front of the ramada inn.. but the rest is the same...

i still feel very good... there are four buses doing the tour.. two are filled with germand, one has germans/english/french and i have the dutch bus.. 29 dutch people... it's nice to have a tour in one language for a change... i leave with them on a western highlights tour bring me to yosemite, vegas, bryce, zion, grand canyon, flagstaff, sedona, los angeles and the pacific coast... i am looking forward to it

oh yest internet is cheaper in san francisco

i am very busy.. i can't really go out tonight although i have some acquaintances living here, one of which wants to go clubbing. hm... i think i'll go anyway. i don't know yet.. am waiting for my people who are doing an evening tour but thank god someone will do it for me

i want to go out.
i feel really good.

a big fuck you to pizza hut managers who make me doubt about myself. have them do spontaneous city tours like that.

fifteen: viva las vegas

i had some pretty hectic moments in the past 24 hours. after visiting zion national park (okay, not grand) we arrived in las vegas. an hour or so too late because of some 'situation' on the bus.. the airco malfunctioned and it got really really hot in the bus.. with temperatures of 40 degrees outside it was even worse in the bus. there was nothing the driver could do about it and there was nowhere to pull over for some ice. i am glad nobody fainted but some ran out of air.

the driver was really incredibly stupid... he was so inconfident... i hope to never have such a driver on my tours...

arriving in las vegas was of course the max :-) haha... i only had a few hours in las vegas where i rushed to see how i would do my evening tour once i'm there with my group and where i also wanted to visit some new things in vegas. and there are plenty. the venitian is incredibly kitsch but i like it. with the canals and the squares inside the hotel. the Wynn hotel, the new one, is even more kitsch. those flowers. my god. the mix of colors burn your eyes. i wasn't so impressed by the Wynn, then again i am not a car freak so ferrari exhibitions do not make me go yoehoe... there's also a new monorail in vegas which is quite handy... i still like the belaggio and i love cesar palace... some things have changed in the past 5 years and it's like the city has even grown more exhiting than before

i love las vegas

i just don't like the sound of the one arm bandits and other casino games that make incredibly noise (even when you are waiting for a flight at the ariport)

las vegas is just a fun park for adults. mostly for men of course, but there are three live strip shows for women to. the chippendales, thunder from down under (i kid you no) and some other group of gay muscle queens impressing women.

i still want my own hotel on the strip. with a huge manneken pis who pees a fountain as big as an arch over a highway. that would be cool. with a huge frites basket and of course lots of chocolate and beer and stuff.. that would be cool.. i also thought about tom's idea to buit gaytown.. well tom, build it in vegas. there's nothing gay on first sight and it would be a hit.

i'm back in vegas on sunday night. can't wait. this is such a cool holiday destination.

fourteen: food

i've lost weight in the first week
i gained weight this week
i get so much food for free that i just have to eat it
and then you have the all you can eat buffets
hello
i love the soda's here... finally gatorade and different dr pepper tastes and mountain dew and mountain dew code red... and then the other cola and fanta like flavours... fanta strawberry is good.. and lime coke... delicious.. but the new gatorade flavours are the best... especially strawberry/lime/lemon all three in one
the food is ok
i ate my first buritto in scottsdale.. i love burrito's!!! i ate a navajo taco yesterday.. it was okay, it's like a buritto but then on very light baked bread... the fast food chains are still here.. i hate macdonald and wendy's (that is proabably the most visible fast food chain)... but i love burger king.. their breakfast burger is great...
i haven't eaten a smoothie yet but i tried a strawberry flavoured apple jelly... yes it tastes as bad as it sounds...
i love my sausalito and tahoe cookied that i have really missed.. i can eat tons of that
and there's so much other stuff that i like to eat here.
enjoy the fries
they suck here

thirteen: flemish cowboys

i don't know why the southwest is so popular with flemish people but i hear flemish everywhere... there's a vtb bus doing the same route that i am doing and i see them constantly... but also a lot of people who have rented a car... there i am in the grand canyon filming the majesty thinking i am the only one there and suddenly i hear two west flemish guys talk under the rock i am standing on... funny.. but you see them everywhere... typically flemish: a bit shy and giving silent comment... still the world is small...

i watched the kim clijsters vs venus williams game. cool. didn't think kim would win.

on a note: michelle the half navajo guide and some other people told me that the majority of the people visiting this area are european or from down under. more so than americans. they say it's striking that there are so many more europeans interested in this part of the country than americans...

twelve: monument valley and bryce canyon

ok
i just walked a trail in the bryce canyon, the canyon that most tourists consider the most memorable one of their trip. and now i know why. bryce is not really a canyon but has all these pointy rock formations that look like totem palls. they have incredible colors because of the sunlight and these colors change every single hour. the trail we do with tourists takes more than 90 minutes. i was suprised that the tour guide didn't warn the people more. i will be overcautious. i have that from my mother i guess. haha.

some people doing the trail were as old as my parents. i have much respect for them. i wanted to climb trees and do all that kind of stuff. but i felt like a shepherd. do that trail if you are there it is amazing. it walks down to the bottom of the canyon that look suprisingly lush and it's just an awesome sight.

i visited monument vally yesterday and that was a bit disappointing. it's grand and beautiful of course but it's nothing compared to what i've seen today. monument valley is where you have those rocks that you associate with western movies. we did a ground tour there with a navajo tourguide. she was cool. actually, she was a half breed and very american. but pretty. navajo are definitly the most attractive native americans.

i love this country... the southwest... the native americans... the geology... the history... the adventure stories.... this is just so incredibly cool... the last thing people on my tour will say is that i'm not enthousiastic about the area... i recommend it to everyone and hey, most of you have studied languages... apply for this job!!!!!!!!!!!!!! elke you don't speak german but maybe they need spanish speakers... just ask...

what i really liked were the cliff dwellings in the navajo monument... they are not navajo dwellings but you can see very well how the old people lived there 1000 years ago... it's a must on your way to the monument vally.

i also took a flight from monument valley to page over lake powell.. with the sunset.. it was amazing.... page itself with it's dam is boring... but lake powell is very extraordinary... i also liked the little place kanab on the way to bryce.. basically i just liked everything... even the souvenirshops and the native american artifacts... i want to get an indian symbol as a tatoo.

oh well time's up again here on the internet

eleven: the constant gardener

i forgot to mention that i finally went to see a movie here. it gets rave reviews and it's the first english spoken movie by the guy who has made Cidade de deus one of my favorite movies of the past ten years. i was really looking forward to seeing it but i was a bit disappointed. my english is okay but i somehow didn't get it all. it's all about pharmaceutical companies testing drugs on poor little africans. it's a good movie and the editing is great again. some scenery is magnificent and i really like the angle shots of that guy. but the story is just too tiring really. and ralph fiennes is a bit boring. rachel weisz is great though. check it out. it's not your average hollywood movie. it could get oscar nominations and stuff but it is not cidade de deus 2.

ten: america's disgrace

today was such a beautiful day that i refuse to turn on the tv. i'm so sick of seeing what is happening in louisiana and mississipi. i have been glued to the tv in the past week and it is as if this horror only gets worse. 9/11 was pretty spectacular and shocked me a lot. but this disaster is just beyond words. especially the aftermath. i just read some things on www. destandaard.be and i was surprised to read all kinds of things that they don't mention on television here. it's really weird how the newspapers in the rest of the world focus on other things.

the news really is not critical enough here. they let people speak their minds but the reporters will never openly question the mistakes that the government is making. i don't understand that at all. the only things journalists and news anchor say is how shocked they are etc... they really never ever talk about things that are on the mind of people. sure they invite speakers who will talk about the fact that it would have been different if it were a rich white area that was flooded, but they just let that person speak their minds and that's it. they don't confront leaders with those remarks.

i just don't understand how it took them so long to go rescue. it really think it's a racist thing. I am so sure that it would have been different if it had happened in palm beach or malibu or martha's vineyard. but hey. the mayor of new orleans has become the coolest politician i know. i really like that guy. i loved the fact that he sweared life on the radio and blamed george bush.

oh well.

nine: south west for free

i was a bit upset that i couldn't go out in south beach saturday night. but the good news was that i got to fly to phoenix the next day to join a tour that is going throught the southwest where i will be guiding next week. i'm on the bus with todd (who you know, piet and dave, tell me all about him). i think it's awesome.

i feel so happy right now. i haven't felt this happy in a long long time. i get to see the splendors of the southwest for free. i realised today how lucky i am to get this opportunity. i mean, i don't pay for transport, accomodation, extra's, even food. i get it all for free. i love it. i absolutely love it.

i arrived in phoenix yesterday but the hotel was in scottsdale which has a lot of shops and restos in a 'downtown' centre that looks remotely like it's old. but it's nice with souvenirshops and stuff. you don't really feel like being in the wild west, but it has more charm than other shopping areas. today we left scottsdale to go to sedona first. i had heard about the new age centre but it wasn't really on my map of places to visit before i die. result: i absolutely loved the place. the scenery is awesome. the rocks in oak green canyon are incredibly. the city itself is very touristy but fun. hilde, jij zou sedona de max vinden. it's really worth a visit. for those who have travelled with me know that i love to climb on stuff or go down in valleys and not stay on the path. well, guess what i was thinking every other minute.

but that's nothing compared to the splendor of the grand canyon wich i visited this afternoon. that is so breath taking. adembenemend is een veel cooler woord. you really have to see this at least once in your life. it was my second time and i was still in awe. i walked along the south rim and just felt incredibly happy being there. i was thinking about how cool it would be to be there with you stevao and just sit and watch the eagles and the squirls etc. i thought about going on a rafting trip on the colorado river with you koen. i took a picture of two old people just watching into the canyon and imagined my parents to be there. pa en ma, ik weet wel dat jullie daar niet aan denken maar als ik de kans zou hebben om jullie te laten overvliegen voor zo'n tour dan zou ik dat meteen doen. hilde, dit is echt JOUW streek. jij zou het hier zo de max vinden.

i went to see the imax presentation about the grand canyon and that's something to recommend too. i could write so much more but the thing is that internet is so incredibly expensive here. i don't understand that at all. and you hardly ever find an internet place. i'm off to monument valley and if all goes well i get to fly from kayentat to page by plane. you'll hear about that later on.

eight: end of a hectic tour

so i finished my first tour and i feel fine. the drive back from orlando to miami was very hectic. some people on the bus had other itineraries than others with stops in kennedy space centre, palm beach and fort lauderdale. however, we got a delay in ksc and i had to drop of people at six different hotels. but enough of that practical stuff that i have to cope with and that is just part of the job i guess.

kennedy space centre is ok but not wow. it's cool to see the imax movie and sure it's nice to fantasize about going to space as well. but it's just a necessary stop for space geeks i guess or if you get the entrance ticket for free. i didn't need to make a detour in palm beach and fort lauderdale but i thought the tourists had to see them at least from a distance. i'd love to visit palm beach up close. it's probably the richest place in the US but it's all hidden behind fences. it looked nice though. fort lauderdale is just great. i love the drive up the las olas blvd from the ocean to the city centre. pretty amazing. however, no time to visit and no time to go out in the evening as i had to get up soon the next day

the tour was okay. i am happy about the tip amount i received. i did get pissed off at some people who just gave me 5 dollar for a week. fuck him. he was an old single guy from groningen. i thought he was ok though but when someone gives me money in an envelope you already know it's going to be less than what you deserve. come to think of it i had a nice group of people on the bus. a lot of young people as well. there were three really good looking girls on the bus. a turkish one who was single and with whom i hit it off really well. a dutch girl with curly hair who was just so incredibly sweet. and the french speaking belgian girl who had everyone gaze at her. her congolese boyfriend was cool too. we ended up talking a lot on the last night.

i already forgot about all the shitty stuff that happened. i just don't really like florida.

seven: naples to orlando

i survived my first day being an 'experienced' tour guide in an area i have never been to before. i spent more time with the people individually than talking about the area over the mic. hey, what is there to tell about the gulf coast? i mean, Henry Plant built hotels there in the early 20th century and build a railroad to bring the rich to his paradises and there you go.

naples looked really boring, fort myers beach was nice to drive through. i skipped venice and sarasota to get lunch in st petersburg which was a good decision (actually it was a tip by the driver) and i had my first quick city tour in tampa. st petersburg is nice. the walk on the pier is fine and you see a lot of pelicans. you can take a trolley tour ni the city for only 25 cent. but the city was EMPTY just like the rest of south florida this time of the year. tampa has a cool quarter called Ybor city where the cubans built there sigar factories. now it has a lot of shops like my favorite clothes shop here: urban outfitters. they have this cool shirt saying BELGIE. not belgium but belgie in flemish. out are the brazil shirts. 28 dollar or so. i will buy one. Sean, get one too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

orlando sucks. it rains here and i don't want to go to a park. i would prefer to go to busch gardens in tampa zhere they have more rollercoasters. i might go to an outlet centre. but i have no money. not yet. my driver got 350 dollar in tips for just three days driving with 35 passengers. average of 10 dollars per person. he was good as well and was a great help. i don't know how they will tip me. i do my best but i am not sure that they will see 'doing your best' as 'earning a tip'. the irish mother and daughter gave the driver only 5 dollar. fuck them. i am hoping to get more than 400 but i am not sure.

talk to you later folks

six: sulky irish women vs fine looking european women

i am really happy with the my passengers. i love the germans and the flemish and the dutch and the swiss are okay too. but the irish are difficult. first of all: i don't understand them. my driver has this terrible southern accent (from north carolina) but i have not much trouble underststanding him. when i was talking about part of the spanish speaking population in florida not speaking one word of english, he joked he didn't know how to speak english either. he's cool. the irish however think they speak english but they don't. i really have trouble connecting with them and that's sad. one pair are newly weds, another pair have been married for 40 years. then there's another couple of which the wife constantly tells me what i should do: put music on, stop at a shopping mall etc... but nothing bad. However, one Irish party is hell. they are called Deirdre and Jenny Cronin. mother and daughter. i haven't seen them smile one single moment. they are pretty weird but they are a pain in the neck.

there's a lot of things going wrong on this tour and i don't mind hearing complaints because i don't take anything personal. but these women do play it personal. i have changed the itinerary yesterday in the interest of everyone but they took offence in me taking that decision without consulting them. they qlso demanded me to have it in written why i changed the itinerary and spent the entire night waiting for me to give them that statement so that they could still fax it yesterday to Ireland. the daughter told me i had no manners. well fuck you lady. i really need to force myself to ignore those people, but i'm so eager to make them ridiculous for the entire group or do another juvenile thing like calling them names or give pointy remarks. i don't understand people who go on a holiday and spent their entire holiday thinking how they could get their money back instead of enjoying themselves. that's british. i thought the irish were cooler.

the two kids from brussels are very on their own. they came too late yesterday. the only time that happened so far. it's sad that it had to be them cos the flemish all gave remarks on them being too french. the girl seems to have entered miss brussels competitions and her black boyfriend seem to enjoy being her toyboy. but she's in charge. no doubt about that.

the three suspected cool gay guys turn out to be just friends who asked me to go drink cocktails with them. wich i did of course. they stressed out they were not gay and starting singing songs by Flip Kowlier when they found out i am westflemish. they are cool. the weird gay guy is stil weird. he has done the same trip 6 years ago. i cannot imagine someone wanting to do that trip again.

most of the dutch people are young. one of them is so incredibly cute. she has curly hair and has naive questions and is so happy. she gets along fine with the turkish girl too and they both wanted to go swimming with dolphins and asked me to arrange that. the turkish girl came to tell me i shouldn't bother anymore because she 'couldn't swim for a few days'. i have two sisters so i didn't have to ask her why.