chrisvandenbroucke's VirtualTourist Home Page

Hope you get my name...

I am 49years old and work as a librarian in Kortrijk, Belgium so I've spent a quarter of my life amidst books and cd's.

I'm responsible for our music section (50.000 cd's, video's, dvd's, cd-rom's...) and have to keep up-to-date on the outcoming musical waves. Let me say my heart leaps to blues and 60's and 70's music but I can fully enjoy Massive Attack, Portishead or some new rock band like The Strokes, The White Stripes....

I alway travel backpacking and as cheap as possible (to be able to do as much traveling as possible).

In these pages, I'll take you with me to
Sri Lanka (1994)
The Maya's (Mexico-Guatemala-Honduras) (1995)
Vietnam (1996)
Cyprus and Egypt (1997)
Jordan and Syria (1998)
Barcelona (1999)
India (1999)
Prague (2000)
Egypt (2000)
Mali (2000)
Pisa (2001)
Hungary (2001)
Transsiberian Express (2001)
Rome (2002)
Turkey (2002)
Dublin (2002)
Cambodja (2002)
Myanmar (2003)
Thailand (2003)
Oezbekistan (2003)
Indonesia (2004)
Milan (2004)
Morocco (2004)
Laos (2004)
China (2005)
Rotterdam (2005)
Maya counttry (2005)
Venice (2005)
Spain (2005)

I started traveling in 1994 and have since then 'done' a lot of countries.

Initially, I started alone (Sri Lanka)

Afterwards, a good friend of mine was passionated by my travelogues and wanted to join me. So did he (Maya Route, Vietnam, Syria and Jordan, Mali, Uzbekistan)

When I met Catherine 5 years ago, things became more complicated but also more fun. We went to India and Myanmar.
Now I sometimes travel alone (Egypte,Cambodia), sometimes with my friend and sometimes with Catherine. And sometimes we even mess up as a trio (Transsiberian)

Don't forget the wonderful international trips with our 3 teenagers (Egypt, Hungary, Turkey, Thailand)

And where do I travel to?

My interest in foreign countries is influenced by (in declining order)
* Culture (old civilizations, religions, temples...)
*Nature (I enjoy the rain forest, the deserts, the mountains...)
*The good weather (I like to relax and swim) one or two days at a deserted palmy beach
Read a survey of my travels in my albums

Sri Lanka was my first transcontinental travel. Never been outside Europe, I went to a travel agency and asked for the cheapest air ticket. It should also be as far away as possible... They gave me a fare for Colombo. Never heard of but I didn't care. I booked. The library of Kortrijk (where I work) had a Lonely Planet and off I was...
Imagine my culture shock, arriving in the middle of the night in hot, stinking Colombo bus station...

Being back from backpacking Sri Lanka, my best friend became very jealous and askes if I didn't want a companion if I did something like that again....
Many beers later, we agreed we'd give it a try. Hey, I was the experienced one. I decided where to go, booked tickets and made a planning... The next 3 weeks we had almost no arguments and a new traveling couple was born. Maybe this was the best trip of all my travels.. I'm sure I'll go back:. it has everything you need: culture, nature, sea and friendly people

Three weeks in Vietnam, from the South with hectic Ho Chi Minh City over the green Mekong Delta and the famous Cu Chi Tunnels to the centre with the beaches of Nha Trang, lovely Hoi Ann to imperial Hue. The night train brought us to colonial Hanoi and, finally, the Eight World Wonder: Ha Long Bay, one of the highlights of my travels.
The Hue girls are the most beautiful ones in the world

Hey, I won a travel story contest of a Belgian magazine. I got a free holiday in Cyprus for two weeks and invited a girl friend to join me.

Afterwards, I travelled alone to Egypt (Cairo-Luxor-Aswan-Abu Simbel-Hurghada) and stood with open mouth looking at all that ancient history.

One country you shouldn't miss, for sure

I was a single for 5 years and decided to settle. I bought a house... and met Catherine who was a single for 7 years and had also bought a house. It was something like at first sight and I moved in with her.
Meanwhile our next trip was booked and C's tears were innumerable when we took the plane. Anyway, Jaak and I had a great trip through old fashioned Syria and modern Jordan
READ FURTHER ON IN MY ALBUMS....