The holiday was a gift for my mom’s Birthday and kind of a thank you for the good raising she did of me, even though I still have horrible table manners. But I managed to find a period in which we could all free up our schedules and spend some quality time in a foreign country. Well foreign for me, my mother was actually born in Java, Indonesia and this was the first time she’d gone back.

We flew in from Amsterdam, and spend the first two days in Kuala Lumpur, where I understand MindValley moved their business last year. I can’t blame them; Kuala Lumpur seems like a great place to run a company in. And with the Asian economy rapidly growing, even while the rest of the world is in ‘recession’ it seems like they will be doing some great business there over the next couple of years.

I was amazed by the incredible difference between rich and poor there. On the one hand you could spend less than a dollar and have a complete rice dinner in the evening markets of the city, on the other hand you could easily find a restaurant that allowed you to spend a couple of hundred bucks for sort of the same food, only in a fancier environment.

Christine made me try the rambutan fruits, which she bought somewhere on the street for a couple of cents. The same fruit here in Amsterdam costs over two dollars. I didn’t like it, as you can see.

The morning after my heroic fruit eating experience we took a flight to Bali for the rest of our trip. If you’ve been there you know what I’m talking about; Traffic is crazy there! They have no idea how to steer, clutch or use the breaks! I’m just going to say it out load. Bali people cannot drive. Period. – No offense.

After a couple of days of well deserved relaxations we took a trip to the monkey forest, some temples, and the holy springs. I was really blown away by how different our cultures are. Our guide was married to a western man, so she totally understood the culture shock and told us that her husband still feels like this every day. It’s a hard time adjusting – I’ll bet.

Anyway it was a great insight, to see how our cultures connect and how we differ. There’s without a doubt a lot we can learn from each other. With both Kuala Lumpur and Bali somehow sparked some of my interest in Asia, I wonder what I should visit next.

What do you think ?

I had to be in town for the annual SMX show, and to meet up with a bunch of clients. Since NYC was going to be my base of operations for about two weeks, I decided to rent out a nice place. Through the website HomeAway I found a great apartment in the Murray Hill / Grammercy Park area, right near Madison Square Park. I had been to New York, three times before. But never alone. I love to travel with friends and love spending overseas quality time with my girlfriend as well, but there is no doubt about it; you do experience a lot more of the city when you’re alone.

I was smart enough to book a couple of days extra, in advance of the show to meet up with clients, hang back and enjoy the city. I had a blast just walking around the city. As I would start out from my place, just walking in one direction I noticed how everybody seems to be in a hurry; yelling on their cell phones, walking past red lights ..a crazy atmosphere. But after six o’clock when most New Yorkers would get out of work you could feel something changing. Truly, you could see smiles starting to appear on peoples faces. Men and Women taking the time to sit on a stairwell or public property to peacefully finish a conversation with a friend on the other side. People were making plans to get together, go to the movies, dinner and even clubbing – any day of the week. I’m still unsure if it was this experience or the beautiful weather that was upon Manhattan those first two weeks of October but I had butterflies in my head for the entire two weeks.

The first three days of that week were about SMX. While I know every aspect of PPC Marketing, I could use some brushing up of my SEO knowledge. And with these two merging more and more, this was definitely a good investment. On Thursday and Friday I attended a private training by SEO legend Bruce Clay. Bruce was on top of his game, and I can recommend his SEO Toolset training to anybody. I will share a lot of my new knowledge in upcoming training videos for our Affiliate Marketing Training website.

By the time I got home from work on Friday, Christine’s plain had landed and she was on her way to Madison Ave. What I did by taxi, she did by air train and subway. I was both lazy and impressed. The next few days were awesome; we did some shopping in SoHo, had an incredible 7 course dinner at Jean-Georges, ate an incredible 5 kg porterhouse at Del Frico’s and fought over a lemon cake which was just incredible.

Bottom line; New York is an amazing city, and this experience in particular was the best I’ve ever had in NYC. A little bit bummed to be back, I can’t wait to go back ..I think somewhere around April or May.

While I close down my pictures folder, I wonder; Would it still be so great if you lived there and strolling around Central Park would just be a regular every day experience ?

At this point my absolute and only answer would be totally and 100% yes..