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 | Bubbles and sharks (Thailand, febr 2010)
The dive has almost ended. The first of our group finished their air and started with the ascend. Unfortunately the promised bull sharks did not turn up. Read more... |
 | Breath in, breath out (Nepal, dec 2009)
No talking, no stealing, no lying, no killing, no sex. The rules for the following days are more than clear. Read more... |
 | Art on bikes (Pakistan, Oct 2009)
The clouds are hanging low between the high peaks of the Karakoram mountains and the rain turned the road in a muddy slide way. Read more... |
Not normal (Turkmenistan, July 2009)
Shadow, shadow… Where can we find some shadow? The temperature shows 53 degrees Celsius, a hot wind is blowing against us and our water is almost finished. 
| We are cycling through the Karakum Desert of Turkmenistan with a deadline. With our 5-day transit visa we have to cover the 550 kilometres from Iran to Uzbekistan, which is doable in ‘normal’ circumstances. | 
| But this is not normal for us. So after the first day we make a not normal plan. From now it is finished with sleeping in and fooling around. The alarm beeps at 3.30 and at 12.00 we keep siesta for a few hours to continue in the late afternoon. | 
| It works! Some days we start to worry around midday if we will find water and shadow on time. | 
| But at the end we always do with the help of some great (golden teethed) Turkmen and (colourful dressed) Turkwoman. | 
| After five long marathon days we are very happy and satisfied to arrive at the border and enter Uzbekistan. |
June 2009 Iranian extremes Our mouths fell open. A long the sand road walks a woman towards our tent. From top till toe she is covered in black. 
| In her hands she holds a silver tray with two cups of tea, bread, cheese and flowers. For us. Yesterday evening this Iranian lady found out we were camping next to her house (at the Caspian Sea) and she insisted we would stay at her place. Since we pitched the tent and it was already dark, we refused. ‘If Moses does not come to the mountain, the mountain will come to Moses’, she must have thought. And there she is, serving breakfast at our tent. | 
| We already heard a lot about the Iranian hospitality and intelligence, but now we experience it ourselves for thirty days. And it is beautiful. | 
| At the day of the elections we arrived in Tehran. This gave us the opportunity to experience the power of the Iranian people as well. We saw them demonstrating on the streets and heard their plea for democracy, for freedom. And we saw the suppression and their fear. It was heartbreaking. | 
| While all this was happening we managed to arrange 7 visas for the next countries on our way. At the 28th of June we crossed the border into steaming Turkmenistan. |
12/06/2009 Iran 1
| Before we know it we are in The Islamic Republic of Iran. Well…actually that is not true. Because before we even reach the imaginary line between Turkey and Iran a man points to my head. Oops!
Quickly I fold the headscarf to cover my hair and then it is alright. Not as bad as we thought. It means we can cycle on flip-flops and Valentijn is allowed to show his beautiful calves. | 
| A few hours later we make our first friends. Omid and his family invite us to their home. Very happy with this opportunity to learn a bit about Iranian life we say ‘Yes!’ and don not regret it.
In the safety of the homes the headscarves disappear and we see an equal relationship between man and woman. Omid cannot repeat it often enough: “The way the government acts is completely different from what the people think and want.” | 
| And that is what we notice on the streets as well. Everywhere we encounter big smiles, invitations and ‘Welcomes’. In comparison with the Arabic countries especially the woman are very outgoing. Uncountable times people stop to give us sweets and fruits or take our photos and e-mail addresses. | 
| The closer we come to Tehran, the closer the elections are. Something we cannot miss. It seems that everybody is involved. Youngsters shout the name of their favourite candidate. The towns are covered with posters and demonstrations are held. It is all about two persons: the current president Ahmadinejad and the more liberal Mousavi.
We keep our fingers crossed for the last one. |
24/05/2009 Explosions for Iran  | “Yes...but mister Van der Valk...you waited already 30 days for your visa, so a few more should not be a problem.”
Mister Van der Valk explodes. “Yes we waited already triple the time from what was said when we applied in Lebanon. And yes a few days more ís a huge problem.” The consul of the Iranian embassy in Turkey does not even blink his eyes. |  | He does not care that our bicycles are stalled 400 kilometres further down and we worry about their safety; He does not care that we cannot afford to stay in a hotel in Erzurum and phone to Beirut three times a day to ask if there is any progress; He does not care that every day we wait with crossing the border to Iran, the temperature rises a bit more to un-cycable limits. He only cares about a fax from Tehran with our approval code. A code we already received by phone… |  | But finally five days later…the fax works. And we leave Erzurum as happy children with the beautiful stickers in our passports. Iran, here we come! |
15/05/2009 Painful 28/04/2009 Leaving Lebanon  | “Your visas have expired”, the Lebanese officer shakes our passports violently. Nervous we look at each other. We are more than two weeks overdue; we just liked Lebanon so much. Then the man starts to smile: “no problem guys, I will just write you a note and you´re free to cross the border to Syria. Drink a shai while you wait.”
It is another example of the humour and hospitability of the Lebanese people we encountered. |  | We are sad to leave the country behind and promise ourselves to come back…one day. But as we learned during our travel, every place has her own beauty. And while cycling along the sunny and fertile coast Syria shows her splendour. |
24/04/2009 Beirut
We almost left Beirut…almost…We packed everything, checked out of the Mayflower after six weeks and said goodbye. That's when we found out that three spokes where broken… Not a good idea to start our trip to China with.
And again Right to Play helped us out. We could stay for the night at their office! Which meant: no sleep, free internet for the whole night and still three broken spokes.
Valentijn is showing his craftsmanship at this very moment, so at the end we will leave Beirut. But with pain in our hearts…We learned to love this city with her beautiful strong-minded people!
21/03/2009 Beirut
The road is covered with blockades. On every corner we see tanks and barbwire. Armed men check our passports. We are on our way to the refugee camp Ain el Hilweh in the South of Lebanon.
Three days before Valentijn and Yvonne van der Valk from Holland arrived with their bikes at the Masnaa border. Coming from Jordan and Syria they were surprised how Lebanon felt like Europe: the modern people and the incredible nightlife of Beirut.
But on this Monday morning in Saïda we discover the second face of the country. The Lebanese army does not give us permission to enter the camp. There had been some incidents and they cannot guarantee our safety. The South-team of Right to Play takes us to a hill from where we have a view on the camp and her surroundings. We are shocked. What we see makes us sad. In one square kilometre live 70.000 people. In this inhuman crowded situation woman do their shopping’s, men go to their work and children attend school... “They have to go in shifts. The amount of schools and teachers is not sufficient for the amount of children”, Maya of the RtP South team explains. “And because there are no playgrounds, we wrote the book ‘Small games for small spaces’.
While overlooking Ain el Hilweh we completely feel the importance of the work of Right to Play in Lebanon. The mental relief the organisation offers is crucial in those circumstances.
Two days later we are allowed to enter the camp and we discover this with our own eyes. Little children sing, dance and play like children all over the world. Their positive energy gives us energy. Only the guns some 4-year old guys build of colourful blocks remind of that they live an unusual life.
After this field visit Valentijn and Yvonne start with the workshop ‘Organizing as a team’ for the partners of Right to Play from the south. At the first day we notice such a variety of persons, everyone with his own believes and qualities. And that’s exactly where the workshop is about; how to use different qualities to work as a team while organizing a sportevent. We are on the right place! Although we are in Lebanon for not even a week, we already feel as family with the team of Right To Play. Together we try to understand all the opinions as good as possible and find a solution for the communication barrier. Our common goal to let children play, helps either us and the participants of the workshop growing as a team.
This shows on Friday, the last day out of four. The group has organized their own event, successfully! We all learned a lot, while laughing, playing and working together as a team. Satisfied and thankful for this unique experience we conclude: In this country with it’s variety of believes and opinions, teamwork is necessarily but a big challenge as well. It makes us very happy to be part of Right to Play, that really works as a team!
Next week we will give the same workshop in Beirut. 13/03/2009 Lebanon
Speechless, we give each other a high five. After five months of cycling we arrived at the Lebanese border. Many different emotions are going through our heads.
Before we stop to arrange the visa we see two people running towards us. They look as happy as we feel. Jihad and Maria from Right to Play Lebanon have been expecting us. As long as we have been on the road we were in contact with them, but now... finally we can meet.
And they did not come alone. The moment we enter the country we see the full staff of Right to Play Lebanon waiting for us, together with some media. It is a heart-warming welcome.
A bit nervous we give the requested interviews and tell about the beautiful people and interesting cultures we have met everywhere we came, from Switzerland and Tunisia till Egypt, Jordan and Syria.Then we get the chance to discover a bit of the Lebanese food, mjum!...and travel by car (we are not allowed to cycle because of the crazy drivestyle of the Lebanese) to Beirut. Here we are introduced to some other press and learn a bit more about the way Right to Play works in the Middle East.Exhausted but very happy and thankful Jihad drops us at The Mayflower, the hotel that so generously sponsors our stay in Beirut.
Monday we will visit a refugee camp in the south, and tuesday we will start with the workshops. We can not wait! 28/02/2009 Jordan
From other travellers we met during our travel we heard about little kids throwing stones to cyclers in Jordan. With a bit of fear we entered this new country from Egypt via Aqaba. After one our being on the road we already got invited for shai by men working on this road. Again we did not speak each others language, but we felt on the same level and our fear disappeared.
Valentijn and Yvonne van der Valk are coming closer to their destination, Lebanon. But they had to deal with some strong winds in Egypt and again in Jordan. Winter is not over yet... The days they could not cycle were spend well by preparing the workshops they are going to give to the people of Right to Play.
Other days they were diving the Red Sea and hiking through the beautiful nature of Wadi Rum. “Very often when we look at the news, we get very depressed about what´s going on in the world. But during this trip our eyes opened for the beautiful side as well. This world has so many good things to give by her nature and by her people. We feel very rich to see a glance of it.”
The Dutch couple is delayed by one week and will enter Lebanon March 13th. 29/0102009 4000 kilometer by bike
Then we get the chance to discover a bit of the Lebanese food, mjum!...and travel by car (we are not allowed to cycle because of the crazy drivestyle “With every meter we cycle, we become more the human beings we want to be.” So far Valentijn and Yvonne van der Valk cycled 4000 kilometres from their hometown in Holland to Hurghada in Egypt. They are on their way to Lebanon.
“On this trip we have experienced the best of all different cultures. Somehow our bikes loaded with the red Right-to-Play-balls opened the hearts of the people we met. One example: After a long windy day cycling trough the Sahara we were looking for a place to put our tent in the desert. It was already dark. A policecar stopped next to us and asked what we were doing. When we explained, the five men got out of the car, pushed our bikes trough the sand and even helped to pitch the tent.
In Tunis we met a little girl. She speaks Arabic, we speak Dutch, but the red ball speaks an universal language we all understood. We had a great time and got invited by her family.
Every day we feel the power of sport and the meaning of having fun together, this made us even more convinced of the importance of the work of Right to Pay. We are really looking forward to arrive in Lebanon to get together with the Right to Play-team. During the month we spend in this beautiful country we hope we have the chance to learn from each other and above all have a lot of fun together.
Valentijn and Yvonne will arrive at the Lebanese border in the weekend of 7 March. That means, if they don’t have to many flat tyres... 01/11/2008 Cyclingcouple has left Holland
The first thousand kilometers by bike are done. Valentijn and Yvonne van
der Valk have left their hometown Utrecht in Holland at the October 15th. It was a big spectacle. The Dutch press did not want to miss a
thing, so their start was a bit delayed by the several interviews they had
to give.
Of course a good thing for Right to Play, because the name and goals of
the organisation were named very often.
On their way to the Alps, the couple made quite an impression to everyone
they passed. Behind their bikes hangs a big carriage with on top a lot of
the red Right to Play-balls. In all the different countries this gives a
lot of questions. And everytime Valentijn and Yvonne can explain what
Right to Play does and sell some more balls for Right to Play. Since they
left, they sold more than 80 balls! That accumulated with the 1300 the
sold before, makes their trip already a success.
At he moment they are facing the Swiss Alps. With an altitude of 2383
meters they are a bit nervous to do this. Especially since snow is
expected... 01/10/2008: Cycling to Lebanon
15.000 kilometers by bike. Yvonne and husband Valentijn van der Valk start the 15th of October on a trip that led them from homecountry Holland all the way to Lebanon. While they make the pedals go round they are very thankful for the ability to sport and play. And that is the reason they choose to cycle for Right to Play. They do this in two ways: by gaining money for the organization and by offering manpower in the Middle East.
Because autumn accompanies them, the couple will cycle straight to the south where the sun is. In Italy they will cross the Mediterean Sea to Tunis and from there they continue to libya and Egypt, till they end in Lebanon in March. Here they will visit the projects of Right to Play. In four days Valentijn will share his knowledge about sportsmanagment by giving workshops with themes as ‘How to organize sportsevents’ and ‘How to enlarge teamspirit’. The fifth day they will experience the program, so Yvonne can write a report for several media. To collect money, get publicity and make Right to Play more known Yvonne and Valentijn made up a game as well. In Holland people can buy a ball with the challenge to play it to Egypt via a chain of people. The game is already a success. At the moment 850 balls are sold, good for 8.100 euro. The last update you can find via http://www.ball2egypt.com/. When the couple passes Egypt they will check the arrivals. You can follow the adventures of Valentijn and Yvonne via http://www.fietsenmetballen.nl/.
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