What do they do?

Ilona supplies jewellery around Europe while Koos is a test engineer for oil and gas pipelines. In their free time they travel around the world.

Where did we meet them?

On the boat from Phnom Penh to Chao Doc in Vietnam. Koos is an avid cyclist and rides a recumbent bicycle back home, when he saw our bikes he wanted to know more and we chatted the whole ride into Vietnam. We decided to stay in the same place when we got off the boat and have been inseparable until they left for Thailand.

Their story.....

They met 18 years ago in bar somewhere in Holland. It was a case of she fancied me and yeah….. I fancied her too!! They got married in September of 2007 before leaving on their latest trip to Thailand, Lao, Kampuchea and Vietnam. It seems like they do everything together, they even share an email address, so it must be hard on Ilona when Koos leaves on one of his jobs in the middle of the ocean to install one of these pipelines. Koos is also a carpenter and used to make furniture for a living, which is something he says he might do again in the future.

They are both really easy going and friendly, which is why I think we clicked off so well. Koos is normally the talkative one making friends with every man, woman and dog, but we also shared some intimate moments with Ilona while lazing on the beach or during on of our Cho Tai Ti sessions.

We have invited them to visit us in Asia sometime in the future and we would definitely want to go and visit them in Holland one day. Our memories of Vietnam will always be of them so maybe we will come back and do north Vietnam together since we are probably not going to do it now cos our visas are running out. Whats certain is that we will be friends for life…. As long as we don`t insult each other wifes.