Rianne, Author at Dutch Mermaid

Visiting Las Vegas in the heat of summer

July 28, 2018December 31, 2018 Rianne

In the absolute heat of summer I ended up in Las Vegas! This was not my first visit, but it was definitely hotter than last time. Temperatures easily reached 40-45C (104-113F) and even at night it wouldn’t cool down at al. But man, what an amazing city is Vegas, even when it’s this hot. My trip was focused on casino’s, relaxing, concerts and good food. My hotel, Delano, was located on the very end of the strip. Basically, if you’ve never been to the strip, it’s a long road through…

Sleeping, eating and walking inside a favela in Rio de Janeiro

June 4, 2018December 31, 2018 Rianne

Check out this vlog and see for yourself how amazing it is to walk around in a favela in Rio de Janeiro! I felt safe 100% and made this vlog to show you guys a different side of the ‘favela story’. Do you also want to stay here? Then check out their facebook page and enjoy this amazing experience. The favela I visited is called Babilonia in the neighbourhood Leme, just around the corner from Copacabana.

Scuba Diving in Buzios, Brazil

May 20, 2018December 31, 2018 Rianne

A few weeks ago I went diving with Buzios Divers in Buzios, Brazil. We made two amazing dives where we saw a bunch of turtles and beautiful soft corals. In the video you’ll get an impression of what’s it like to dive in Brazil. I’m surprised this dive spot is still a bit of a hidden gem as it’s truely great diving. I haven’t done any other diving in Brazil so I can’t compare within the country, but I’ve done a lot of diving all over the world and this…

South America vlogs!

April 7, 2018December 31, 2018 Rianne

The past 3 weeks I was fortunate enough to travel through 3 beautiful South American countries; Argentina, Uruguay and Brasil. Instead of blogging I decided to give ‘vlogging’ a real shot, so I’ve been making short vlogs about all parts of my journey. Enjoy! Check out my channel here and subscribe!

Dive Against Debris Dive

November 19, 2017December 31, 2018 Rianne

Last week I successfully “fished” up around 19kg of fish nets, as well as another 1kg of random trash like electric wire, pcv pipe, bags and fish hooks. The dive I did this on was a “Dive against debris dive“. My dive buddy, Johnny, was doing the corresponding specialty; PADI Dive Against Debris. I’m an enormous fan of clean up dives. I did two in the past, one in Bonaire and one in Costa-Rica. Besides those dives, I usually dive with at least one knife and always take with me…

Liveaboard trip: Similan & Surin

November 18, 2017December 31, 2018 Rianne

Last week I was fortunate enough to enjoy my second ever liveaboard trip. Exactly a year ago I was cruising the Red Sea and this year I booked a 5 day / 5 night trip to the Similan and Surin Islands, located in the Andaman Sea in Thailand. They’re roughly 60 km from the coast of Khao Lak, which is where I boarded my liveaboard. The liveaboard – Manta Queen 7 Okay so first of all, I got super lucky….. again…. managed to score myself a private cabin! There was literally…

PADI Self Reliant Diver Course

November 9, 2017November 9, 2017 Rianne

Ever since I certified as a PADI Divemaster I’ve been developing an interest in solo diving. When I say this out loud, quite a few divers immediately will remind me that you’re always supposed to dive with this buddy. Whilst this was the popular opinion for a long time, views are changing on this matter. In fact, there’s a positive development towards educating divers how to dive responsible on their own. One of these ways to become more skilled and knowledge able about diving on your own is the PADI…

10 Things I’m bringing to Thailand

October 14, 2017 Rianne

10 Things I’m bringing to Thailand With less than a week to go before my Thailand trip begins…. it’s time to start thinking about what I am bringing. I’ve decided to go ‘backpack style’ so the less I bring, the better. Quite a challenge for me, but everytime I am challenged to travel light it’s going better. Especially my hitchhike adventure to Barcelona helped learning how to pack as little as possible. I think if I just went to Thailand and brought these 10 items with me + money… I…

Get your Tourist Visa for Thailand in Amsterdam

October 6, 2017 Rianne

Just a brief note for my fellow Dutchies: get your Tourist Visa for Thailand in Amsterdam! The last few weeks I’ve been trying to find a suitable visa service to order a visa for Thailand. Andddd it’s been hell! First of all the prices the service desks charge are outrageous. Besides their regular fee, which is more than fair for their efforts, they charge crazy extra’s like “fee for difficult embassy”, ” fee for registering presence in country” etc. A lot of people opt for these agencies as they’re supposed…

Barcelona Express – recap

July 10, 2017July 10, 2017 Rianne

Right now I’m sitting in the airplane, waiting for it to take off. I’m exhausted and happy. We managed to hitchhike to Barcelona in 6 days. A total of 1700 kilometers. That without stopping, direct from door to door, alone is 18 hours. We did it in 28 hours spread over 6 days, including ride swaps and catching rides. An impressive result that I am proud of. The last week has been a great adventure. The amount of amazing people we’ve met and also the experience of hitchhiking through Europe….