It all started during my bachelor’s degree final examinations, which I did in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It crossed my mind.  What’s next for me? Perhaps a basic pay job?  Perhaps start up a small business? It took me quite sometime to make up the choice. It was quite clear, I wanted to travel and I was desperate for the extra knowledge in tourism. Hence, today I am a Master student in Tourism Destination Management at NHTV and the rest is history. If I were to describe the reasons for this move it would take me a bit more than just a blog post.

Looking at the Journey, I had a comfortable flight from Male’, Maldives to Istanbul and a layover of about 7 hours at the Atatürk International airport with a connection to Amsterdam Schiphol.  I had a decent conversation with the immigration officer complementing our beautiful islands. I made my way to the train platform to get a high-speed train to Breda. To my surprise it was cancelled. The next one was some 6 hours later according to the train attendant. I wasn’t prepared to take connecting trains while carrying 2 luggage’s’ that weighed 30 KG each.  I thought to myself. Lets try and take a cab. To all those who are reading this, you would realize what a stupid idea this was. I got into a Mercedes Benz E Class and it drove to me to a hotel in Breda. Please don’t bother asking me how much I paid for this taxi ride. It’s embarrassing.  “Welcome to Breda ” in the perfect manner don’t you think?

Master TDM students

Master TDM students

I spent about 3 days in a hotel room, until my student room got sorted out. I spent almost 100 euros on taxi rides around town.  Moral of the story being that you can’t survive in Breda without a bicycle. This was such a cool idea implemented on the streets of Breda. So I decided to invest in a bike and I’m pretty proud to say that I barely spend a dime on transportation. Note: Google Maps help.

Enough negativity. Lets talk positive shall we?  Our TDM class is so diverse that it will be hard not to build a conversation on any particular given topic. It’s hard to describe the excitement and experience this brings into the classroom environment.  The people I have met on the streets, at supermarkets, lecturers and especially classmates have been really kind to me over this period. If I were to mention names it might create some problems.  Of course there are those special ones.

In conclusion, I would say I have had a great time in Breda and NHTV so far. Hoping for more of course.  To any of you who are considering masters in tourism, this is the place to be.  The diverse classroom environment is good enough to convince you to apply for the Master TDM course. Almost half of the people I met in Breda asked me about my choice of country to study since I come from such a beautiful island nation. My answer was pretty simple. NHTV and TDM.  To all my classmates, it’s going to be a tough year ahead at the same time we will have a lot of fun.

Cheers

Fraath Mohamed