Bjarne Wildau Nielsen, a veteran Danish journalist in Asia, celebrated on Saturday 13 June 2015 his 25 year anniversary as an Asia reporter. Bjarne Wildau highlights some of the many changes that he has gone through during those years on his blog on Blogspot. The blog is written in Danish which throughout the years has remained Bjarne’s preferred language.
His first stop was Bangkok, where he arrived with an order book full of stories that his clients had signed up for. From there he moved to Indonesia, where he married an Indonesian English teacher. Always open for a new adventure, Bjarne suggested that they should go to Denmark – by bicycle. A stop-over in Bangkok on the way became longer than planned and eventually, the trip ended there.
After more than a year in Thailand, Bjarne moved back to Indonesia, but eventually his marriage fell apart and Bjarne left his wife and their two daughters in Jakarta and moved to Thailand – only to move back to Indonesia again with his new love. Tragically, she died shortly after they had returned to Indonesia, and Bjarne moved to Cambodia, where he settled down and worked for the past six years.
Celebrating his 25 years anniversary, Bjarne Wildau is now preparing to move again – this time to Bulgaria, which is within the EU and therefore a safer place to retire. His Danish pension will no longer be reduced by living outside the EU and at the same time hospitalization, should he one day need that, will be a public service and not a private business as is the case in Cambodia.
“Life is one big bouquet of incidents,” he writes on his blog.
“The trip that should have lasted no more than a year became a new life. I now it is time to start a new life altogether again – this time in Bulgaria under somewhat safer conditions.”
Bjarne Wildau has written several thousand articles for media back in Denmark through the years. He has been a regular contributor to ScandAsia both when the magazine was only a paper product and later, when it beecame a news portal he was for a period News Editor on ScandAsia.com. It is a testimony to Bjarne Wildau’s extreme productivity that to this very day, Bjarne Wildau remains the most productive writer on ScandAsia – ever – with a record breaking 320 pages of articles on the website.
Hi Bjarne,
It’s nice to read your profile here. You has been a very good life manager. We are here from Medan, three females, always wish you all the best with your new life adventure in EU Bulgaria. Hope to see you one day some how. May be one day Your two daughters can visit their beloved daddy somewhere, somehow.
Thanks. I have to say that having Gregers Moller as a costumer and not at least as a friend during 23 years, has been a huge support for me. I haven’t always been a “good boy” but Greg was always there. My feeling is that he several times has given me stories (work) he could have done himself, just to keep me going and afloat. For that I am extremely grateful.
Several sources has also always been ready, one more time, Allan Jensen was the first source who invited me to cook, eat, and sleep together in his house in Muak Lek. A similar relationship I have had with Alex Heimdal Petersen, Helge Brunse, ECCO Indonesia, and many more.
Thanks a lot to all who directly or indirectly made it possible for me to get a long soooo loooong time in Asia.
Very best regards
Bjarne
Hej Bjarne,
Tak for alle dine fine og aerlige artikler om livet i SEA gennem 25 aar.Jeg har lige laest dine seneste blogindlaeg og genkender meget af din erfaring om livet i Indonesien,Thailand Malaysia, Philippinerne og Danmark,som du skiver om.Haaber du fortsaetter at skrive ogsaa in ScandAsia mange aar endnu og held og lykke i BG.