Happy birthday Harry!!
Mum and dad, just to let you know, all I want for my next birthday is to celebrate it Harry style. Cause that's when you, in one day, get to:
Enjoy your cold beers ON the ocean,
go cheer dancing where Leonardo Dicaprio kills his sharks,
be the one man standing while the OTHER person falls,
get entertained by colourful fishes,
climb the mountains and play in the caves,
break your shorts by jumping from trees, the best way of breaking things!!,
and realize that your waterproof bag is working under a false identity and accept your camera's sudden mood change.
Happy Birthday Hun!!!
Enjoy your cold beers ON the ocean,
go cheer dancing where Leonardo Dicaprio kills his sharks,
be the one man standing while the OTHER person falls,
get entertained by colourful fishes,
climb the mountains and play in the caves,
break your shorts by jumping from trees, the best way of breaking things!!,
and realize that your waterproof bag is working under a false identity and accept your camera's sudden mood change.
Happy Birthday Hun!!!
The Monkey. And fish.
This is Sven. We do look happy with our friend. But it's all fake. Sven tells us when to smile, what to eat, when to sleep and what to do. So, night walks it is. Normally a night beach session is what we prefer, but you can't really say No to Sven, can you? Don't wanna risk it. Spiteful is his middle name.
... and he never leaves the house without his pyjamas. Not even when we tell him to.
Sushi.
... and he never leaves the house without his pyjamas. Not even when we tell him to.
Sushi.
Fish. And the monkey.
1. Wake up, bring your book and your plums and exit the house by the beach side. Jackpot! Blue sky, not a cloud as far as you can see and an empty beach. Nearly. The nearly empty beach also contains the mouth of the "WARNING!!! Watch out for the catfishes in the water!!" comes from. I don't really (sorry mum and dad) miss school, but getting an instructed class in how to avoid the death from catfish stings was something new, I would almost call it funny. But, though the topis is all about FISH, I cannot tell you about the stingray+jellyfish chapter. But I'll tell you what though, Zaid must not have listened properly...
2. I don't have enough fingers to count how often, every day, I say "No thanks" to the fish massages they advertise on the street. I doubt I would feel very comfortable with fishes biting the skin off my toes. Karma. Our afternoon walk brought us to this peaceful space in the middle of the jungle with a waterfall and colourful butterflies. An innocent dip/sit-down in the spring made me realize why my mind has kept telling me not to let the fishes chew my feet earlier. I stepped straight into their home/house/palace. And apparently the skin on my feet is a delicacy when it comes to the visiting Swedish market. We did not agree completely at that point. My next "No thanks" will, if possible, be even more honest than before.
3. Plan, simply... We are going FISHing. Tomorrow night. With our Jamaican friend. On the beach. And we are going to eat it. The fish.
PS. Monkeys do NOT love bananas, that's for sure. And that's where we went separate ways, mr. Monkey and I, when I realized. He picked the watermelon...
2. I don't have enough fingers to count how often, every day, I say "No thanks" to the fish massages they advertise on the street. I doubt I would feel very comfortable with fishes biting the skin off my toes. Karma. Our afternoon walk brought us to this peaceful space in the middle of the jungle with a waterfall and colourful butterflies. An innocent dip/sit-down in the spring made me realize why my mind has kept telling me not to let the fishes chew my feet earlier. I stepped straight into their home/house/palace. And apparently the skin on my feet is a delicacy when it comes to the visiting Swedish market. We did not agree completely at that point. My next "No thanks" will, if possible, be even more honest than before.
3. Plan, simply... We are going FISHing. Tomorrow night. With our Jamaican friend. On the beach. And we are going to eat it. The fish.
PS. Monkeys do NOT love bananas, that's for sure. And that's where we went separate ways, mr. Monkey and I, when I realized. He picked the watermelon...
Time for some good news!
A sample of all the floods we passed. This is the highway all the way to the Malaysian border.
We made it, all the way to P.Penang (right...?). It took us, apart from the 3 days extra we were stuck in our Koh Samui prison aka powerless guesthouse room, 35 hours and 4 different kinds of transports to get here.
Squeezed in between our luggage on the floor of the bus.
Less happy was the border police and one word they clearly knew how to pronounce in English was CHARGE. Fair enough, I guess, since we somehow became illegal immigrants for a few days. Although, they did have comfy sofas in the interegation office. And I nowmore have funny Thai hand writing in my passport. I bet it says they fancied my flipflops or it might even be their names for me to add as friends on Facebook!! Yaaaay.
Checking into Georgetown, first day in Malaysia.
Our current international location is Malaysia, the country where...:
* ...the horses only have half a tail. At first I thought that was a general animal fashion, til we randomly witnessed a dog hanging from another horse's tail. Cut cut cut.
Horse's newest hair cut fashion in the background of Luke's beach dinner photo.
* ...you order an egg breakfast and get curry cabbage, rice biryani and a deep fried egg on the side. I think it was an egg. Well, interesting and surprisingly tasty!
Obviously not the breakfast, but a well earnt Tiger in the sunset as a treat after some long days' efforts.
A couple of smooth river "jumpers".
* ...the bus occasionally stops for a heard of cows. Funny how animals have their own crossovers in the city, while the people are stuck on one side of the street.
Ferringhi's brand new started rock band. Album will be released soon. Very soon. Singer: Luke. Guitarrist: Harry.
* ...you have to squeeze into your guesthouse room (probably our own unlucky exception), since the door hits the edge of the bed/pile of mattresses. Now it all makes sence to me why there is no linen provided. Because no spare floor space basically means share your bed with your luggage, and oh no, no space left for a sheet!
Locals asking for photos taken with us. What it feels like to be famous.
But we are in a beautiful country, the people spoil us as family members and it feels even more like holiday than in a long time!
A private snake and magics show on the beach!
...add the facts that the cobras don't bite, the ultimate paradise beach is our front yard and I haven't been near restless for a second since we got here. Proof enough.
Hey cutiepie.
My Malaysia.
Delays, delays...
One thing I recently found out I dislike with being stuck with Koh Samui's wild monsoons for a week is; When the power on the entire island gets cut for days and you're unmoveable out of the bed from fever flue, daily paying for A/C, fan, TV, hot water shower and DVD feels a tiny bit pointless. Glad they didn't charge us for a window, cause not even that fresh air option is existing here.
Alrighty, if you happen not to be ill... Beachbeachbeach!! But.. It's raining. Quite a lot. Let's go inside for a movie. Oh no, no electricity. Let's play some cards. Nope. A window-less room equals darkness.
And as we're speaking, we do neither appreciate very much that...:
* No boats go to or from the island. Which slightly ruins our plan, since our Thai Visa ran out yesterday. Bonus: The fine amount is times the number of day and there is still a long way to go.
* Food doesn't taste as good beyond locked doors and glass windows. Unreachable since shops and restaurants are shut because of the power cuts. At least we're hardly running out of water.
But there is always positive sides as well...:
* Our concerns about running low in cash (every single ATM closed) was not too necessary, since there is nowhere to use our Baht notes in the dark.
* I do like candles. Feels a bit like christmas.
But now... the power came back late last night after a couple of very dark days+nights stuck in the room. Fever is gone, ATMs are turned on again and all we're waiting for right now is a boat to take us to the mainland. Fingers crossed, we'll make it cross the border to Malaysia and be on Tiamon island within 24 hours!
Alrighty, if you happen not to be ill... Beachbeachbeach!! But.. It's raining. Quite a lot. Let's go inside for a movie. Oh no, no electricity. Let's play some cards. Nope. A window-less room equals darkness.
And as we're speaking, we do neither appreciate very much that...:
* No boats go to or from the island. Which slightly ruins our plan, since our Thai Visa ran out yesterday. Bonus: The fine amount is times the number of day and there is still a long way to go.
* Food doesn't taste as good beyond locked doors and glass windows. Unreachable since shops and restaurants are shut because of the power cuts. At least we're hardly running out of water.
But there is always positive sides as well...:
* Our concerns about running low in cash (every single ATM closed) was not too necessary, since there is nowhere to use our Baht notes in the dark.
* I do like candles. Feels a bit like christmas.
But now... the power came back late last night after a couple of very dark days+nights stuck in the room. Fever is gone, ATMs are turned on again and all we're waiting for right now is a boat to take us to the mainland. Fingers crossed, we'll make it cross the border to Malaysia and be on Tiamon island within 24 hours!
You evil sun.
Imagine a new born kitten, just before it's lived enough days to open it's eyes properly, a bit swollen and the face part not entirely fully shaped yet.
Now, think about the Danish flag (or make it English, what you prefer), skip the cross and just mix the colours with your previously pictured cat face.
( 
)
...equals Luke. Do never rely on an innocent hammock nap in the Koh Phangan sun, unless you're one of those people who truly enjoy dipping your head into the frier machine. Same effect, and trust us, not worth it. Poor Luke, we DO feel sorry for you and here comes our official promise that we won't make any jokes about it. Yet. We'll wait a week.
Very very very painful news, and as a painful bill at the pharmacy.
Recipe: Healthy mixed fruit shake
Slice 1 banana into a bowl.
Peel of and shred the skin from 1 Dragonfruit.
Add 1 apple. (Granny smith is to be preferred).
1 peach. Avoid the seed in the middle, you don't want any traces stuck between your teeth.
Complete the ingredient collection by the beach, as the purple grapes are more common down there.
Oranges are as known a good source of C vitamin. So lets go for one of these as well.
And oh, raspberries are my favourites!!
After adding another couple of grapes, use your kitchen blender for the best and healthiest fruit shake ever!
Peel of and shred the skin from 1 Dragonfruit.
Add 1 apple. (Granny smith is to be preferred).
1 peach. Avoid the seed in the middle, you don't want any traces stuck between your teeth.
Complete the ingredient collection by the beach, as the purple grapes are more common down there.
Oranges are as known a good source of C vitamin. So lets go for one of these as well.
And oh, raspberries are my favourites!!
After adding another couple of grapes, use your kitchen blender for the best and healthiest fruit shake ever!
Vang Vieng - Kho Phangan, still alive
You know you've been travelling for a looooong time when you've lost the track of days without food, nights without sleep and when doctors and stitches aren't an option. Cause some fresh air could heal anything.
Just another train.
Resume: 4 days and 3 nights riding non-stop by trains, tuktuks, boats and I can't even count neither the amount of hours we spent or the amount of busses we killed them on in the passed week. What day is it? I didn't have a book, and believe me, 4 full days of window watching make you lose it.
An amazing reunion with our 4 Cairns girls+Chris!! (Less happy about all the facial hair that's now eventually getting dumped by both Zaid, Luke and Harry. But I guess I have to accept that it only said 1 month in the moustache/beard contract).
Sorry about all the whining... I'll make it up to you with a list of good things that come out from long time travelling:
* None of the bus drivers hit a dog this time.
* May not be the most practical way of travelling, but certenly the cheapest.
* Oh man, my passport is colourful now from crossing all those borders and stamp men. And I do like colourful.
* Even if it more likely was dog food we ate, they actually DID provide us with 1 lunch.
* Cows, temples, rivers and mountains are fun to watch. For the first hour.
Koh Phangan. Party on the beach/our front yard.
Just another train.
Resume: 4 days and 3 nights riding non-stop by trains, tuktuks, boats and I can't even count neither the amount of hours we spent or the amount of busses we killed them on in the passed week. What day is it? I didn't have a book, and believe me, 4 full days of window watching make you lose it.
An amazing reunion with our 4 Cairns girls+Chris!! (Less happy about all the facial hair that's now eventually getting dumped by both Zaid, Luke and Harry. But I guess I have to accept that it only said 1 month in the moustache/beard contract).
Sorry about all the whining... I'll make it up to you with a list of good things that come out from long time travelling:
* None of the bus drivers hit a dog this time.
* May not be the most practical way of travelling, but certenly the cheapest.
* Oh man, my passport is colourful now from crossing all those borders and stamp men. And I do like colourful.
* Even if it more likely was dog food we ate, they actually DID provide us with 1 lunch.
* Cows, temples, rivers and mountains are fun to watch. For the first hour.
Koh Phangan. Party on the beach/our front yard.
Hard work work
Yeh, and of course we got it. Personal details and previous resumes were not very important. Alina, Harry and Luke can now add Mojitobar, Vang Vieng, to their resumes.
It's a hard life we're living and the tubing bar work is extremely tireing. Besides, they should definitely give at least a little pay rise for all the risks you constantly put yourself through at work. I mean, being stuck in a tree during work hours was never mentioned in the task contract.
Harry on job trial. Alina on trial.
Boys on trial.
Now, lets retire and have some holiday. See you in a few hours, Vientiane!
Vang vieng, my favourite playground
Not that I didn't trust the driver in front of me on the motor bike. Cause I did, mr. Stamp. But, we are in Vang vieng, Laos, the city where you wouldn't be surprised to find a COW on your balcony or a dog in your shower, this circus town. And, I do NOT trust the roads here, the other drivers, the non-existing helmets or the road bridges made by wood and ROPES. So I saw it as a sign when the lady in the bike rental shop made it clear there was not enough bikes left for all of us. I happily excepted mr. Tuktuk's lift offer, destination: Blue lagoon.
The Blue lagoon = a very blue lagoon, surrounded by mountains, tropic sounds and FLIES.
Rumors had told us about massive caves above the spring. 4 muppets ignored every single WARNING-sign about the caves, by the steep mountain path, and found an entrance to what we thought was a cave. But nono, WRONG! It was a HUGE cave. I felt like the claustrophobic version of Gollum while climbing around between the rocks.
An echo from deep inside turned out not being the Ghost of the Buddha statue in the middle, but some well prepared guys with all their caving equipment. " Are you really going further in?! Where are your lanterns??? Maaaan, we've got one each and it's still crazy black dark in there. Whaaaaaat...?!?! ARE YOU BAREFOOT?!! Good luck guys... You are gonna slip and die in the darkness..."
I guess the signs knew what they were talking about then... We waved good bye to Buddha and the impressive rocky space around us and went back down to earth, where Zaid kept amazing us with his double back-flips into the water.
And by the way... Vang vieng is a play garden. That's what it is, a playground (not a YARD, Ziddle!!!). But, the toothpaste here is with a taste of salt and herbs, Alina not very happy. And, the men's deodorants are with a whitening effect, Harry (with bleached armpits heheh) not very happy.
SLOWSLOWSLOW boat
I'll tell you what... A slowboat is not as fast as it sounds, it's SLOWER. Spent 2 days on this beauty...
I blame the over-populated world for the noice that still goes on repeat in my ears. The boat was so crowded that the 7 square-centimeters each we received on the floor were NEXT TO the engine (/monster). I forgot what silence sounds like.
But within all these hours I managed to squize in several first time seen-experiences:
1. Floating body. Neither the sight or the smell of a dead woman is very pleasant. The colours of what was cruising down the river reminded me of the Swedish flag and the size of her legs, swollen up by dirty water, were more likely belonging to an elephant. Actually no, 2 elephants. Absolutely terrible. RIP, I wonder what happened to you, poor thing.
2. My new favourite car brand - Elephant. The habitants of the passed villages taking the riverside "road" to work. This vehicle is slightly bigger than a jeep, 4 wheel driven and gentle for the environment. These Asians do really think about everything.
3. They forgot how to spell the word "jetty" when they wrote the Laos ditctionary. Terrifying minutes climbing rocks and down the steep mountains, while balancing 35 kilos of luggage, to reach the boat. That's how we roll here. Definitely a mental near death-experience.
Lost
Happy shoppers on the way back from the market
I have absolutely no idea what day it is, if it's morning or evening, where we are or what kind of animal the 7 cm long creature on my desk is. It's got 2 tails though...? It's been a huge bunch of hours travelling already and I believe there is another 48 hours of constant rides left to go, by all sorts of vehicle and by both land and water, til we reach our destination #1 in Laos. I don't even know the name of the city, but they better make me a proper coffee when I get there.
Morning ride with my favourite tuktuk driver man.
I do know though, that a bus dropped us off at this guesthouse, in the middle of nowhere, about an hour ago. Apparently the people here are gonna help us out with the visas we need to cross the border to Laos. "Photos will be taken at 6.00 pm, dinner is served at 7!!!" Orders from the chubby man who checked and KEPT my passport. And he wants heaps of money from us too, that greedy thing.
Chiang Mai was a pretty place. We went to the most beautiful night-light market, had some monday session and french fries with the tigers in one of the 239846 temples around and somehow got a VIP table next to the ring at the Muai Thai boxing championship. The boxers had funny shorts.
Luke shared my opinion about the boxing dresscode and bought his own shorts.
How to kill 17 hours on a train through a 3rd world country:
Of course all the beds on the 17 hours long train ride from Bangkok to Chiang Mai were fully booked and I had to say Khop Kun Kha for a bench seat in the hallway. Departure: 10.00 pm = not too much else than darkness to view through the windows. Since my company somehow managed to sleep through the break-dance shaking ride, I had to find another hobby to entertain myself with. Ipod= all passed out by Australian dehydration, phones=drowned and book=run out of pages ages ago. So my excellent choice of train task was... THINKING. Besides important decisions about how long and happily I'm gonna live my life, I had also time to think...:
* I reckon I would hardly find neither canned mackerel paste in minced chilli or shrimp/curry flavoured chips a gourmet. (The massive spot-lighted advert sign right above my head was flashing it's grossness to me all night).
* I imagined what it would feel like to get my arm sucked out through the wide-open window next to me, optional fall out through the OPEN DOOR in front of me.
* The orange juice selling lady is one of the most novelty things I've ever experienced. This constantly laughing cute lady was like a giant baby in an over-grown woman's body. I was wondering if I could keep her as a souvenir.
* Amazing how you in randomly sudden moments find parts of your body, you barely knew existed, tingly-sleeping. Apparently one of the side effects by the 17649 long distance Thai train ride-positions.
* I wish I had a coffe, a king size bed, unlimited much sushi (passed 22 hours awake without food), a good movie on a wide-screen and a cat. Cats are hilarious.
* It smells funny. Just everywhere.
Eventually thinking got boring as well, so I went for coffee in the reastaurant cart with 11 old Thai army soldiers/officers. We drank in silence, just nodded once in a while to make sure all of our beverages were enjoyable. I realized our coffee party was coming to an end when the main officer (the biggest man, who looked the least happy and had the most medals) stood up for a finishing morning song. I nodded again and went back to my seat for a nap on the floor.
* I reckon I would hardly find neither canned mackerel paste in minced chilli or shrimp/curry flavoured chips a gourmet. (The massive spot-lighted advert sign right above my head was flashing it's grossness to me all night).
* I imagined what it would feel like to get my arm sucked out through the wide-open window next to me, optional fall out through the OPEN DOOR in front of me.
* The orange juice selling lady is one of the most novelty things I've ever experienced. This constantly laughing cute lady was like a giant baby in an over-grown woman's body. I was wondering if I could keep her as a souvenir.
* Amazing how you in randomly sudden moments find parts of your body, you barely knew existed, tingly-sleeping. Apparently one of the side effects by the 17649 long distance Thai train ride-positions.
* I wish I had a coffe, a king size bed, unlimited much sushi (passed 22 hours awake without food), a good movie on a wide-screen and a cat. Cats are hilarious.
* It smells funny. Just everywhere.
Eventually thinking got boring as well, so I went for coffee in the reastaurant cart with 11 old Thai army soldiers/officers. We drank in silence, just nodded once in a while to make sure all of our beverages were enjoyable. I realized our coffee party was coming to an end when the main officer (the biggest man, who looked the least happy and had the most medals) stood up for a finishing morning song. I nodded again and went back to my seat for a nap on the floor.
Bangkok randoms
Misha, Luke and Zipp decided to follow the Asian chicken pad thai rules and stay sick in the room today. Alina and Harry found it much more entertaining to hang out with the celebrities at the Oscars' pre-party at Bangkok Paragon. Dressed up fancy in our best dirty flip flops and beach clothes and got to the most impressive movie theatre we've ever seen. And just to make the movie experience complete, we stopped by at 7/11 for some candy. You know, the usual movie snacks; sea weed, random seeds and chilli chick peas.
The movie, Faster, (guess who's choice...) was good, the sea weed was crispy but we still have no clue why we at one point totally randomly stood straight up with the rest of the cinema audience. I didn't like the silence there either cause my - as always - bad timing instantly set me in the worst need to cough. Bad.
Mum and dad, keep your eyes on the TV for thai news. Being on the press conference was boring, but falling over on the red carpet in front of mr. Camera man #1, 2, 3, 4, 5,.......and 46 was hilarious.
And here, some important facts; the taste of a scorpion is similar to chicken. Imagine a baby chicken toasted in the grill for way too long. Crispycrispycrispy, but the slimy inside had not run away in the grill. definitely still there.
Hunted by disasters
On the Singapore metro.
Always on the run. The floods in Australia decided to cross our way and kick our journey. Not very polite. There was a few paddles and not even McDonalds had any food left, since nothing could come through.
One year in Cairns and of course our dear cyclone Yasi wanted to come and visit us, see how we were doing. I normally like surprises, but he could at least have given us some notice cause we had just left our home behind. Good old Yasi must have been disappointed in our useless company. Not much of a party there, sorry about that.
Killed a few city hours with game arcades and cinema.
We got further and to our next destination - Christchurch, New Zealand. X Base hostel had been closed since the earthquake in September. And you could tell, half the building was gone. But who does not want this amazing group to stay at their hostel? We arrived at 1 in the morning and "You are more than welcome to check in!!", They opened up again. Had an awesome road trip around the South island, then 2 recovering days of sleep back at Base before we abandonned NZ 20th of February. New Zealand's most damaging earthquake hit Christchurch at the 21st. At that hour we were watching Anthony Hopkins doing som exorcism exercising in Singapore. Saw our hostel on the CNN news in our Bangkok guesthouse room this morning. AND MY FAVOURITE COFFEE SHOP!!! :(:(:(:(
People have died and heaps are still stuck in what's left of the buildings on our street. 3rd time luck. Indeed.
...and literally spent the night on a bench/concrete floor. Someone should have warned me... It was not comfortable, at all. So I guess this is my warning, just don't do it. Not worth it.
Current location: Bangkok. We better get out of here before next coming disaster reaches us. So, lets go to... maybe... Laos? Yeh, lets book a ticket, right now.
