Good Bye

Well my friends and foes, it has now come to an end. As I am writing this (my last piece) I am sitting in a room back in London, with three months abroad behind me. I have returned with mixed feelings; as nice and fantastic it is to travel around, I sometimes miss the comfort and particular lifestyle of being in one place, pottering about and and getting on with your life. Having said that, I am not looking forward to start working again. Actually looking for jobs is quite fun, but when you get to the stage where you have a job, things start to get a bit depressing. And you go out drinking with your friends every weekend to forget reality, and you walk home in the middle of the night wondering why. On that jolly note, I'm just going to recap a little on what I did in my last week in Barcelona.

I had a good last week. It so happened that quite a few of my old friends from Sweden were in Barcelona that week. I could tell you that they were all there to visit me, but that would be a lie. Anyhow, I ended up going out every night till the early hours, walking home everytime because I'm too cheap to take a taxi. On one of these nights, I met a delightful robber. I was walking the streets of Barcelona (completely lost, I might add) at about 5am, when suddenly a fellow sidled up to me. Hola, he said, and then went on to saying something incomprehensible. No hablo Espanyol, I said. Parlez-vous Francais? He asked? Oui, I replied. Then he started a conversation (whilst walking) that went on for about 5-10 minutes, high-fiving me every 45 seconds or so. After some time he told me he was going to demonstrate a football trick, and as he spun around me, I noticed his hand sliding in to my pocket. I grabbed it, and he snatched it out without taking anything. AND THEN, he just kept walking and talking, like nothing had happened! It was extremely awkward. And I, diplomatic and good natured as I am, started asking him some questions to break the ice! It was surreal. Anyway, I was a little worried he was going to try something again, so I thought I must scare him off. So when he asked what I was doing in Barcelona, I said "I'm here with my Juijitsu camp". After that he said good night and left me alone.

So, summing up my experiences. Meeting other travellers has made me realise how much there is to see, when you listen to their exciting stories and adventures. For example I've acquired a taste for South America, and would love to 'do' the continent properly. So this trip has been an "amuse bouche" for me, just a little taster of future adventures to come. Also, I definitely recommend travelling alone, for all of you who haven't. It is a bit daunting at first, but now I really appreciate it. I've learnt so much, especially about myself. I still don't really have a clue who I am, but I'm certainly closer to knowing than I was 3 months ago. I would also like to think that I've matured more during this time. Now, I still enjoy crude jokes and drinking lots of beer, but I mean on a more profound level.
And now awaits the real world, a world where going up at two in the afternoon and drinking and eating out every night is frowned upon. This is where I leave you, together we coexist in this generally grey environment, surrounded by stray dogs and odours of urine. But it is the beautiful moments we strive to live for, and that is where we belong.

So long, and thanks for reading.

Barcelona

Jesus, just realised that I've been here almost two weeks and haven't written anything about it yet! It has gone so fast, feels like i just arrived...
This is quite a special part of my trip. I am staying with my lovely second cousin who lives here in Barcelona, which means that I meet quite a lot of local people and not many tourists. For the duration of my travels it has been the opposite, mainly because I've been staying in hostels where usually about 75% of the people there are English, 10% Dutch, 10% Australian, and 5% unidentified weird nationalities. But it is also special because I am doing things that are moving more and more towards a routine; a word that has become foreign to my ears. I'm not only closer geographically to home, but also emotionally and actively. I've started to cook instead of going out to a restaurant, something I haven't done in almost 3 months! And it felt good, eating something home made. You get bored of eating out everyday, and I never thought I would consider that. I almost feel ready to go back home. (having said that, after two weeks at home I'll probably be attempting to kick myself in the face for writing this... travelling is really what it is all about!)

So far here in Barcelona I've done pretty much everything you'd expect someone to do. Been to Sagrada Familia, the big market Mercat de Bouquerias (or something..), MACBA museum (modern art), Parc Guell, strolled around Barri Gotico, etc. Oh and yesterday I found this tiny museum that was all about new inventions. Now, I don't mean useful inventions like the airplane, the telly, or the Star Wars Trilogy. No, what they displayed were clever little things that we actually don't need but can be fun to own, so we can show our friends and waste a few minutes of conversation concerning its use. One thing I actually liked was a handkerchief with the message "My phone is off for you" on it. Apparently, the handkerchief is made out of a type of material that blocks the phone signal (I don't know what kind of material that is, to be honest. Maybe something NASA invented then binned because they realised it wouldn't really change the world...). But is quite a nice little idea. However, most people probably couldn't handle it. Being unreachable. I say, can we just please leave each other alone for five F****** minutes?

Today I am going to the beach to try and save the last bit of tan that I lost in Argentina. I've borrowed a bicycle card, which has been great. Perfect and pleasant way to get around the city!

So long

Summing up Buenos Aires

It's been a while since I last wrote - so I'll try to remember what I actually did in my last week in South America... I can begin by telling you the good news regarding the weather that I've been so vigorously damnating all the time; it actually got quite warm in my last week, almost Pleasant. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it. My plans to buy a new sweater diminished to a futile quest and was soon a faded infant of a memory, and I strutted around the city in my sun glasses and thin summer clothes.

I actually did some things in this last week, I don't want you to have the impression that I just sauntered around the city in my flip flops and shades! For example, I went to the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Which I would call the National museum of Fine Art, if I wasn't such a pretentious prick). It was a huge two-storey museum with a mixture of Argentinian contemporary art and late 19th century world art. It was very good, and above all, it was free. 
I also went to a tango show, which wasn't free, but very good nonetheless. In addition to that, there was a 3 course meal included plus an unlimited supply of wine. The Tango was very good, they presented it in a way that explained how the dance has changed from as early as the 1920's to present day. At the end they started dragging people up from their chairs to join the tango-ing (is that even a word?), which strangely enough coincided with me having to go to the bathroom.

The last thing I did before leaving BA was very unexpected - I said good-bye to my childhood hero and alter-ego: Harry Potter. I saw the last film on the premiere, and felt a bit sad at the end. Not only because of the cringingly shit ending, with Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint's insomnia-like make-up to make them look like adults, but also because it's the end of an era. I followed Harry and his endless battles against The Dark Lord, who failed to kill a kid, his chubby ginger friend, and a girl. Never again will I read those books, which have been such a big part of my childhood. Maybe it is a good thing. Time to grow up.

Until next time, Thank you.

Buenos Aires

I have now spent one week here in Buenos Aires, and although I'm having a cracking time there is one thing that slightly spoils the fun: the weather. I suppose it was my fault for doing so little research before my arrival, but I thought South America never really gets cold. I mean, I'm from Sweden, these people don't know what cold is. But as I was sitting on the 3 hour flight from Rio the captain made an announcement, which was the following: "Ladies and Gentlemen, we are now beginning our descent in to Buenos Aires, where the weather is nice and clear with a temperature of 7 degrees Celsius". Christ, I thought, that is like an average English winter! So, it has been a cold week. I've been trying to find something warm to buy, but so far there has been no luck on that subject. I'm going to move on now, too much time is spent talking about the weather!
Buenos Aires is different to Rio in the sense that the sightseeing is cerebrated on strolling around in the different areas of town, where as in Rio it was more substantial. One thing I have seen however, is the magnificient grave yard where Evita Peron is buried. I have never seen anything like it before; every "grave" was like a small house, and they were lined up with small streets running parallel to eachother. It was literally like a small city. I will upload photos later.

I have also been to an area called La Boca, which is a quite poor area but looks nice because of the brightly coloured houses. A ate a nice barbequed lunch there too!
I have to say that the main attraction here is the food. Or, more precisely, the meat. I went to a famous restaurant called La Cabrera with a group of people the other night, and it was one of the best steaks I've ever had. 400 grams of red tasty meat, served with loads of different sauces. A side order of French Fries was unnecessary, the meat alone is enough. It was so good, I returned the next day!

The nightlife is very good too, there is a very wide selection of night clubs and bars that the hostel I'm staying at helps you to plough through.

Good Bye, for now.

Pictures and summary

I have now been in Rio for 3 weeks, and it is time to move on. In this post I’m going to tell you what I did my last few days, show some pics, and summarise this visit.

Since I’ve done pretty much everything there is to do in Rio, I had to figure out what to get up to these last days. The last thing one the list of activities you must do when visiting Rio was a favela tour. On the day I was scheduled to do the tour it was heaving down with rain, and clever as I am I showed up in my flip flops and shorts (white). I did have a rain jacket, but that was the extent of my preparations. I was a little concerned about bringing my rather expensive Nikon camera to the favela, but according to the tour guide nobody gets their possessions stolen there. This is due to the fact that this particular favela is controlled by the drug cartels, and if they see someone steal from a gringo (foreigner) they will shoot or severely injure that person – in front of you. If the favela gets a bad reputation no people would come to visit, which means the drug dealers wouldn’t get any money. Apparently the most dangerous time to visit a favela is when the police is there, because then they just start shooting drug dealers who in return shoot back, and civilians get caught in the crossfire. The tour guide said it was fine to take pictures of anything except the drug dealers, as they might shoot you. This notion worried me slightly; how do I know if someone’s a drug dealer? Do they wear matching stripy clothes? Or do they just have a sign on them saying “drug dealer”? In the end however the tour guide just let us know whenever we couldn’t take photographs. The ride up to the top of the favela was exhilarating; one by one we got on the back of a motorbike and shot up the winding streets of the favela. I loved it. I think I feared for my life about 60% of the ride, but it was quite exciting when they had a competition of who’d get to the top first! In the favela itself we went to an art gallery where the artists have had no formal education, so all the art is pure talent. I was tempted to buy a really nice painting, but it was in the 75 euro region so I decided against it. We also went to a school, a bakery, and even got a little samba show featuring a small child dancing.

In the evenings I’m trying make the best of my last Rio experience. It has included among other things a card game, with a stupid rule that you can’t say the D word (starts with D, ends with Rink). If you do, you have to keep your chin on the table until someone else says it. As it turns out, I’m abhorrently crap at not saying that word, so I was forced to look like an idiot for about one hour. I’m sticking with saying ‘alcoholic beverage’ now, in the event that I would have to play it again.

So, the inevitable summary of this city. Rio de Janeiro is an amazing city, with many things to do and see. The people are lovely, although they don’t speak much English (as discussed earlier). My hostel experience has been a mixed one; staying in a room with 11 other people is a good way to meet new people, but if you’re looking for a good night’s sleep it isn’t ideal. People snore (some snore REALLY loud), people stumble in at various times of night intoxicated by the consuming of alcoholic beverages, turn the lights on, talk loudly… you get the picture. I also haven’t had a single hot shower since I arrived in Rio, but that is probably just because the standard of my hostel is quite shit. Forgive me for the upcoming rants of cursing, but it is in quotation so I guess that makes it acceptable. So anyway, another weird thing about this hostel is that one of the staff members is referred to as “the fucking crazy motherfucking Argentinian”. Not only is he entitled this name by his fellow colleagues, but he even calls himself this. I thought it was a one-off thing, but I’ve noticed that he introduces himself as this (in various modifications, sometimes it’s just “the fucking Argentinian”) every time someone new checks in. I don’t know, but I sort of think it reduces the level of professionalism of this accommodation service.

The Brazilian food is a lot blander than I had expected. Their main traditional dish is literary black beans and rice. I don’t wish to slag off black beans and rice, but to me it’s just a bit disappointing and uninventive. Another weird traditional food is Farofa, which is fried flour. I thought it sounded quite interesting up until the point when I tried it, realising it actually just was fried flour. Who came up with that? It sounds like I’m just slagging off an entire nation and its culture, but that’s not the case at all. I love Rio, and I would definitely return.

So tomorrow I’m off to Buenos Aires, which I have heard so many good things about. Not only is it cheaper than Brazil, but apparently the food is amazing. Can’t wait to sink my teeth in a rare-cooked steak! In the meantime, here are some pictures!

Monkey in Jardim Bôtanico

Sunset from Sugar Loaf Mountain

Samba in the Favela

Christ the Redeemer

Ipanema Beach

Magic in Rio

Time flies my friends, time flies. With only 5 days left in Rio I feel like I've done almost everything, but it also feels like I just arrived. Since I last wrote I've been up to quite alot. As I said in my previous post, I was going to go to Búzios. I asked the reception in my hostel if they could take 2 nights out of my reservation, and then book me in again for friday when I would return from Búzios.That was all fine, they said. When I had packed the following morning and carried my bag down to the reception to check out, there was another receptionist there. Where are you going? she asked. Búzios, I said. I'll be back on friday. Friday? That's going to be a problem. Apparently it was some Brazilian holiday this weekend, and therefore the system couldn't accept any check-ins on friday or saturday. (Weird, but that seemed to be the case anyway). Slightly annoyed, I said well whatever, I'll find somewhere else to stay. This was proven to be very difficult, everywhere is full during the holiday. But it sorted itself out in the end, I just stayed in another hostel in Ipanema. Trying to find the bus station to go to Búzios was bloody difficult. The people in Brazil don't speak any English. And I mean no English at all. I asked a police man: Bus station? He didn't understand a word. Got there in the end though, and it was very beautiful. I stayed at a hostel that was just on the beach, you could literary just walk out the door onto the sandy beach. It was very expensive though; I was going out with a few people I met there, and the entrance fee of a club was 120 Reais (which is about 50 euros).

Back in Rio I've been up Sugar Loaf Mountain, where you can see the entire city. Went up just before sunset, and it was truly fantastic. I'll upload some photos in the end of this coming week. I also went to the Modern Art Museum; I was really looking forward to it because I had heard that they had a great photo exhibition, but   when I arrived there they had taken it off. The rest of the exhibition was all right, some things were a little too abstract; I find it a bit annoying when someone presents a piece of metal and calls in art. But there were some good stuff by Miró and Picasso, as well as contemporary brazilian artists.

The best thing about travelling alone is that you meet loads of new people, but it also means that you can choose to just be on your own for a day if you feel like it, and then in the evening go out with a bunch of people. It's very good for the creativity as well. I written quite a bit of music and the work on my book is developing nicely. All is good!

Rio de Janeiro

 I've been in Rio for almost 10 days now, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it! What have I done so far? Well, I try to mix the cultural visits with pure relaxation - and since I've got so much time here it's possible! Culture-wise, I've done Christ the Redeemer (a magnificient statue of Jesus, if you didn't already know that), the Botanical Gardens (which host more than 6000 different species, including 600 varieties of palm trees and 140 different kind of birds. I also saw loads of monkeys, and I will upload the pictures at a later date!). I have also been in the old area called Santa Teresa, where you take a tiny tram that takes you over the Lapa aqueduct and through the narrow streets of Santa Teresa. Amazing! I have also had time to go to the beach when the weather is nice and sunny, sun bathing and talking to new friends or simply reading a book. Today I am going to a football game between Flamengo and Botafogo that the hostel has organised for us guests, and I reckon it's going to be quite an experience!

Last friday I went to a street party in Lapa, which felt quite surreal since a whole area in the middle of town had been closed off to make way for young people to drink and eat in the street. It was fun, but completely packed with people! So you didn't want to lose the people you'd come with, because the chance of finding them again would be diminishingly small.
Last Sunday there was this favela party - basically a night club situated in a favela. It was a cool experience; unlike an ordinary night club everybody was dancing samba, and you bought your caipirinha from small stalls for £1.

I really enjoy Rio so far. I might go away for a few days next week to small town 3 hours north, called Buzios. I've heard it's like a paradise, and if I go to hell when I die I would just like to get a taste of heaven first.

But for now, I bid you farewell

News and pics

Hey! I have now arrived in Rio de Janeiro! I wasn't completely sure I was going to arrive in one piece though... had the worst flight ever! I thought things had been moving quite smoothly, but obviously when you're travelling there is always something that goes wrong. So I arrive at JFK with an alright margin, but when I look for my flight on the departures' board, my flight isn't on there! The only flight that was the same time as mine was one to Sao Paolo, and I knew that my flight was a direct to Rio. I asked at the counter, and apparently I had to make a transfer in Sao Paolo. That's ok, I thought, I've done that before. I get on the plane, and start watching a film (the Hangover) in the wait for our departure. Half-way through the film the pilot says that we have to wait for 2 hours before leaving becauase of a storm in our route. I started calculating and realised I would still have time to catch my transfer flight. The movie ended and I watched another one. And then another. After 4 hours we still hadn't left, and the crew started handing out food. After eating, I fell asleep. I woke up to the sound of the engines humming, about to take off. I looked at my watch - 3 am. That meant we were delayed by 7 hours, which in turn meant i definitely would miss my transfer. In Sao Paolo there were probably another 200 people  stranded because of a volcano eruption,so chaos had broke loose. I hooked up with some brazilians and one  american, and together we managed to get a flight to rio 2 hours later. I arrived at my hostel 10 hours later than expected. Jesus.

I'll give you an update later about what I'm doing, but for now I'll upload some pictures from New York, as promised!

The past week

I've been in New York for 10 days now, and I've certainly seen alot. Like I mentioned in my last post I visited Ground Zero and took the ferry out to Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Got some pretty good pics that I will upload before I go on thursday. There was a really sweet little boy on the ferry to Ellis Island, asking his mother: "where are we going?", and the mother answered "To Ellis Island", whereby the boy asked: "Who is Alice?" :)
I went up Empire State Building (to the 86th floor) and checked out the amazing views of the city. The visibility was very clear, so you could see all the way to New Jersey and Massachusetts.
The amount of walking I have done since I arrived here probably ads up to what I normally walk in one year. I haven't even been on the tube once. Today however I'm taking the red line up to Harlem, which I'm very excited about. If I've got time I'll go back down again and try walking the Brooklyn Bridge!

I've also been to the cinema here twice. I've seen two very good albeit different movies: Midnight in Paris (Directed by Woody Allen) and Beginners (starring Ewan McGregor and Mélanie Laurent). Highly recommended!

Fare well 

New York

Long time, pas de visage! As you might have guessed, I have now come to another continent on the other side of the world. The trip here was probably the longest I've ever flown; starting in Bangkok, the flight to Doha, Qatar, took about 8  hours. There I had to wait 2 ½ hours for my next flight that would take me to New York JFK. That flight took 14 hours. So all in all I was travelling for 24 hours. After being here for 4 days so far, the jet lag is starting to wear off although I still feel it at about 11 pm, because the time zone I'm used to is 12 hours ahead. Or behind, I've lost track now.

New York is amazing. This is my first time here, and now I really know what people mean when they talk about the city's magical atmosphere. I mean, I already want to live here. To anyone who hasn't been here yet, you'll know what I mean when you visit. Because you will.

The best thing about being here for 2 weeks is that I don't have to stress and squeeze everything in at once. So far I've been walking around just  to get to know the city better, which becomes rather easy because of the grid plan. I've been to Times Square, which was absoutely packed with people who also wanted to stand and stare at all the neon adverts. One day it was so hot, I went to Central Park and just lay down in the grass. Later I strolled on and saw a very talented brass band playing jazz, so I sat down and watched them for a while. A little further on were three guys doing break dance moves and other tricks. In the end one guy jumped over three other people. That was pretty cool. Loads of entertainment!

Might take a trip down to Ground Zero today, and in the next few days I was planning on visiting the Met to check out the Alexander Mcqueen exhibition.

Peace

Next Destination!

Whoa. A lot has happened since last time I wrote. But it's still difficult to know where to start... Ok, arriving in Phi Phi is a good place to start I guess! Upon arrival the weather was really nice, and the crystal clear water was truly inviting. But before we did anything we had to find accomodation, which is really a pick and choose game because of the massive amount of hotels and bungalows that existed here. We found one that was the same price as the luxury room we'd stayed in in Phuket - but didn't quite hold the same standard. The lights seemed to live a life of their own and only worked occasionally, while the A/C turned itself off every 10 minutes or so. In the evening we met up with our new found friends Gary and Chloé (we met on the bus to Phuket the week before), and went to see a movie at Banana bar where they were showing a movie with Russell Brand in (can't remember the name). Later we went to Slinky's for a big beach party!

Day two we went on a long-tail boat trip to Maya Bay (where they shot the film The Beach with Leonardo DiCaprio), Monkey Beach, and also some snorkeling in beautiful lagoons. Unfourtunately I didn't bring my camera, but I recommend you to search on google for Maya Bay or Monkey Beach, because it was absolutely stunning!

Day three, our last day on Phi Phi. A British diver convinced me to go diving, he said I would not regret it and that it would be the best thing I'd done in Phi Phi. He was right. It was fantastic! For the first dive my instructor gave me some pointers and told me how the equipment worked. When he'd made sure I was on top of everything we went down. The "training" bit took like 10 minutes, great! The instructor was a fairly serious American guy, but he was very clear about all the do's and don't's. For example, he showed me a button that inflates the swimming costume I was wearing, and he said: "If you push this button when under water, you will shoot to the surface and the pressure will cause your lungs to explode. So don't do that". I can tell you, I didn't even look at the bloody thing.
Anyway, I saw loads of cool stuff! Multi-coloured fish, black-tip reef sharks, barracudas, amongst many others. If you haven't done it, I highly recommend you to try it!

Now I'm at the airport in Bangkok, where I have to wait 14 hours for my flight to New York. Bad planning Joel... But who cares, I'm going to New York!!!!

Peace

In Phuket

We are now in Phuket - quite the opposite from the calm muslim island we just left. I'll get to that in a minute. First I just want to tell you about what we did on our last day in Langkawi. We took a taxi to The Seven Wells waterfall, which is basically what it sounds like. The taxi driver was kind enough to wait there for us to return, without charging anything extra. The waterfall was quite a climb - almost 500 steps in a vertical angle, and when reaching the top I realised that I really should start working out again when I get back. There were loads of little monkeys running about freely, which was awesome. I've got some pictures of them which I'll post later.

Anyway. Phuket is an extraordinary place. We are living in an area called Patong, and our hotel is only 2 minutes from the beach. I say hotel, actually it's a resort. With a pool. And the room we live in is vast. With a balcony. True story. We went to a Tourist information upon arrival, who claimed he could fix us a room in a deluxe resort for 1400 Baht/night (which comes to about 9 euros per person). We thought that there must be a catch, but he said that the hotels are desperate in the low season. We trusted him, and now we are living quite exquisitely. Not really the backpacking experience, but hey. The thing I don't like about the place is the widespread prostitution. There are more "massage parlours" than shops, and when you walk past they shout "Mister! Mister! Massage!". Yesterday they even started pulling my arms and squeezing my buttocks, which was rather intimidating. Tomorrow we're probably heading to one of the nearby islands, Koh Phi Phi, for a day or two.

Peace

Back to Thailand

Hello everyone. Langkawi is truly beautiful. We are staying at a beach motel which is literary 3 metres from the beach, and the sea is crystal clear while the sand is soft. We bought a football and played all afternoon under the hot blazing sun; everything seemed perfect. Then the trouble started. first, we all got very sun burnt. I couldn't lie on my back last night because it was stinging too much. Second, I tore up the skin on my left foot sole, so I had to walk around like a cripple for the duration of the evening. Then to top it off, the beach town is completely dead this time of year, so there is nothing much to do after sunset. But hey, these things happen. We decided we had to leave pretty soon, because this would be unsustainable after a few days (especially since it's raining today, which means no beach). So we booked a ferry and bus ride to Phuket in Thailand, hoping this will finally give us what we want; a mixture of relaxation, activity, and night life. The trip takes about 7 hours. Whooppey. I've finally got some pics to show you, here they are below!

View of George Town, Penang.

Parascending on Batu Ferringhi Beach, Penang.

Myself, and the Sunset at Batu Ferringhi Beach, Penang

Batu Ferringhi Beach, Penang

Malaysia

We landed at the International airport in Penang, Malaysia, on Sunday afternoon and took a taxi into the island's main city; George Town. Looking out from the taxi's window I notice a quite distinctive difference from Thailand and Laos; here on Penang, an old British colony, things seem more modern and all signs and shops are written in both Malay and English. We ask the driver about what the local inhabitants think about the British people, who ruled the little island for almost 200 years. He said that they are very good people because they helped the island up on its feet, building hospitals and schools and setting up an industry. This I thought was surprising, I just assumed that the people of an old colony would dislike their past "owners". Then he added: 'but they took alot of our money'. oh well, it lasted for a couple of sweet minutes at least.

Penang is a very beautiful place. Lots of green trees and mountains, churches and mosques, old buildings etc. There are even some old heritage sites. But we are 20 years old, and we all like a good night out after a long day. The nightlife in Penang is... well, frankly a bit shit. It had loads of potential, but there just weren't any people there. Where are all the Singha-tank-top-clad British people when you need them?!
Today was a lovely day and we spent the entire time on the beach in Batu Ferringhi. I had a lovely fried rice with mixed seafood for lunch. Tomorrow we're off yet again to another island two hours by boat from  Penang. It's called Lankawi, but I call it Malawi for some reason. It's supposed to be really nice, so let's just hope!!

Peace 

Additional surprises!

Finally I can write again. The blogger web page has been down for a couple of days, but is now back up running! So, what has happened? Tubing was a surreal experience, but enjoyable nevertheless. We didn't actually use the rubber rings because people had told us they weren't worth it - what really happens is that you drink, and occasionally jump in the river!

Even though I'm glad we did it, none of us felt we had to stay and do it again. It's a bit like going out to a club at home but outside and a warmer climate. So without plan or agenda we took the local bus to Vientane and hopped on the night train to Bangkok. That was yesterday. We wanted to go somewhere that combined beach life with activities, so we went to the travel agent in Bangkok and asked them to check for flights in the nearby region. She found cheap flights to an island called Panang in Malaysia; none of us had been there, and I hadn't even heard of the place, so we went ahead and booked 3 tickets. So tomorrow (Sunday), we are off yet again! Very exciting.

Peace 

First few days

So finally we can play catch-up. I was picked up at the airport by Leo and Linus, and together we took a cab to the hotel. The hotel was quite fancy even for western standards, and we paid a reasonable amount of 300 Baht per person (about 8 euros). The first night was celebrated at full calibre, exploring the interesting nightlfe of Bangkok.

Day 2 we booked our train tickets for Laos - a 12 hour journey. The train would depart 20.00 the next day, so we still had one night left in Bangkok. The taxi drivers are very keen to help - even though they have no idea what you are saying. We asked one driver that evening to take us to a specific "discodancingbar"; nodding and repeating the word "yes" he started driving in the wrong direction. He took us to a place called "Snop" (swedish word for penis), and we thought it couldn't get better.

Now we're in Vang Vieng, Laos. It took in total 16 hours to get here. After the train journey we split a mini van (basically a 4-by-4 range rover) with a dutch entrepreneur, a weird german and his little thai boy. This is the place for Tubing - a strange local tourist activity whereby you sit in a rubber ring, floating in the lagoon and getting hauled in by various beer-generous bars. today is rainy however, so it will have to wait until tomorrow.

Pictures will come shortly!

Peace

And We're Off!

So finally the day has come. I've checked-in my brutally heavy rucksack at Heathrow terminal 4, and as I'm writing this I've just come off the 9 hour flight with Mumbai as the destionation. The flight was pretty good. I had my own TV with movies and tv-series, so I watched Knight and Day, Kick-Ass, Ace Ventura, and some old episodes of How I met your mother. So I didn't get an enormous amount of sleep, but hey, why sleep when you can be awake. When I arrived in Mumbai the security officers said there was "a small problem" with my transfer. Oh Shit, I thought. But in the end the only thing that needed to be done was a little scribble on my ticket with a ball-point pen, something I probably could have done on my own. So now I'm kicking back in a big fat armchair with an Iced caffe latte, waiting to board my plane to Bangkok. There, my dear fellows Leonard and Linus will meet me at the airport (hopefully).

So Long!!

New Changes

Starting in May, my blog will adapt a new character and layout as I begin my 3 month around the world trip. I will continue posting pictures from all the amazing places I'll be visiting, but I'll also write about what's going on, what I've been doing. etc.

Peace

Country

"I know a place not far from here, where life's sweet perfume fills the air, and if you want I'll take you there"
                            Paul Weller

"Sun Glimpse"

                         "Avebury"

"Stone and his shadow"

                      "Playtime"

"World's End"

    "Talking in the Shade"

"Valley"

Around London

"By seeing London, I have seen as much of life as the world can shew."

"Resting Tree"

       "Light in the Dark" 

"Girl in the Window"

"Everything Can't always be fun"

"Saturday"

                "Blue Vespa"

"Busy Street"

The New Forest, December 2010

"The sharp cold air cut through all my layers and pierced my skin, continuing all the way to my bones where it stayed, gnawing and feasting like a vulture"
               
Joel Cullberg Head

"Frozen Lake with Ice Splinters"

"Walk Down to White Tree"

"Strolling"

"Black and White"

"Frozen bush"



 "Struggle"

Winter Paradise

"Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire:  it is the time for home."
                           Edith Sitwell

 

          "Skiis on a date"

"Dots on a Mountain"

        "A slope with a View"

 

              "Sun bathing"

"The Brave Walk Back"

A day with Saint Paul

" This day was just another day for the city, with the afternoon sun reflecting in the windows of the tall buildings, momentarily blinding those who would look up from their purposeful walk"
                                         Joel Cullberg Head

"St Paul's"

"View from Tate Modern"

"Paul, Tree, and Sunshine"



















"Can You See God From Here?"

London City, Modern Vintage Perspectives

"London Bridge on a sunny day"

         "London Bridge on a foggy day"

"Carousel by Night"

                    "Green Park in the Nude"