Home away from home

So hello there anyone who is still reading after my frequent disappearances as of late. It is with joy and fortune that i get in a killer update on the last day of my trip, telling you all the old and new since my last session of writing. Now what that entails, im not perfectly sure since its been a while and im under stress as im getting ready for my flight home, but i think i have a general idea of what to tell you and what not to ; ).
All beginning with the bit of information that im not in california anymore and that i havent been since last friday when i left to go visit my old home and friends in Delaware and Pennsylvania, with some hope of going up to NYC for a short visit. Now granted most of my old friends are in college, and are in the middle of exams. I decided to go a different but equally as exciting road to visit my old swedish neighbor named Robert along with his family in the old neighborhood Hartefeld, where i lived for 3 and a half years. So coming back here was not something of a new experience but it was quite awkward to see the old house 100m up the road everyday without being able to walk into it. It was also weird to see how much everything had change, with the addition of some 40 or more new houses and a tenniscourt that we evidently missed out on by moving all those three years ago. But other than that, i must say it was really nice to be back for a while and get my feet somewhat steady before heading home today and back to reality with a lifetime of memory(i really do feel that we need an upgrade to our human memory because i dont see myself fitting everything into my head, and i definetly dont see how anyone over 40 can fit everything in).
Now if you wonder what i have done except for sleep and adjusting to a semi swedish way of living, I have done quite a lot.
List to you:
-seen "knowing" with nicholas cage and x-men the origins.
-Been to starbucks and had lattes
-had a swedish easter dinner with the Öhman family and their american friends.
-Hung out with Bobby Dewees(old classmate)
-Driven around with bobby to places like the mall and University of Delaware x2
-Met friends and hung out in college doorms at UD(tessa, adrian, and nick)
-Played an unserious set of pool and tennis with robert
-Stayed a night at bobs house watching zach and miri make a porno(relax its a comedy) and weird french movie
-been thinking of writing on my blog... decided to the last day
-Bought stuff ; )
This which you see above, is the general rough version of what ive been doing this past week. Now it might look dull and solemnly normal. But it was a lot of fun. Given all of this and that, i think i might be semi ready to head home!! But dont get me wrong, i am definetly gonna miss it. And im gonna miss it a lot. Hope you've enjoyed reading this as much as i have been writing it. Its been AWESOME!!
see on the home-field and and every other place ill meet whoever has read this.
Cheerio

A year for economically handicapped

So as far as i can tell, 2009 has not been the greatest year economically since the market crashes in the late year of 2008. Knowing the struggles and losses of many peoples finances and jobs around the world, how does people still manage to stay afloat traveling around the world. Well it is quite easy; first of all, we eat unbranded foods under a dollars worth, we live off the hostpitality of people we know, and we dont give much of any thought as to how big our debt will be by the time we get home. Now i say debt, because i know ill be in one and so does everyone else ive met traveling by the time we all get home. The question remains however, how large or significant will that debt be? Do we resent the need to buy cool and quite unnecessary things, or do we scrap all resistance and give in to our evolving greed and consumerism and just say, "you only live ones"... or in swedish "men anda"!
I guess it all depends on what person you are, for me however, im not quite sure where i stand. I havent been the craziest of spenders for box bound memorabelia, but i do feel a burning sensation in my pocket everytime i walk into a clothing or generally surf natured store with cool tshirts, wetsuits, glasses, or surfboards. Choosing my word carefully now, i do not know where my wallet will lead me in the forthcoming days, but i do hope it gets me home with a smile on my face ; )!

p.s Santa Barbara is awesome

Santa of a barbara

Well hallo hallo i guess i should say after some days of absence. Its been some time since i showed my prescence on this ever so familiar site. Not to let anyone down, i guess i should start by giving you the recap of the last week and what has happened inorder for me to end up in the ever so beautiful and party crazy town of Santa Barbara, CA. To let you know of the in and outs i guess ill start with me and LAX where i so gently landed this previous monday afternoon. It all started out with a 1 1/2 hr delayed flight from Fiji which left me delirious, thinking Philip might not wait for me at the airport and id be in big troubles in LA. Luckily, i got a hold of him through facebook and everything worked out fine, as his ever so beautiful sister was coming in late to the US of A due to sickness, making the timing of my delay only 30 min apart from her landing at LAX. Now that is only the beginning of my story as LAX had more to offer than just heavy security, customs and personal working in the matter of national security. It offered a bit of hollywood and its awesome tv series, as i had the pleasure of seeing Lincoln burrows or shall i say dominic parcell, the older brother in the television series Prison break, which is highly ranked and watched by many around the world!
Now arriving in LA, i thought enitially that we would stay a couple of nights, but we ended up heading straight down to San diego in a group consisting of Philip, Rebecca(philips sister), emil(their family friend) and me. Arriving in san diego and without much of a place to stay by 9 oclock in the evening, we ended up staying at a place called the pacific in by around the vicinity of little italy. Only to switch to good nite inn, which was half the price and located in a much more shady part of town. Now spending time in San diego, we saw a lot of what the town had to offer. We saw, OB and the great waves we surfed, along with a big warship, San Diego state university, and of course Ikea and its amazing swedish food, along with all the other parts of san dieogo. Now after being finished with SD by thursday, we decided to head to santa barbara and the town where philip studies and lives among Ola and therese, some other friends i know here. Now after having spent the last two days here i must say its a charming little town with a backside for crazy parties at Ivy and a solid number of swedish people living and studying here among the serene and beautiful beaches and landscape. It is definetly a place that appeales to anyones liking as it is small in size with a very comfortable and enjoyable setting to live in. I must say i really like it here.
Now not to be too long, i thought id leave you here as i definetely need some sleep after todays spring break party by the beach at Ivy and late evening beer pong. I do hope you have a great weekend and that your having a great time as you should have, as i leave you for a day and return to you in another.
cheers

City of Angels

What is happening today?
Boat to Nadi in 4 hours
bus from harbour to airport in 7 1/2 hours
Plane to Los angeles in 11 1/2 hours

So yea ive got a very exciting travel day today, which i guess is good considering the pooring rain here in Fiji at the moment! not the ultimate goodbye weather, but it does make it easier to leave the paradise islands behind ; )! Other than that, i just finished the second of Stieg Larssons Millenium books which just left me craving for the third one! Better keep it ready and waiting at home ; )!

Now im gonna enjoy my last hours on the lovely island of Naviti and learn some more fijian phrases that i will not get to use for a long time.... but hopefully not for all eternity!
toodles

Nadi, Kuata and Korovou, Fiji

So i made it to my third and last island, where i will spend my last two days in Fiji. Now my Fiji visit isnt the longest but it is amazing nonetheless. Ive spent the first night in Nadi, the main island, and the third and second night at Kuata where they shot some of the 'cast away' movie with Tom Hanks. All before arriving today at the island of Natvi, where i stay at the Korovou eco tour resort! Now for activities and things ive done in fiji, a few come to mind beside just lying on the beach or in a hamick sleeping or reading. Second night for example we did the summit treck to the top of Kuata where we could see loads of the nearby islands along with a distant sun sinking from the sky and lighting up another( one of the most beautiful things ive seen). The day after this we spent half the day snorkeling the nearby reef and feeding white tipped sharks, which was quite interesting and at certain moments a bit scary but harmless nonetheless. I mean the locals did say they were friendly sharks and if the do come towards you nibbling away at you, just say Bula(hello in fiji) and stay calm). That same night we also learnt how to do the famous Bula dance which was a lot of fun, followed by a game of musical statues, which me and this German girl Jana won surprisingly enough... seeing as we didnt know what we were doing until halfway through the game.
On the cultural side, The Kuata island village retain their Rugby trophy from the neighboring waya lai lai island which meant celebration and singing. But the most outstanding thing on Fiji, must be the simple meaning of 'Fiji Time', which means that everything in Fiji moves a lot slower... No Worries basically, the complete opposite of a speeding City like Stockholm where everyone runs on high gear through town on caffein ; )!
So all in all, Fiji is relaxing, fun, joyful and a necessity to any traveller that needs a break within a break just to relax away from the hectic speeds of tourism and sightseeing!
With that ill leave you till monday and the arrivall of me in Los Angeles!

p.s ill be travelling backwards on monday and relive the 30 of mars 2009 in LA after having spent the 30 of april 2009 in Fiji....pretty cool ey : )!

FIJI....highfive

so ive just landed on the island of Nadi, Fiji which i will leave for the smaller islands in the morning. Now id like to tell you that it is a paradise and yiddi yiddi yada but its been dark since i came and its dark now so cant say that much besides the fact that musquitos are eating me alive!
What i can tell u about is the great flight i just had. I Was supposed to go economy class all the way with a screaming and kicking kid behind me, but sitting by the exit door with a flight attendant right infront of me seeing how disturbed and annoyed i looked... i was told to pack my things and follow her. now little did i know at the time, that i was going straight to the awesome new business class. I mean in my mind, i thought id just be taken a couple of rows up. To my excitement and disbelief, i was taken straight to business class which was friikin' awesome. So what i can say so far on my island trip, is that pacific airlines is one hell of a joy.
On another note, dont know how internet works on the smaller islands, as i dont have any phone reception on the big one. So if you dont hear from me in a while, dont worry to much as there probably just isnt a way to get a hold of me!'
Cheerio

ROOM 103

Is it chance, is it Karma, maybe its luck, frankly i have not the slightest idea what it might be but as always at WAKE UP Sydney! i have landed in no other room but the infamous room 103. Now its only my second time being there, but i have been supposed to change beds twice when i have stayed there, making it a smashing four time streak to get to stay in room 103. So with relief, i feel really at home in that room, which has been essential in having my last two days of mellow and chilled out rest in AUS. Taking some time to rest and just be is an essential i havent really used in the last months as ive been running from place to place and country to country, and in the end it deffinetly catches up with you, so now that im cleaned up and washed up(clothes that is) i am definetly ready for the three last stages of my journey, being fiji, California, and New York with a visit to my old homestead of hartefeld where i spent 3 and a half years of my life and havent really had the chance to revisit since i left. So that will definetly get me excited and pumped up to get to see what has happened to the old neighborhood.
Now for todays activities, being along the lines for cleaning, washing, and plain relaxation, i had the best weather ever, with clear blue skies and shining sun for a quick walk over to hyde park where i for the first time in a long time got to just sit down and read the second book in Stieg Larsson intriguing book series of the journalist Mikael Blomqvist and his adrenaline kicking and suspenseful adventures! Now for those who have not been to sydney or hyde park, it is very similar to that of central park and Djurgarden in stockholm as it is a bit of an oasis in a crowded city, and with the most beautiful weather, it is never wrong to move away from the hectic city lifestyle to these wonderlands for a quick ice cream, read in your book, lunch or even a nap. As there where plenty of suited up Aussies who just dropped dead for a nap on the lawn or bench! you gotta love it ; )!
Now being the last night in sydney, i gotta leave you at this as i head up to pack the gear, check the details and make a last social round with the people ive meet before i hit the hay and fall into heavy dreaming mode before i start screaming at the alarm clock for waking me up as i have to stress away to catch my fiji flight and the coming days in an island paradise ; )!
So incase i dont see ya, good morning, good evening and goodnight

this and that

Adrenalin rushes

So i know ive been absent with stories of legendary proportions, but it has been hard getting the hold of a computer or telephone reception in the last couple of days as ive just spent five days surfing along the coast up to Byron Bay. For those who didnt know, surfing is something which i very much like after having tried it for the first time in Hawaii some distant ammount of years ago, and now getting to do it on some really amazing waves and about 8 hours a day i must say i like it even more! It might sound all but very much like a cliche but ones you start riding waves, you can hardly stop.
Now you might wonder why i have not had a computer or any cellphone reception, i can only tell you that the places we went there wasnt really much of that nor any other form of high technology. The first couple of nights we spent at a beach house in crescenthead, a very remote location with a population of 1000 ppl or so. So as you can imagine, there wasnt really much to do around there except surf on a deserted beach with the third best wave in AUS according to our surf leader morgan who is ranked 90 something the world.
The second place we spent the last two night, was called spot-X, and is propably one of the most known surf spots in all of australia, and from the ammount of good waves people managed to catch there, there is no doubt as to why so many people go there to surf.
Now i know it is hard to get a picture as to how this whole lifestyle was to live for a week, but im gonna try to paint you just that picture. On any normal day, we would wake up at around 7.30 for a quick breakfast and then head over to the beach for the 4 hour morning session. After that first session, we'd head for lunch and a couple hours break before heading back out for the afternoon session. Now after this one we'd head for the showers which was always a pain as the warm water was retrieved using solar panels, meaning that the warm water would most likely run out fairly fast. Followed by the showers came our large portioned sinners which was usually past, hamburgers, or sandwishes. Given that we did not overload on dinner or need an early sleep, most people went for the beach fire where we'd just hang out and listen to music and have a good time only to wake up just as early the next day for a continuance of the surfer saga ; )
So there you have it, that is what amazing things ive done this week, added with the swimming with the wild dolphines after one of our morning sessions and the 14,000ft skydive i did yesterday morning over byron bay!!!
Hope it was legendary enough, all the best

p.s heading to sydney tonight and then Fiji on tuesday, which means im back in sweden within 3 and a half weeeks! !!!!!!!!!!!

Some Goodies

Minivan- Thailand to Malaysia

Patronas towers- Kuala Lumpur

Melaka- last dinner

KL-Raggae Bar

Sydney
All pictures put on facebook

Another sunny day in Sydney

So i am now on my fourth day in sydney and im getting quite bored and need to get a move-on to other things. Not that i dont like it here, because it is a great city with some really funny people, but travelling in a city can only or shall i say should only last for a certain ammount of time. Because the way i see it, when you are travelling, you can only stay in a city for such a long time that allows you to explore it and get a real feel for its culture. Now the time it takes to do this, all depends on what city your going to. For example if you take the cities i have been to, they all take a different ammount of time to explore. Delhi for one takes a bit more time because first you have to get used to everything happening around you before you can even start to comprehend anything you see because you're pretty much in a trans being disoriented and in culture shock. Now bangkok and KL went a bit faster as they were quite a bit more westernized bringing us to Singapore which lands just short of the trophy of being a city one could easily work through in a couple of days. This all in the end brings us here to Sydney. Sydney is a really charming city, with its parks and shopping streets and waterfront views and nice beaches. But this also is what makes it so one dimensional, as it possesses almost all of the things a standard western city has; besides the opera house. Having walked around it for the last couple of days seeing all its parts, it really gives off a mix of reminding pieces to that of an american city which also possesses the british building blocks it was founded on. It even reminds me a bit of Stockholm with the water and the parks next to it bringing back pictures of Djurgarden. So one might say that after a couple of days exploring and seeing everything it offers, i must say i am ready to find out and see what Australia is really about! Now i know im not going to see queens land or the western places like Perth or Darwin, but what i will see on this Aussie trip as i most likely will be back, will be the surfers culture and the lively town of Byron Bay where hopefully ill get a chance to Skydive as i decided not to do it here in Sydney!
So what i guess one might say, is that im ready for the next stage of the trip as im slowly moving towards the NYC airport and home...

Cheers

Beach freak

Today was a good day. Not just because the sun was rediculously hot adding a new definition to me as a brown little child. It was good because i was finally back at a beachbreak consisting of some incredible swells(waves) and an incredible ammount of rediculously good surfers taking part in Australias favourite past time. It was so nice to finally see it and right upfront and centre after having read about it avidly in the stacks upon stacks of SURFER magazines lying around at various spots at home. That truly made my day, and i just couldnt stop starring at wave after wave that made its way towards the pile of heads and bobbing in the water hungry for fullfilling adrenaline kicks and 10 second rides.
So what happened today, I now consider myself a beach freak.

On another note, being a food lover of great proportions, i finally used the kitchen at the hostel making myself a good size pasta portion with a special pasta sauce taught to me by none other than my parents. So i guess im finding my place in sydney slowly as i awaite the 5 day surf tour up to byron bay which leaves on monday. Till then i have planned to sky dive, go to a few arts museums, and hang at manly and bondi beach.

cheers

Wake up! wake up! wake up!

Heres the deal ok. So ive just finished my first day in sydney and started the morning on my second one. Im staying at this hostel called wake up sydney, which is really nice and very very crowded, which is also quite nice. The one funny thing however is the fact that it feels like there are about 75% norweigans currently occupying the place and in doing so sparking some interesting conversations as one has to concentrate like never before just in order to understand them! But i quite enjoy challenges so its all good ; ) Now the other really quite funny thing is that everymorning and a couple of times during the day, the place is filled up by an aussie voice making announcements from the speakers around the hostel, yelling " wake up wake up wake up.... followed by whatever announcements he has, which is usally activities and happy hour specials down at the side bar. Not that i mind it, but it really makes you feel like you've landed in a high school movie, like grease, where at a certain time everyday a person decides to yell out announcements over the speaker!
Now if you're wondering what ive done, and will be doing, it is not that hard to tell! Sydney isnt the most commanding city and its not to hard to do what people say you have to do. For one you obviously have to see the opera house, which ive done, along with walked most of the inner city! After that its basically just going to the different beaches around sydney, like manly and Bondi beach etc. So as you can see i have quite a dilemma when it comes to activities that i have to do! I mean granted i go to all the beaches, then i can run through quite a lot of time. But after that what will i find myself doing, as ive already walked most of the streets one is to have walked. Now i do have lonely planet and i have decided to pick out a couple of museums that i want to go to, so ive got that sorted. But what is something amazing that i have to do and dont know about, besides skydiving(which im now thinking of most of the time)? If you happen to have any suggestions, please let me know! So there you have it... i really need to wake up wakeup wake up and find a lot of things to do as i have till monday before i start the surf tour to byron bay!
Cheers

Singapore sling to end this thing

So after three days in singapore i am happy to give you the message that i do quite like this town. Though you might think it is because of all the multiplexes and complexes standing among giant skyscrapers, it is not. I like it because it brings a sort of calm feeling to me which is harder to describe. I guess it feels very safe and a lot like home being that it is not hard to find yourself around. I mean it literally took me one day before i knew how to get around singapore without a map and the MRT(underground trains) also became a very usable resource for getting around faster without wasting rediculous money on a taxi to get from spot A to B. It was also very nice due to the short or semi short walking distance between the places we went and also the fact that there are sidewalks which eases the feel of not getting run over by cars!
But as we all know the good things always have some bad things attached and in singapore it come in line with the authorities and the quite rediculous ammount of things one can get fined for, like jay walking, chewing gum, litering, eating and drinking on trains or in other areas. I mean it is really intense and the fines along with it as they reach from $500-5000. I also heard stories of how an Aussie got forced to bring drugs into the country and got caught, which resultet in a hanging despite pleading coming from Aussie government. Now i cant tell you if its true but it goes in line with plenty of other stories ive heard. Well i guess its good in the way that the city stays so clean and perfect almost while at the same time making you feel safe and not afraid of any random chap on the street weh you walk about in the night going home from a night on town.
Now i know everyone might be curious as to where and what ive been doing since KL, and what i can tell you is this.
In Port Dickson, following KL we had a two night stay at a resort where we just ended up lying by the pool and having one hell of a good time with eachother as we knew Melaka would pass by quickly, leaving us standing by the queens street bus station in Singapore feeing like we never had a chace to say goodbye. So therefore we had a sandwich buffe which we bought in KL along with some pooltime party to end things off as we stayed up most of the two nights we spent there.
After Port Dickson we headed for Melaka where we spent only one night but still managed to get a tuck tuck tour in with Kemal (an amazing guy whose been doing tours of the city for a long long time) which was awesome as we inbetween stops got to ride these flower and glitter decoraded tuck tucks with laud speakers on the back flowing out tunes to different RnB and Rap artists as i could swear that is all the think western youth listens too. After the tours we ha a bite to eat by the stalls in chinatown followed by some drinks at a kareokee bar to finish our last night off... though me, katie, Dan, and Tom stayed up through most of the night before our morning bus to singapore.
Coming to singapore there were a lot of goodbyes but also a lot of wandering about and takng in the city. Me and Tom who stayed here the longest did all of central singapore and sentose mixed with eating by boat quay, little india, china town, orchard and random but cheap food courts that we found. So there u have it all in all a solid last couple of days as i now only haveabout 11 hours left until my flight leaves for Sydney in the early morning tommorrow. So i must get ready and get some sleep before i skip my first continent, leaving asia behind and entering a country possessed by fires and now a huge cyclone (tropical storm) wish me all the luck!
cheers

Intrepid end

I am now in singapore after the last days buzzing days in port dickson and melaka, and now my intrepid tour has finally come to an end which really sucks at the moment as i had the time of my life with an amazing bunch of people! goodbyes are always hard especially when it is the least of the things you want to do, and when you get to the state where you have to push through it really gets to you and today was no different as Waxy, Dan, Emma, Em, Katie, and tarla all left for their next destinations, leaving me tom and the norweigian girls to make our own travel path in Singapore. Luckily we had eachother to fall back upon making it easier to move on from the absense of the others leaving. Something which will definetly be appreciated over the next days in Singapore before i move on to Aussie land!
Now i wish to write so much more, but i am completely dead after 4 hours of sleep in the last 24-30 odd hours, and i dont really have much of an inspiration at 2 in the morning to write what i hope you will wnjoy and therefore i will wait until the morning to do so!
so without further addu, cheers anf goodnight

Kuala Lumpur with birds and tall buildings

So im situated in the china town hotel 2 (2 being because theres 2 chinatowns i guess) and its pouring down lightning and rain outside even though it was sunny and warm during the morning and mid-day. Weather is just weird and unpredictable! So here is my update to you: spend yesterday in a bus until we arrived in KL at around 4.45 pm and spend the evening walking about the city and going up the menara tower to see the view and the worlds largest twin towers known as the patronas towers. It was a lot of fun and we really quite enjoyed making fouls of ourself in one way or another, with waxi and stine dancing balley up in the Menara tower : )! We also broke our traditional food eating with our first and my first visit to McDonalds in like 2 months! After the McDonalds dinner at the KLCC mall by the Patronas towers we took the tube back to our hotel and settled in for watching the curious case of Benjamin Button which kept us awake for quite a while...though i thought it was well worth it as i liked the movie!
Today we headed out early for the national mosque of malaysia where we had to cover up in purple robes followed by a man trying to convince us to convert to Islam! Quite the start to the morning i must say! This followed by a visit to the worlds largest bird park which was kind of cool but not worth the 40 malay ringgid we paid for it. Now leaving a bit early in their daily birdshow at the park we headed for KLCC and the foodcourts followed by a visit to the liquor store for some preparations for our farewell party at port dickson these coming days as the tour comes to an end with singapore closing in!
The restoring part of my day has mostly been spent at the chinese market outside and now right here because of the rain : (..... i do enjoy writing to you so dont worry if it sounds like im forced to be here ; )! After this however i do hope the rain will lighten up so we can atleast make it to one of the stalls outside and get some noodles and soup! And that is why i also kind of got to jet right now as i need a shower and some time to relax my legs and feet after all the walking that was done today!
cheers and stay classy

Penang, Malaysia

So after 10 hours of a cramped and uncomfortable journey we finally arrived in Penang, Malaysia yesterday. We are staying in the more major city of Penang called georgetown and for those who dont know, Penang is an island ; ) It is also a place for diversed cultures with both chinese, indian, and islamic people living in the same place. Now i could bore you with the many interesting historical things which Penang offers, but i have decided to instead tell you about some of the more awesome things ive done here. One thing in particular springs to mind and that is of course the fact that i went to a snake temple today where i got to hold a python and two other snakes which as i found out afterwards.... were poisonous!!! I also got to touch the king of all snakes which is the King Cobra, now as i had no previous knowledge of snakes, i thought it was quite interesting that the King Cobra(which was huge by the way) is only the king because of the fact that it is the only snake that is immune to other snakes poison while its own would kill them... and it also eats snakes for a living! Beside that i had some great Indian tandoori in little India, apparently the best in Malaysia! also did a tour with this bloke called steven who was one really funny chap as the british call him; )! On the more cultural note we went to the pearl of the city which is this major buddhist temple where three different buddhist forms of religion are practised, Thai, Tibetan, and Indian buddhism is practised(not entirely sure if they were the ones... was extremely hot so hard to pay attention+ all my travelling just kicked in and i am so tired right now). All this was finished off by this aesomely cheap meal we had down at the hawker centre or read dragon as they call it with all its various local food stalls... i actualy ate a sting ray which was quite delicious and spicy!
Now tommorrow we have a 6 hour bus journey to Kuala Lumpur! so gotta go get my sleep and travel on and leave you to get back to work or whatever you were doing before you started reading this ; )!
Cheers and greeting from Penang

Thai-bye

Im sitting here on my last night in thailand uploading pictures and writing this blog and i have some bad news for you all. Seeing as pictures has been the one thing missing in my travelling tales for you all, i ended up being really excited having found the photobox site where i could then later have all my pictures printed in what ever form i wanted but at the same time have a place where you could see them all! But to my constant unluck with picture, it didnt work because of the computer, leaving me no other choice but to choose facebook where all members can see the picture... However, as im writing this, facebook also rejects me after only haviing gotten the chance to upload two albums. Boy do i hate computers and cameras sometimes!
On the brighter note howeve, tommorrow im leaving for Malaysia and im really looking forward too it as it will be a new experience and a chance to get me away from the beach which ive been at for the last three weeks. I am gonna miss thailand because i am just completely inlove with it. It is just such an amazing place and there is just so much left for me to see so i know ill be back! The only thing of any concern is the fact that we're spending a completely staggering 10 hours in a minivan or bus driving down and crossing the border and making our way out to the west coast island of Penang! Luckily i got Stieg Larssons flickan som lekte med elden with me so i think ill survive... and in the case that book doesnt work ive got a mighty bit of sleeping to make up for!
Well Here is the end of this road and here are the links for facebook albums... picturs are not in order... but almost ; )
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=94474&id=511045030#/album.php?aid=94464&id=511045030
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=94474&id=511045030#/album.php?aid=94466&id=511045030
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=94474&id=511045030#/album.php?aid=94469&id=511045030
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=94472&id=511045030
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=94472&id=511045030#/album.php?aid=94474&id=511045030
Cheers

Phi Phi islands and an ocean of tourism

Though i said i would be very busy today with the Phi Phi island trip and italien dinner with a follow up on the town, i have still been left with and hour of spare time to share with you todays experience! It started at 8.45 when we headed out from Ben's house to catch a speed boat out to the islands, Well there and onboard we faced the dilemma of picking the seats in front of the boat or the back... thankfully we picked the front. Now even though this meant for an extremely bumby ride we did get the front seats to everything worth looking at like the viking caves and the feeding of the monkeys at monkey island etc.
Not to get you confused, everything wasnt done on the boat as we also got to do some amazing snorkeling with hundreds of fishes swimming around you and to some degree even followed you around! We also got to see Maya Bay where they shot the movie known as "The Beach", starring leonardo dicaprio. Though it was a stunning beach, it was way to overcrowded and touristic for me to feel like i got anything out of seeing it. Especially considering the potential the beach has of becoming a true paradise instead of being overrun by speedboats and hundreds of tourists overshadowing it completely! Don't take this as a discouragement to go and do the Phi Phi island tour becaus it was really incredible and all of the other islands and lagoons that you visit are well worth the trip!
These are the places that you visit if you are considering it and want to google it ; )
Bamboo island, Hin Klarng, Tonsai Bay, Viking cave, Pi Leh Lagoon, Lohsamah Bay, Monkey Beach, and Maya Beach.
Now considering i gave you a heads up for today i might tell you of tommorrow, first dealing with a likely hangover, going to beach, getting massage, and telling you all about it. Now i got to jet for for dinner followed by heaps of fun.
P.s found a site called photobox.com which is where i will upload all my pictures tommorrow! FINALLY!
cheers

Skidilido Intrepid

So check it, Ive just started my Intrepid tour from Bangkok to singapore via Malaysia and so far its been unfreakin' believable. Bangkok to my surprise and from what others have said was a really nice city and i must say that i really enjoyed taking the boats down the river and seeing this massive buddha statue while getting semi lost walking around in the city at the same time! I also really enjoy the group which has a grand european spirit with 4 people from the UK and 2 girls from norway along with one americano.
Now for our first stop on the tour I ended up back in the khao sok national park where we stayed in Bungalows hearing the enormous sounds from the jungle at night while fighting off mosquitos and gecos. We ended up having one day for tubing down the river and swimming after just having arrived on the night train from Bangkok followed by a massive thai buffe with some seriously spicy stuff and off course the usual chang beers. For the second day we woke up early and headed for the lake which was probably one if not the one coolest place i have ever seen. Here we went jungle trekking and bamboo rafting along with a three hour swim and play around with this giant lodge we found in the water. For lunch on this day we had a thai buffe again involving some really fresh fish caught at the lake along with the ever so usual thai curry chicken mix and rice.
Following up after this day we finally end up at the present, which leads us to beautiful Krabi where i am now. Now after our bus ride here this morning we've basically spent the day on the beach followed by a massive sea food dinner with baracuda and some other fish which i must say was the best ive ever had(This continent really makes some kick ass food and im lovin it). After dinner we headed straight for chang bar where we had some cocktails and played pool against som finish guys before heading back to our hotel known as Ben's house.
Giving you a solid preview of my next day, i am glad to inform you that we're heading out for Phi Phi islands where they shot the movie known as "The Beach" and after that it is planned that we will get some italian food and then have a major fiesta at chang bar followed by some late night boogy at the lagoon!

Hope everything is rockin!

The ever winding road

So here we go again... in an hour and some 20 min i take my first goodbye as i bid farewell to my dad as he still has a day left here in our 2 week paradise, and i know ill miss him for the time coming ahead as i get adapted to the life of a backpacker with constant travelling and no 2 week resort stays. Then as me and mom head for Bangkok to get me aquainted with the backpacker group ill be travelling with for the next 2 weeks from bangkok to singapore, ill ones again have to say goodbye to my mom come tommorrow morning as she is staying at the same hotel as us in Bangkok. Now with all of these goodbyes i must say im not to pumped right now as im no avid fan of saying goodbye even though ill see them in some 2 months again. I do however hope that it will all pass and ill get my backpacker groove on and start exploring what the countries and places im going has to offer. Cause there is no time like this in my young 20 years of living to stop finding new things!

Cheers

Some pictures from thailand

Happiness over found swedish meatballs and macaroni

Vespa ride

Jungle Canoe

Beach outside resort

Similian Islands

Resort Beach

Khao Lak beach

Welcome to the Jungle

So check it, yesterday we went jungle (Khao Sok) hoping on elephants and canoeing down Jungle River and it was to say the least… quite spectacular! Now… we have been in tropical landscape before, when we were in Hawaii, but not like this. Looking at the extensive wildlife this jungle is infested with and the denseness of the jungle itself expanding over a greater area of land, it is really something special. The sound of all the insects and animals was seriously intense and I must say it is really hard to imagine it being any other way than in this very natural way. It has however come to my attention that as we found out, when the tsunami hit this part of Thailand, apparently the whole rainforest went dead quiet; it is really sad no one took greater notice to the animal behavior at the time (and we’re supposed to be the smart species). Moving back to the experience of the jungle, we did get to see some of the wildlife too, like for example we saw beautiful fish in the water and of course the elephants we rode on along with all of the different colored lizards and geckos crawling about, but the coolest thing without a doubt would have to be the 4 snakes we saw. Granted one was a dead king cobra in a water tank I am quite happy with the spotting of the ones I did see. The first one weaved down through some leafs when we were on the elephants and it was colored with black and orange stripes going along its body, supposedly very poisonous. The second was the dead king cobra; ) The next too however were not very dead and we saw them hanging in the tree branches stretching out over the river which we were going down in our canoes… yikkes! The first was called something I don’t remember but it was poisonous and it had black and yellow stripes. The second of the two however was the ever so familiar python which was a little bigger than the previous one; )! Now I’m no big fan of snakes but when you see them at a distance I do think they are quite marvelous creatures. So with all this being done in a day, with the elephant trekking and the canoeing I do consider myself a little bit more satisfied with jungle exploration I’ve been looking to do on this trip. Though I am still looking forward to have the chance to explore further next week as I have a nights sleeping in the national park with the backpacker crew I’m travelling with from Bangkok to Singapore, and I must say its going to be fun as long as the snakes keep their distance ; )!

Cheers and check for pictures tomorrow as I will upload some before I head to Bangkok on Saturday to start my next adventure, leaving mom and dad to head home after two most wonderful weeks without any worries!

The Good Life

Hoy my friend, as time moves quicker then ever over here in my new beach life with the parentals at my side I must say that life is pretty sweet and going quite well. After a weeks’ relaxing in the sun and twirling in the ones in a while occasional wave that rolls ashore, I’m already feeling the lost vibes of a solid beach life come back to me as I’ve moved into a darker brown with salt and sand in my hair. It is also quite nice not having to worry about costs of food and living for a while, until I return to my travelling adventures on my own hand next Saturday that is.
Now enough of those thoughts as I have a story to tell, especially the one from yesterday. As you all know yesterday was the yearly celebration of valentines day, and though I am an avid fan of grant gestures, romantic or other, I do believe that if you are to be romantic, you should be just that on any other part or day of the year. Nonetheless, a day for love is nice. So during this day of love, what did I do? Well being with the parentals I spent the day with them on the beach, which is kind of a ritual now, and after that we decided to eat dinner at the resort, where we first got champagne and then a seafood buffe followed by a cabare show and lighting of fire balloons sent up into the sky by everyone there. The interesting thing in all of this however was the way we came about the decision of going and doing the resorts Valentines Day celebration instead of heading for the crowded restaurants of the main street of khao lak and the result of it all. Here is our reasoning for going: nice to be on the beach, get some thai culture in the performance, get a buffe, would be full at the restaurant at the resort. Now here are the outcome: beach was really nice and a success, buffe awesome… however, it wasn’t as full as hoped at restaurant, and lastly but not least the most heavy weighing result for going was the show which would hopefully give us some culture…BUT only gave us a samba dancing team of Thai girls and a lipsinging Whitney Houston girl, along with a suicidal performance of a girl at the airport with a flare of the Charlie Chaplin kind of comic attributes etc.
So in hindsight I must say it is quite comical that we had such high hopes of a culture performance but was given something completely different, but nonetheless very entertaining as it was hard restraining oneself not to fall to the ground and start laughing hysterically as they started the Whitney Houston playback and the odd sense of samba dancing, which the performers seemed to take so seriously. I must say in the end though that even if we didn’t get what we had expected, we did enjoy ourselves quite a lot and I hope that you also had a successful and nice valentines day.

All the best.

Happy valentines day

a moment of impulse can go a long way

So hey there, its been a while. A while meaning 3 days, which is technically not that much in a standard life where the weekdays are pretty much spent the same way week in and week out no matter where you are in the world. But for those people being on a journey (which technically we all are, but I’m referring to something more like taking a trip or doing something big and drastic with your life, something which changes your whole perspective, taking a chance if you will) where everyday hopefully gets drastically different and new with a tid bit of excitement, stuff do eventually happen and they are not the things we usually do on a regular day to day basis. Like for example, today my dad and I did a whole day’s trip out to the Similian islands just off the west coast of Thailand, roughly 1 hr and 20 min by speed boat going 47-52 knots, just to go snorkeling.
Now at first we were skeptical of whether or not it was worth it as we’ve snorkeled plenty in our lifetime, but there was something special about doing it here and since you only live once, or so I believe, we decided to jump off the bridge and take a chance. And boy were we happy we did, because not only was it so worth it, it ended up being the best snorkeling we’ve ever done. I felt like I was looking at animal planet or the discover channel, watching a show about fishes and coral reefs because I’ve never in my lifetime of snorkeling seen so much ocean beauty. It was amazing and so was the beach, which I would also rank very high on my list of best beaches I’ve been to.
So if you ask me, doing the things that you are uncertain about doing usually pays off more in the end as they are the things that produce the biggest surprise. I mean I was very uncertain about this trip and booking it so impulsively, but so far it has been nothing less than the best thing I’ve ever decided to do by myself. So here is my tip to you, this week or now weekend, treat yourself to something special. Try something new that you’ve always wanted to do but never had the chance to. (I know this whole speech thing is the biggest cliché ever, but that is precisely why it’s so true and why we need to jump off the boat once in a while). So I hope you find something different in your life this week and that doing it hopefully ended up being surprisingly rewarding.

All the best from way way out west, cheers

the title below...

forgot to mention that i was gonna talk a bit about the awesome slowness and relaxation of thailand and compare it to india but have to eat now so ill talk about that later!
cheers

Thailand a paradise in slowmotion

I am currently writing to you all on the evening of my 20th birthday which means i think you are an important thing in my life as im giving you presious time on my birthday. The weird thing is however that technically i dont turn 20 until 7.30 pm... which means, i dont turn 2o for another 6 hours and 15 minutes as i was born in sweden! But to tell you the truth, who really cares for such details as the only thing i really want to say is that i am thankful to all and everyone who wanted or wants to say happy birthday to me but cant because.... well im not home right now! And for those thinking 'hey.... he's not here so we cant have a celebratory party', fear not as we shall get down boogie when i come home in another 2 something months!
Now for those wondering as to what i have done all day, it is simple, woke up and got swedish candy and angels and demons(the book), already got a camera before i left. Then we headed for an awesome breakfast buffe followed by plenty of suntime on beach along with a dip and then lunch! After this we walked the beach and then read in the sun before mine and my dads, one hour awesome massage on top of a roof looking over the beach!.... so i would only like to say..... sensational! I do miss sometimes though that i could celebrate with everyone at home and around the world that i know but i know we will have a chance to do that when i get home, or when i see you along this trip! So right now i would only like to say, have a wonderful day and yet again say thanks to whoever is thinking of me still and wish you an enjoyable and delightful dinner as i will now go and get mine with my dad!
Cheerio

Some highlights of India

The end always brings something new

For every end there is always a new beginning, and therefore i must now close the book on India during the final hours of my stay as i start preparing for the sun and djungle nature of the infamous Thailand which is where i will be this time tommorrow. Now It is always hard to say goodbye to something that you have become familiar with over a certain period of time and therefore i am thoroughly grateful that i know that though i am leaving here, i am not going back to my everyday life at home just yet. Instead i get a chance to look forward to something completely else and equally as exciting as i still have quite a bit left on this adventure of mine! I am simply just trading in my mountain trekking and curry smelling surrounding for crystal white beaches and turcuoise water, something which to me sounds quite exciting.
Now dont get me wrong i do still miss home sometimes and definetly all my friends and family which are nothing short of amazing, but during the last two nights when we have stayed at the swedish embassy i have had a chance to enjoy some of those simple things that lets me know that sweden will always be close to my heart and still there when i get back. For example, we had the chance to eat proper cheese with knäckebröd along with youhgurt and musli and we also had some salmon and potatosalad and a constant conversation of how we missed swedish meatballs or those hamburgers or kebab at 4 in the morning after a night on the town etc. you know the small stuff that you dont think of, but when you get a chance to eat it or reminise about it you realize how much it all means to you. And then actually having the chance to taste some of it really just made me complete and ready for a new destination instead of missing life at home.
Though i must say, getting to see my parents again and getting some sweet swedish candy is gonna be off the hook completely amazing!
So with the notion that i am ready for the next episode of a legendary adventure i am afraid i must now sign off on this one untill i return tommorrow with a whole new one ; )
Stay happy, stay snappy

p.s Things ive done on my last days in delhi= red fort, shopping, hookabar, gym, and playstation 3 (football game of course), spicy food.
oh and all the amazing pictures goes live tommorrow at some point(will post link on the blogg)
cheerio

Back in Delhi town

this is the second time in the last 5 days that i get to say 'back in Delhi...again'! getting quite used to that line and i must say that everytime i say it, i do feel less and less aggrevated about being back in Delhi town. Now moving on passed feelings and emotions towards a city that has had its ups and downs, i am feeling fairly certain that you are all wondering as to how my three day trip to Agra and Jaipur was!
Well let me give it straight to you it was nothing short of spectacular ; )!.... with a slight downside of having to travel about a total of 700km in a car (around 11 hours)! Now there is so much to say about everything but ill try to give you the good parts.

Agra: It all started out with a 3 hour car ride from Delhi to Agra, where the most spectacular event was my first sight of a Cobra and it wasnt pretty. So as we were going on the road, we finally had to stop so that the driver could pay some tax fees or something, and to no ones surprise there were of course people there trying to sell stuff or get money for having backflipping monkeys and as i would find out cobras! Now as soon as we stoped, and everyone saw that we were foreign, they stormed our car. So being my first instinct, i rolled up my window only to find people hanging in through the drivers window across from me trying to sell jewlery. After 5 minutes had past and without them getting the point of us not being interested, i decided to stretch over to roll up the window. Now during this i heard a knock on my window and a voice saying '50 rupees for picture sir'... and being tired of seeing the monkeys outside my window i was dead set on showing a solid face with the intent of showing my tiredness of their constant tries to hussle... sopmething which quite frankly didnt work as the only thing i saw was a full sized black cobra standing up out of a straw box with its face against the window staring straight at me... now guess what my face looked like!
Well arrived in Agra we went straight for the sunset view of one of the most magnificent symbols of love ever made... The TAJ MAHAL, a building dedicated by a scorn husband after his wifes death. It was incredible, Picture Perfect.... and that is why it is the most photographed building or piece of archtecture in the world! after seeing the Taj for 2 hours during sunset, we went to a shop where they show how they made it and how they make the small details which it embodies. And having seen that, no wonder it took 20,000 workers, 22 years to finish it!

Jaipur: So after a night in Agra we had an early morning 4 hour drive to Jaipur, also known as the pink city, that is the home of world renowned textile markets and factories along with its surrounding fort and high stone wall. Now after such an intense start i thougt we would chill a bit ... but that as i have come to know with mikalea and emma was a no go. We started straight off with going to a monkey palace which lay high up on the surrounding hills which enclosed the city, something which meant that we had to walk up quite a bit in the burning Rajastani(Indian state with jaipur as its capital) desert sun! Boy was i boiling after this, leaving us no other option than to go cool down in the small little stores on the main market street of old Jaipur, where they really dont know how to deal, starting with a price of 9oo rupees only to drop down to 100 and eventuall 50rupees as you walk out! They would also, among with doing everything to keep you in the store, do everything to get you in it by getting right up in your face wit whatever they were selling and say 'i get you good price' or 'looking is free, i am your friends'. Now i didnt get anything, but the girls definetly did and by the time we left today, after 2 days in jaipur, they had a whole new size to their luggage!
Now after the market we headed for dinner, followed by some shut eye at the hotel, which was interupted TWICE! by the midnight and morning prayers shoutning out over the city! After waking up we had a big breakfast and then a speedy journey for the ever important amber fort, which was b-e-a-utiful! and hey, i had my first elephant ride here, going up to the top of the fort!
Now at the fort along with the monkey palace i also saw my second and third cobra! Continuing on, we headed for a quick snapp of the water palace situated out on the lake followed by my lonely visit to the city palace as i was the only one eager to go as mikaela and emma could only think of shopping... which to no ones surprise we did afterwards... and to tell you the truth, i almost bought silk bed sheets for a future apartment! Continuing on with my speedy repeat of the weeks adventure, we shortly after headed for the henna place where the girls got their hands done before we went back to the hotel for dinner and some rajastani traditional dancing! I must say it was very cool! and ill post a video along with all myphotos when i meet my dad in thailand on sunday and finally get my hands on a reliable computer!
Now to my sincerest apology i must go socialize with emma and mikaela and carl axel, whom we're staying with on swedish soil!

all the best

A last Hurrah

2hr and 15min... that is the time untill i leave Palampur and the Bindraban camp which has has been my semi spectacular home for the last 4 weeks! I must say that i do have some mixed feelings about leaving. First of all it is gonna be nice to move on towards Agra and Jaipur and then the warm beaches of southern thailand, and secondly i soon get to see my parents and hopefully get a bag of swedish candy along with a warm 20th birthday! However, it is sad in the way that it has been so much fun up here with the other volunteers and doing everything that we have done with the kids and experienced everything we have experienced, i mean it has been a while since i laughed so hard i couldnt breath and got horrible stomach aches(rest assure it was due to laughing and not the food)! It will be a sad thing leaving in that sense that i have cherished everything that has happened in the last few weeks... i might also add that its a bit depressing also due to the fact that im going back to Delhi, which i must say has some work to do in order to charm me. Because right now i must say it isnt exactly my favourite town with the heavy crowd and chaos along with the dense pollution in the air giving you horrid headaches!
So how in this waking of my last hurrah do i finish this off... I just say the adventure isnt over yet!
All the best to all of you!
P.S will probably not have the same consistency of blogging this coming week with all the traveling and being without constant access to the internet! But do not worry, you will hear from me again ; )!

Some Pictures from Trekking

All taken by Annie and borrowed by me from her facebook

My 500 or so pictures taken so far will have to wait. : (

Party hardy

Today we had our final fiesta with the orphans and i must say... those cookies we bought only survived 2 minutes in the open before the kids stormed them like pigeons storming droped food! Quite remarkable actually as they do get their fair share of rice everday, though rice has never really been the thing to satisfy a stormy appetite. It was fun and i had a lot of good laughs and it is definetly gonna be weird now to try and start the whole touristy routine again as i had just gotten used to spending my mornings and afternoons at school/ orphanage and the rest of my time here at Bindraban camp or in the little mountain town of Palampur. Luckily however i still have my morning session tomorow at school as we say goodbye to those kids, which have finally adapted and stated to become good students and now we're leaving... but rest assure, they will not forget us nor we them as we have bought enough candy to make sure we go out with a bang. and also so that they understand that we wont be coming back...something im afraid they wouldnt have understood without some sort of grand jesture!
Now though i have much that i would love to show you in the form of pictures, which i now can because annie uploaded hers on facebook... im afraid you'll have to wait till tommorow as i can barely keep my eyes open writing this cause im so tired and cause she hasnt finished uploading yet! So till then!
Cheers

The ends always come at some point

After a month up here working as a volunteer in Palampur, the end has finally come! Tommorrow will be our last day at the orphanage and our second to last day at the school. Therefore we have organized a small fiesta for the orphanage kids by buying a lot of candies and cookies as well as decided to bring ipod with speakers for a grand goodbye so that they really understand that we will not be back on monday : (! Loren and i have also decided to buy our kids at the school some sweets for our last day on friday as we say goodbye to them too.
Along with saying goodbye to all the kids, the other volunteers will also be leaving like airplanes at an airport, as we say goodbye to Pauline from Holland, who leaves tomorrow because her flight is early sunday and cant risk missing it by leaving with us on saturday night. So with all of these goodbyes coming one after another you can really sense now that this will all come to a fast and bittersweet end, something which is sad but necessary as we all have new places and new adventures to meet ahead! I am however in spite of this closing end very greatful for everything i have done up here and everything i have experienced and all i can do now is look forward to what lies ahead, which i am certain of will not be the least disappointing!
Stay rockin'

the closing of a chapter only brings the beginning of a new

It is now only 4 days left till i along with every other volunteer here at our camp will leave and head back to delhi for the continuing of another adventure or a simple one way ticket home and the daily life of our native country. For me this all opens the book for a new adventure as i along with mikaela and emma will head for Agra and the Taj Mahal and then Jaipur and its famous markets along with elephant rides up amber fort, something i am really excited about!
Though this is a closing end to my experience up here in palampur and Himachal Pradesh, it would not surprise me if i came back here in the future as this would certainly be a place i would love to show others! But untill that day comes, i am going to enjoy these last days the most that i can as our time to say goodbye to the kids at school and the orphanage is only coming closer and closer!
Keep on rockin'

Sports day

Today was a National Holiday in India and therefore there was no school in the morning! This is why Emma and Mikaela organized a sports day in which we, the volunteers, along with the IDEX staff would face off in a three way sports competition involving Football, Volleyball, and Cricket against the older kids at the orphanage!
The day got off to a good start as we won the football match against the orphans and therefore going 1-0 up in the overall competition! Our celebration would however end up being very short as we got our asses handed to us in both volleyball and cricket, the two most popular sports in India! So after a very intense but relaxingly fun day we suffered defeat with the score finally settling down at 2-1 to the orphans in all competitions; and in the spirit of fun competition they ended up coming back with us to the camp for some chai before heading back to the orphanage!Though the day was about having fun and just enjoying the moment, it also had me pondering away on other things, such as the fact that these kids, that have lost their whole families can still have their feet on the ground and look so stable and carefree! I mean most of the kids have been abandoned by there parents before they could remember and others had been left by their parents because they couldnt affored to keep them, while others lost their parants through fatal accidents or other events! One of them lost both his parents in a car accident when he was only in first grade! And it just makes you really happy to see how they have been able to find a new home within this orphanage and at the same time created their own family of sisters and brothers that are in the same situation! It is incouraging to see that people that have lost almost everything after having had barely anything have found life within this place and have still been able to keep their goals of getting an education and making something out of themselves! I guess what they say must be true, "what doesnt kill you only makes you stronger"!

Blog-off

Sleepless night in the mountains

As you all very well know, i left on friday for a weekends treking in the himalayan mountains and to say the least, it has been one hell of an experience for better or for worse!
It all started on friday when we headed for McLeod(dalai lama town), where we stayed the night after a seriously good dinner at the old favourite Carpe Diem restaurant. After dinner we headed for bed as we had an early start to the trek at 8.00 o' clock. In the morning though we were still feeling the strains from a week of work, we started to head up towards the mountain trek path which started on the other side of town. After about 2 hours uphill walk we stoped for breakfast and a chance to rest, where we noticed that a dog had been on our tail and was now following us on our trek(something we would all regrett it did!
After a continuous 5 hour walk with steep inclines and breathtaking edges we finally arrived at the place right beneath the snow line of the mountain where we would eat lunch, dinner and spend the night before our 'sunrise break walk to the snowline itself'... now though the place where we would spend the night lay high above the valley with an amazing view, i was really looking forward to our final walk up to the snowline the next morning... something i was sadly not granted in the end as the conditions where to hazardous for us to make the last 4 kilometer marsh! So after that let down and the confirmation that we would head straight down to McLeod in the morning i thought to myself what else was gonna go wrong?
Well i'd be damned if i didnt tell you... the whole NIGHT went wrong as i was both challanged with the mission of staying warm with 6 layers of clothes on my upper body and 3 on my lower plus two pairs of socks, along with trying to fall asleep under constant howling and scratching on the door by the three were irritating dogs which all ended up staying up on the mountain in the hopes that they would get food as well as shelter from us... something we couldnt really provide with barely enough space for ourselves and the fear of getting biten in the night as they looked very hungry! So with no sleep and constant hysteria of dangerous dogs and other animals residing in the mountaneous environment such as bears, snow tigers among others. we were in for a long night! We couldnt even go to the bathroom as there was none in the hut and we were all to scared to go out in the dark... and i gotta tell you, after 3 cups of chai and all the water everyone drank, we all needed to go to the bathroom!
Now i know this sounds like a helish weekend for most, in the end i must say i really appreciated it though i am completely dead physically right now. I mean i climbed and treked in the himalayas and saw both the sunset as well as the sunrise with the most amazing landscape stretching right in front of my eyes from high above! and i sleped in a hut ; )!
So for all of you out there, you can always find something good in a situation that seems to be as bad as it can possibly be!
cheerio and hope your weekend was amazing and hopefully a bit warmer

Another weekend another adventure!

It is friday afternoon and 1 hour and 20 minutes till we head for McLeod and the trek up the mountain! I am a bit sceptical of this journey as i have a cold and went to the doctor today to get medicines... I have however decided to go on the trek anyway as i feel that if you are in the himalayas you should do some form of trek up a mountain! cause how many people can say that they have done that? I also did bring a lot of clothing and thermal stuff to keep me warm! So no one has to worry... and as my indian number works again, ill let you know if you do!
It is at this point that i must leave you to get the last minute stuff ready and still have some time to relax before the drive to Mcleod!
All the best till i write to you again!

Wild an crazy vampire kids

Todays schooling was one of the more out of hand and place kind of lessons as our kidz were anything but responsive to our teaching! At this paste i do feel my hopes of getting them to read the clock properly dimm out by the minute, as Vijay(the wonderkid) is the only one that seems to be getting anything. Now im not saying that they arent learning anything as they still do progress in math(the only thing in which one does not have to speak, in order for them to understand) , but with telling the time and different essential everyday words they do still have problems. And today it was nearly impossible as the kidz had gotten plastic vampire teeth from someone and were to busy playing with them to even consider listening to anything we said. The teeth also had the affect of making them brave enough to go against anything we told them to do as they simply said NO to everything! Boy did we dig deep trying to be reasonable and stay calm. We did still however realize that we had one option and that was telling them that if the didnt do as we say we would tell the principle... and boy did that make them quiet!
If you didnt know it already, it is heavily known that in some places they do still hit the kids if they are disobedient and im afraid this is one of those places so barely a word came out of them after we said that... something which was nice at the time but deeply disturbing in the larger sense as i am no supporter of hiting another person wether it be a kid or someone my age, i always stand by the fact that it is wrong and that there are better ways to deal with problems as simple as a matter of discipline, after all they are only kids!

All the best

Weekends decision

It has now been decided that i will spend this weekend going back to McLeod on friday and then spend saturday and sunday hiking up one of the himalayan mountains, all the way to its snowline where i will sleep the night with all of the other volunteers for an early morning watching the sunrise and then hiking down the mountain on sunday! I must admitt i am really excited besides the fact that i have heard that it is shit cold during the night and that some of the previous volunteers wore as many as 5-7 layerd of clothes to stay warm during the night... what a legendary adventure ; )!
On the more sad note, i stayed at the camp today during the morning when the others went to teach at the school because ive got a serious case of cold and an itchy throat! I did however feel a bit better in the afternoon so i did participate in the cooking class where we made a coconut dessert which was really nice and then i also joined the others to go to the orphanage where i did my best to play with the kids even though i had a soaring headache! now the dinner bell has rung and it is time to eat!
Hope your enjoying my blog so far and thanks for all the comments! nice to know people are reading!

History in the making

Today on the 20th of january, 2009, Barack Obama will be sworn in as the 44th president of the United States, something i think is AWESOME; But must admitt to as being a bit comical as it means that when i look back at this historic day, i will always think of how i was watching it not from the USA or from Sweden, but from India and up in the Himalayas out of all places!
I must also say that it is always quite interesting to take a look at ones present from a distance... I mean who would have actually thought that i would be in the Himalayas doing volunteer work 3 or 6 or 10 years ago! I mean i would have never thought so and yet here i sit watching the Inauguration of Barack Obama on BBC in a volunteer camp up in the mountains! It is amazing when you think of it, how thinks work out and how for some reason it might not have felt right before but for some reason it now feels like anything different would not have been wrong. What is to be known however is the question of wether it is something that will be regretted or appreciatied at a later stage in ones own history... as will be seen with this presidency which has so much potential for good, as my experience traveling the world!

all the best regards

Back In Business

Being back in palampur and being monday can nowadays only mean one thing... back to work! Seeing as we've been chilling and enjoying the weekend we thought we'd get straight to business and therefore started off todays class with an english test on the 5 words we practised all of last week; namely skirt, t-shirt, trousers, tie, and socks... Now this might seem very easy for most but id imagine it pretty hard for an indian third grader and so it was, as only vijay was the one to get all right! after him most still got at least two to three right, so it wasnt a horrible outcome even though we had hoped for a better one as we had gotten candy for anyone who got all right! Though the result meant that we got a lot of candy ourself, the sheer disappointment of so few getting all right weighed heavier on my councienss than the candy i would later get the chance to enjoy. Being that, we have now decided for a retest on wensday in order to give everyone a second chance at a price : )!
Being monday also meant another thing, we start a new workshop. Last week we speant an hour everyday learning Hindi, this week we spend an hour in the morning doing freakin' yoga and and hour in the afternoon learning how to cook various Indian dishes... Something i really enjoy as the Indian food we get here is amazing and now i get to lern from our cook that makes the amazing food; )!
The afternoon at the orphanage was very chilled and i ended up playing football with the kids most of the time, not exactly helping improve my health as a have gotten a bad cold and an itchy throat!
For the last segment of this piece of writting i must ask you for help. For my last weekend up here before i go back to delhi and then on for some travelling to agra and jaipur, i must really take the chance to do something and i have three options. I can go with luke, hanna, and Pauline and hang out in Mcleod again, i can pay 3000 rupees and go with the other realgap volunteers for a treck up to the snow pass with a night to spend in Mcleod and one up on the mountain, or i can go whitewater rafting with Emma and Mikaela(self-planned trip!)... so my question to you, what do i do?

All the best, Jonathan

A weekend excurision to Dharamsalla and Mcleod Ganj

Just a couple of hours ago i put my foot back on the ground in Palampur after a 1 and a half hour bus ride from Dharamsalla. I have just spent my weekend in Mcleod Ganj, a little hillside town which lays just between the snowy mountain tops and the valley town of Dharamsalla. Now you may not have heard of the town itself but there is little doubt that you have heard of his holliness the 14th Dalai Lama which lives there in exile with his government after having had to flee his own country of Tibet when China invaded it in 1951... if im not mistaken.
Now though i did not get to chance to see the Dalai Lama himself i did get to see a really amazing town with an incredible view of the mountain and the valley that spread out beneath it. I also had the most thrilling experience in a car as we took a taxi up and down the mountain on the very small roads with very steep cliffs just off the edge of the road! Most importantly however i got a closer experience to the Buddhist religion which is practised by the monks that live up there! It was also quite amazing to see those red robes that they wear in person ; )! Since im already on the note of how amazing this little town is i must also say that i had the best chicken Tika Masala ever at this restaurant called Carpe Diem, where i as well as everyone else i was with had the chance to meet the british gov. volunteers that are also living in Palampur and that we have heard so much about but actually never met! Quite the Roudy group i must say!
While i was up there i also bought my first souveneir, which ended up being Buddhist prayer beads. I also bought a little something for my sister as well as for my mom(b-day present ; )!)... Dont worry dad ive got you covered!
The only thing which could have been better was the weather... i mean it was ok on saturaday but since early this morning its been just pouring down by the loads. Not making Sundays any better in my book, seeing as they always in some way seem quite dull... nut maybe thats just because monday is the following day ; )!

Now i hope that your weekend has been good and interesting and that hopefully something exciting happened as it did in mine!

All the best from a continuing adventure!

All in all a goodie of a day

we have now reached the second friday of my stay at camp bindraban just outside the little himachal town known as palampur where i am currently staying with the other volunteers... and so far, so good! I really felt at ease as i walked around on the crowded little market streets of palampur and it felt really nice not having to have your guard up all the time! I as well Loren were also happily surprised as we walked into JOYS (the only thing similar to a cafe) and found out that they served french fries, something which was really nice to have as we have only had rice for our food so far. Therefore to no ones surprise we ordered in a whole plate of french fries... which only ended up lasting for about 3 minutes before we had eaten everything, making even our waiter and everyone around us wonder if we had eaten anything at all in the last week!
School on the other hand was really hard today as none of the kids listen, especially Umesh, the most annoying little kid ever! Now this dull view on our time at the school was probably affected by the fact that there was pooring rain and shit cold. Luckily the other Indian teachers had this little fire going, so we moved there during the part of the day when we would usually play with the kids to get some warmth!
After school and lunch, alpna and manu (the prodram executive directors) took us for a visit to the tea factory where they make tea which was really nice to see as kangra valley is world renowned for their tea and i even ended up buying some green tea which i'll offload on my mom and dad as i meet them in thailand in 3 weeks! ; )
Now as sad as it is im going for a trip to mcleod where the dalai lama is over the weekend so you will not hear from me until sunday or maybe even monday, but im sure you have other things to do than read this blogg ; ) just thought id give you a heads up so that you dont think ive stoped writing! Now i have to go and join the others, and then pack my backpack for the weekend and get a quick shower tonight in order to avoid the line in the morning and the sometimes unfortunate luck of not getting any hot water as everyone else already used it all!

Hope your all rockin and living it up!
all the best from high above in the mountains of India