Hanoi and Halong Bay

After two days in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, we were heading off for Hanoi. We got on a small plane of Lao Air for the 1 hour 10 min flight. At Hanoi airport we were met by a "driver", holding our name up, who took us to the guest house that we booked in advance. The drive took 45min and we got our first experience of Hanoi traffic - complete scooter madness!!
The air is thick with smells and noise and the weather damp and humid with about 15°C.
The next day we booked a trip to Halong Bay. We arrived in the harbour of Halong City after a 3,5hour drive in a Minibus, with hundreds of other groups and people trying to catch the right boat. Our small group eventually got on a boat and set off into the Bay. As it was still quite misty, Halong Bay was only showing us its mysterious side...

After lunch that was served on the boat, we stopped to visit a cave that is on one of the bigger islands. The cave has three parts of which all are connected, with very interesting formations of rocks inside. The cave is huge and actually very impressive, we both have never seen such a big one before.

We booked a night train from Hanoi to Hué for the next day at 19 o'clock. The weather was even more unpleasant, rainy and windy, and we were already looking forward to get some sun in Hué and Hoi An, our next two destinations.
But despite of the weather we took a pedalriksha to the Temple of Literature. This was dedicated to Confucius in 1070 by Emperero Ly Thanh Tong. Later on it was a university for the education of mandarins.
It's a well-preserved area in traditional Vietnamese architecture in 11th-century style with roofed gateways and low-eaved buildings. Very pretty!

We headed to the station in the evening in good time to catch our train. The train was not quite as comfy and service-friendly as the one in Thailand... no dinner, no breakfast, but nice people in our compartment. Diana and Palmira from Buones Aires were good fun and we talked and played cards until late what made time go by.

On into Laos

We had an interesting trip from Thailand to Laos. We went by minibus overland and then crossed over the mountains at a very remote boarder crossing into Laos. The drive was bumpy and dusty and we arrived late in the evening in a small village.


The next day we drove on down to a small village by the Mekong River, where we picked up a small (very crowded) boat to take us down stream to Luang Prabang (look on the map to find it), where we have been for the last 4 days. Its a very interesting old town with a big colonial French influence in the houses and villas. We eventually found a great guest house with a nice room, polished wood floors and a nice garden to sit and read in... very laid back and just what we needed.
We went on a day trip to an Elephant camp yesterday which was good fun and interesting. Our guide was quite good and we had him all to our selves. The trip included a river boat ride to a local waterfall and then on to see the elephants. They had 6 and we had a 45min ride in the woods and along the river bank. Our elephant driver was walking along next to us and singing to his elephant (they do that sometimes) so we had a chance to practice the instructions our guide gave us! He then got on with us and soon I was able to change places with him and ride on the elephants neck on the way back to the camp. Caro was just a little concerned in the seat next to the driver.



After lunch we then went on a 4 hour kayak trip down the river to get back to the town. This was good fun in the rough water parts, but hard work on the neck and arms and nearly killed us both! Today we have been for a 90 min. Lao massage to recover. This was good and helped the aching muscles a lot.
The food is great and very varied here. The spring rolls are popular, as is the curry. Its not too pricey, but a little more than in Thailand. we are heading on by "VIP Bus" tomorrow, so hope this provides a more comfortable method to travel than the last one.

Chang Mai

Here we are now, in Chang Mai. The night on the train was not too bad, actually quite comfy. The temperature here is a bit more pleasant, not so hot as in Bangkok and in the night it cools down quite a lot as the mountains are very close.
The first day we spent a bit time on planning our further steps. We decided to head to Laos and booked our 2day trip to our next destination Luang Pradang on the 11th of January. In the evening we checked out the huge night market, that spreads out along a long road with all kinds of useful and useless bits and pieces and a lot of food stalls.

Yesterday we attended a Thai cooking class on a Thai farm. We started with some shopping on a local food market and drove then to the farm. It was a very pretty place with all sorts of trees, plants, vegetables and herbs that is grown in an organically. Our teacher first showed us around the garden and gave us some information about herbs we were going to use and then we started the first cooking session. We were 8 people and everybody had his own cooking station.
We started with making our own curry paste for the curry, then a soup and a stir fry in the wok. We were already starving before we started to cook the soup, but we had lunch not until we had finished all three meals.
He showed us how to eat with sticky rice, that you dip in your different dishes with your fingers.
In the afternoon we made some desserts and Pad Thai, a very famous traditional Thai dish with noodles in the wok.
It was a really nice day out on that farm and we have definitely learned some new things about Thai cooking. Some of you may come to benefit from our new knowledge in time ;-)

Today we rented a scooter and drove a bit up into the mountains. We visited another big, important monastery and a small hill tribe village.




For tomorrow we are plannig to take it easy, maybe try a Thai massage and visit some more monasteries, that you can find here around every second corner.
We are looking forward to our trip on Friday, that will take us a part of the way on the river Mekong and over a less-travelled border into Laos. We will try to get online later on next week. We hope all of you are fine :-)

Landed in Bangkok

So here we are, Caroline and me in Thailand... on the first stop of our trip. We're staying in Bangkok for a few days, as the first bookable night train North was Sunday night. This gives us a few days to get some sleep and get into the right time zone. We have been to some of the temples and checked out lots of Buddha's. We found a good Guest House to stay in and have eaten some good Thai food already :)
We have already been blessed by a monk in a temple, so we are sure to have everlasting happiness.
Its naturally hot and sticky here, but we've both experienced this before on other trips and can take it, making us very compatible travellers. On Sunday night we will take the night train, which is a sleeper, to Chiang Mai in the North. Still not sure where our route will take us after this, but its sure to be interesting.

Happy New 2008

Let us all gather round and cheer,
With a drink of wine or an ice cold beer

Perhaps you're like me and don't drink the swill,
Or your like my grandparents who live on pills.
Maybe this world seems harsh at times,
Or its just that most of us just like to whine.

I'd say that this is a great place to be,
It all depends on how we can see.

True we've had bad things in the past,
But we know in our hearts that these will not last.

If we try our best to be simple and pure,
There's nothing our hopes and dreams cannot cure.

So, I don't know the value this is worth,
But lets all try to be happy and heal Mother Earth!

Christmas in Stockholm

We celebrated Christmas together at home this year, Hannah, Emma, Caroline and me. The weather was nothing to write about, generally grey and quite close to zero out side…no sign of the Swedish winter, no snow, no frost, not an icicle insight. In side, we had at least decorated the flat with Christmas lights in the windows and on the balcony, plenty of candles and a Christmas tree. I put up the tree, then Hannah and Emma decorated it on Sunday evening on the 23rd. Christmas Eve is the big day in Sweden and Germany, so we decided to stay with this and open presents in the evening. We started the day with the traditional Swedish morning dish of warm rice pudding with cinnamon. At 11 we drove into town and went to the German church in the old town for their Christmas service. This added to the German content for Christmas and I think Caroline was very pleased we all went along with her for this service, filled with children and a nativity play. In the evening we ate quite a Swedish dinner with pickled fish to start with and then cooked ham, red cabbage and a creamy potato and anchovy pie. Then we all sat down and opened the surprisingly large collection of presents which lay under the tree.
Christmas day was mostly spent preparing the Christmas dinner, with our 6kg turkey. We sat down to eat in the afternoon to eat our traditional English Christmas meal with roast potatoes, parsnip, sprouts, bread sauce, stuffing, and of course the turkey. After a short break, we all went to the cinema together to see a film, The Golden Compass, with Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig.
I think we had a good Christmas together with a decent mix of traditions… and it was another first, celebrating Christmas with Caroline and the girls. Now we just need to find a way to use up all the leftover turkey and ham!

Planning a special trip

Some time ago, Caroline asked me if we could go on a long trip together. A special trip, one that will allow us to travel and explore and discover some new places, together. We discussed this subject from time to time, where to go, proposing locations and routes, as well as how long to be away. Soon we decided that Asia would be our destination, and after some negotiations with my boss at work, we decided on a six week adventure in Jan/Feb 2008.

Our plans focused on visiting Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia, with perhaps Laos, if our route would make this possible. Having decided the slightly cheaper multi-stop alternatives just weren’t worth the effort and trouble, we booked a direct flight from Stockholm to Bangkok, Were flying with SAS and even chose the seats we will sit in, via the online booking system, that’s cool! Our flight leaves Stockholm on Wednesday the 3rd January, and returns on the 15th of February.

Some weeks later, and we have spent ages trying to plan which route to take. The main point of concern is if we will try the slightly more complicated direction from northern Thailand over Laos and into Vietnam or Cambodia, or to fly up to Hanoi from Bangkok. We have several options, and at this point in time, we don’t know which way we will go. So we will start by taking the route north in Thailand and see how things turnout when we get there. It’s our plan to spend around a week there at first. We want to try out some cooking lessons and massage courses, that we’ve read about and sound like fun.

So here we are, just two weeks before we will leave… still lots to sort out, things to buy and bags to pack. But after a complex and emotional year, we’re both really looking forward to the trip and our six week adventure together.

My first Lucia

It's Lucia on the 13th of December in Sweden.
This day was regarded as the shortest day of the year in former times. The celebration can be traced back to St. Lucia, a martyr who lived on Sicily in the 3th century.
Nowadays Lucia comes as the "Queen of lights" in a white dress with a crown of candles. She is accompanied by lightbearers and they sing the Lucia-song and some other songs to announce the returning of the light and to herald Christmas time. This day is obviously very important for the kids and it's celebrated in many families in the morning at home, in day-care and kindergarten, but as well in schools and at work.

For my first Lucia, Richard and I went to see a Lucia-concert in a big church. "En resa från mörker till ljus" - A journey from darkness to light.
There were two choirs, one dressed in black and one dressed in white and they started with a few songs in the dark church, apart from each other, until Lucia came in with the lightcrown. The singers in white followed her with candles and they lit all the candles in the church and mingled among the dark choir. They even lowered down two huge candelabra from the ceiling to light their candles, what had quite an dramatic effect.


It was a beautiful concert and I had goose pimples several times, sitting in this church that was only lit up by candles and listening to all these nice songs.
I really liked the Lucia-day and I am happy to add this celebration to the special days in the year.
It's nice to celebrate te returning of the light. It's kind of comforting to know that the days become longer again, even though it's not very noticable for a while. But in the meantime we just light some more candles to make the darkness a bit more cosy :-)

Swedish for immigrants

School's out - for this year, at least!
The last three months I've spent a lot of time on learning Swedish. I started in September with a course in Folkuniversitet as I couldn't start straight away here in the local Sfi-courses, that are free for people moving to Sweden.
There I started in October, and as I wanted to make progress more quickly, I continued going to Folkuniversitet. So I ended up having courses every day for a few weeks, what kept me quite busy.

It was interesting with all these different people in these courses. I was always very curious to hear why they had come to Sweden and how they feel about living here. I was astonished about how many people from all over the world actually have fallen in love with Swedish people and decided to come to live here. Like me, with the only difference that my sambo (swedish for "living-together-with-person") is not Swedish ;-)
Anyway, it seemed as a lot of them have to cope with even more changes than I have to, coming from countries in Afrika or Asia. One guy from Sambia was about to see the first snow in his life...
I learned very soon, that I have quite an advantage with German and English in the background. I can deduce a lot of Swedish words from German, and English too, and some Grammar rules are quite similar. Not for the people coming from Thailand, China or Sambia, that's for sure. A lot of them need to learn another alphabet first of course, what makes it certainly much more different to learn a new language. And then the pronounciation - even more tricky. First of all for the people from Southeast Asia, they struggle really hard. I was pretty sure before, that this was only a rumour, that Asian people are not able to pronounce a proper 'r', but saying 'l'. I was often sitting next to a Thai girl in one of my courses who I could barely understand. Until I figured out that I have to replace some of the 'l's with 'r's in her words. ;-)

As I eventually started with the Sfi-course, I felt already a bit advanced, at least compared to many of my classmates. I had a few weeks "introduction course" until they divided the people in our group in different levels. I could join all the courses in the highest level of difficulty and after three weeks I did a test, some kind of pre-test for the nationellt prov, that is the completion of this course. This test was supposed to be one week later, but I wasn't expecting to be ready for that. But as the first test went so well, I thought I could give it a try.
It was a written part including an listening comprehension part for several hours and an oral part, that worried me most.
But I did well :-) No mistakes in the written part and the oral part was not bad either.
I basically run through the whole Sfi-course in four weeks. Not bad I guess, compared to others who spend there months or even years. I had almost the feeling I became some kind of a "model-immigrant" because of my successful studies. Several times I could hear my name in combination with the words "nationellt prov" and "noll fel" and "jätteduktigt" (= very good) ;-)

However, that have been some further steps in my learning-Swedish-project. I am about to get a feeling for the language and I understand already quite a lot. But it's not enough. I am planning to continue my courses in the middle of February, when we come back from Asia. Until then, I have to make sure, that I won't forget half of what I learned so far again. Therefore a Swedish book is already on my list of the things to pack and Richard and I should plan a daily Swedish hour during our trip.

My advent calendar

On the 1st of December, Caroline asked me to go and check out something in the living room! I was so surprised when I entered the room… the ceiling candelabra was decorated with a hanging advent calendar for me. She had made all the small packets, some with gifts, some with special messages and numbered each one. I would open them one by one during December… what a very special advent calendar it was.

Thanks Caro.

The earliest Christmas market ever!

This weekend we have been to Öregrund, a small place at the sea ca. 150 km up north from Stockholm. We had booked a hostel for one night and set off Saturday morning. The night before it had snowed for the first time, and everything looked like slightly powdered in white.
As we arrived in Öregrund we took the ferry to the close Island Grasö, as we couldn't go to the hostel straight away. The Lady from the hostel told us, she would be visiting the Christmas market at the hostel on Grasö, and so we decided to go there too. Even though we thought it might be strange to go to a Christmas market in the beginning of November.
But in the end it was not so christmassy as we expected. A few stands of locals selling all kinds of homemade stuff like jam, cookies, sausages and knitted socks and fancy Christmas decoration.

In the evening we could choose between two places to have dinner. Everything else was closed. Places like this just seem to go to sleep during wintertime. We then had a nice and cosy evening in our hostel that we had just for ourselves.

On Sunday we took a long walk after a great breakfast with ham and eggs, before we set off back home. It was so nice being outside, cold but sunny. On the way home, we stopped in Uppsala and had a look in the huge cathedral there. The largest church in Scandinavia with a long and interesting history.

A short but nice trip, and once again I got to know a bit more of my new country.

Mission without success

One of the very swedish things to do at this time of the year, is probably going out in the woods to pick berries and of course, mushrooms.
On this Saturday it was cold, but with blue sky and sun, so that we decided to wrap us in warm clothes and to try our luck.
It's not very much that I know about mushrooms and I have never been out to pick them myself. So Richard was in charge to find a good spot and to explain me, what signs and hints I should watch out for.
Equipped with plenty boxes and bags we started our mission. We left the path and made our way right across the trees.

But we were not very lucky. We found lots of nice things in this beautiful forest, like places covered up with pretty moss in different colours, but not a single mushroom. At least none that looked in any way eatable. And no berries either.
We might have been just a couple of weeks to late. But it was a nice excursion anyway, with a yummy picnic, sitting on a big stump and enjoying the late autumn sun :-)

Week away

I’m away from home this week on a business trip in Jönköping and Poland. Two rail exhibitions in the same week… someone should really plan these things better so they don’t coincide. Jönköping was ok. We were involved with a big event with the Swedish rail group, and organised a dinner and visit to an ice hockey match for some 120 customers and partners. That was actually quite good fun and only the 4th time I’ve seen a live hockey match in Sweden after all these years here.
Now I’m in Gdansk in Poland for another rail exhibition and head back to Stockholm tomorrow evening.
Caro has been on her own with the girls all week, and as far as I can tell from my phone calls, she’s been coping well with that, as I thought she would actually. It’s obviously another first for her in the process of living with me and the girls. It’s a new experience for her to live with two teenage girls in the house and I think she is doing a great job of getting acclimatised to that.
I’m very much looking forward to seeing them all and to see Caro tomorrow. She’s coming to the airport to collect me… mmmm, I get hugs and kisses as soon as I land :)

Swedish autumn light

I think I am more a summer girl, but I love the autumn too on days like this week. It's sunny and a clear blue sky! Many trees are already coloured and everything is bathed in a beautiful warm light of the sun that is already quite low.
I love riding my bike back home through Haga Park, the huge Park just around the corner from where we live. I took some pictures today.

Hope you all have some lovely sunny autumn days! Go out then and enjoy all the colours, marvel at the long shadows of the trees, find some conkers and smell, it's autumn :-)

First trip back to Köln

A long weekend in Köln, long planned in advance as I wanted to be there for my friend Friederike's leave to her 7 months trip around the world. I arrive Thursday evening. My friend Katja picks me up and soon we are on our way to Köln-Nippes to meet Tatjana in a restaurang. Now only Friederike is missing to complete the great four. She is still at home, busy with travel preparations, but we need her with us. We command that he has to take a taxi to join us and soon we are united again - after three months!
Friday, I finally manage to visit Tatjana in her new shop that she has just opened in the beginning of August. I haven't seen it so far and I am absolutely curious how it looks like! And of course it looks fantastic, just as I expected ;-) I spend a couple of hours there, watching her dealing with the customers and it's very obvious that she loves it! The shop is very pretty and nicely renovated, selling fruits, vegetables and some other selected yummy items like wine and italian desserts. A little paradise!
Later on I go to see Andrea. We spend a cosy evening in her kitchen, eating and drinking together and catching up with whats happening in our lives.

Saturday morning means packing! I assist Friederike and try to advise her what to take and what to leave. I can remember well how difficult this was for me when I went travelling... We argue a bit about the amount of pants and socks, but in the end there is even some space left in her backpack - good job ;-)
After that I meet Steffen for a late breakfast in one of my favourite cafés in town. He has his computer with him and he shows me pictures from his trip to Canada this summer. Now Canada is even higher on my travel-list!

In the evening Friederike has invited some friends to a pub and many many come for some Kölsch and to say good-bye. It reminds me of my saying-goodbye-evening three months ago...
Some close friends and I are taking her to the airport early in the morning. Friederike is sad and tearful, but eventually she goes courageously through the security and disappears into her great adventure...

Tatjana and me have another mission on this Sunday. We have a performance with Lamäng, the playback theatre group I have been a member of for the last 2,5 years. One of our members Albert celebrates his birthday and we are playing for him and his friends. I have been a bit unsure whether I would manage to just join in again after some weeks without rehearsal. But we are all in a good shape and the audience delivers great stories for us to play! We all have fun and I really enjoy to perform with my group.
After a calm and cosy evening with Katja in her flat and another night, it's already Monday morning and I have to pack my bag again. I have still one bike in Köln that I want to take to Sweden on the plane and it has to be prepared and properly packed for that. Fortunately I have my friend Cornelia to help me, as it turns out to be a bit more tricky than expected... But eventually, after overcoming several hurdles at the airport, we manage to get rid of the huge package and I catch my plane back to Stockholm.

Both my bike and me arrive safely in Arlanda and Richard already waits for me to take me home. Well, yes, it feels more and more like home here. My first trip back to what was my home for a long time has been really good. I enjoyed it very much and I managed to see nearly everybody who is important for me.
But I am also very happy to be back here! And that's probably a good sign, isn't it?!?