Clare’s, Sophie’s and Grant’s Party (combined, all 30, but not!?!?) was a little different. All secretive, invites only, rules, 3 allocated and strictly followed themes-Woodstock, Hollywood and Bollywood, 3 locations, a cow, free transportation, Sticky’s catering, red carpet actions, white/dark foundation, random and great…attention seeking crowed for sure! A little tribute to Clare… [View Full Entry]

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Queen of leisure, as Mel would put it. That’s meeeee. I have decided against a teacher’s position and am therefore free in what I do (apart from a few responsibilities). And I have been good. I usually suck at functioning without a given routine, but I haven’t fallen into the depressing laziness of watching a couple of videos after breakfast and never leaving the house! I realized life can be bloody luxurious, especially in this beautiful country. One Saturday, I was still lying in bed reading and coping (or at least trying) with the remains of a good night out, when [View Full Entry]

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Hanoi. It is apparently the favourite city of a “relative”ly close person of mine and I was therefore curious to see what she saw! I can’t say I really know that someone, but there is an air of self-centred-ness which makes me slightly uneasy thinking of cultural interactions taking place. My appreciation for Asia is new and I am probably too intolerant for other approaches than the one I chose for myself. Anyhow, Hanoi is a city with different, contrary flairs. Megastores à la Macys close to the ancient quarter with traditional street life, colonial mansions and run-down ho [View Full Entry]

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We moved on. Two days on a slow boat with an overnight stay at Pak Beng. Slow boats are mean inventions. They are not only slow, they leave hours later than scheduled and are filled up to the last square centimetre, but have only about a quarter of a normal seat made out of bare wood to sit on. These self-made benches are not fixed to the ground and are uncomfortable as hell! We had been convinced to spend 100 Baht on cushions, which was definitely the best investment of our entire trip! Speaking of such, the opposite is true for [View Full Entry]

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We had flown from LP to Pakse, but didn’t feel the place much, so made arrangements to get to Sipandon the next morning. My Mum wanted to see the largest waterfall in South-East-Asia, but we hadn’t got enough time to go on a tour. We were lucky and met someone who hocked us up with someone in Ban Nakasang to arrange everything. I talked to him on the phone and the next morning we took a songtaow to a far off (guest) house where we were supposed to meet. No one there, apart from a Lao “customer” who was helpful in [View Full Entry]

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From Sipandon we had left to Savannakhet and taken a bus over Lao Bao to Hué, Vietnam. We had been told many awful stories about this new country. Apparently it is covered in rubbish and the Vietnamese are aggressive and try to rip you off in any occasion. We got to the boarder and everything seemed like what people had said. Ladies with bags of money flooded our bus (4 passengers!) and wouldn’t stop hassling us to exchange money. You can’t get Dong outside of Vietnam, so we did exchange 10$, aware of the rip-off rates we’d been offered, but not [View Full Entry]

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“I am travelling through South-East Asia for four weeks” “Cool” “… with my Mum.” “…………..are you having a good time?!?” Yep, in deeed, you people who have doubtfully been asking me those question, (I am not referring to the ones who were still interested in talking to me!) don’t have a f****** clue what you’re missing out on! Of course travelling is about exploring all these beauties in the world, meeting people, living without restrictions and responsibilities, feeling free and being far away fro [View Full Entry]

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It is never long enough, but I am sure Nina and Renate are running for a record! After a reasonable night in the train, we crossed the border at Nong Khai to my lovely (but temorary) home. As you can imagine things got done in a rush, but quite efficiently. "City tour" on my bike and an overpaid Tuk-Tuk, Talat Sao, taylor and off to a wedding. I had pictured a Lao wedding to be a reasonable experience instead of the normal NY. Consequently, I distributed my 3 sins, gave a few insights in appropriate behaviour (as far as I can [View Full Entry]

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Not much to say about this place. It is simply increadibly huge (mega city, as Ms Fellman would say..!) Good shopping, loud and again huuuuge! Just a few pics. Enjoy, s [View Full Entry]

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23.12.06, BKK, Thailand; I am nervously standing at the international arrival gate, shifting my weight from one leg to the other and back. My feet and hands move uncontolled. Like I am listening to a fast and mind-spinning techno beat! But I am not, I am simply over excited, a little girl waiting for her santa (in my case Nina and her Mum). But they take too long, by the time they arrive I have had to sit down (the last two days where unorganised, hectic and dominated by a lack of sleep). Despite my exhaustion, I am fully back on--it [View Full Entry]

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