In the jungle!

After a few days in the sleepy town of Kratie, where I spent my days strolling around the market, drinking ice coffee and watching the Irrawaddy dolphins in the Mekong river, I took an impulse trip up to Banlung in the north eastern parts of Cambodia.

Ratanakiri is a beautiful region with red dirt roads and green forestry hills and I went with some girls I had met to swim in crater lakes and shower under waterfalls, it was wonderful!

molly and me under the waterfall

The next two days we spent hiking in the jungle. We had a really col guide and a ranger that made us walking sticks and coffee cups of Bamboo. I think that is the coolest coffee cup I have ever seen!

Our man making the bamboo cups

There were hardy any paths to be seen, but the ranger knew his way around in the jungle and after about six hours of walking we arrived to where we were spending the night.

Crossing the river

Our campsite was beautifully located by a small river, and as our guides made a fire and prepared for dinner, we walked further up the river to find a place where we could swim and cool down. It was a beautiful and calm spot, and it felt great to relax after the hike.

swimming in the river

As we came back to the campsite the food is already cooking in long bamboo sticks placed on the fire and we sit down to try out our new coffee cups. The food is great and we sit by the river chatting untill the sun went down and the stars came up. When darkness came upon us, our guides asks us to borrow our flash lights cus they wanna go hunting for frogs to make us a late night snack. As we watch them disappear further up the river all we can hear is the sound of frogs and insects. I have no idea what is out there, and I really don't want to know either.

our food is in the bamboo sticks on the left

After about an hour the guides come back with a bucket full of frogs, crabs, shrimps and small fish that they cook with garlic, chili, lemon grass and some other herbs that they had found in the jungle. The frogs are delicious, and since I'm the only one who really eats any of it, I got as much frog legs as I wanted! Love it!


When there were no more jungle frogs left, we took our blankets and climbed into our hammocks and fell asleep under the starlit sky in the jungle in northern Cambodia.

Taxi ride Cambodian style

I was in Kampot in southern Cambodia just relaxing, barely moving out of my chair for three days. Just looking at the river and reading my book and enjoying doing nothing. But I couldn't stay there forever so I decide to take a shared taxi back to Phnom Penh. The bus took five hours but apparently the taxis only take three. So the choice was easy.

Me and Meredith (a girl I met at the guest house) gets picked up and the car is empty. We had been told that it would be really crowded so we were a bit surprised. But of course, we spent about an hour driving back and forth and here and there picking up people. And at the end there were eight of us in the car. Meredith and I shared the back seat with two girls that sit making out basically the whole ride, and in the front there is the driver and three sweaty football players that came straight from a match. And yes, one of them do share seats with the driver (don't understand how the driver actually manages to drive, but somehow he does, probably not the first time he does this). And then, of we go.

We go for about 100 meters and then we stop. Oh no, not more people we think. But they were just buying fish. We made sure it was placed in the trunk and not in the car. And then we head of for real this time. Music comes on. A horrible high pitch female voice talk and sing and it's painful cus it's too loud. And then there is the honking. Every 10 seconds the driver honks. Great!

And then, after five hours we arrive. Dammit, we should have taken the bus!

Vietnam in pictures

The chaotic streets of Hanoi

Christmas was spent in Halong Bay

We finally found the beach!!!

fruit seller in HoiAn

the water buffalo manFun on the beach
Rice paddies

sun rise

A brief summary of the last weeks

After spending some time in the Tibetan area in Western Sichuan, I went south through an amazing mountain landscape. The roads were clinging to the steep mountain side as we climbed peak after peak. I'm sure one should have been a bit worried on roads like these, but I was too busy admiring the the scenery to worry about anything at all.

I went straight down to Tiger Leaping Gorge with two guys I had randomly met on my way down. In the Gorge, we met up with two Canadians and two Russians that we did the 8 hour trek with. The four first hours were straight up, and I mean straight up!

Tiger Leaping Gorge

Climbing up I was exhausted, my legs were shaking and I didn't think I was gonna make it. But as I reached the top and caught up with the others, it was all worth it. The views were stunning, the sky was blue and the sun was shining (got the first sunburn of the trip) and life was beautiful sitting on the terrace of halfway lodge and just looking at the sky!Happy to arrive after a long day hiking

The Canadians wanted us to come to Lijang with them to attend a traditional Naxi wedding. And who can say no to such an offer? The wedding was amazing; food, beer, cigarettes and more food. Naxi dancing - and yes, we were dancing with them - parades through the streets, traditional clothes and a really cool naxi priest that wanted me to marry a swedish guy. I kindly refused and the festivities went on untill late. We were sitting around a big fire, drinking and playing games. The game was simple, the person who got the red scarf thrown at them, had to sing a song. I sang a norwegian drinking song and everyone laughed.

parading through the streets in Lijiang

I think this guy was some sort of Naxi priest

I ended my stay in China in a town called Yangshuo. It's a major tourist spot, but still, really beautiful. Just 10 minutes outside the town by bike there is no one around but the farmers and their animals. It's a peaceful place and I enjoyed hanging out and just relaxing there for a few days.Boat trip on the Li river

Now I am in Hanoi, Vietnam! It's a bussy and noisy city. There are scooters and motorbikes everywhere and it is way more crowded here than in China. And it's still a bit cold, but just for a few more days now. I'm going on a three days cruise in Halong Bay over christmas and then I'm goign south. South to sun screen weather and flip-flops. To beaches and fresh fruits. The mangos here are heavenly!

Oh beautiful day!

I wake up to a clear blue sky and yet another beautiful day. I am 3600 meters above sea level, the sun is strong and makes the days in the mountains livable compared to the freezing nights.

There is supposed to be a nunnery in a village not far from where I am and rumours has it that it is an amazing place. My curisosity is triggered and after a few minutes on the village square I find myself in a car with five tibetans heading to the nunnery in Ani Gompa.

The front seat I share with a tibetan guy, and in the back there is a munk and two old woman. They are heading there to pray and have decided to take me with them. We cruise along the dusty and bumpy road, tibetan music is flowing from the stereo and everyone is singing along.

Arriving in the village we are dropped of at the monastery. I walk around the temple with them, turning the praying wheels looking at everyone and listening to people chanting "om - mani - padme". It all seem magical in a strange way.

people praying

I leave the people I came with as they head up to the hills to hang up their praying flags. As I walk down through the village I say to myself that this is as beautiful as it gets. I can't really explain it, not even to myself, but I instantly fall in love with the place. In between the houses there are small paths leading through the village. People are getting on with their daily lives, walking with their animals, a woman is trying to crakc hole in the ice on the river to wash her clothes. Outside the houses people are sitting and drinking tea, women brush their long hair and braiding it while they look with big eyes at the strange withe girl that walks around taking pictures of everything.



A lady smiles at me and tells me to follow. She leads me to her home, a small one room building of stone and mud, she takes me inside and makes me sit down. The fire is burning and the tea pot is already warm. Tea and cookies are served and after a few minutes her husband joines us. We share no common language, but we manage to have some sort of conversation. She refills my tea cup time after time, there is a constant warm smile on her face that makes me feel so welcome.

After about 45 minutes I have to leave them and find my car back to Tagong. The woman goes to the back of the room and picks up a yellow, home made bracelet that she gives to me and insists that I take. I try to find words to show them how grateful I am, I can't find any, but I think they know. They stand by their door and waves me goodbye as I head down to where the car is waiting.

I walk with a smile on my face and I am truly happy. I would do everything again, good and bad, just to get here. It is moments like this that makes it all worth it!

Tibet

I never made it to Tibet, or, at least not the region that the Chinese governement defines as Tibet. But let's make one thing clear; you don't have to go to Lahsa to experience Tibetan culture!

As early as in Russia I met travellers that recommended me to go to the tibetan areas in Western Sichuan. And since it is really expencive and a lot of hassle to a travel permit and tour guide and every thing you need to be alowed to travel to Lahsa, I decided to head up into the mountains in Sichuan and explore some of the many tibetan villages that can be found in this area. And it was definetely not a bad decition.

I left Chengdu early one morning headinbg for KangDing where I had my first encounter with TIbetan culture. Even thoug it was only a seven hour bus ride, the differences were obvious. Beautiful women with long black hair in thick braids down to their waists, big and bright jewlery in every color and traditional tibetan clothes. The men, on the other hand, are the cowboys of the east. Most of them have long hair hanging loose under their cowboy hats, big leather jackets with a purple or yellow scarf around their waste as a belt. And of course, the motor bike. Western Sichuan is definelty China's Wild!

After a few days in KangDing (making christmas cookies and putting up christmas decoration with the family that ran the hostel I was staying at) I joined some other travellers and we went higher up in the mountains to a village called Tagong. Here the modern buildings are replaced by stone houses with colorful decorations around the windows and the doors. There are no Chinese to see any more, and the well used " Ni Hao" is replaced by the Tibetan "Tashi dale". This is truly TIbet.

The surrounding nature with hills, never ending grass land and snow capped mountains in the horizon is stunning. The hills are covered in praying flagsand tibetan writing.It's beautiful, there is nothing more to say about it! We spent a whole day just walking around, wandering the streets and looking. The people, the nature, the village, everything was just so different from anything else I've seen in China. It was just like entering another country.

I love what I have seen so far, and this is only the beginning of my TIbetan experience.

Observations at the train station

Sitting in the waiting room at the train station I feel totally alienated, like I'm from another planet. It is smacked with people, peasants with big bags, students heading home for the week end, families are having pic-nics every here and there. The smell of instant noodles, tea and sweat is everywhere.

I write to make the time pass, and people are constantly looking over my sholder to see what I am doing. I wish I could just be a fly on the wall observing people instead of beeing observed by everyone.

It's not a very colorful place. Most people are wearing black, grey or green. Only two people stand out. A lady in red hurries by with her husband behind her dragging their bags along. Her hair is put op on top of her head and she is covered in too much glitter. She is a true character! And then there is the little girl all dressed in pink. She stops, looks at me and gives me an honest smile without any curiosity. She was the only one. Most people just stear at me like I'm a freak show. ANd sometimes I fell that that's exactely what I am.

Then comes the train, and I am of to a new destination.