Since so many people complain about my stories showing up late (not realising this is not a diary? :), I have decided to make this page available, with short information about what I've been doing lately and what I'm planning on doing next, as well as changes to my webpage.
2004-06-22
Mmm... flying back home was great...
After a full day in Auckland, I got on the plane to LA, a trip which took about 12 hours. Then I had to wait for 2 hours in LA before getting back on the same plane to London, which took another 10-11 hours. After that I waited on Heathrow for 8 hours before getting on a plane to Gothenburg for another 2 hours of flying. All in all I spent about 24 hours in planes, and another 24 waiting in Auckland/LA/London before coming home, and I didn't sleep at all. So I was rather tired when I landed in Sweden at 22.10, where my sister and her husband met me to take me to their place for the night. Had to talk to them for a while though, so I didn't get in bed until about one-ish. The good thing is that I so far haven't really had any problems with jetlag, which is something I'm rather happy about!
The next day in Gothenburg we had a bit of a family gathering which was really nice! Thanks for booking the brilliant place and cooking such excellent food sis!
Now I've spent a couple of days up here in Karlstad, and tomorrow I start working at my old job again. Talk about things happening fast... but it's probarbly a good thing, so I don't get used to doing nothing back here as well! It's going to be fun to work actually, or at least that's the way it feels now :-)
It feels really weird being back home again... in one way it feels like I've just been asleep for a week or something and just woke up again - not a lot of things have changed back here and maybe I just dreamed the whole trip... ? :-)
I think I need a bit of time back home now to think about all the things I've seen and done to be able to understand it all. You can't do it while you are traveling because every day you get a new set of memories and impressions, so you just pile it all in the back of the head for a day when you're back home again, where your brain doesn't get quite as much new information all the time. In a couple of weeks I'll probarbly understand things and remember them better than I do now... or at least that's what I'm hoping for! :-)
This is the last update for a while, until I get my life sorted out and so on - I feel rather busy at the moment. All my pictures are uploaded, I think a total of 800 or so, so please enjoy them for now. Or wait until I have written captions to the pictures, that might be a good idea, so you know why I took the photo in the first place... :-)
Cheers!
2004-06-18
Don't know what to write really... I feel more anxious about going home than I did to leave home in the first place, which is kind of weird. I wish I had enough money to keep on traveling for years and years, but I suppose one has to face reality and go back to dreaming of the good life as a backpacker. Can't understand why not more people do this, because it's the best thing I've ever done and I seriously doubt I'll do anything this exciting and interesting ever again. Not that I think that I'll never travel again, but I don't think it will be quite the same thing as this time, being my first journey as a backpacker.
It's going to be great to meet all the lovely people back home though, missed you all and I hope some of you have missed me a bit as well. Missed me enough to buy me lots of beer, 'cause I won't be able to afford any for a few months I think! :P
Anyway... this is probarbly going to be my last short story until I'm back again, and when I'm home I'll try to write the longer ones with pictures and everything. Maybe noone will read them, but at least I will have them as a memory... Take care everyone, and to the people I've met on the road - I'll see you again some day, and if you ever come to Sweden, send me a mail and we'll meet up somewhere!
Over and out.
2004-06-13
Long time without updating the page, but I haven't really felt like it, and haven't had access to a computer either. Short update of what I've been up to...
When I was in Christchurch I decided that I have to go back home again, and because of that I changed my plane tickets so I skip Samoa and LA. Unfortunatly there was no available flights until the 18th, so I will fly from Auckland to LA to London, wait there for half a day and then continue to Gothenburg, landing at 22.10. That's gonna be a funny couple of days I'm su re...
Another thing that happened in Christchurch was that someone broke into my car and stole my (APS) camera and my memorycards for the digital one... Bummer.
After that I drove all the way up to Picton, with a short stop in Kaikoura. In Picton I did the WOF for my car, but had to buy two new tires to get an OK. And the Rego costed over 100 bucks as well. And the ferry up to the north island was another 100 bucks. Ouch.
In Wellington I stayed at a place called World Wide Backpackers, a nice place with a lot of nice people in it. After a week or so there I travelled north to ... some place on the east coast :-). With me I had a nice bloke called Paul that I met in Wellington. Spent one night in this pretty boring place and the next day we drove on to Lake Taupo which at least was a bit more interesting. After that the plan was to go to a lot of interesting places, but after reading about it I realised there was no point in doing so, since everything costed money (for example, a Hobbiton 2 hour tour - 50 dollars!). Drove up through Auckland and slept in the car along the road, the next day going to Kai Iwi lakes, a lovely little spot in the north. After that we went back down towards Auckland, where I've spent a couple of days with Pauls family and the week that is coming up I'm going to spend in Auckland in a backpackers, trying to get rid of my car.
Anyway... In a week I'll be back home again which feels reeeeaally weird. After a really long flight I'll probarbly be jet lagged for about a week or so, but hey, so what!? :) Take care everyone, and I'll see (most of) you in a few days!
2004-05-24
Since my last time writing here, I have spent a few more days in Queenstown getting drunk (well, that's pretty much the only thing you can do there when you can't afford the extreme sports) with Charlotte, Vin, Simon and Steve, some of the english people I spent time with in Dunedin. After Queenstown I drove up to Wanaka, but that was a rather boring place, so I continued up to Fox Glacier after a day. The glaciers (Fox and Franz Josef) was kinda dissapointing, but I got some nice photos along the way. After the glaciers, I took the scenic route from the west to east coast, called Arthurs Pass. Did expect a bit more of that, but oh well... maybe I'm just getting used to the lovely scenery around here :). Now I'm back in Christchurch again, and once again I have a cold which is pretty f*cking annoying. The weather here is crap as well, on the westcoast I had sunshine and blue sky, here it's raining. Bah.
Tomorrow I have to change my plane tickets. I wonder what I'm going to change, because I still haven't been able to decide what I want to do. I really need money, so I should go home and work, but then again, it's gonna be much harder getting abroad once you're stuck back home again. Sigh. Why can't I just win a million on lotto or something, that would have been great! :)
2004-05-17
Finally arrived in backpackerland a couple of days ago... that is, Queenstown, New Zealand. It feels really touristy, but after the extremly boring Invercargill, it's quite nice to be here. It took the guy several days to fix my car, and there is absolutly nothing to do in Invercargill, so that was a waste of time. Got the car late afternoon on Saturday, drove up here in the darkness, met up with Charlotte that I met in Dunedin, and have spent two nights getting wasted and the day after sobering up... considering the amount of time I have left now, maybe I should try to do something useful instead :-)
I really can't decide though... if I'm going to stick to my plans and go home in a few weeks or not, that is. One part of me wants to go home and meet friends and family again and get a job and a normal life, at least for a while. The other part just wants to keep on traveling, so then I have to go to Australia and work. Why does it have to be so damn hard?
2004-05-11
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| My New Zealand family |
To keep the style of my last report... I'm still alive! My car though... is dead. I was out in the middle of nowhere (heading from Dunedin to Invercargill - see map here) on the Southern Scenic Route when it just died on me. I'd been on a small gravel road trying to find a good place to camp for the night, but I couldn't find any, so I decided to go down to Invercargill and stay at a hostel. On the way back to the SSR I ran into a big f*cking hole on the road - since it was dark outside I didn't see it until I was on top of it (more correctly, down in it :-) and something important must have gone bye bye there, because I only managed to go south on the SSR for a while before the car stopped. Hrrm. Pitch black outside, my torch almost out of batteries, in the middle of absolute nowhere - and the cell phone doesn't work. Good thing I have a sleeping bag, because there was not a single car coming down that road after 19.30.
The next day I got up and packed all my stuff and my plan was to hitchhike down to Invercargill and get someone to tow the car down there for me. Just when I was done with packing my gear, a truck stopped and a friendly local stepped out and asked me if I needed some help. "YEEEES, I sure do!" was my response to that :-) I joined him and his wife in their truck, heading up to Dunedin delivering some deers for execution and processing. It was not the most comfortable ride of my life, sitting on one of my pillows between Pam and Michael, but it was better than sitting in a cold car that doesn't work. Not only did they take me with them, they got their son to tow the car back to their place, so when we arrived there in the evening they called a friend of theirs and made sure he could fix it for me, and after a nice dinner that Pam made, I slept so nice in one of their beds. I love New Zealand people. :-)
Today they towed me and my car to the guy that are going to fix it and then drove me to a hostel here in Invercargill. How nice is all that, huh? And I didn't even have enough money to pay for their gas...
2004-05-04
Yeah, I'm still alive, and the car is still running! Not bad huh? After Christchurch I spent a couple of nights in the car, fishing in some river, and then I headed to Timaru, where I didn't really do a lot - and didn't miss much either, a boring place =). After that I went to another place and did some fishing for a couple of days, freezing my ass off in the car in the mornings, before coming to Dunedin where I've been a few days now. Not very big, but enough anyway.
My fishing didn't work out very well. The most annoying part being that I saw quite a few really big salmons in the rivers, swimming about two metres in front of me, not at all interested in taking my bait. Bastards.
Been driving around 750km so far, and have seen some of the beautiful scenery in this country... it is truly a gorgeous country. The scenery in some places is really stunning. But you do expect a bunch of hobbits to run over the road all the time... :-)
2004-04-24
Where to start... I've been in Christchurch too long now, but I'm finally getting better (the cold is almost over), so now I'm going to leave this place. How, you ask? I am now the proud (well...) owner of a red Ford Telstar from 1984, with only 240000 km on the meter :-) I'm hoping it'll stay in one piece all the way up to Auckland. Would kinda suck if it didn't. I didn't pay very much for it though, so if it does brake down, it isn't a total disaster anyway.
Don't have a lot more to tell you now, except that if anyone would like to contact me by SMS or calling me, just dial +64-21-1045662. It's gonna cost you though, instead of me as it used to when I had my swedish number...
2004-04-17
It's time for celebration! I am finally (!!!) done with going through all the pictures in the Photo gallery, so it's officially opened. Weeh! There is one thing missing though, and that is captions to the pictures - you'll probarbly have to wait a loong time for that, there is quite a few pictures now. Actually, it's so many I'm pretty sure you wont look at even half of them, and I suppose quite a few doesn't really make sense without the captions if you weren't there at the time I took the picture. Anyway, please enjoy the photos, and if you want to print one we can probably come to an agreement (you'll need the picture in higher resolution to be able to print it with good quality) involving you paying me huge sums of money for it... or something. ;-)
In other news: I arrived in New Zealand last night. When I walked out of the airport on my way to the shuttlebus, the fresh and cold air of this country filled my lungs and it felt like coming home - "smelled" so good to not walk out of an airconditioned airport into the hot and humid air I've arrived in on my earlier flights. I've spent a day in Christchurch, a pretty small but nice town. I already like New Zealand better than I liked Australia, hopefully it will stay that way. Bedtime for me now I think... have a cold again, which is kinda boring, so I hope a lot of sleep and garlic helps. Goodnight!
2004-04-15
I've just got one more day left here in Australia and I'm looking forward to go somewhere else. Just can't understand why so many people come here, in my opinion it doesn't have a lot to offer - unless you like spending every day drunk, which of course can be nice, but it really does get boring after a while. A couple of days back I walked around Sydney and saw the famous opera house and the harbour bridge. When that was done all I felt was that I had done a couple of more things on the short list of must-doers in Australia. This country doesn't really have it's own "soul", being just 200 years old. The culture feels like a bad mix (well, how could it possibly be a good one? :) of american and english culture and there is very few things to actually see here, although there is quite a lot to do - if you can afford it. It's quite expensive, and this place is just too f*cking BIG! :) I'm not saying that I've had a bad time here, I'm just dissapointed in what it has to offer, compared to other countries. So my tip is... if you really want to go to Australia, make sure you have enough cash, and buy yourself a car - not because there is something wrong with the buses, but that way you'll at least be able to stop where you want to and get a feeling of the "real" Australia, in the small places along the road.
Tomorrow I'm flying to Christchurch in New Zealand, and in a couple of weeks it'll probarbly be warmer back home in Sweden than where I am. That's going to be nice! But I'll have to buy some new clothes or I'll freeze my bum off :) Anyway... Got a few things to take care of here, the next time I write something I'll be in another country again... Cheers!
2004-04-04
Well, the part about answering emails didn't quite turn out the way I had planned it - after my session by the computer I went to the bar for a beer before going to bed, and ended up in someone elses room drinking someone elses wine all night. Oops. I spent the next day in the same company, and in the evening we played drinking games... I think I'll have to post the rules here some day so all of you can have as much fun as I do! :o)
After a couple of days in Hervey Bay, I left with my hostels tour to Fraser Island - the biggest sand island in the world. It was three really good days, with good weather, camping on the beach, swimming in fresh water lakes, driving 4WD in deep sand, drinking a bit and generally just a shitload of fun! The best place in Australia, if you are lucky enough to end up with good people in your group.
Just have to add that today I've been outside Sweden for 200 days, and I can't really say I feel like going back home again... and unless someone gives me a good reason to, I probarbly won't either :)
2004-03-27
After a long time in Cairns, I have now arrived in Hervey Bay, which is on the mainland by Fraser Island. The busride down here took 23 hours, but at least the bus was better than those in Laos and Vietnam...
I was a bit sad when I was leaving Cairns, I met a lot of nice people there that I'm going to miss, but hopefully I'll meet them again some day! It was their "fault" that I stayed there so long, together with the lovely weather. Last week it rained 654mm in Cairns - and it rained the whole week before that as well. A bit north of Cairns about 1050mm fell in seven days. This was because of the tropical cyclone that was in the area. When it left, it went south, so not only couldn't I get out of Cairns (the roads were closed), there was no point in leaving, since the rain was where I wanted to go. Anyway, I'm out of there now, and on my way to Fraser which is going to be nice. Also, I have changed the date on my flight from Melbourne to a week later or so, to make sure I have enough time to get down there.
The internet cafe is about to close, and I'm rather tired after a looong night on the bus. I'll try to answer emails tomorrow, so if you are among those (there is quite a few of you at the moment, sorry 'bout that) that haven't gotten an answer in the last month(s...), just wait a bit longer... Cheers!
2004-03-18
Hola! I'm still alive, although an AA meeting might be a good idea... =)
The weather has been crap for a week, so that's the reason I haven't been online for a while - walking for 20-30 minutes in pouring rain isn't my idea of a good time, bad that I live in the other side of town. I have spent the days relaxing, swimming a bit in the pool, and drinking rather large amounts of cheap white whine. A four litre box of Coolabah for 12ausd, is that a bargain or what!? The manager at the hostel I'm staying at is getting a bit upset with us though, playing drinking games every night...
Since the weather has been so bad, I haven't really felt like doing any bungee jumps and a girl at my hostel recommended my to do it in New Zeeland anyway. I have made three dives on the Great barrier reef though, which was nice, but I have to say I was a bit disappointed - I probarbly had too high expactations. Saw some sharks anyway, white tipped things. Other than that, the reef mostly seemed destroyed by all the tourists, which is sad. This is of course because you are only allowed to dive in a few areas, the coral in these areas can't handle all the attention...
2004-03-08
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| Come on, let's hug! |
*singing* Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me... Happy birthday dear Martin...
I think I'm going to celebrate myself with a nice dinner tonight, or maybe an ice-cream.. or how about both? Got a nice present from my family - money to pay for my bungeejump! Thanks! :)
Anyone else feels like sponsoring my adventures (like diving or white water rafting, which is also among my plans), just Paypal me or mail me and I'll happily give you my account number... ;)
Also posted a new story, thought it might be about time, the last time I did was a few months back :). Gonna try to get back on track with the webpage now, but I can't promise anything! Thought I'd post a picture here of me, so people don't forget me completly. It's from Litchfield national park where I was a week ago or so. That thing crawling around me is a nice python, that really liked me more than the others for some reason. Tried to crawl back around my neck all the time...
2004-03-05
Yesterday morning I arrived in Cairns, from a (very) early flight. Since I had to leave in the middle of the night I got no sleep at all until I had checked into a hostel here. This evening I'm starting to feel normal again (well, not normal of course, but more like I usually feel anyway! ;), but I think the disease was still in my body because I have been completly messed up today - could hardly get out of bed at all.
Haven't really decided what I'm going to do here yet, since everything is so bloody expensive, but there is one or two things I'd love to test... anyone want to pay for my bungeejump!? :)
2004-02-19
Still not well, but at least I'm in Australia now, feels rather good. Arrived early this morning, got on a bus in to town, got a room and tried to sleep. Didn't work at all, my throat was in really bad shape. Walked out and visisted the supermarket around the corner. Damn, that was so nice, I just walked around and looked at things that I have missed for so long. This place had more stuff than all the other supermarkets altogether, that I've visited since Vietnam :)
Don't really have any plans at the moment, except getting well. The only thing I know I "have" to do here is to visit one of the national parks, but it's rather expensive, and like I've said before, my funds are not so good right now. Oh well, guess I'll try to find a job or something *sigh*
2004-02-17
Bah. I shouldn't have said that I was feeling better, it became much worse right away. Have been in bed most of the time here on Bali, my nose is running, my throat feels like shit and I have a little bit of fever every once in a while. The weather could have been better as well, lots of rain. Right now it's about 2dm of water on the street outside, and the rain is still pouring down. Lovely. Tomorrow I'm supposed to go to Australia, I do hope the weather is better then, because I don't really want to take off in this kind of shite.
2004-02-13
Oh yeah, I kind of forgot this place... maybe I should write something every once in a while? Sorry about it, but I've been rather bored by things lately, together with a slight case of... something, not sure what, but a bit sick anyway. I'm feeling better now though. I've arrived in Kuta beach, Bali, a place that is like Koh phi phi on steroids or something. A lot bigger though, even more tourists (but here it's mostly australians instead of swedes), annoying people selling shit I don't want and just generally a bad place. I'm so looking forward to Australia... =)
The last week I've been in Jakarta, and that was not a favourite either, reminded me a bit of Bangkok. I'm not sure if it's just me, but my impressions of Indonesia so far has not been very positive... but I have been to the parts that noone likes so I guess it's my own fault. Running rather short on cash as well, which is not so good. Oh well, hopefully I can find a job in the big country down under...
2004-01-31
Well, today was an interesting day I have to admit... I walked around KL for a long time trying to find Garuda Indonesias office - so long in fact, that I had no choice than to take a plane. And not any plane, a plane from KL to Surabaya. Yeah, I know just as much about the place as you do, so don't ask me...
During the day I also realised another thing - Malaysia is not in the same timezone as Thailand. Slightly good thing to know when you have a plane to catch I realised... :) Fortunatly I managed to get on the plane in time, so now I am here, in the middle of nowhere (well, on the eastern part of Java anyway). Very interesting city, I went out to get some dinner, and everyone (no, I'm serious - everyone.) was staring at me and/or talking to me. They are worthless at english here though, so the communication was rather limited. Sat down at a foodstall and ate some Nasi goreng and talked with one guy that actually knew some english, that was nice. The amount of white people I saw during my 1-2 hours around town was... 2. No wonder everyone was staring I guess :) Anyway, now I have to find out if there is actually something to do around here, but according to my friend downtown there isn't, which would explain the lack of tourists.
Oh yeah, one more thing... I'm staying at such a nice hotel here, because I have no idea where to find a cheap one (I really need a guidebook)... damn it's going to be hard to go back to dirty guesthouses after this... :)
2004-01-30
Yesterday I managed to change the date on my planeticket to Australia (managed in the way that I actually found the STA Travel agency, which was a lot harder than I expected), so now I have another two weeks before I fly from Bali to 'down under'. The problem is that Indonesia is a bitchy country, they have changed the visa rules from really good to really bad, especially for us swedes - so I have to enter the country tomorrow. This means I have to either fly from here tomorrow (expensive but easy) or go to Malacca by bus and take a ferry over (cheap but a lot of trouble). Since I prefer to spend money on stupid things rather than expensive journeys, I'm of course going to try to take the ferry over there. If I fail I might be in a bit of trouble, but hey... it'll probarbly work out just fine! :)
Well, to tell the truth, I am of course going to try to find a cheap plane ticket first of all, but the cheapest I know of so far is about 700RM and the bus+boat alternative will set me back less than 100RM, which makes it an easy choice, no?
2004-01-28
I am now (finally...) in Kuala Lumpur. After a rather boring minibusride from Krabi to Hat Yai, I got on a VIP Bus to KL. Now that's how I want to travel from now on, bloody comfty it was. What I did not appreciate was the fact that we arrived at 03.00, not 06.00 as we were supposed to. It's so much fun getting off the bus, having no idea where you are and with no money in your pocket... or at least none that works in the country you just entered. Malaysia don't allow you to exhcange money outside it's borders, or something like that...
I tried getting directions to an ATM by a taxidriver, but he said that they were probarbly closed (!). Walked around a bit and the few I found sure didn't work anyway. Lovely. I had decided for a place where I wanted to stay (found it in my guidebook), but how to get there from this busstation when you have no money? That turned out to be rather easy, since I suddenly found myself looking at it - the bus didn't drop us off where they are "supposed" to. I was grateful for that...
2004-01-26
Well, I got stuck here in Krabi a few more days, but tomorrow I'm finally leaving. I'm rather short on time, so I won't be able to see much more in Asia now - a couple of days in Kuala Lumpur before I go to Singapore and try to get on a flight to Bali, so I get there in time to catch my plane to Australia. Sounds like a lot of fun! Erhm...
I was pretty much just about to leave this place when Erik and Robert (that I spent christmas with) arrived with a couple of friends so I spent two days with them, and I also met two very nice girls from Denmark, so when the others left I hanged out with them and did a bit more diving as well. Now the girls are gone though, and I'm so short on time I'm not even sure I'm going to be able to reach my destinations in time... oh well... no worries!
My next update should be from Malaysia, if there's enough time for me to use the Internet. And any year now I plan to post the story about Angkor, but I just haven't been up to it lately. Oh well...
2004-01-17
My glasses and contact lenses has arrived, so as soon as I feel like sitting on a bus for 20-something hours, I'm heading down to Kuala Lumpur. I'm so looking forward to it *sigh*
I've been spending a few days relaxing, reading a lot (I'm sure the people in the bookstore think I'm rather weird...) and enjoying not having to do anything at all. I'm very good at doing that... :)
2004-01-12
Yesterday I finished the Advanced course, so I am now certified to dive to 30 metres. Weeh! :) I had three very good dives, at the King cruiser ship wreck (which was on 30m, not 22), Shark point and Anemone reef. Started early and came back home late (finished the day with beer to celebrate), so I'm tired today. I was supposed to go diving today as well, but they cancelled the trip unfortunatly. This means I'm going to spend the day relaxing, and to decide what I want to do tomorrow... have to spend a couple more days here since I'm waiting for contact lenses i ordered a few days back.
2004-01-09
Today I finished my PADI Open Water diving certificate... hooray for me! Didn't take me more than 3 days (not even that really), but then again, I had my own personal instructor which was very nice - although it's probarbly a lot more fun to dive in a group with other newbies :). I celebrated myself with a nice icecream on Swensens, since I will begin the Advanced Open Water course tomorrow, so no drinking for me. I am going to do two dives, one of them during night time (well, in the dark anyway). That feels a bit scary, but I'll probarbly survive... I hope! The day after, I'll do three more dives, including one ship wreck dive (about 22m) and one down to 30m. Cool huh?
2004-01-06
Well, I'm still in Krabi, but at least I have decided what I'm going to do now - stay here and take a diving certificate. It's going to take me a few days, then I might do the advanced course as well. I began today with watching a movie about theory, tomorrow I begin diving in a swimming pool. It's going to be pretty cool I think :)
2004-01-04
Current position is Krabi, Thailand - trying to decide what I'm going to do next. Either go to Koh Tao for a divers certificate, stay here and do it, or skip it alltogether and go to Malaysia instead. My life is full of hard decisions...
Well... other interesting things to know is that quite a few of my pictures have been published on www.traveldust.com, which I personally think is pretty cool :)
I have also made quite a few changes to my website, besides posting the story about Phnom Penh and making this page... including security updates, making sure I've got working statistics and so on.
Over and out.
