Laos part two

If you've ever heard of Laos, and you're between 20 and 30 years old, you've probably heard of Vang Vieng, the party capital. It's the favorite spot for the party people, the people I wrote about in part one. Ever though I was well aware of this, I chose to go to Vang Vieng on my way down south. The reason for this was the reputable tubing that I just had to try. It was with a great deal of mixed feelings that I took the bus to Vang Vieng. Part of the reason for this was that I hadn't met a single swede in four months and I was terrified that my first swedish encounter would contain a 19 year old drunk topless girl dancing on a table somewhere. Luckily, that didn't happen.

The town itself is just as horrible as I had expected, but the tubing - OH, the tubing! It was SO MUCH FUN! My french friend Erik and I rented a tube and got a pick-up to the start (3 km upstream) together with three Phillipino guys, that we ended up hanging out with all day. The three guys, dolphin trainer, veterinarian and artist in a marine park, were so nice that I want to go to the Phillipines. In the beginning of the tubing, there are bars with different water activities along the river.

When floating down, the people working at the bars simply throw you a rope with a bottle at the end and pull you into their bar. At each bar there's something to do, a water slide, mud volley ball, a zip line that ends in the water, or - my favorite - the huge swing. Yes, this whole place is like a giant playground for "adults". The swing is about 10 meters above ground and such an adrenaline rush! The next day my arms were sore from swinging too much, like a circus artist... Can I bring it home with me?



I had a couple of days of long bus rides to take me down to the very south. It's incredible how slow the buses are in Laos. Sometimes you get to watch music videos on super high volume all the way. The music is so funny, I have the strong impression that there is actually only one song in all of Laos, it's impossible to hear the difference! The music videos are also always the same, a dressed up man in front who sings and behind him two to four girls in sparkling dresses with huge fake smiles on their faces and Hawaiian style dancing. I blessed my ipod on those long journeys.

After a day of disappointing cave exploring in Thakek, I continued to the popular destination 4000 islands, where I met my first swede! It wasn't a 19 year old drunk, but a really cool Theo, accompanied by an equally cool Winston from Canada. I also met Tal, the sweet israeli dread head, Emanuela and Enrico - brother and sister from Australia, Linus and Oscar - the swedish speaking fins who reminded me greatly of my sweet friend Daniel in Falun.

I went to 4000 islands expecting another Mung Noi, but didn't find it. The place itself is absolutely gorgeous, but a little bit too small for all the tourists it contains. One night, an american drunk guy threw three cats and one dog in the river from around five meters. All the other drunk people around were upset by this, which is understandable. The biggest guy in the place (an equally drunk american who's in the army and has been to Irak twice, claiming it's a great job) then saw it as his duty to punch the pet thrower in the face, whereupon the rest of the crowd cheered. I felt like I was watching a bad movie and that was the moment that I decided it was time for me to move on. If I want to see drunk people doing stupid things and punching each other, there's really no reason for me to go all the way to Laos. A visit to any bar in Sweden would do just fine.

So, I trusted me french friend Charles (with the funny hat in the photo) and followed his advice to go to a small village called Tadlo to find some people that I could at least have a somewhat intelligent conversation with (many of the nice people I'd met had already moved on).

Tadlo turned out to be the second little paradise I found in Laos. The moment I arrived there, I got a warm welcome from Mama Pap, who cooked the most amazing Lao food in huge quantities for no money at all. The first person I started talking to was my neighbor Jason, from Tucson Arizona, who studies human rights. I almost thanked God, or at least Charles, for sending me to such a great place.

You can measure how laid back Tadlo is by how long it takes to get food at Mama Paps. The first time Jason and I ordered, Mama Pap went into the kitchen for about 20 minutes. When she came out again, we thought that we would get our food, but Mama Pap was carrying food - for herself. She simply explained it like this: "Now I will eat, because I'm very hungry. Then I will cook for you." Jason and I were both very hungry when we ordered, but by the time we finally got our food two hours later, we were starving. Mama Pap has such a great charm, that all the guests just love her, even when they're on the verge of starvation. I'm glad my real mamma wasn't there though, she probably would have murdered someone if she had to wait that long for food. The day that Mama Pap came home from the market with a fat rat that she was cooking for dinner, I was overjoyed for being a vegetarian. All the guests who had had meat, were getting unsure about the flavor of their "chicken/beef/pork".


After two days, we found another guest house that had a truly cosy bungalow that just felt like home from the first sight. Everybody who has ever stayed in "the Bamboo Hut", has left something behind; a book, a piece of clothing, some medicine, a hammock. There's a huge porch outside the bungalow with a small kitchen including coffee, tea and a mixer to make fruit shakes. Paradise! Finding this on the last day in Laos was somewhat tragic for me, because I could have probably stayed for a week.

Laos is great! I can write so much more about all the reasons, but I just don't have time... It's time to get into Burma now.. And when I have time, I will write about the diving in Thailand also.

Oh yes, I almost forgot... The dreads are off and I feel so free!!!

Laos, part one...

I know that I've been increadibly bad at updating my blog lately, it's been over a month. I'm so sorry, but traveling is just too busy! It's a hard life. Seeing interesting culture, astonishing nature, talking with nice people, eating tasty food and reading good books. Who has time to keep a blog? During one month in Laos I never felt like writing, but now I'm back in Thailand and I want to do an update. I just realized that it's going to have to be two updates...

Let me introduce Laos, a country that seems to be made out of waterfalls and caves, inhabited by the friendliest people you can imagine eating the stickiest rice in the world. Do I have to tell you I loved the place? Parts of Laos are sadly destroyed by tourism, though. But if you're adventurous enough to go to other places, you'll be rewarded.

The trip to Laos began with a two day boat trip from the border to Luang Prabang, the second biggest city and cultural center of the country. It is also the intellectual center, I read that in the Lao soaps, the doctors and lawyers always speak with a Luang Prabang accent (I didn't manage to distinguish the accent though). The boat trip was really nice and relaxed and it was also the place where I met Erik and Julie from France and Will from New Orleans. These three became my new travelling friends for a few weeks. Erik and Julie also became my french teachers. I hadn't expected that I'd practise so much french on my trip to Asia, but I have to say that my french now is much better than it was half a year ago.


On the two day boat ride, I encountered the third catagory of "travellers I don't like to meet", a kind that I unfortunately would meet alot of in Laos (and probably will meet in Thailand as well); the party people. The party people on the boat were sitting in the front of the boat smoking cigarettes (so that everybody in the boat could benefit by inhaling the fumes) and drinking beer lao non stop for two days. When they arrived in Luang Prabang, they soon decided to move on, since the pubs aren't open after 11 pm in Luang Prabang. And, as they explained it to us: "we don't give a shit about temples, we've seen enough". At first I thought that all of this was entirely their own business, but when I later went to Vang Vieng (the party capital) I realized how much that has been destroyed by the huge amount of european teenagers (yes, teenagers!) being recklessly drunk and stoned listening to terrible pumping music all day and night all year round. I can't even beging to think how it must be for the locals living there. 15 years ago it was a quiet town in a beautiful surrounding and now they have to live with the stupid party people wether they want it or not. This is all so sad to me and makes me ashamed for being a tourist. It's also hard to understand how all of that can be some peoples dream. The party people stay in Vang Vieng for weeks doing the same thing over and over: drinking, smoking weed and trying to get laid. That brings me to another thing I don't like about this group. Many times the guys will talk to a girl at first, but as soon as he understands that he's not gonna get sex from her, he doesn't bother anymore, but starts talking to someone else instead. I even heard some guys saying out loud: "oh, that's the girls who have boyfriends at home, there's no use talking to them". I could probably go on writing about this for a while, but I just don't feel like it and I'm sure you're thankful for that.


There's actually a fourth category as well, one that makes me so upset that I want to cry. That's the old, ugly, nerdy, white men who come to Thailand and suddenly find young, beautiful thai women. They're EVERYWHERE! If I start writing about this it will take all day, so therefor I will spare you. This time.







After Luang Prabang, I traveled north with my new friends to a small village called Muong Sing. The town itself is nothing spectacular, but around it is a large number of hill tribe villages. In Muong Sing we organized a three day trek to see the small villages around. Luckily we got a great guide called Mai, who new so much about all the different tribes we visited. We even got to stay with two families and felt genuinely welcomed by both. The kids in the villages were very curious about their guest and all wanted to touch my hair.

A funny thing about the trek was that we were walking in the jungle, with Mai in front to clear the path with a machete. Afterwards we found out that there was an easy way as well, but I guess the trek was going through the jungle so that the tourists (us) would feel like they were on a "real adventure". I felt so silly when we found that out. I even feel a little embarrassed now that I've been on an organized thing like that. But at the same time, we learned alot about the hill tribes and we all had a great time.

After trekking, we said goodbye to our Louisiana boy Will and took a bus 150 km east (this took 7 hours!), a tuk-tuk for another hour and then a boat for 1,5 hours to the small, wonderful paradise Muong Noi. Muong Noi is a village without roads, right by the Nam Ou river. The landscape around is truly beautiful, and the atmosphere totally relaxed. There were only a few tourists every day, so everybody talked with everybody and after a few days I felt like a small town girl, everytime the boat came in, I'd be curious at who would come visit the village today. Despite the relaxed atmosphere, there were plenty of things to do in Muong Noi, two really cool caves to explore and tubing down the river in slow motion.

One day it rained very heavely from 6 in the morning until late afternoon. As soon as the rain stopped, my new argentinan friend Gregorio and I thought it would be a great idea to walk to the nearby village Banna. What we hadn't considered was that the whole way was a mud path, and we had mud up to our ancles the whole way. Wet mud is very slippery, that's what I learned. I also learned that it takes a long time to walk in mud. The walk to Banna took two hours instead of one and I fell twice. For some reason Gregorio didn't fall, although it looked like he would at least 100 times.

When we arrived in Banna we were rewarded with yet another paradise. The village only has 100 inhabitants, all of who work at the huge rice fields you have to cross to go there. There is, however, a small, very basic and cheap guest house hosted by the friendliest woman I met in all of Laos: Mama Kham. Gregorio and I soon realized that the sun was about to set, so we had to say goodbye to our new mama, but decided to go back to stay one night the following day.

In Banna everybody lives in bamboo houses on stilts, work on the rice fields and wear traditional clothes. Everybody exept for Mama Khams son, the rocker. This guy walks around the tiny village in baggy jeans, black rock t-shirts, a rocky kind of hair cut and piercings. Gregorio and I were both very surprised to find him here, he looked like he might as well belong in any European big city. When we came back to Banna the following day to spend the night, the rocker was glowing with happiness to see us again. I don't think he gets a chance too often to practice his english and hang out with other cool kids. :)

Leaving Muong Noi after a week was not easy, but luckily I met this guy, Julius, who took me on his amazing motor bike from 1955 down towards Luang Prabang again. I was supposed to go all the way ther with him, but as the bike lacked a footrest for the left foot, my leg was cramping after one hour. The motor bike also broke down once, and I realized how hard it must be to travel by motor bike. And Julius had done it all through Vietnam! With the old bike and all our bags in the back, we sure got a lot of attention on the roads through the villages. Everywhere people were waving, yelling "falang!" (tourist). Yes, that's what I am: falang.

Enough is enough...

Ten days and 88 hours of meditation later, I'm back in Chiang Mai. So, how was life at the monastery named Wat Ram Poeng, you wonder? And why are you back so soon? Well, it was - how should I put this - not quite satisfying in every way. Not terrible, but definitely not great. So now you're wondering: did I expect it to be great? After all it included fasting after midday, rising at 4 am, sleeping for 6 hours per night (as most of you might know, that's just NOT enough for me to function well), being completely silent and meditating for 10 hours per day. In other words, not exactly the typical vacation in Thailand. However strange it sounds, I actually enjoy all of those things (except the lack of sleep), so I did expect my stay to be a whole lot greater than it was.

My biggest issue was the walking meditation. The course included an equal amount of walking and sitting meditation. Since I had very little experience in walking meditation, I was really looking forward to learning that. But even after 44 hours of walking in slow motion back and forward, I still felt like that's all I was doing, merely walking - without meditating. Walking extremely slowly, trying to focus, failing and instead thinking. Thinking about everything that's ever happened to me, everyone I've ever met, everything that will ever happen in the future and so on. Frustrating as hell! Except thinking about all those things, I also started asking some questions (and you might want to enlighten me on some facts here):

• Does anyone get anything out of walking meditation?
• Why is there such a useless thing, why not just sit?
• What are the exact benefits of this terrible invention?
• Does it even qualify as meditation, why not just call it walking in slow motion?

Needless to say, walking "meditation" is not my new big addiction. Actually I don't think I speak falsely if I tell you here and now that I will NEVER again take another step of walking "meditation", unless the life of someone close depends on it. And that's just not gonna happen (lucky me)! Ok, I'll quit boring you with the detailed description of my feelings for walking "meditation" now. Just one more thing so that you completely understand my situation. It was 35 degrees and around 70 percent air humidity. No fan in the world could prevent the sweat from pouring down my back, front, arms and legs (I could have just written pouring down my entire body) as I walked there, in slow motion, wearing my long sleeved white clothes, dedicating thoughts of hatred to whoever invented this ridiculous form of mind training.

The monastery itself is quite nice, beautiful buildings surrounded by trees, Buddha statues and paths. I had my own room and bathroom, and that's not very common during meditation retreats.

There were around 70 meditators and only around eight were foreigners like me. Going to a monastery for a couple of days every once in a while to practice meditation seems pretty common in Thailand. During the other meditation courses that I've done on this trip, the foreigners have always dominated the scene. At Wat Ram Poeng it felt more as though I was doing something that is a part of the thai culture, not another tourist attraction. There were so few foreigners, that when one of the monks showed some new people around and he saw me, he said to them: "Look! Another foreigner! Say hello!", whereupon the new foreigners all obediently said "helloooo". I would love to see that happen in Sweden, hahaha... Most of my fellow meditators were women and the ages varied between 16 and 70. They didn't seem to care too much about my presence, but many smiled in a friendly way and some helped me when I seemed lost. A few young girls asked me questions in poor english about being at the monastery.

My favorite little lady never smiled at me or helped me, she never even looked at me. Despite that, I felt like we had a connection. We both used the library (see picture above) for meditation and the two of us were definitely the most frequent meditators there. The others came and went, but the little lady and I stood strong every day, every hour. The little lady was tiny, she probably reached my shoulder, but nonetheless radiating strong determination, strength and power. No one would try to get in her way! During the first couple of days, she constantly walked straight towards me during walking "meditation", even when there was plenty of room on the floor. The first few times I moved out of her way, quiet and irritated (typically swedish behavior by the way). But when I realized that she was testing me, I didn't move an inch. After a few times, the never walked in my way again and we started to live in some kind of symbiosis, she became an important part of my days at the library. I think that the reason why I liked the little lady is that she reminded me of my great friend Anna (who is also really short, strong and determined) and how we first tested each other when we met in Gavle in 2004, before we decided that we absolutely loved each other.

Now let me tell you about the food. Whoever said that Thai food is great, sure wasn't talking about the cafeteria style That food that I was served twice daily. Imagine that you don't get dinner, only breakfast at 6.15 and lunch at 10.30. Wouldn't you hope that the two meals you got would be tasty? And if they're not tasty, wouldn't you at least expect to get enough to satisfy your hunger? Well, if you answer yes to these to questions, I suggest you never set foot at Wat Ram Poeng. I shouldn't exaggerate too much, I did after all undertake the fourth precept " to abstain from false speech" only two days ago. So, to be honest: all the food wasn't absolutely terrible. Sometimes we even got ok food and sometimes I even got full. Let me remind you that I'm never picky with what I eat, as long as it's meatless. I love almost all food. Some of my friends even tell me that I'm not reliable when it comes to evaluationg food just because of that characteristic. Well, trust this: most of the time the food was disgusting! The chef obviously thought that slime and sugar could save any dish. So what's on the menu? Slimy, tasteless, gray meat imitations in a slimy, gray sauce and then a pink, milky, super sweet soup with little cubes of jello and weird wooden-textured fruits for desert. Are you getting hungry? My worst memory must have been the morning when I was starving for breakfast (after 17 hours of fasting) and I was served a small scoop of brown water with a tiny bit of rice swimming around in it, nothing else. One more thing about the food: after lining up, being served and instructed by the strict nun on where to sit, we all had to chant Buddhist songs in Thai for half an hour before we were aloud to dig in. And then the food wasn't just repulsive, it was also dead cold.

After seven days at the monastery, my teacher Pra Ajang Suphang asked me if I wanted to stay longer than the mandatory ten days. Despite my problems with the walking meditation, the food situation and the fact that I didn't really feel comfortable and happy, I said yes just because I'd told myself that I would. Pra Ajang Suphang then started talking about increasing the hours of meditation, going for twelve instead of ten. That's when I started to panic. I told him that I couldn't do twelve, ten is probably my absolute limit. He aswered something that became the definite final drop: "no problem, just sleep less, you only need four or five hours of sleep". My reaction iside was: "NOOO!!! Can't, won't, don't want to, not possible, GET ME OUT OF HERE! After another hour of walking "meditation" (thinking "have to leave, have to leave, have to leave"), I went back to him and told him: enough is enough.

Two small funny things that I just have to add:
One: If you're a 15 year old school kid in the monastery school and you know the lastest trends, then you know just how to carry your pink plastic mug in your mouth as you're waiting in line for lunch. About 50 cool guys were all doing this, looking pretty damn street! Maybe I should be the first to bring this trend to Sweden? I'll buy a bunch of pink plastic mugs, sell them and istruct on how to carry it the chilled out way - in the mouth!

Two: One night I had a moth invasion in my bathroom. It looked like a battle field the next day. Nice...

All in all meditating at Wat Ram Poeng was ok. I wouldn't do it again and I'm glad I decided not to stay for three weeks. I did however enjoy the sitting meditation and I feel that it was beneficial for me in many ways.


Now I've decided to go to Laos earlier and then back to Thailand to take a diving certificate. After all, I think you'll agree with me when I say that diving has a great capacity of being far more stimulating than walking meditation...

Meditation for the meditation addict..

It's time again... The addict has to get her drug, in this case meditation.


This time I'll do a longer one, at least 10 days, but hopefully around three weeks, depending on how I feel and how the place is. Today I bicycled to Wat Rampoeng to check the place out and ask some questions. Two friendly monks welcomed me and told me about the monastery. The difference between this one and the vipassana meditation I did in Nepal is that the meditation will be both walking and sitting (not just sitting, like in Nepal). I'll have to wear white long sleeved clothes all the time. It's also a little more free when it comes to times and schedule and I will be allowed to meditate wherever I want within the compound, not in the same meditation hall all the time.

When I got back to Chiang Mai, I went shopping for cheap white underwear (they're even strict that the underwear should be white!) and came back to my guest house with the ugliest underwear I'll ever wear, that's for sure. Maybe when I'm 80 I will wear such ugly underwear again, but not before that! After the meditation these undieas will go straight to the trash can, and no one will ever see them!

When I first got to Bangkok, I had quite a culture shock! I hadn't seen so many white butts for a really long time! Everybody told me that it was really quiet because of the curfew and the riots, but to me it was crazy... Another thing that I noticed was that the area around Kao San hadn't changed in at least seven years ago(last time I was there). Everything was exactly the same, even the same stalls with the same stuff for sale. Such a weird feeling! I felt like I had travelled back in time.. Bangkok felt safe the two days that I spent there. Tourists were rekommended not to go outside the touristy areas around Kao San, so there wasn't much to do except eat fruit, drink fruit shakes, tighten the dreads and upload pictures on facebook. The heat was hard to deal with, combined with the humidity it felt like a sauna! During the night I was lying under my fan sweating and wondering if it could get any hotter.


On the second night I took the train to Chiang Mai, where I am now. Today I've bicycled around looking at temples and enjoying life.

So - no more updates for 10-26 days, depending on how the meditation goes! Around the 20th of June, I'm headed for Laos.

The people in Sri Lanka

Believe it or not - I've had various requests in the past month to start writing this blog in english. I feel a little bit of pressure combined with excitement - now I have to start writing about interesting things in a funny and well-written way. I want to state here and now that I don't promise any of these things. This blog is merely for my friends and family to keep track of me without me having to write numerous e-mails. It's a lazy blog. It used to be a lazy blog in swedish, now it's a lazy blog in english. I hereby hope to please Cam, Tom, John and the german without a name on the train from Ella to Kandy. I also hope that all of you understand that this used to be my only time to actually use my mother tongue. It's your fault if I go back to Sweden without being able to speak correctly.

My month in Sri Lanka is coming to a sad end. It feels as though this month has passed with a tremendous speed, what have I done? Next to nothing, it seems. One thing that I have done, is socializing. Therefore I will now write a little bit about the wonderful Sri Lankans, the great tourists and two of the not so great kinds of tourists.

I never get tired of talking about my love for Sri Lankans. The reason for this is that at least all of the ones I've met have been super friendly, smiling, helpful and have never tried to cheat me. As a single female traveler, I've been taken care of constantly. I've been walked to buses, shown the way to places, I've been given rides by cars and motorbikes, I've been fed, invited for tea, I've collected phone numbers and addresses "in case of danger or problems", I've got so many smiles everyday, that it's impossible to count. The only people who seem to have any kind of alterior motives are the young guys. Here's a typical set of questions that a local guy in his 20s/30s asks: "Hello! How are you? Where are you from? What's your name? Are you married?" Of course I'm married! And my husband is coming to Sri Lanka in just a few days. The positive thing about the marriage question is that there seems to be a great deal of respect for the fact that I'm supposedly taken and the "goodbye" arrives very soon after I start talking about my imaginary husband.

My favorite Sri Lankans so far have to be recognized here with a special love: Ramees, the laid back diver who's the only guy who's never asked about my civil status! He took me to see Buddhas well traveled tooth in Kandy and invited me for a delicious meal at his aunts house. Santa & Veejay, the two crazy surfers with an uncountable number of skills that they are more than happy to show: capoeira, gymnastics, drumming, speaking japanese and pretending to speak french, etc. Ranga: the owner of Beach Hut in Arugam Bay, with a huge heart and a special connection with single travelers. The woman who owns Sitaras restaurant in Arugam Bay. Yum! The food is so great, voluminous and cheap! My "host family" in Haputale. They actually started to feel like my parents almost immediately. I would also like to give some love up to all my sisters who can't speak english, but certainly can smile in the warmest way and love to touch my hair with big question marks on their faces.

Now to the tourists... Most of the tourists in Sri Lanka (that I've met) are pretty damn great. In Arugam Bay I found the really golden ones and we formed a group who practically did everything together for about ten days. From the moment the group was formed in Arugam Bay until the official break-up in Ella, I had to forget everything about reading, writing, having time for myself and being silent. It just didn't happen. Life with this group was like a festival - hanging out, talking ALL THE TIME. There was never a moment of awkward silence or not knowing what to say. A lot of the time was spent trying to get in to the conversation without being cut out after half a sentence. Yes - it was great! And yes, it was exhausting! I was more than ready for some meditation after hanging out with the golden crew.

Members: Angela from England, who has a great sense of humor and was the "planner", she led the group in a smooth yet determined way. Katie from Australia, the cool surfer who has the funniest comments when you least expect it. Tom & John: the british surfers who are just like a pair of comedians. They were also concerned to keep the group small and exclusive. My tendency to constantly invite new people caused them to give me a new nick-name: the social terrorist. Laila, the norwegian musician who was also my roomy and is wise beyond her years. Melina from England, the warm and wise.. She joined later and the first time I saw her, she was only wearing shawls, her bag had been stolen in Nepal.

As I'm on the chapter tourists, I feel a certain need to tell you about the not so great tourists. No matter where I travel, there's two categories of tourists that I just can't stand. The globetrotter and the hater.

The globetrotter: This tourist doesn't like to call himself tourist, he'd rather use the term traveler or mabye even citizen of the world. He is very common in India, but appears when you least expect it almost everywhere. He is often to be seen in a touristy restaurant and can be recognized very easely: he's talking about all the countries he's been to, all the cheap deals he's made, all the time he's spent in remote areas where there's no tourists/western food/english speaking people/guest houses/electricity, but where there's lots of danger/insects/crazy situations/discomfort/cheap stuff. The globetrotters main goal is to make you say "wow, you're so cool" AND battle you by telling you crazier stories than you. In his world there's a system of points to each and every situation and he's willing to loudly declare how few points you have compared to him. The only thing that could possibly make him shut his big mouth is if you live in the country/speak the language/stay with local friends/have done something that's crazier than what he's done (e.g. riding a donkey from Sweden to Sri Lanka via Afghanistan. If you meet a globetrotter, it's advisable to stay as far away as possible. Without going into further detail, let's just say I didn't and I wish I could get my precious time back and have my ears washed.

The hater: This tourist is - if possible - even easier to recognize. After just a few moments talk, she'll drop a comment like: "I love Sri Lanka, but I don't like the people" (this happens everywhere, I've even heard it in Denmark!!!). The hater always has plenty of stories of another kind than the globetrotter, stories of being cheated, badly treated and stories of situations where she just seems disappointed that the locals aren't exactly like the good ol' people at home. This is something that can make me so angry that I just want to yell in their faces: "go home then, you don't deserve to be here anyway, among these lovely people! They treat you badly because you are a rude, nasty and stupid person!" I don't yell, though, but i find it impossible to keep my mouth closed in these situations and I think the message comes across pretty clearly anyway. This habit of mine made Tom and John give me my second nick-name: Mike Tyson. The combination of the social terrorist and Mike Tyson sometimes gets me in trouble. At first I'm friendly with everyone and try to give people a chance. When I realize that some of them are crossing the line for what's tolerable behavior (according to me), I bite - and I bite hard!

I haven't written much about what I've done, so here's a short resume. After Arugam Bay, the golden crew went to Ella to swim on top of a water fall - it was just as fantastic as it sounds. After that I went to a meditation and yoga ashram in the forest outside of Kandy. I stayed there for five days and just enjoyed being alone and getting back into meditation again. The yoga was amazing, I really need to do more of that! After seeing the Buddhas tooth in Kandy with Ramees, I went to Polonnaruwa today. Tomorrow I will explore the ruins here and then go back to Colombo to fly to Thailand on thursday night. I've read that it's ok to fly to Bangkok, as long as I move on straight away, so I'll take the train to Chiang Mai the same day - no reason to worry!

Meditation pa gang

Hej gott folk...

Har antligen lyckats slita mig fran strandlivet i Arugam Bay och befinner mig nu i Ella, en liten by i "the hill country". Som tur ar har jag fatt med mig mina fyra vanner fran Arugam Bay och vi bor nu ihop har i Ella. Imorgon ska vi aka till ett narbelaget vattenfall och bada pa toppen av det. Fantastiskt later det, eller hur?

I overmorgon ar det dags for annu ett medtiationslager med en vecka av meditation och yoga. Ska bli skont att koppla bort lite och komma in i meditationen igen. Strandlivet var verkligen nagot helt annat!!! I alla fall kommer jag inte kunna skriva pa ett tag nu, sa alla vet det.

Okej... Trakig uppdatering, jag vet, men jag har verkligen inget mer att skriva.

Puss

Lazy days...

Nu har resan tagit en helt ny vandning. Det ar slappa som galler, jag lever ett otroligt lugnt och stilla liv har i Arugam Bay och hade latt kunnat fastna har ett bra tag. Jag vet inte ens hur lange jag har varit har, jag vet inte vilket datum det ar, knappast vilken manad.

Nar jag forst kom hit var det lite trakigt, jag hade lite Delhi-belly och jag bodde pa ett stalle dar jag var sjalv, ingen att prata med. Efter tre dagar flyttade jag over till Arugam Bays mysigaste stalle - Beach Hut. Stallet drivs av en snall gubbe med stor mage (han har alltid bara sarong pa sig, sa magen syns alltid) och tofs mitt pa huvudet. Han bryr sig mycket om folk som reser ensamma, vill ge oss bra priser och tar hand om oss i storsta allmanhet. Maten pa detta stalle ar ocksa helt underbar! Jag bor tillsammans med en norsk tjej i en tvavaningsbungalow med havsutsikt. Alla bungalows ligger i en ring och i mitten finns bord, stolar och hangmattor. Nu kanske ni borjar forsta hur pass slappt livet ar har.. Jag ar nu del av en grupp pa c:a 8 pers som gor allt tillsammans. Det ar som att bo i korridor igen, vilket ar sa gott, eftersom jag saknar korridorlivet en hel del.

Surfingen gar inte sa bra. Det ar svart for nyborjare, stallet som ska vara bra for nyborjare ar valdigt lugnt nu, sa det gar inte att ova, det kommer inga vagor. Ibland ar det dock helt galet och da rinner det saltvatten ur nasan anda in pa natten. Kanner mig verkligen misshandlad av havet ibland. Jag har alltid hort att surfing ar svart, men nu fattar jag hur svart. Till min besvikelse tycker jag inte att det ar lika kul som det ar svart, men det kanske andras om ett tag nar jag kan mer. Det ar valdigt manga surfare har, bade turister och Sri Lankeser. Coolt att ga ut och kolla pa dem nar de surfar!!! Surfarna ar dessutom mycket lugnare an resten av de unga Sri Lankeserna, de stoter inte pa en och de fragar inte om man ar gift pa en gang (men ja, det kommer upp efter ett tag, haha). Skont! Lattare att bli kompisar da. Igar hangde jag med tva killar, de tog mig hem till sitt hus sa jag fick traffa familjen och hanga dar. Det var verkligen kul. Sen borjade bada visa en massa saker de kunde, kapuera, gymnastik, trummor, osv. Det var som att sitta pa forsta parkett pa en talangjakt, men bara med tva killar. Hahahaha... Sjukt kul, jag skrattade hela tiden.

Maten i Sri Lanka ar helt underbar! Massa kryddor och curries. Perfekt for en veggo som jag! Det ar faktiskt annorlunda an i Indien, jag trodde att maten skulle vara likadan.

Folket ar otroligt trevliga och gastvanliga. Som ensam tjej far man en hel del uppmarksamhet, jag skulle uppskatta att jag blir fragad om jag ar gift c:a 10 ggr om dagen nar jag ar ute bland folk. Men det finns aven en stor grupp av manniskor som bara vill hjalpa en och ta hand om en. Jag har fatt skjuts av en massa folk (gratis), fatt ett otal adresser och telefonnummer att ringa "om det blir problem" eller "om du kommer till min stad". Ingen har forsokt lura mig eller ta betalt for nagot som vi inte har kommit overens om. Otroligt vanlig stamning helt enkelt!

Pa mandag aker jag vidare till Kandy till ett meditationsstalle dar, for att komma igang och gora nagot vettigt igen.. Dar ar det lite svalare ocksa, har ar det 35-40 grader och hog luftfuktighet. Klibb...

Hoppas ni har det bra och sa vidare.