2015's destinationer

Edinburgh, Skotland: på tur med Emil i februar. Han kom på besøg, første gang i Skotland, og vi skulle da selvfølgelig besøge vores hovedstad.

Edinburgh with da brother, his first time in the United Kingdom!

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: april. Påskeferie. Det gad jeg godt igen.

Last stop of my spring break was Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - definitely have to go back there someday

Singapore: også april. Sjovt nok i samme påskeferie. Nok den mest kompakte by, jeg nogensinde har besøgt.

Singapore was my second spring break country

Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand: april. Første destination besøgt i min påskeferie.

Very first stop on my spring break tour of SE Asia - Nakhon Ratchasima, conveniently located off the beaten tourist track

Dunnottar Castle, Stonehaven (Skotland): marts. Udflugtsmål da jeg havde mor, far og bedstefar på besøg fra Danmark.

The famous castle, situated just outside Stonehaven, is one of the reasons I love Scotland, and something I had to show my mom, dad and grandpa when they came to visit

Exeter, Devon (England): juli. Da jeg besøgte Chris og hans familie i den sydvestlige del af England.

Lovely Exeter in lovely Devon, close to Chris' family's residence in the Southwest of England 

St. Louis, Missouri (USA): oktober. Weekendtur til Missouri's statshovedstad for at heppe på vores eget hold, Rhodes Lynx.

Along with some fellow Rhodents, I went to the capital of Missouri to cheer for our football team

Little Rock, Arkansas (USA): september. Efterårsferie med nogle af de bedste mennesker, jeg mødte i USA i denne omgang.

My fall break was spent in Arkansas with some of the best friends I made whilst on exchange

Chicago, Illinois (USA): november. Thanksgiving-ferie for at besøge en af mine bedste venner.

Thanksgiving break in Chicago

Kraków, Polen: juni. Mor-datter tur sommertur og et nyt land tikket af listen.

A part of my summer was spent in Cracow, Poland

Göteborg, Sverige: december. Nytårstur med Chris, så han kunne få opfyldt en drøm om at se mere af Skandinavien. Og så jeg endelig kunne sige, at jeg nu har jeg fandme været i Sverige.

Sweden for New Years with Chris and another country to tick off the list

2015 var ikke et heeeeelt skidt år på rejsefronten, kan vi blive enige om det? Det blev til tre kontinenter, ni lande, 4 amerikanske stater og 23 flyveture. Jeg fik endelig besøgt Sverige, hvilket var en meget positiv overraskelse! 2016 bliver nok ikke helt så proppet, men det er nu også helt okay. Hvis man rejser for meget, så kan virkningen godt aftage lidt. Så nu vil jeg bare gå og glæde mig til næste tur, som bliver Irland i april.

A selection of my 2015-destiations. I managed to visit three continents, nine countries, 4 American states (7 if you count the numerous layovers I had) and I was on 23 airplanes. Pretty good, huh? I finally managed to visit Sweden, a country so close yet I've never actually been there. Plus I was positively surprised! It's actually really nice. Who would've thought.
2016 won't be as adventurous (well, it will be, just not in the exploring and travelling sense of the word), but I'm actually okay with that. I've found that there is a thing as too much travelling. Too many planes and too many airports. The effect tends to wear off if you do it too often. So, in the meantime, I'll just enjoy these next couple of months until I'm off to Ireland in April!

Hua Hin

Velkommen til Hua Hin - stedet, hvor alle vesterlændingene ferierer med deres unge, thailandske koner. Stedet, hvor man kan bo i en hytte der næsten ligger på stranden for 400 baht pr. nat. 

Jetlag har vist for første gang nogensinde fået has på mig, og da vækkeuret ringede klokken 6 onsdag morgen, to dage efter min ankomst, var det uden at jeg havde formået at lukke øjnene overhovedet. Kl. 6.40 stod vi klar udenfor huset, klar til at komme videre fra Nakhon Ratchasima. Gratis lift til Bangkok og minivan videre til Hua Hin på Thailands sydvestlige kyst og så var den dag næsten væk. Men det var det værd - for en som har været på en caribbisk strand, er det her nu også helt ok. Hua Hin ligner nok meget Phuket til en forveksling, men her er stille og roligt. Turistet uden at det er overvældende. Lækre strande, venlige lokale. God blanding af udenlandske turister og turister fra andre dele af Thailand. Og nå ja, så er det også stedet hvor 90% af alle turister er danske.. Jeg passer helt ind! 

Imorgen er det videre til Bangkok, det thailandske nytår er i næste uge, og det skal vi selvfølgelig opleve i storbyen!




Welcome! Thought I'd just peek in and let you all know I'm safe and sound - currently located in Hua Hin, a lovely and laidback beach town facing the western part of the Gulf of Thailand. This place is a true paradise - sandy beaches with crystal clear blue water, palm trees and 32 degrees all year round. Of course, the humidity tends to make all of this slightly unbearable at times, but you can't have it all! 

After a completely sleepless night (jetlag is a bitch!), the alarm sounded at 6am Wednesday morning and with a free lift to Bangkok arranged by the school where Kat teaches, we found ourselves in the middle of Bangkok ready to find a ride to Hua Hin. With a little Thai and some cash, everything's possible in Bangkok, so we soon found ourselves loaded in a minivan headed to Hua Hin where we arrived a couple of hours after. After arriving in Nakhon Ratchasima, which is very local and very dry in terms of humidity, arriving here was another culture shock. Hua Hin's touristy, stocked with Western men vacationing with their Thai wives and so so humid. It has a good mix of local and foreign. We're staying in this lovely guesthouse right on the beach. Actually, it's more like on the water. The splashing of the waves is almost drowing the buzzing sound of the fan in our room at night, it's literally right down there.. Tomorrow the adventure continues though - we're off to Bangkok for the songkran and Tuesday we're off to Singapore!

Welcome to Thailand, the land of Thai and insane traffic

Efter en alt for lang rejse, sidder jeg nu endelig i Thailand. 12 timer i bus til London, et par timers søvn, 1,5 time i bus til Gatwick, 3 timer til Ukraine, 10 timer til Bangkok og 4 timer til Nakhon Ratchasima/Korat, hvor jeg befinder mig lige pt. Jeg kan godt mærke, at min sidste langtidsflyvning var helt tilbage i juli. Jeg er ude af træning. Fandme godt jeg har et par uger til at lade op til den næste! Men jeg er jo vant til det. 40 timer i bus fra Brasilien til Argentina. Siger det bare. Den vil jeg altid have.Nå altså, jeg sidder i Korat/Nakhon Ratchasima, en landsby nogle 4 timer nordøst for Bangkok. Den oprindelige grund til, at valget faldt på Thailand og bare generelt Sydøstasien, da jeg sad og drømte tilbage i oktober, er at Katrina ligenu bor i Korat, hvor hun underviser i engelsk. Kat er fra Singapore, og jeg mødte hende tilbage da jeg var med Luna i Tokyo i 2013. Vi skal rejse lidt rundt i Thailand den næste uge, inden turen går til hendes hjemland næste tirsdag, d. 14. april. Det er Thai nytår her de næste par dage, så jeg kunne ikke have valgt et bedre tidspunkt at komme til.Og skal vi så lige takke russerne for ikke at skyde flyet ned, hva’? Et layover i Ukraine var bestemt interessant. Jeg tror jeg blev henvendt til på russisk omkring 12 gange. Jeg kan også ligne en ukrainer, kan jeg. Og så skulle jeg til at regne med en ny valuta. Det var også interessant. Jeg hørte ikke engelsk en eneste gang. Jeg følte mig endnu mere fremmed end i Japan man. Ja ja. Nu er jeg her. Og så lærer jeg lidt russisk til jeg skal turen hjem igen, ikk’?Foreløbige observationer i Thailandet:Trafikken er ikke så vanvittig som i Bogotá, men det at alle kører på scootere får det til at se vanvittigt ud. Kat har selvfølgelig også en. Og igår, da hun kom og hentede mig på busstationen, var det med den. Jeg havde selvfølgelig glemt at nævne, at jeg altså rejser som kuffertrejsende. Bliver aldrig en backpacker. Det var da intet problem. Så jeg sad og holdte min kuffert ud over kanten på scooteren hele vejen. Det mærkeligste var nok, at der var ingen, der stirrede mere end normalt.. Det siger lidt om standarden her!Men vi overlevede, og jeg er lige stået op, jeg har det godt for dem der bekymrede sig! Klokken er halv tre om eftermiddagen, jetlag er vist allerede væk og nu kan vi komme ud og opleve - lige indtil imorgen tidlig kl. 6.40, hvor bussen til Bangkok afgår.. Det skal da nok blive gjort!And she’s in Thailand! I made it to Nakhon Ratchasima/Korat, where I’ll be staying the next couple of days. For those of you still blissfully unaware of my plans, the reason for me choosing Thailand (and Singapore for that matter) is called Katrina and she’s a lovely Singaporean girl I met with Luna when we vacationed in Tokyo back in 2013. Kat teaches English here in the village of Nakhon Ratchasima (also called Korat, much easier, eh?) and due to the fact that I picked a perfect time to come, she’s off from Wednesday because of the Thai New Year – so we’ll be travelling around Thailand for a bit, going down to either Hua Hin or Koh Chang for a couple of days and then staying in Bangkok from Friday and then flying together to Singapore on the 14^th.On a similar flying note, I’d like to thank the Russians for refraining from shooting down the plane. Nah, just kidding. We were far away from the Crimea. However, a layover in Ukraine was definitely an interesting experience. Daunting, some might say. I was addressed in Russian about twenty million times. Apparently, I can look Ukrainian. Who knew? Also, I had to convert a new currency. Also very interesting. Also very interesting not being able to read a single sign in the airport. I almost felt more alienated there than I did in Japan. And this was still Europe. Not once did I hear people speaking in English. I’ll have to learn some basics before making the trip back. It’s just common courtesy, right?So far, I've made an important observation about the Thai people:The traffic is insane. Insaneeeee, I tell ya. Bangkok was obviously a mess due to its size, but even here in Korat my nerves are frayed beyond measure. Last night, when Kat picked me and my suitcase up from the busstation, she was on her scooter. Everybody has a scooter here. Sometimes, there's 3 people on one scooter. Perfectly normal. So me sitting on her scooter balancing my suitcase when driving 40 miles an hour was also perfectly normal. So that's what we did. We survived. And I have one conclusion: It was aaaaahmazing. I could get addicted to driving a scooter. It was cool. Anyways, for those who were obviously concerned, I made it safely and I'm not tired anymore. At least not jetlagged anymore. I slept until 2.30PM, so should be good, right? And now we're off exploring until tomorrow morning at 6.40AM, where the bus to Bangkok departs.. wish us luck!