Back in the Bungalow

Local night market in the Bangkok suburbs 

Touching down in steamy Bangkok was a bit of a shock to the system, since when we boarded our first plane in Oulu the temperature was hovering below the -20 mark!

In anticipation of some jet lag we had booked ourselves into the Orchid resort practically below the flight path, where I figured we could spend a night or two readjusting.

While I bounced back straight away, Juho the true northerner took a few days longer, spending many nights awake. It was actually a nice way to ease back into Asia, being in the suburbs, as opposed to the backpacking ghetto of Khao San road, the indisputable hub of the Thailand if not the South East Asian backpacking scene. We particularly enjoyed the local night market for excellent cheap eats among the locals.

Khao san Rd, however, was our next pit stop. For those of you not familiar Khao San is a pedestrian road crammed with shops, travel agents, bars and guesthouses, sandwiched in between the streets of bustling downtown Bangkok. A hedonistic , alcohol fused, haze.   Love it or loath it, if you are backpacking Thailand you will likely end up there at some point because it is just so damn convenient to organise onward travel from, and stock up on anything you may need for your onward travels. 

Since this is my 6^th trip in the South East Asia region, I have lost count of the amount of times I have transited through this cesspit, and I say that with fondness.

Walking up the strip we were confronted with the worst types of tourists from both of our countries and others, guys with on shirts on screaming to their mates, old fat men with their Thai prostitutes, and all of this mingled into bars advertising ping pong shows, Buddha tattoos and two for one Mekong whisky buckets.Luckily we managed to find a relatively clean and quiet hotel tucked away down a back alley beyond the chaos. After refueling on delicious curries and spicy papaya salads we booked an overnight bus from a lady boy and were on our way south.

Waiting for the slow boat in Ranong

Our destination was Koh Phayam, an underdeveloped island close to the tip of Burma. 

Friends had told us that this island had yet to succumb to the savage over development of the majority of Thailand’s islands, and we were not disappointed. 

Koh Phayam is indeed a rare find in Thailand, and between Juho and I we have tried and tested many a Thai island.

Here we have settled into somewhat of a holiday routine:
Each morning I get up and walk the white sand stretch of Aow Yai (long beach), before finishing with a refreshing dip, when I return 
to our bungalow 1.5 hours later Juho has usually managed to maneuvered himself from our bed to one of our porch hammocks.

Island life

Our Bungalow and scooter

Having a scooter here is somewhat mandatory as places are spread out, and at around €4 a day (or 150 b) why wouldn't you? Having a scooter of your own is awesome, and to me this brings back so many memories of traversing Asia, this feeling of freedom as you ride down unexplored back roads, the wind in your face. 

After my morning walks and swims and Juho' resting, we jump on our scooter and head through the interior of the island towards the pier where the food is more authentic and the prices more mainland. 

Our favourite local restaurant is a mother and daughter team, dishing up steaming plates of pad Thai and spicy papaya salads with sticky rice among other Thai delicacies. Thai food is quite simply amazing, and despite this being my 5^th visit, I am still discovering new delicious things to sink my teeth into. 

The Thai have a term ‘gin len’ which translates as ‘eat for fun’ or 'play  eatting'- no reason just sit down with good company and share food. I totally get this.

Morning swims

Our bungalow is one of the old classic bamboo, thatched constructions, complete with attached open air bathroom with frog residents (this place is called ‘Frog Beach House’ so it is fair enough really). Nestled behind the fancier beach front ones, up a winding dirt path, beneath a grove of shady trees, this is our new home. We have daily visits from a mother duck and her ducklings which is rather cute. We also have our own scooter. At night we are lulled to sleep by the sound of gentle waves crashing (wait what, it seems so flat in the day!) and the melody of frogs croaking. In the mornings we wake naturally as the sun begins to peak through the gaps in the thatched roof and the birds begin to stir outside.

Over near the pier there are some giant Buddhist statues and a 
temple that sits at the end of a jetty, jutting out into the water.  Buddhist monks live in tents here, their bright orange robes 
flapping in the breeze as they hang out to dry. Such a simple life they lead, but what a place to do it in, staring out across the green blue waters between Thailand and Myanmar.

The close proximity of Phayam to Myanmar (Burma) means that there is a strong Burmese presence here, most notably in the staff serving as helpers, cleaners, cooks, and kitchen hands. Approximately 3 million Burmese work in Thailand, the problem is that because the Thai military state does not recognise them as citizens nor residents they are offered little labor protection and open to exploitation. The Burmese bring another dimension to this little island, and it is nice to see one local business embracing this by celebrating traditional Burmese cooking.

We have been on Phayam for over 2 weeks now, and from here we head south all the way down to Malaysia. Our next destination is Penang, specifically ‘stardust guesthouse’ which is where we met in December 2011. We have another motive here apart from retracing the beginnings of our love, we are also headed here to get a longer stay Thai tourist visa before we head back into Thailand to travel with my mum and dad (who I haven't seen for over 2 years!)!

After lazing in a hammock for so long, Penang inspires a shiver of excitement, and a big rumble in my belly thinking of all the delicious street food we will soon be eating.............

Som Tam ( Spicy papaya salad)  at a roadside cafe for around €1, washed down with Leo ( also €1)

Utrecht & Amsterdam, a visit to The Netherlands.....

Amsterdam & Utrecht

This was my second visit to The Netherlands to visit my lovely friends Kavita & Tijis. Kavita, I met while traveling in Central America back in 2006-2007,and she has remained a dear friend despite the geographic distance.

My friends live in Utrecht, which is only 30 minutes from Amsterdam, and in my opinion a more authentic experience because it gets far fewer tourists. 


Utrecht is fabulous because it is like Amsterdam on smaller scale, same gorgeous canals, bikes, architecture. The canals in Utrecht however are even cooler, because they have two levels, with bars and restaurants on canal level with cute cellar doors and then a higher level Overlooking the canals. The top picture was taken in Utrecht and the picture below is a canal in Amsterdam.

Cosy Dutch bar, drinks with friends in Amsterdam

  Eating & Drinking Hall, Amsterdam

 UTRECHT , Garden of the Dom Church 

Things I love about the Netherlands: 

#1 It is Multicultural! This is really nice for me as it is something I miss form Australia. In Finland multiculturalism is increasing, but remains somewhat homogeneous. The former Dutch colonies of Indonesia, Surinam, and the Dutch Antilles came to The Nethrlands in the 1950's and 60's. My friend Kavita's family originated form Surinam,where they came to from India. These migration waves have brought awesome food and culture to The Netherlands. Other groups of people migrated here later, such as southern Europeans from Greece, Itay, Spain and Portugal. Migration in the 1960's from Morocco and Turkey and then in the 1970's people starting ariving from the Eastern Block and also from Iran, Iraq and the former Yugoslavia in the 1980's.

 #2 Bikes, everywhere! Give way to bikes!

# 3 Food!!!!! Everywhere, including hot food walls, vending machine style!

Wrapping up in Finland

LEAVING our Finnish HOME

As the snow starts to fall and the days grow steadily darker and shorter, we are wrapping up our time here in Finland. We have been here in Juho's homeland for 1.5 years and we feel it is time to depart. 

Locked out of Australia on account of a ridiculously long visa wait, traipsing through South East Asia, which is actually where we met in the first place, seems like a good way to pass the time!
But first Let's Recap:

This is Turku where we have been living: 

Turku in Summer

Turku in Autumn

Turku in Winter

What have we been doing here?

Absorbing Finnish Culture:

Sauna

Sauna is a Finnish word and an essential part of Finnish life. This is the sauna in Juho's childhood home.

Kesämökki

Finnish Summer cottages are a very integral part of summer.This is a beautiful cottage on an island where Juho and I were lucky enough to spend a weekend. 

Developing Sisu!: 

Sisu is a Finnish word translating to mean something along the lines of 'resilience', 'courage', 'guts', and the icy cold darkness of Talvi(Winter) surely tests that.

Finnish people are so full of sisu that they do crazy things like ice swimming! See below.

Here I am trying to develop some sisu.

Other things that happened here:

1. We got Married!!!!

2. I completed my Masters!

3. I taught Law students for a semester (!!??!!!)

4. We visited some countries: Italy ( Lake Como for our honeymoon!), Estonia, Latvia, Sweden ( Me), Spain (Juho), The Netherlands (me),Poland 

LAKE COMO, ITALY

5. We visited cool places in Finland 

......like Bengtskar lighthouse,the oldest lighthouse among the Nordic nations, see below.......

........... bike trip through the  Turku archipelago.............

But most importantly I got to know my new Finnish family!

Good Old Finland

Midnight sun

I know I said that we were finished with our blog posting, but this post is dedicated to Papa Martti, arguably our most dedicated blog reader. For those of you, that haven’t had the pleasure of an introduction, Papa Martti is Juho’s grandfather ( on his father’s side), and gets the prize for most dedicated blog fan, because not only did he  painstakingly  translated each post from English to Finnish, but he even went to a computer class to learn how to do this.

We arrived in Finland, refreshed and revitalized after 2 weeks bumming around the Mediterranean in Turkey. Anni, Juho’s sister, picked us up from the airport and we spent our first Finnish summer day playing mini golf in the sun. In Finland the days stretch on forever, they are at their shortest in the south, but still it never gets completely dark, the summer sun merely fades into twilight.

Our new home

After a night of delicious food and fine whisky, we headed north towards our new home of Turku. Juho’s beautiful mum, Paula met us at the bus station, a touching reunion, having not seen each other for 2 years. We went straight to our new apartment, which by the way is absolutely gorgeous, light, spacious and right in the heart of Turku. My favorite feature would have to be the grandfather clock, built by Juho’s other grandfather, Valter Papa.

We spent a week enjoying our new city, and the novelty of having a real home, before heading north to Raahe, Juho’s hometown.  Watching the Finnish countryside go by, I was struck by how delightfully beautiful Finland is in summertime. It appears like something out of a storybook, all green fields, dotted with wildflowers, and wooden cottages nestled in between thick forests.

In Raahe, live Juho’s father, Perrti, who lived up to Juho’s description as a “very reasonable man”, and Juho’s youngest sister Eeva, or Pikku Myy, as she is affectionately called ( Moomins anyone?)

As a lower southern hemisphere dweller, I was completely disorientated by the fact that it NEVER gets dark here! As in, it is SUNNY at nighttime!!!!!!! Around midnight there is some pink in the sky as the sun “sets”, but it is still completely bright, the sun then “rises” ( like some naughty child who never goes to sleep) at around 2am. It is the strangest thing. On the Friday eve of the infamous Raahe festival, Juho, his mates and I, cycled into town around midnight to check out the festivities.

We jumped in his friend’s boat and headed out to some islands, the sun  was either setting or rising by this time, casting a pink glow across the water. In Finland there are these magnificent archipelagos, some have summer cottages on them, and some simply a lighthouse. We chose to explore the furthest one, which had a lighthouse and a wooden hut, complete with fireplace. Anybody can come here, you can sleep the night, and in Winter time you can ski here over the frozen ocean!

Juho of Turku

Juho had planned our arrival in Finland to coincide with Midsummer, the biggest yearly event in Finland. Midsummer or summer solstice (winter solstice downunder) is the time when friends and family head to summer cottages to eat, drink and sauna. Have I mentioned how crazy the Finns are about Saunas? Every house, many apartments and all summer cottages MUST have a sauna.  There are public saunas at the beach, saunas in workplaces, restaurant saunas, saunas at the bank ( nah just kidding about the last two!) During parties, people sauna all night, in and out of the sauna, and did I mention that all of this is done NAKED? To be fair, at parties there are usually woman and men saunas, or sauna times. During midsummer the Finns take this sauna activity to a new level, and beat each other with branches (what the?!) I got off with a light midsummer tapping with the branches, but Juho’s back was covered in lashes.  

So here we are in Finland, Juho working crazy hours down some gold mine-He worked 7 days this week, 12 hour days, except Sunday when he went to work at 6:30 am and came home at 5:30 am the next day!!!! Madness I tell you! I on the other hand have been spending my days dabbling in some Finnish study (my Finnish is still woeful, but I can read and understand a bit-the next step will be actual words out of my mouth). I start Summer school soon, and then my Masters, which is all quite exciting and terrifying, but I feel very blessed to have the opportunity to study within the best education system in the world, for free! Most importantly I feel very blessed to finally see where Juho comes from, meet his family ( all as lovely as he), and have some insight into what it means to be a Finn.

Good old Noo Noo

Races with Juho's cousins

Our last Harar

Using Addis as our base for the last few weeks of our grand African safari, we established ourselves in a somewhat shoddy hotel with patchy internet, leaking bathtubs, and located above a 7 days a week discotheque, that throbbed through our earplugs into the wee hours of the morn.

When gorging on pizza, chocolate croissants and our daily M&M fix of macchiato and mango juice, got old, we ventured east into a barren, desolate landscape of swirling dust, acacia shrub and one mule towns. We decided on the mysterious town of Harar for our last Hurrah.

Harar is a tiny walled city, of 368 alleyways, a maze of mosques, markets and mayhem. Famous for its markets, it was the commercial meeting point of Africa, India and the Middle East. Today it still contains one of the continents largest camel markets, drawing people in from Somalia and Djibouti to buy and sell these ships of the dessert.  Perhaps more importantly Harer, in the chat centre of Africa and southern Arabia. Chat or qat are the leaves of the shrub Catha Edulis, and chewing them produces a mild high, it is 

illegal in most countries, but wildly popular in such places as Ethiopia, Somalia, and Yemen, to name just a few. After sampling chat in Addis, on our first day, I really don’t get what all the fuss is about, and I certainly don’t understand how the entire afternoon in Harer is spent by almost every one, young and old, laying around chewing bitter leaves, green spit dribbling down their chins. Judgements aside chat is an important export commodity for Ethiopia, and chat planes fly daily to neighbouring countries like Djibouti, freshness being of paramount importance.

We spent some days wandering the maze of Harar and purchasing gorgeous smelling, organic coffee to take back to Finland.  Like humankind, coffee was also born in Ethiopia, and the legend goes that the coffee berries were first discovered sometime between the 5^th and 10^th centuries, by a goat herder, who noticed that his goats were leaping around like hypoactive kids, after chewing on the berries. Unfortunately Ethiopia does not make the most of exporting coffee, and most coffee is exported as  green beans to the west and then processed into coffee, meaning that Ethiopia misses out on the majority of the profits.  Increasingly, however, coffee is being manufactured here, and to support that, Juho and I bought up big, having to buy another suitcase to deal with the excess kilos.

There was another reason, other than coffee and chat, which brought us to Harar: Hyenas. Harar is famous for its ‘hyena men’, who feed hyenas meat, straight from their hands (and also from their mouths!), outside the city gates each night. Juho and I went to view this spectacular occurrence on our last night, taking with us a guide, who looked as if he were 12 years old, but was probably closer to 19. Our guide informed us that hyenas and Hararians were on friendly terms, and nobody, not even a Faranji (foreigner), had been bitten by a hyena in Harar, ever.

After observing hyenas from a distance in the Serengeti, I have to confess I was not a fan, finding their sloping backs and skulking nature creepy, to say the least.  That night in Harar, however my view was altered. The ‘Hyena men ‘, begun by calling the hyenas to come forward, they sung out to the hyenas, in a high pitched tune, not dissimilar to the hyenas own calls. Our guide told us that each hyena had a name, and that the ‘hyena men’, were calling them in by their names.

The hyenas approached tentatively, darting forward to snatch the meat offered to them by the hyena man.  They seemed shy and skittish, but grew more confident after the first few nibbles, and soon everywhere we looked were hyenas. Juho and I were invited forward onto the mat for photo opts, and to feed the hyenas if we were game, we were not. Hyenas are massive! The jaws of a hyena are incredible strong and quite capable of crunching through thick bones. It was a terrifying and exhilarating experience to be so close to the hyenas, and I have a newfound respect and affection for this animal, who received such a bad image from the Lion King. 

Tonight we fly to Istanbul, farewelling the African continent.  Looking back through our thousands of photos, it seems we have had quite a remarkable journey. Many people have asked us “what was your favourite place”, and this is a difficult question to answer. Juho says Malawi, but for me there is no favourite, I loved and loathed things about each place we visited.  There is one thing I am sure about though, apart from the consistent awfulness of the buses, and the repetitive blandness of East African cuisine, Africa is a remarkable diverse continent, a land of contrast and contradiction.

If I had to sum up the essence of Africa, to me it would be in the spirit of a colourful, bustling market, or the chaotic, exhilarating pulse of a bus station at 5 in the morning. Africa is completely different from any other place I have visited, and very much misunderstood and misrepresented in the west.

 

Lalibela, churches built by angels.

Perched high in the mountains, isolated by hundreds of kms of rough dirt road, sits Lalibela, home to astonishing ancient churches, carved directly from giant slabs of rock. The churches date back to the right of King Lalibela in the 12^th or 13^th century. Legend states that god instructed the king to recreate the holy city of Jerusalem here. Furthermore, locals explain the rapid speed with which the churches were built, by claiming that angels took over the workforce at night. As if Lalibela isn’t impressive enough in itself, thousands of pilgrims descend on Lalibela for Fasika(Ethiopian  Easter), dressed in white robes, Ethiopians young and old, crowd into the ancient churches to pay their respects.

The peak of Fasika celebrations occurred on Saturday night, when an incredible mass of people flooded into every church to pray, sing, light candles and wait for the early morning hours to break their 55 days of fasting. We lay on our stomachs on the roof of one church, peering down below at the crowds of people, clad in white robes, waving their candles and praising their god. Children slept huddled together, whispering and giggling, excited to be part of a massive sleepover.

On the morning of the last day of fasting we had visited the Lalibela market, where thousands of people gathered to buy and sell. The main item to purchase on this day is chickens and goats, to be consumed in the feast preceding the final prayers of Fasika. We watched as bleating goats were dragged up the hills to the village, they seemed to know that their hours were numbered.

On Sunday morning, we awoke late to the sounds of animals being slaughtered for the feasts. It is impressive in Ethiopia how little goes to waste, every part of the animals is consumed, and the skin and fur turned into paintings, bags, drums and chairs. In the marketplace there is a degree of recycling to rival the markets of Melbourne, from bracelets made from beer bottle tops, to old umbrella spare parts. The only difference is that these things are sold for a couple of cents.

We left Lalibela by plane, cheating a little bit, but hey if you had spent the past few weeks, bumping over shocking mountain roads, in buses falling to bits at the seams, I’m sure you would take the 40min flight back to Addis too.