evesamuelsson

 

 





 







 





 



 








Back from a weekend in Langkawi, Malaysia.
Me, Lovisa (swedish) and Coline (french) took a relaxing holiday on the beach before the exam period starts..
We stayed in a house just on the beach and simply enjoyed the asian heat..

Sun.Beach.Good Food.Warm sea.Cheap drinks.Live music.Fire dancing.


What more is there to wish for?

What a trip.

So much we have seen and experienced.. Me, Victoria and Deborah, two Swedish girls from my school had no lectures for the recess week and decided to go a week to Vietnam.

We flew to Saigon / Ho Chi Minh on Monday and arrived to a rainy, busy, vibrant city with the most incredible and crazy traffic I have ever seen. We spent the day visiting the markets and the war museum, which was really interesting, although it was really horrible and heartbreaking seeing all the pictures, mines and monuments for the war.

 




   

 




 

The second day we went to the Mekong Delta. We visited a floating market, saw the creation of rice cakes and rice paper (for their famous spring rolls).

We went by longboat in the most amazing canals and rivers and went biking on the island. During our biking trip we (me deb and victoria) stopped for coffee in a Vietnamese family coffee place. We played with the two adorable kids and although we could not exchange one single word by mouth we used all body language possible and enjoyed our little visit and had a cozy get together with the entire family, including granddad and grandmum.




 

 

  

 

 

 






 


The adorable kids we stayed with.

The third day we went by bus to Phan Thiet and Mui neh on the coast to check in at a cute little hostel by the beach. We spent some days at the beach and really much enjoyed the heat of the sun and the extremely warm sea. =)

One of the mornings the alarm went off at 4.20. Our guide that we rented for the day came and picked us up in an open jeep to take us to the sanddunes for the sunrise.

It was astonishing. The most beautiful vision you can imagine. Seeing the sun rising over the desert. We also tried to go “pulka” sliding in the sand.. not so successfully, but very fun! After the sanddunes he brought us to see some amazing nature views. We saw a stream called the fairy springs and the red sand canyon..

After breakfast he brought us to the local market where they sold everything from vegetables and fruits, to living chickens and other animals.

On the way back we stopped in the fishing harbor where the fishermen came in with the catches of the early morning..

  

 







 
 
Red Canyon


 

 
Fairy Springs













 

We had a really good time and enjoyed the sun, happenings and fresh seafood all days long.

Unluckily I had a more boring ending as we already know.. But I can really recommend Vietnam. Although I warn you to hold on to the bag and maybe practice some self defense before the trip ;)

Yes, here I am.
Back in Singapore after a dramatic ending in Vietnam.

Do not have any of my 500 amazing photos to share with you, since my camera was stolen together with all my money.


Since Deborah and Victoria was going to stay longer than me in Vietnam, I had to take a nightbus for 5 hours alone to get from Mui ne to Saigon. 
On the bus a less friendly vietnamese man behind me felt he deserved my belongings more than me.
 

And the rest of the bus passengers were probabaly sharing his idea and nobody did liked to help me. "The stupid tourist should not come to their country and make a scene, calling somebody a thief."

This resulted in a confused,scared and poor swedish girl, alone in Saigon 6 o'clock in the morning with no money to go to the airport, eat or do anything.. and with nobody speaking english in my surrounding.. 
To add to the drama I had no phone and no way to get in contact with anyone.

Luckily there are some angels walking around on this planet!!
An old lady knew some english and told me to grab my bag, jump onto her vespa and follow her home.
Since I didnt have much alternatives and choices, I followed her home and she gave me breakfast and borrowed me her internet.

After some dramatic hours of being completely neglected and ignored by the police officers, and later trying to find a taxidriver who understood what the airport is, I was on the plane to Singapore.

I have never been so happy to be back in Little India, and I can not tell the joy I felt when my love opened the door of the flat.
Drama, drama.

Anyhow, It was an amzing trip before the incident..I will try to get hold of some pictures from Deborah and Victoria and will tell you about the week in Vietnam later..

Beautiful, Bellisimo, BALIsimo,

Completely wonderful. Maybe because both of us thought that Bali would be a bit overated, which was proven the complete opposite. We have had an amazing trip, which is difficult to put in words. We will most definitely go back…

Friday was a bit stressful when we arrived in storm and chaos, but everything worked out fine as soon as we got to our hotel. They called us a taxi and we went to “Ultimo”, a brilliant Italian restaurant with beautiful setting, delicious food and really cheap prices. We went crazy when we saw the pricelist and ordered away. Ended up really full but VERY pleased and headed out to “Hu-u” for a drink and some really nice music.

Saturday morning we took the vespa we were provided with (free) from the hotel and went into Seminyak in the morning. Saturday consisted of: a wonderful breakfast by the sea, sun, bathing (or more falling around in the water, due to the powerful sea), and an hour of lovely massage in a spa.

Almost more pleasant than the massage was the view of nico on the massage bed in the tiniest underwear and a little skinny Balinese guy jumping on his back like a monkey. Oh dio.


 

 








Our cool vespa. Filling up the tank (using absolute vodka bottles) with the help of this lovely lady
 
  
 

We also met up with Gitta, a girl from Bali that knew people at Nicos work. She was really nice and it was cool meeting a local to get the good tips and advice. She was so cute and friendly and hooked us up with her friend to give us a guided tour the following day....
 


 




 

The Spa

 

"Hu-u" bar





"Ku De Ta"

And so we did! And what a day we had. The guy picked us up in his minivan and guided us around the island for the entire day. We went to the monkey forest, Ubud market, the volcano, the rice terrace, a stoneage hindu temple and coffee plantation and coffee tasting. In the coffee place we saw the Luwak cat and coffee, the worlds most expensive coffee (the cat eats the coffee bean and the shit is used to make the coffee). Nico also tried to make coffee, luckily he didnt burn it.  

Anyways, the day was amazing and our driveer was really nice and funny and told us everything about Bali worth to know.

Being back in Seminyak in the later hours we went a second night to “Ku De Ta” a really cool lounge with beds facing the sea and enjoyed the view of the waves while sipping delicious cocktails.  

 

Sunday adventure. Started the day with a lovely breakfast again. Fresh berries!!

 

 





 

 



Rice Terrace







Having lunch by the Volcano









 



 

   



Say hi to Nico - the munk







Unfortunately we were not able to go surfing due to the waves and our time limit. But all the delicious food, beautiful beach, nice people, cool shopping, lovely bars, and all the delicious FRUIT you can imagine….We were in heaven for 4 days!!

What a trip. We have just had some wonderful days in Tioman, an island in Malaysia.

The trip started in a lovely way with us, me and Nico, having a private chauffeur driving us from Singapore to Malaysia on Sunday morning. We were the only one that signed up for the trip at the travel agency, which resulted in us having a minivan for own use and a nice driver. In Malaysia we took to ferry for 1,5 hours and arrived to the paradise island.

Unfortunately we did not have the best weather. The sun was absent most of the time, but the air was still warm, and somehow (don’t even ask me how) Nico burnt his face and arms really bad despite the clouds.

We lived in a small wooden cabin just 10 meters from the sea and our two full days were spent on the beach, in nature and in bars, just relaxing and walking around in a beautiful surrounding.


On Monday we took a boat to “Coral Island”, a little island with only nature to offer, to snorkel around the amazing coral reefs. Nico, who is usually not the biggest fan of sea, swimming in deep water or snorkeling, but on a snorkel mask and dived into the blue. The fishes we saw were amazing, and I would not even know how to explain them. All the different shapes, colors and patterns you can imagine, and I was very excited to see the cute (and delicious) cuttlefishes.

When we faced a HUGE blue fish by an arm length distance, Nico had enough of his brave macho sea experience, and I continued snorkeling around the water. 

When we came back from the snorkeling we found a bunch of monkeys having a tantrum outside our hotel. Between 5-8 monkeys with babies were playing around fighting and playing, and I was so astonished I just giggled from excitement. Due to their energy level and quick movements we did not catch any nice pictures though, which was a real pity!

But our dear monkey friends were not the only animals we saw on the island. The freaky lizards where present on many locations, and some of them were so big they looked like small alligators.

In the evenings we enjoyed delicious barbeque on the beach. The menu was completely up to date as we ate the village people’s catches from the day including squid, mackerel and prawns. It was really cool sitting with the feet in the sand, watching the sunset and eating delicious food, smelling the fire from the barbecue.. What a great trip! 















         

How can I start to explain this complex weekend? This weekend has been full of excitement, horror, panic, laughter and amazing views.

Everything started on Friday when we took our bags and headed to the ferry terminal. Due to lack of information we didn’t have the right documents and were almost prohibited to leave Singapore. Finally we took the ferry and arrived to Indonesia, where we quickly found out that we took the wrong ferry since our hotel was located on the complete opposite side of the island.

A lot poorer, but still with a good feeling we took a taxi to our hotel which according to the driver was supposed to be in the “city” of Bintan. A really cool place close to nice beaches. NOT!!!

When we arrived to the hotel we clearly understood that they were not used to foreign customers since they didn’t speak a word in English. When we asked them about the beach they looked very surprised and after very much body language and gestures we found out that the beach were 40 minutes away with taxi. (WHAT?)

We therefore decided to spend the afternoon by the pool and take a nice dinner in the city and go to the sea the next day. But of course our hopes were too high… there was no city. It was the poorest, dirtiest village consisting of farmers and inhabitants that probably never saw a blond person in their life before. We also found out it was really dangerous to walk around the town and to be careful not to be robbed.

Luckily we ordered a cab from the hotel to take us to the “crème de la crème” restaurant of the town, a seafood restaurant down by the water. The food was very good, but the entire situation was very uncomfortable. To add; neither of our telephones were working which didn’t help the comfort of the trip.

On Saturday morning we were positive and happy again to take the taxi to the beach. Wrong again!! When the taxi driver stopped to drop us off I instantly grabbed Nicos arm with the expression of; Im not leaving the car!!!

There were NO sunbeds, NO food place, NO place to find water, NO people or civilization nearby, but only a few dogs and the sea with sand.....



local seafood restaurant= very tasty


opposite the seafood restaurant= not so classy

To make the story short we luckily found a resort to spend the day at, and we ended up having a great day and evening. I splurged myself with a foot massage and we drank fruit drinks in the sun, enjoying being around other tourists and the sea.. Finally the Indonesia we were hoping for. We spent the evening in the resort with a lovely dinner and a delicious Indonesian specialty; avocado juice with chocolate.

Sunday morning we had to take another taxi (fact: budget broke due to taxis!!) to go towards the other side of the island. Since our ferry departed late on Sunday night we spent our day in a WONDERFUL resort. The day was fantastic and consisted of lunch buffet, coconuts on the beach, bathing, taking sun and enjoying life to the maximum. 

where i took some foot massage












avocado juice (delicious)



the "real" Bintan

















In the end we had a great weekend, and we even appreciated more since we knew how poor and shitty the life situation was on the island outside the resorts. We tried everything possible on the island and went home really pleased and acknowledge.

On Sunday we decided to go for a little mini trip over the day. The destination was Ubin, a little island belonging to Singapore that you reach with 20 minutes by boat. Ubin is an island that has not been touched by the development, growth and improvement that Singapore has been going through the last decades. Entering the island is like going back to the 1960’s and everything is VERY different from the rest of the country.

When we arrived we went straight away to rent a bike for the day. We made a deal with the bike renter and ended up with the cheapest bike of them all; 3 SGD (=18 SEK/1,80 €) And trust me, that bicycle seat was not worth a penny more than that…Today, one day after, my “not so curvy”-ass has never been flatter and I almost feel 2-dimensional.  

The sun was really strong and it was an amazingly warm day. My dear boyfriend almost fainted and to save his head from overheating (and also improve his looks to make my day more fun) he bought a straw-hat in one of the few shops on the island.

Me and my new friend, the “rice picker” could continue the journey and went on with our biking adventure. It was really nice to bike around in the rainforest and we saw some really great views, houses, a temple and the most disgusting spider I have ever seen.

After a couple of well spent hours we took the boat over to the mainland again and went for dinner in one of the many shopping malls. Now it is Monday and time for a new week of hard work..