Suomi!!!

So I'm finally home! The best place on the planet. It's fucking freezing, even though it's supposed to be a warm spring but it's great. It was awesome to surprise my friends, most of them had no clue I was coming. They are greatest people on the planet. It's was nice to spend a evening with people who all you like, no one you have to tolerate.

I should try to get my lazy ass into university, finally. So spring is gonna be hard core studying. But I'm planing new trips too. Let's see. If you are in Finland, let me know.

But now. It must be time to sum stuff up. I would like to start with a list of some high lights:
-Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia.
-Lake Baikal, Russia
-Ulan Ude, Russia
-Gobi desert, Mongolia
-Beijing, China
-Monkey Jane's, Yangshou, China
-All the massages I got
-M.A.S.H guest hous, Sihanoukville, Cambodia
-First views to the jungle in Taman Negara, Malesia
-Water falls, Luan Prapang, Laos because it was so impressive, the ones on Koh Chan, Thailand for more personal reasons
-That cool bar in Chian Mai, Thailand
-My 21th birthday on Don Det, Laos
-Bangkok,Thailand for shopping. The week end market is pretty over whelming
-Getting my first tattoo in Bangkok. A cute Singapori guy did it
-The markets. The ones with live chickens, weird medicines, tons of flies and smell of dried fish and the ones with cool handicraft souvenirs
-Yagon, Myanmar. The biggest culture shock on the trip
-Bagan, Myanmar
-Buddha Park, Vientiane, Laos. Weirdest sight ever.

The true high light on the trip, however, were the people. So thank you Olga, Flo, Vidar, Frank, Tilman, Fracisco, Franzesko, Stine, Hanne, Dan, Makic (even), LAsse, Heli, Susi, Hila, Or, Martin, Tom, Jane, Jason, Mike, Jean-MArie, Dinah, David, Marty, Nadia, Billy, Sussu, Sarah, Carina, Franziska, Ilse, Niko, Stilman, Kim, Erik, Mary, Atro and many others.

I'm probably gonna continue writing in Finnish from now on but some pictures should appear. Plus I have this thing written in English about traveling. Maybe later. Take care.

Guten Abend.

Europe is the best continent on the planet. That's a fact. I'm a euro girl. At least that's what I felt like when I had my first Finlandese sandwich on the Dusseldorf rail way station. On the second bite I also noticed I have been here before. Didn't even remember that...

Everybody speaks a language I know (well, sort of), it's not that cold, I think you can drink tap water and flush toilet paper, my hair is finally straight, my hostel is nice (whopping 22 euros, though) and I can't stop smiling. The time difference is six hours but I feel super. It's like 3 am. in Bangkok and I got up at six. I'm a bit worried it's gonna hit me tomorrow. The whole thing.

'Cause it wasn't like this this morning. I was swallowing tears when I realized I really had to leave Bangkok and Asia in general. It was pretty bad. And the thing about flying is that Banglamphoo still feels like it's round the corner. Unfortunately, it's pretty fucking far.

How will I ever explain this? The whole thing.

More about diving

My new love deserves some more time and effort. So I took a scuba diving course in Koh Tao Thailand and it was great. I'm a certificated open water diver diver now. Cool. Our group was nice and the instructor, Jack, was excellent. Good combination of stupid jokes and proffessionalism. Plus he has taught over 5000 people how to dive.

If you know me, you might guess that this wasn't easy for me. I am what they call, well, chicken shit. Basically scared of everything and that is because I hurt myself everywhere it is possible. And it wasn't easy for me this either. Or let say it was a bit more challenging for me than for most of the people in our group. But I wasn't that bad. Just needed some special attention from Jack. Finally I made him proud by finally getting right stuff everybody else was capable of doing the day before. Seriously, diving is easy. Anybody can do it, if I can.

If you have read this blog before you might remember that I have mentioned being a big water person. I guess everybody has an element they are most comfortable with. (That might be New age crap, though.) Of course, that made diving fun for me. Or maybe it was just the nitrogen. There are fish too. Anyways, I couldn't stop smiling after a dive. You just feel so fucking serene.

Now I'm back in Bangkok and doing my other favourite activity, shopping. And eating. Verna, Ella, teidan uni saattaa toetua siis...

I kid you not

...I was down in 18 meters today. And took my mask off. Have video to prove it. Yesterday I was swimming next to a turtle. Diving is the best thing I've ever done. The cliches are true.

Unfortunately, tomorrow Bangkok and reality calls again.

Happy women's day.

Kiitos kaikille numeroista...

More random shots from Burma

Some pics from Burma

Hi! I'm a enviroment friendly napkin

Sometimes I wish the whole world would be like a coffee house. You know, maybe not Starbucks, but like that. Color harmony, nice backround music, smell of coffee, stylish pictures on the wall and all that. Your biggest problem is choosing between a latte and frappucino. Your paying ridiculous prices of course but you don't care 'cause you know your also paying for the nice staff, magazines, nices couches and armchairs and clean toilets. They are the same everywhere in the world, only with charming local influences like in Finland rye bread, not drunken idiots. Maybe there are black and white photos of local old people on the walls or perhaps paintings from a young artist.

You feel like the world is a good and juste place, you read a pamphlet that tells you that the farmers get enough money for the coffee beans. A sign politely asks you to use as little as possible of plastic spoons. The napkins have a message.

However, the actual beauty of these kind of places lies in the fact that they are havens. After an hour or two in one you feel more armed to deal with hars world. Fortunatly today, I didn't even have to do that. After a cappucino and a tomato wrap I started my small excursion to Hong Kong. Loved it. Much more humane than I thought. Plus, if you look it down from the Peak, (a hill there) you notice that a huge part of the Hong Kong island is green. Very green, it's like jungle.

Yesterday wasn't bad either. Walking around in Macao which is a weird place but I like it. Makes me miss China and Europe. And of course, I'm visiting Olli, a good friend from back home. He shares apparment with a central location and a nice room mate. No complains.