Going to the coast

Today, Michael and I are leaving for the coast. We´re going to Kep, a sleepy little town for some beachlife and relaxation Wednesday - Sunday. I´m really looking forward to it, neither one of us has been there before so it´s going to be both interesting and great with a change of environment for a while. No matter how much I enjoy living in Phnom Penh, it´s always nice to get a break from the city life now and then.

For some more information on where we´re going, check out http://www.travelfish.org/location/cambodia/southern_cambodia/kampot/kep, and http://veranda-resort.com to see where we´ll be staying.

A visit from London!

Ha, Michael is here and I´m really happy about it! I picked him up at the airport this morning, and now he´s sleeping after the long flight from London to Phnom Penh via Singapore. For those of you who hasn´t met Michael, I can tell you that we hooked up as friends at Crete 17 years ago and has been very good friends ever since. Some of you met him at my wedding 9 years ago. We´re trying to meet up as aften as we can, last time was in Amsterdam earlier this year, and a couple of years before that we went to Switzerland together. And now he´s here, yippie! I´ve taken some time off from work, so next week we´ll be travelling together, probably going to the coast for some relaxing beach athmosphere. We´ve both done all the Cambodian "must see" sights already, such as Angkor and Sihanoukville, which gives us a lot more freedom to go wherever we just feel like.
Now I´m going to try to wake him up and take him out to lunch, so he starts to adjust to the Cambodian time...

The Atlanta Hotel in Bangkok - a place to dream in a city that never sleeps

This week the Pchum Benh festival is celebrated in Cambodia, which means that I´ve got Wednesday-Sunday off from work. A perfect opportunity to go to my favourite city Bangkok I thought - so here I am! I arrived to a flooded Bangkok on Wednesday evening, checking in at my beloved "the Atlanta Hotel" (www.theatlantahotelbangkok.com) where I´ve stayed so many times before. Oh, my beloved Atlanta... Can´t descibe in words how much this place has meant to me over the years... This has been my base for my studies, research and writing, and for my travels - both on my own and together with Janne. I´ve met many good friends here, it´s become my Home away from home where I always feel welcome and being greeted as a family member. The family "the Atlantians" as we sometimes joke about ourselves, a group of more or less (usually more) excentric writers, researchers, independent travellers, expats, etc, of which many have visited the Atlanta for many, many years and still are coming and going on a regular or irregular basis. The Atlanta is a budget hotel, pretty much untouched since the 50:s, with a wonderful art deco lobby and sweeping staircases. Also with a lovely restaurant with tons of 50:s athmosphere, with the most delicious food and an extensive vegetarian menue. There´s actually where I´m sitting now writing this, and this is also where I ususally spend my evenings, reading, writing, catching up with old friends I haven´t seen for quite some time and sometimes also making new ones. In the daytime, it´s lovely to relax by the pool or in the garden, watching the turtles in the pond that´s constantly expanding as more and more baby turtles are hetched every year. And of course to cuddle with some of the more than 40 cats that has been adopted by the Atlanta. I´m always crying when I´m leaving this place, and I probably will tomorrow as well. But it´s good to know that I´m now living only an hour away by plane, which gives me the opportunity to come here a lot more often now. This might be the first, but maybe not the last stay at the Atlanta for me this year...?!

Congratulations, Darling!

Today, my beloved husband turns 4..-ehh, hrhum... I mean 32. 32 it is. For sure. 32. Congratulations, Darling! To celebrate this, I´d like to share a couple of photos with you of the most wonderful man in the whole world...;


Janne on a terrace in Nafplio, Greece...


...and on a beach in Athens.

Aaahh! Isn´t he handsome!?! *proud*

On top of that, I´m also happy and proud to tell you that the two of us are celebrating our 12:th engagement anniversary today! We got engaged on Jannes 32... -eehhrmh.. 22:nd birthday back in 1995. Which means that I was only 22... ehh, hrhrum.. I mean 12.. or... eehhh... anyway, never mind.

Congratulations Honey, and congratulations to Us, too! I love you!