Parents visiting

My parents have left now, they departured for Sweden earlier this week. It´s been absolutely wonderful to have them here. My fathers 60:th birthday celebration in Kep on the 6:th of February turned out great . We had a delicious lunch at a small restaurant by the sea, where my father could enjoy seafood -his favourite - directly from the sea. After that, we had a drink at the beach, watching the sunset. In the evening it was time for the birthday cake, delivered from the city of Kampot. As my fathers birthday happened to be at the same day as the Chinese New Year, he got a Chinese cake, which turned out to be, well... a bit...different...


Dad at our bungalow veranda in Kep

For present, I gave my father a Khmer cooking class, which he took in Phnom Penh the weekend after. It was a full day of Khmer cooking; spring rolls, Fish Amok and dessert as well. He really enjoyed the cooking class, and was quite exhausted but very happy after a full day of dicing, chopping, frying, and eating.

My parents seems to have really enjoyed their stay here, and it was of course a bit sad to see them go. Unfortunately, they had bad ending of the trip, as my mother who had been a bit ill from stomach problems the last couple of days in Phnom Penh, actually collapsed on the flight between Bangkok and Vienna, due to dehydration and negative side effects from her blood pressure medication. She was taken to a hospital in Vienna, but could continue her travel back to Sweden already the same day.

Apart from this unfortunate end of the trip, I´m happy to report that they´ve very much enjoyed their time here in Cambodia. Especially my Dad, who´s absolutely fascinated by the street life, the traffic and markets. For my mother, it´s all the friendly people, the warmth and kindness that they´ve met here, that has made the strongest impression on her. I´m very happy that they made it here, so they now can relate to my life here, and that we now can share experiences and memories from Cambodia together.


Mum and Dad at Veranda Natural Resort

So thank you Mum and Dad for coming all this way - hope to be able to welcome you back again sometime! And Mum; hope you feel better soon!

Go Snowball!

This is "Snowball" the parrot, who lives at a bird rescue centre in Indiana. Snowball loves Backstreet Boys, and has taught himself to dance to their song "Everybody".



This video is great if you need that extra input and energy to get through a bad day. But today, I´m sharing it with you to celebrate that things are finally starting to feel a bit better. After a really tough month, suddenly there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel, after all...

Go Snowball, and have a great weekend, everyone!

Congratulations, Dad!

Today is my father´s 60:th birthday!

Dad and Polly Jean

Here´s the birthday plan: We´ll start the celebrations with a nice birthday breakfast at a French restaurant, and after that take a tour along the riverside up to the buddhist temple of Wat Phnom to look at the Chinese New Year celebrations that starts today. At lunchtime, we´ll leave by car to the small coastal town of Kep, which´ll give my parents a view of the Cambodian countryside on the way. We´ll arrive to Kep in the afternoon, and check in at the very beautiful and atmospheric Veranda Natural Resort, where we´ll stay until Saturday. The plan is to arrive just in time for some drinks on the beach, watching the beautiful sunset. In the evening there´ll be a delicious dinner, and I´ve asked the very helpful staff at the Veranda to assist me in getting us a birthday cake - which they´ll bring from the city of Kampot 20 km away as there are no bakeries in Kep - and I´ll bring some birthday candles from Phnom Penh to decorate it.

We hope for a nice birthday, and that my father will truly enjoy it!

The parents have arrived

Yepp, they´re here now. A bit tired of course after a long flight, but in very good mood and pretty enthusiastic about finally being here. Just so you know.
Time for bed now, I´ll have an early morning meeting tomorrow, while the parents hopefully will be able to sleep late and start to adjust to the time zone; +6 hours difference between Sweden and Cambodia.

Good night.

Parents on their way

Right now, my parents are on their way to Kastrup Airport in Copenhagen. In some hours, they´ll start their journey Copenhagen-Vienna-Bangkok-Phnom Penh. I´ll pick them up at the airport tomorrow evening. I´m really happy to welcome them for two weeks in Cambodia. It´ll be their first time in South East Asia, and I´m really... eehhmm... wondering what they´ll think. (No, I didn´t use the word "tense". I did not. Or did I..?). My parents are very excited and of course quite a bit nervous about the whole thing, but I´m pretty sure they´ll really like it. On wednesday it´s my father´s 60:th birthday, which we´ll celebrate by the coast in Kep. I´ve taken some days off from work, and it´ll be lovely to spend some days together with my parents there, sipping drinks and watching the sunset. Their second week they´ll go to Siem Riep to do Cambodia´s number one must-see-sight; the Angkor temples. And here and there, we´ll have some days together in Phnom Penh, too. I hope they´ll enjoy their vacation and get some really good memories to bring back with them to Sweden. And who knows, maybe they´ll become as addicted to South East Asia as Janne and me, which would mean that this´ll only be the first out of many visits to come. Well, who knows how it´ll all turn out... I guess that I´ll have to get back to you on that.

Happy travelling, Mum and Dad - see you tomorrow! :-*

MANAMANA!!!

The past couple of weeks haven´t been very easy on me, to be honest. A lot of turbulence in my professional life, which drains me. I´m tired and low. Trying to cope the best I can, hoping that this mess somehow will become more clear soon, making it possible for me to make some major decisions.

In times like this, it´s always good to get some inspiration and cheering up. Today, the guys below are what makes it for me, and I´d like to share them with you. They make me happy, gives me energy and a feeling of "...so fuck work, fuck major life decisions, anguish, shattered dreams, fading goals, uncertainties and let´s just....MANAMANA!!!"
Enjoy!

Afraid of heights..?

Safety and security is not a very big thing here in Cambodia. Here´s an example; what you see is two guys painting a cell phone tower which is placed on my neighbours´ roof. They are painting it by hand, climbing up and down 20-30 meters above the ground, without any safety equipment what so ever. I feel dizzy just by watching them. Do you see those people and vehicles down on the ground on the second photo - they just look so small?!





And you might guess that I´m not too happy about having a cell phone tower placed just across the street either, considering that it´s supposedly not very healthy for you. But when I´ve thought about this for long enough, I tell myself; "Ok, at least I don´t have to paint the damn thing, climbing around up there, 30 meters above ground with nothing else to keep me from falling down than my own bare hands and feet". And then suddenly, I just feel soooo fortunate and secure again.