TAG: 7 Places I Want To Go Before I Die

Well, in the middle of the exam stress I decided to sit down and update this blog with an easy and fun tag called "7 Places I Want To Go Before I Die".

China - One of my favorite animal on earth is PANDA and I would do anything to go and see it. I also would like to visit the Great Wall of China, it is a dream for me. I have friends from China and they tough me a lot about their country. The culture varies from a city to another and also from village to village. I want to see China in an industrial way and also in the country side.

The Great Wall of China

Canada - I think the climate in Canada is pretty much like in Norway, but that is not the reason. Canada is second largest country by total area. They have Niagara Falls and other beautiful nature areas, they have midnight sun and norther light(like in Norway)... Personally, I know too little about this country and that is one of the reasons I want to go there. And I mean, they have lots of what we(in Norway) have got, but everything can not be the same, right?

Niagara Falls!!!!

United States - From my perspective, what I see and get the information from different media is just a little tiny bit of this country. I do not want to offense anyone, but I think there has to be much more that what I see on TV, and the US is BIIIIIIG(so I have enough to explore). My boyfriend is from the US, so that might be a fact that I want to go there too. In my experience I get confused when I think about what is the national dish or how the folk costume of the US looks like... I would definitely love to learn and see more of this country, definitely!

The White House

Vietnam - I was born in Bangkok in the area where Vietnamese established. I grew up with lots of Vietnamese food and culture, even one of my grandparents is Vietnamese(it means that I am a quart Vietnamese). At the moment this country is quite unknown, but starting to be more and more known in the tourist industry - and before that happens, I want to go there first!

Halong Bay in Vietnam, SO BEAUTIFUL!!

Hong Kong - I have a close friend from Hong Kong, who always invites me to go there. I have a picture hanging above the sofa in my living room, that is of Hong Kong. I find the story of this country very interesting. Because of the British colony, I believe that Hong Kong must be quite unique from China. From all the tall buildings, food to Disneyland... How can this country not be on my list?

I have the same picture, but in black-white.

Indonesia - I have a close friend from Indonesia too, she is such a lovely friend and I would really love to go and visit her one day. I imagine that Indonesian and Thai culture might be quite similar, by that I also include the national dance, costume, food and so on. Since that I have my own personal guide and curiousness, which is my friend, I can not say no to Indonesia.

Is this Ulun Danu Temple?

Disney World - Me and two other BFFs were in Disneyland in Paris, when we left there all of us were sure to come back. I personally want to go to the biggest one, because I really want to know how big the Disney World is, when the Disneyland was already HUGE! And I want to spend 5 days there. I want to try every rides, eat everything that contains sugar and artificial flavor. I want watch the parade, not once, but twice. I want to take a picture with Piglet and Snow White. I want to stay there until the closing time. I want to wake up and live in a artificial world where I can forget about my (real)age, stressful days, school and work. All of these things for only 5 days of my life, only 5 days!

Explosion, BOOM BANG!  The Disney Castle and lots of people!

And there are many other places I would like to visit before I die, but first of all... these seven ones!

I hope you enjoyed reading this blog entry and I see you in the next one.

-Patch

Meet the best friend [Thailand 2011-2012]

It has been a while. I am not going to lie that I was busy, I would either say that my Galaxy Tablet took all the attention from me. I guess I am kind of guilty then.

Let us go straight to the point, shall we?

I met my best friend, May. I have been knowing her since the 2nd class. I have not seen her in almost 10 years, but we luckily have kept the contact since I moved to Norway. We exchanged letters couple of years, before we got a computer and the amazing Internet in our houses. Then we kept contact by MSN(classic one, right?), Hi5 and now Facebook and phone. It is so weird how it has changed throughout these years.

Anyways, I was soooooo happy to see her again! We met at the Robinson in Sriracha, where I waited for her at the Starbucks(that was the only time I went to Starbucks too). While I was busy blotting the oil off my face, she actually passed me and came back again, because she did not recognized me. Then we had lunch and went to her university to meet a friend of her, Tom. They were so nice that they too me on a sightseeing trip around the city. We went to a Buddhist temple or a museum, where there are statues that show you how it will be if you do all the bad things -they illustrate everything in "hell". Some of the statues are just horrible.

After that we went to the harbor to see the sunset, it was so beautiful and we took lots of picture there. When it started to get dark, we had to drop Tom off at the university so that he could get home. Later that evening we went to have something for dinner, actually we had just a little dinner, because we already ate too much for lunch. And that night, we went out for karaoke with her brother, Mike. He dragged along lots of his friends, so I and May were the only girls in that group. We sang like there was no tomorrow and enjoyed it a lot. The guys drank, of course, but the girls, we behave ourselves. My best friend behaved herself until we got home again, then she sat down and drank with the others too. I am allergic to alcohol, so I could not join them(not that I would either...).

I love my Best Friend!

On the next day, I, May and Tom took a trip to Pattaya, the city that I grew up in. First, we went to the Pattaya Night Bazaar, or Made in Thailand Market as it was called earlier. I met a couple of my childhood friends, which was really nice. Funny thing was that no one could remember me... Later on we went to the Asian biggest mall(I believe), the Central Plaza in Pattaya. What we did there, you may ask, we took some kawaii photo stickers and sang karaoke for half an hour. Yes, we had such a blast together. After that we drove all the way to Jomtien, a beach and living area southern of Pattaya. We did not go bathing, no. We went there just to eat and have the atmosphere that you are on the beach.
I actually have a clip for you. My English sucks as always, so I am terrible sorry for that...

As crazy as we are...

That is it for now. I hope you enjoyed the pictures and the clip!

See you soon.

-Patch

Family meeting [Thailand 2011-2012]

For those who do not know, I am 100% Thai and I have many relatives from both sides of my family. What I am going to share with you in this entry is the meeting between me and my family from my father's side.

My parents got divorced since I was 2 years old, so I basically grew up with my mom. But my mom and some of the relatives from my father's side have been keeping contact since then and I am lucky to know them too. Even though I grew up having no father, I am glad enough that I could keep these people who love me.

I am very close to my cousin, who is born the same year as me. She is just some couple of months younger than me, so we have know each other since we were babies. I used to travel to her place in every holiday and we used to play, fight, eat and sleep together. I can tell that we are like sisters, and we used to be like twins when we were younger and our parents wanted us to wear the same clothes or made the same matching hair. As far as I can remember she has always been taller than me, so I usually get clothes from her and this still happens with me. Yes, she is taller than me and I get clothes from her... Since I moved to Norway we did not see each other as often as before. For a while I felt that we have grown from each other, but going back and meet her this time has proved that we are still close. She gave me a Tony Molly lipstick with the coolest packaging I have ever seen. I really miss her!

We dropped in a café to eat lunch(toasts with ice-cream)

We made an appointment to meet at a mall near her place. It was my first day to travel alone in Bangkok and I was really nervous that I would get lost, which I did not. I planed everything before hand and I knew where to go, because I obviously could understand the signs... But I also tried to hide that I was nervous that day. After we met and went though some shops(without really buying anything) we went to her house, where her parents(my uncle and aunt) were waiting for me. Obviously they have been missing me a lot, because they gave me many hugs and sniff-kisses. Then we went through the closet to see if there is anything fits me. On the return I got two bags with clothes... Thank you, thank you and thank you for the clothes.

Later we met my other cousins and their children, and we went for dinner. I met one of their children last time when I was in Thailand, back then she was a little child and now she has grown bigger than me! Well, it is easy to be bigger and taller than me, but I was so shocked, because I remembered her as a little girl... You know you have been gone for a long time, when people are taller than you comparing to the last time you saw them. Anyways, the dinner was delicious, all seafood, which is kind of luxurious in Thailand.

Thank you for taking your time to see me, I am not going to forget those moments. I love and miss you all!

Click on the pictures to enlarge.

Hope you enjoyed this entry. Sorry for having been gone for a couple of days. Next time I will share with you those days I met my best friend again. If you are interested, then please stay tune!

-Patch

The Lumphini Park and the morning routines [Thailand 2011-2012]

People have different morning routines and it varies from a culture to another. My daily morning routine is not that special, all I do is trying to pull myself out of bed, brush my teeth, wash my face and go trough a complicated morning skin care, then I put some make up on before I put some clothes on. I make myself something to eat before I rush out to school. I can tell that my morning routine in Thailand is different from the one at home, obviously because I am on holiday. It just does not stop me from waking up early to go to the park or just observe what my aunties do in the morning.

First I would like to introduce to you the Lumphini Park, that opens from 4 am to 10 pm. In the morning you will find many things going on there, everything from aerobic dancing, yoga, tai-chi, jogging, bicycling, swimming and much more. There is a eating spot as well, where you can find many delicious dishes, even for the veggies(proved by Justin). I have some pictures and a clip from the park down below and I hope you like them.

"The Lumphini Park"

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As you may know Thailand's main religion is Buddhism. I do not know how to explain it, but in the morning many monks go out and get food from the people, who are willing to give them. From my mom's part of family they are all Buddhists and when they have time in the morning they stand in front of the house and wait for the monks to come. I am a Catholic, but since that it is a cultural thing, I thought it could be interesting for you to know and see, because I believe many of the tourists miss this part of Thailand, because they live in a hotel and they wake up late... Haha, I just made fun of the stereotype tourists(but I am kind of right).

"The morning routines"

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Hope you find this entry interesting. If you have questions(since that there is less description this time), please leave them below and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

Untill next time, I wish you all well.

-Patch

Flying home for Christmas [Thailand 2011-2012]

You probably know a Christmas song, named "Driving home for Christmas". Since that I have no car and my origin home is in Thailand, I have to take the long travel home. It does not happen every Christmas though, because I also call Norway and Switzerland as my homes, so I have to spend Christmas at different places for each year. Which is pretty awesome, because those people you see, they are mostly glad to see you again, just because they do not see you often enough.

I am proud to share with you my travel to Thailand and also a bit about where I went and what I did in Thailand. First of all I would like to tell you that my travel to Thailand was not that long, but the waiting time was very, very long. I started the travel at 6 in the morning, just to be sure I would be at the airport just in time(means two hours before the departure). I left Norway at 9:50 and arrived in Amsterdam, Schiphol Airport, at midday. My next flight to Bangkok is at 9 pm, which means that I have 9 hours in Amsterdam.

I knew about this in advance, so I looked up for something to do and I found the Floating Dutchman. It is an excursion for those who have to wait at least 4 hours for the next flight. The Floating Dutchman is basically a sightseeing bus that takes you from the airport into the wonderful city, Amsterdam. Well, it does not sound unique, does it? It is because I was not finished yet. So the Floating Dutchman is a sightseeing bus that takes you to Amsterdam, the awesome fact is that the sightseeing happens in the canals in the city. Yes, it is right, in the canals of the Amsterdam. No, you will not get wet and I promise you that it is safe. The bus departs 3 times a day, at 9 am, 12pm and 3 pm. I booked the 3 pm one, and was the only one who showed up. I was afraid that they would cancel it, which they did not. Imagine that you have your own driver, guide and bus. Feels good, right? I felt so lucky and I felt like a V.I.P that day and I promise you I had the biggest smile on my face too. The Floating Dutchman is quite new, some of the local people have not seen it before. Some of them took up their phones and took a picture of the bus that drove in the canal, some even came on the balcony to have a look. Imagine everything I said earlier and imagine that people point at you and take pictures of you wherever you are going, and some of them even wave to you. You feel like a star, right? I will let you watch the video clips and please let me know what you think. The first clip is when we are about to go down into the canal and the second clip is when we are going up again.

I have heard that many people prefer going with the 12 pm one, because they think that they will see much more of the city. I mean the opposite. I mean that the evening light is charming and it gives the city a different look and atmosphere. I have had a look of Amsterdam and I am sure that I will visit the city one day! Amsterdam is on my list.

Let's move on to the journey to Thailand. As many of you know, traveling with the plane for many hours is pain in the neck. With my bad luck I got a seat with children and a noisy mother. The kids were noisy too and I truly understand them that it is uncomfortable when you have to sit still for hours. But a noisy mother? Is that really necessary? Well, all of this means that I did not have a good sleep and we were delayed for four hours. My uncle had to wait for me that long, because I could not just switch on the phone and send him a message that we were delayed. Anyways, when I finally arrived it was so good to see him again. On the way to his house, I got to see the beautiful sunset in Bangkok from the motor way. As I reached the final destination I was incredibly glad to see my grandmother, aunts and cousins again, who I have not seen them for 7 years... They made 6 - 7 dishes that evening and it was delicious! I let the pictures explain the rest to you...

The sunset in Bangkok, taken from the motor way.

Baiyoke tower, the highest building in Bangkok, with 85 floors.

Evening traffic can be quite nice, don't you agree?

Pa Ran, my mom's elder sister, with a fish on a size of a piece of salmon I eat in Norway.

Dinner time, with 6 - 7 dishes + vegetables on the side. Heaven!

 Pa Ran, Feen, Fern and my Uncle, Na Juiy

Na Dao, my mom's younger sister, to the right. Nong Fay is her youngest daughter.

Na Dao is a modern woman, who keeps herself young and fit. She is my forever young auntie.

We look same aged, so I let you guess her age.

Gift from me to my beloved uncle, Na Juiy.

Me with Na Dao and Na Juiy's daugters, Fay and Fern.

They are both much taller than me, but they bend down to make me look "taller".

Hope you enjoyed this entry and I will be back soon.

-Patch