WHY K-POP WASN'T ENOUGH

Life is food. Food is life.
Seriously, I kind of knew this prior to Vietnam, or I thought I did.

Then, silantro entered. Coriander. Lemon grass. Banh Mi. Pho Bo. Fresh spring rolls. Che. Anything dipped in fish sause.

Ca Phe Den. Ca Phe Saigon. Ca Phe Trung. Ca Phe Sua.

These magic words are 'Open Sesame' to a world of never-seen-before flavour experiences.

But unfortunately, talking more about food would require some kind of pictures to keep you from finding a better blog to read, and I have just been way to eager to eat the lovelies in front of me to give in to the Instagram generation-way of thinking.

So instead this post will be about... Well, you'll just have to scroll on to find out.

BUYABLE BODIES IN PATTAYA

11 weeks.

11 weeks.

!!!

I’m writing from bed, hiding from the sun. The climate in Pattaya is not only hot, it’s humid, which makes you slower, sloth-y, in minutes outside. This is Julia’s last day in the sun so she can’t afford to complain if she want to come home somewhat tanned, but I have a lot of time in the part of the world left. At least 9 weeks, to be exact.

DAYS OF CRYING, STILL

I'm currently in a state of nothingness.
I wake up. I eat breakfast. I lay by the pool until the building ahead starts spreading long monsters of shadows over the mosaic tiles framing the water.

I go back to the room. I shower. I scrub, every bit of my body, as I see it darken and darken for each day.

I run my finger through my hair. I really do need a haircut. Moana-style by all means, but it just doesn't seem to happen for me, that wavy laidbackness. The split ends are making their way up, further and further towards my scalp.
And then I remember nobody in the world cares about that.

I put on clothes, make the hard decision if I'm going to wear a bra today or not. It's usually not.
As said, nobody will care.

UNPLEASANT GUESTHOUSE OWNERS & CHANGED PLANS

DAY 6
HIKKADUWA

We've arrived in the beach town Hikkaduwa, a place where there was supposed to be great conditions for snorkling, something Jennifer's really been looking forward to.

THE FAULT IN OUR TRAVELING GENERATION

We live in a fantastic world in a fantastic time. Boarders are open, a lot of people have the economy and social media opens up to new views we had no idea about.

In our whole life, we have know we were bound to leave at some point. We saw these possible futures with stars in our eyes, only thinking about the sights we were one day to see. I remember being 9 years old and saying that I will one day move out of here, to learn languages and meet new cultures.

15 THINGS WE LEARNED IN THE TRAVELING YEAR OF 2016

When we decided not to start university right away, we knew we still had a lot of knowledge coming our way. In the three years that has passed since school, we've learned more about ourselves and the world we live in that we could have in any geography lesson or therapy session.

We made a few discoveries and even more mistakes, and when we sat down to summarize this year, it was quite clear which bigger, and smaller, things that impacted most on us.

And now we want to share this with you, good people that we are, so you don't need to do quite as many mistakes as we did this year, but also to give you a shortcut on amazing things that you can learn about your own abilities while traveling.

Read and be aghast. Or amazed. And leave a comment in the section below.

MOVING ON - ABOUT ASIA, NEXT TIME AROUND

The world is big and bold and waiting right there, but for now, other, less adventerous things has to claim its place in our lives too.

Since Felicia came home from North America, a lot of exiting thing have happened in Sweden for us. Jonathan has started a new job at Volvo and Felicia works for a daycare until Christmas. With a 9-5 lifestyle for the first time in our grown-up lives, the cameralens starts to focus on other things and before we knew it, we had found an appartment.

It all happened very fast. A tuesday in september, Felicia was home sick searching for places to stay. Within half an hour the phone rang. "Do you want to come look at a place, like, tonight?" the voice on the phone said and off we went, feverish and all.

We got to see the appartment and decided there on the spot that we wanted it. The very same weekend we started to ship stuff there and by sunday night, we were all done.

TRAVELING THOUGHTS: ABOUT OWNING THINGS

I, Felicia, just came home from a month-long trip to North America and upon entering my room in dads appartment, I just felt like crying - not because that I hated to be home, or that I missed my overseas family (well, not only), but because the room looked like a bomb of things had exploaded inside of it.

There were things on the chair, things on the windowsill, things in heaps in the corner, and even if Jonathan had done a terrific job cleaning the floor, the room felt more like a storage unit than a place were we actually spend our life.

Have I always owned so many things, 

so much clothes? 

Do I need all of these things, like, really? 

Well, I knew the answer to the last question right away. There I stood, with all things I'd needed in four weeks, in just one suitcase. Of course I didn't needed any of the others things for my survival, but there in the doorway I suddenly realized I didn't needed any of it for my happiness either.

A perfect example of things you don't need but is oh so tempting to buy anyway. Pictures from our post on Baefong Lake in Zhangjiajie, China

THE 6,236 KILOMETERS BETWEEN US

Traveling, in general, are absolutely awesome. Seeing new things all day long makes me rush-y, inspired so to the point that I can never put down the camera.

Bloging has given traveling a new dimension as well. I can write and edit photos and process the day and its new experiences at the same time. By doing so, I feel like I get the time and opportunity to really appreciate it. It doesn't feel like a fantastic day that is now gone, it feels like a day preserved in the time capsel that is the written word and the taken picture. I never feel more alive than when I stand speechless somewhere beautiful, after having just taken the perfect picture of it and know that I'll always have the memory.

Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, 

the cliffs that seems to be made of something out of this world

SEATTLE - HERE WE ARE!

HOW WE ARRIVED TO THE U.S 

AND 

“WHY ON EARTH ARE MY DIVORCED PARENTS TRAVELING TOGETHER?”

This is gonna be a long one...

TRAVELING ACHES AND ABANDONED PIANOS

DAY FOUR
ARRIVING IN BRITISH COLOMBIA 

A day of traveling is usually not a good day. Everyone is tired, there's ferries to catch and stuff to be packed and brought.

HOW TO SURVIVE A LONGER TRIP WITH SOMEONE

Before Asia 2.0, we had some trips on our record. We'd been in London when we both had a lot of money saved and not a lot of things they should cover. We'd been to Prague for six days just taking every day as it comes. We'd been to Bali and been so happy we were reunited that the rest of the world wasn't really important.

But for all of those trips, we were away for maximum two weeks. How were we supposed to tackle the trials that comes with being together 24-7, for 60 days? How were we going to not drive each other crazy or start fights over differences in opinions?

Communication, we figured. We have to talk this through.
So we did. And did again. And did some more. And we came up with a couple of questions that everyone that's going on a longer journey with someone should ask each other.

These little 'relationship-exercises' are better performed in the company of a bottle of wine, as all exercises ever are. 

AFTER TRAVELING ANTICLIMAX

Hej kompisar!

We are trying to juggle with a lot right now. We have pictures left from Vietnam, especially Ha Long Bay, that we havn't yet showed you yet (and they're gorgeous!) as well as from The Great Wall, the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven and a lot of more sights. We're also currently working on a list of things you might want to know before going to inner China... 
We have budgets to show so you can see how much you'll actually need for your own trip, we have mistakes to confess and victories to celebrate.

Still havn't told you about the time we got locked in? 

Well... Another time. 

GREETINGS FROM THE END OF THE ROAD

THE FEELS! 

Showing some love 

in Forbidden City, Beijing

My oh my oh my. We are heading into the last 24 hours on the road and every hour is a new experience. Will this by the hour we cry? Or the one we hysterically jump up and down in exitement? Or the one we'll stare blindly out the window, being outside ourselves?

Capturing moments in Zhangjiajie

36 HOURS IN CHANGSHA - A FIRST IMPRESSION OF CHINA

Our moving hearts have led us to the last part of our trip; China.

Arriving in Guangzhou airport yesterday for a six-hour stop-over, we started to realize just what kind of advenure we were up against. On the airport, everyone spoke English, if somewhat bad at times. That's okay, we are not perfect either. We took a cappucino/double espresso at the airport that costed us more than vi spend on food on a day in Thailand, but except that, all was right with the world. We were given the bill immediatly after ordering, which was strange for us, but we just laughed, said "I guess we're in China now".

WHY PLANNING IS A GOOD THING - EVEN ON "ADVENTURES"

It's itching. Right now, everything seems itchy. We're pendling between Jonathan's and my father's when we actually just want to be gone already. Three weeks tomorrow. Seems like three years and, strange enough, three minutes at the same time.


I know this trip is well planned, some may say too planned. We have a starting date, we have a home date. We know where we will be when, for the most of the trip. It might not be very spontanious, but we've decided we like it this way, this time. We have a lot of reasons for planning everything, such as:

TRAVELING CONSCIOUSLY: Elephants in Thailand

Source: Elephant Nature Park

So I started to read about traveling, thinking "exploring the world" is just another word for Rich Western People trying to get a bit of enlightment at the cost of another lands culture, traditions and nature. I've read countless traveling blogs the last year, and two things strikes me: