Settling in

We figured that due to the multicultural collection of friends we have, that might find interest in this blog, we will continue blogging in english.

The last remaining bits of jetlag have finally relented and the morning toddler-tooted reveille is creeping back to its usual 7AM. Great, this gives us a bit of a natural pause between breakfast and lunch, and some theoretical opportunity to have a morning run before the heat sets in. No such running have yet happened, but any day now... The daily routine usually involves breakfast, morning activity like beach play, lunch, pool play at home and supply shopping if needed. Dinner and some relaxing around the house. Kids to bed and then usually some reading on the porch, TV time or blogging, or, planning the next steps on the trip. This last bit can consume fantastic amounts of time. Luckily, that is something we have in abundance now. Please remind us of this later when we are neck-deep in work and juggle the drop-off/pick-up routine at daycare.

After a few days of close to home routine, we figured it was time to leave the safety of our own pool and head out to the beachfront for a salty dip.

It was in general a lovely day out with good pineapple shakes, curries and crab watching. The beach was virtually deserted but there were still several ramshackle bars/restaurants to choose from, that all offered seating on plastic chairs directly in the sand. And they had a nice little swing that was given a proper test run by our family connoisseur.

Satu and Max hiked (actually ran) by the edge of the water until they were merely small specks in the distance. Saga chose this time to make her ocean debut.

After spending considerable time playing in the sand with some sandpit toys in the form of colorful letters, by some form of sudden inspiration she started setting off  towards the water.

Resembling a turtle hatchling, she used her Nordlund trademark crawl - skidding on one bent leg while working the other leg and arms - and left track marks that would baffle any biologist.

Once she had reached the water she insisted loudly on being allowed into the surf with no undue delay. A quick strip and she was merrily splashing away, excitedly and audibly welcoming each small wave to tickle her belly.



This was close to her big brother's behavior at the same age, although he needed some persuasion at that time before accepting the ocean as safe. Appearance-wise Saga might resemble Magnus a bit more, but she has gotten more than her share of Satu's sisu.

Max also got his fair share of ocean water of course, fascinated by the fact that the water tasted of salt.  He encouraged us all to take a sip which we cordially declined before trying to make him stop gulping it down. So far, all tummies are feeling good. Mostly thanks to dumb luck, probably.

Lasse and Helena went back home to Sweden, so we are utterly alone in the Coconut area for a few days. We start feeling territorial about the place and talk some about how it will feel when the strangers who are bound to arrive soon are jumping into OUR POOL! Alas, the problems we have to endure here! #thuglife

The other afternoon, we set out to another beachfront restaurant, the same one Lasse took Magnus to on the first day.  Apart from good food, the adjacent beach is nice and also deserted. We set up shop with the swimsuits, colorful letters and shovels plus some beverages from the restaurant bar. Saga immediately set off for the water again and Max was dodging stranded jellyfish and chasing crabs.













As any responsible parent, we always choose the cloudy days for the beach excursions. This particular day the cloudiness started shifting into a proper downpour. We quickly gathered everything and took shelter in the roofed dinner area as the rain intensified. A tropical storm is rather entertaining from a dry vantage point, so we felt quite snug enjoying the cool wind and spectacle of lightning and coconut trees swaying back and forth, while choosing from the various curries, phad thais and sundries from the menus.

The dinner was enjoyed accompanied by a full double rainbow as the rain subsided, and the last sips of Chang went down as the sun set beautifully behind the line of trees.

The country of Burma, renamed by their current not-so-worthy militia government as Myanmar is, because of said government, ranked rock bottom in the league of free and developed countries (they are all the way down there with pals like North Korea). They are however still allowed to do some business with their neighbors. There is a market on the Thai side of the border where the burmesians are allowed to go and sell their merchandize. As thai has it's own glyphs rather than our alphabet, any attempt to express thai words with latin letters requires best-guess/best-fit approach that is heavily prone to personal bias. This is the reason why the town where this market is has a name that is Darn Sink Hon/Dansinkon/Dansin khon/etc. It takes about an hour by car to reach it from our house, and we figured it was time to leave our present comfort zone and visit it.

 The market was a huge hustle and bustle. Everything in the shadow of the big concrete arch that marked the border and hence the no-go areas for farangs like us.

 There were some larger shop-like establishments but most of the peddling occurred in smaller market stands out on the streets or in the large areas under a shared roof.

 You could buy anything from dinner furniture carved out of single huge tree roots through spices, incense and glass beads, down to 60s antiques, shrink-wrapped CRT TV-sets, pirated NOKIA cell phones and baseball caps.

  Pleasingly, the vendors were friendly and not at all in your face, so we could browse the inventories at our own pace while Saga was bogarting all the attention from the locals.

Judging that the dinner furniture would not fit in our backpacks, we settled on some nicely colored bracelets, a new baseball cap for Max and some cheap, flimsy toys that barely survived the walk to the car for the home trip, save for a big concrete truck that quickly made Max's most prized possession.

Max with his "precious".

 We passed a stand for chilled coconuts and figured it was time for a refreshing drink. Saga eagerly sipped her coconut water down and chewed on fresh strips of coconut flesh, before ending up in the vendor's hands.

 She starts to getting used to strangers wanting to carry her around so she offered plenty of smiles and got lots of free coco in exchange.

On the home trip, it was all smiles, almost...

Later that evening, we finally decided on what to do after Kuala Lumpur. We're going to Bali and we have booked flight and hotel in Kuta, that will be out first Bali stop. Five days of super-exploited beaches will be an interesting contrast to the present "lost paradise" feel. "Expect drunken aussies with surfboards", the ratings warn. We take our chances! Then we plan to do a lot of temple watching, enjoying the rice paddy/volcano vistas and finally some DIVING!