Tag Archives: Travel

Around the world

My 10 favorite waterfalls

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I am inlove with anything that has to do with water! So it comes naturally that I love waterfalls ! 

I have seen many many waterfalls in my life. Especially when I live in a country as Switzerland where a valley is called Valley of the 72 waterfalls! 

I will ofcourse not going to bring out all my favorit falls but only 10 of them. The list is not only based on the beauty of the falls but aswell of the great memories I have from that place!


1. Semuc Champey, Guatemala


2014

Semuc Champey is not an easy place to get to but worth every minute of the bumpy ride in a crowded bus.

This cascade is first on my list because I love waterfalls that create many levels of swimming holes or pools. The turquoise pools are surrounded by lush green vegetation and make a beautiful contrast. It’s peaceful and most of the time you are having this place all for yourself.
 

2. Jim jim falls, Australia

 

2014

In spite of lack of the water from the waterfall I still think Jim Jim falls earns a second place on my list. Just imagine this place when there is water pourring down! As long as there is not a crocodile swimming down the falls! Don’t forget we are talking about Australia! 

3.  Wallamans falls, Australia

2014

Australians tallest waterfall with a plunge of almost 300 meters. Do I need to say more?

 

4. Sendang tui, Indonesia

2014

A beautiful waterfall on the Lombok island. What you can’t see from the picture is there are garbages floating everywhere! We paid an entrance for the park but all around the park was plastic bottles and bags. It was sad to see.

5. Agua azul, Mexico

2014

Agua azul means blue water in spanish. Instead of shimmering blue we got grey and murky water because of the heavy rain the days before. However, the many levels of falls were still beautiful!

6. Kuangsi, Laos

2011

Unfortunally when we were backpacking in 2011 I was not into photography so I don’t have much (any) photo from this fall. It was truly beautiful with the blue milky water descending down in many levels. It was just to crowded that time we were there.
 

7. Gumlom waterfalls creek, Australia

2014

You guys know I heart an infinity pool but what is even better is a natural infinity pool with an amazing view. A bit dry by the time we got there but we were enjoying the little water it was left. 

8. Saluopa, Indonesia

2014

I remember people and plastic…everywhere! But this falls is special because the fall was almost white like it was whipped cream smeared on the rocks. 

9. Shiraito no taki, Japan

Small small stream of water falling down. Since it is in Japan just imagine if they have plant cherry trees around and during the spring..wow!

10. Mürrenbach falls, Switzerland

2016

What is so special with this one in Lauterbrunnen is how excited we were when we could walk all the way up to the fall! And aswell how beautiful and tall it actually is! I appreciate Mürrenbach more than the famous Staubbach fall on the same valley not far away.

And do you guys have any favorite waterfalls?

 

 

 

Switzerland

Cherry blossom trail in Frick

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I so so love having a picnic under a blooming tree. Especially under a huge Magnolia, cherry or apple tree. That’s one of my favorite thing to do in spring! (No, spring cleaning is not one of them!)

When we lived in Lausanne we had our favorite places to have a picnic under blooming trees. But now after a year living in Bern we still have no clue where to view cherry blossom. I asked around and someone suggested me to take a walk on the “Chriesiwäg” in Frick in the Canton of Aargau. It is about 40km from Basel, 50km from Zurich and 110km from Bern. Normally we wouldn’t drive over an hour just to see some cherry trees but something made us go there last friday and we don’t regret the decision! 

We parked our car infront of the Frick railway station. It was 0.75 chf an hour, not expensiv. From the ticket office at railway station we got a map of the 5km round hike.

The wow-moment start almost as soon as we arrive to the starting point of the hike around 1km from the railway station. It’s easy to find the way as all you need to do is follow the family cherry sign!

The road is in good condition no problem for using a stroller but as we had our daughter in a carrier we were free to explore, walk around the field as we wish and took our time. I suggest you to use one because to fully enjoying this place is to go off the beaten track!

It was heavenly to walk among and between the trees feeling the spring in the air. And the whole field was smelling so sweet of flowers! I might exaggerate but I think the spring got into me !😊

We were there on a friday between 11am to 4pm and there were not much people around.

Along the 5km there are information panels on the trail about the cherry varieties, the bees and the landscape ect. But unfortunally only in german. There is a picnic, BBQ and WC area.

Tips! Incase you like better the fruit itself than the flower then come later on the summer to eat some cherries directly from trees marked in blue...for free!! 

I can already imagine us sitting under a cherry tree reaching up for a cherry one after another…mmmm my kind of happiness !

For more information: Here

Do you guys have any favorite blooming tree you want to share?

Around the world, Europe, Sweden

I am dreaming of a Swedish summer

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While many people are dreaming of a long stretch of white sand, the sea crystal clear and eating rice with spicy curry. I am dreaming of pine forest, lakes and eating potatoes with pickled herring. 

I am dreaming of Sweden! Or more correctly I am dreaming of Swedish summer!

I have not been back to Sweden since summer 2006. That is over 10 years ago. Every summer I keep telling David that this summer we are packing for a Swedish summer. But ofcourse somewhere else has always seems more exiting so Swedish summer has always becoming “next summer”!

So no, this summer we are not going but next summer WE ARE GOING! 

I miss Swedish summer so much!

Stockholm

I miss Stockholm where I used to live. I even miss Hallunda, Alby and Tumba where I grew up. I can’t wait to bike around Botkyrka kommun and swim and grill korv med bröd by Albysjön listning to The Latin Kings showing my Swiss husband and daughter my secret places and where I use to play as kid. Perhaps go and fish some gädda in Ekerö. I even want to show them ICA, Konsum and Pressbyrån. And Skärholmens centrum where I use to shop as a teenager.

I want to stroll hand in hand with my family in Stockholm where my girlfriends and I use to make noises at every Vattenfestival. Or walking by Patricia in Slussen where I use to get drunk. Being childish at Gröna Lund. I miss the Spökhuset!

I want to jump onto a boat and get lost in Stockholms skärgård and eat rökta räkor, våfflor and Piggelin. And eat a tunnbrödsrulle at Sibylla but perhaps not at the Stockholms skärgård.

Stockholms skärgård

Tunnbröd! Mmmmm

I want to make a road trip from Malmö to Kiruna. I want to swim naked in one of the thousands lakes and make smultron på strå for my daughter to eat and a maskros krans for her to wear. And pick kantareller for dinner.

Smultron!

I want to sleep in a peaceful sommarstuga by a lake and dance around the midsommarstången while learning my daughter to sing “Sommartider” by Gyllne tider. If we have time we could take a Silja Line or Viking line to Soumilandet! 

And eat Semlor!!

Ohh how I miss Swedish summer! 


Around the world, asia, Japan

Walking in Kimono for a day in Japan

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When we were in Japan in 2014 for the Hanami festival we dressed in kimono and walked down the streets of Japan. It was a really fun experience to be dressed in traditional japanese style for a day!

I just can’t belive though that I managed to talk David into it!

There are many stores in Japan where you can rent a kimono. We chose to rent our kimonos in a store in Kyoto next to the Gojo station. As couple you can get a good deal compare to other stores in Kyoto. The two kimonos were for 6500¥ and then I had my hair done at the same place for 500¥. Once you have chosen your kimono there will be staff helping you get dress. For booking and further information you can find it here.

Just remember to book your time for morning so you can wear the kimono all day. When we booked there were only times available on the afternoon so we only had the kimono on for a couple of hours! 

Taking the subway in Kimono. 

It was strange at first to walk in a pair of Geta, a traditional japanese footwear that looks like flip-flops,  with socks on. Other from that my kimono fits me like glove. I really felt like a japanese princess..and kind of beautiful! 

As we didn’t have much time we decided to take the subway to the nearest parc, Kyoto Gyoen garden aswell known as Kyoto imperial palace parc. It was a perfect parc for having a photo session and just strolling around.

Both locals and tourists were looking and some even wanted to take photos of us saying that we looked cute. In reality they must have think that David who is almost two meter tall was looking quite funny. If you hate getting attention than perhaps this isn’t something for you. 

I just can’t wait to go back there with my daughter Mirabelle and we could walk in kimono as family!



What about you? Would you like to wear a kimono for a day? Perhaps you have done it? 

P.S I forgot to mention that in some restaurant you can get a special price if you wear kimono!

asia, Food, Thailand

A basic guide to typical thai food

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Thailand is known for the beautiful landscape, amazing beaches, great shopping, smiling people (beautiful women?!)..and ofcourse for the food! Just by thinking of thai food my mouth is watering!

Thai food is known worldwide and many of you have problably taste some dishes before going to Thailand for the first time. But once you are in Thailand you will be surrounded by so much thai food that you will ask yourself  What is this??

All this food that you are surrounded by are food that you have never seen, smell and taste before. Food that looks delicious and food that looks…strange. Food that smells good and food that…stinks!

But in this post I am not going to write about strange dishes for you guys !

In this post I will simply separate typical thai food and add them into categories to make it easier to navigate and for you to easier understand what you have to deal with.

  1. Khao gaeng
  2. Noodles
  3. Isaan food
  4. Namprik
  5. BBQ
  6. Dessert


1. Khao gaeng


Photo HERE

Khao gaeng are main dishes you normally eat with steam rice. Often in food court or at the food stalls you can chose between 1-3 dishes to go with your rice. These main dishes can be from red curry dishes to stir fry vegetables.

The most known khao gaeng dishes for tourist have to be the curry dishes such as green and red curry, Massaman curry and Panang curry.

Massaman beef curry. Photo: Here with the recipe

Other khao gaeng also very popular among tourist (and thai) are the thai soups tom yum and my favorite tom kha.

Tom kha gai. Photo: Here with the recipe

And there are stir fries dishes in Khao gaeng category that are also very common for tourist. Some examples are stir fry chicken with thai basil, chicken cashew nut and sweet and sour chicken.

Stir fry chicken with basil thai. Photo: Here with the recipe


2. Noodles

If we Thais don’t eat Khao gaeng we eat noodles!

You can order your noodles stir fry like the famous pad thai or you can have a bowl of noodle soup. But the most famous thai noodles you know must be the instant noodles you can buy cheaply in all the grocery stores or the gas stations all around the world!😂

The famous Pad thai. Photo: Here with the recipe

For more details about thai soup noodles dishes please check this blog post Luckypeach!

Photo: Here

My favorite noodles dish? They so are many but if I have to chose I would chose Wonton soup and noodle with fish curry (khanom jeen namja).

Wonton soup. Photo: Here

 

3. Isaan

So, when Thais don’t eat khao kaeng or noodles what do they eat? They eat Isaan food, the thai northeastern food!

Isaan food is known for it’s bold flavors. Sweet,salty, sour, very spicy and often “stinky”😂.. as we love it! Another good part with Isaan food is you normally eat the food with the hands.

The most known Isaan food among the non-Thais has to be sticky rice and papaya salad! 

Sticky rice. Photo: Learn more about sticky rice. Great post!

Papaya salad. Photo: Taem Laek

The meat salads “Laab” or “Nam tok” are aswell very known worldwide.

Porc salad, Nam tok moo. Photo:Taem Leak

My favorite isaan food is sticky rice with bamboo shoot salad.

Bamboo shoot salad. Photo: Here


4. Nam phrik

Nam phrik. Photo: More about thai hot chili sauce here. Great post!

The least known for the visitors but yet a very popular food in Thailand is Nam phrik = hot spicy sauce/paste ! (My own translation!!!)

There must exist atleast 10000 different kind of nam phrik. I can name some: chili paste with rotten fish, chili paste with shrimp paste, chili paste with grounded fish, chili paste with giant water bug.…and the list goes on.

Giant water bug can be one of the ingrediens in nam phrik. Photo: How to eat giant water bug. Intressting reading!

Our nam prik are not only hot sauces to be added to the main dishes. In thai food culture nam phrik can be eaten as a main course simply serve with boiled/fresh vegetables, and rice or sticky rice. Simple, healthy and so darn good if you ask me!

 I can’t think of any nam phrik that are eaten alot by tourist?!? Unless ofcourse you have a thai gf/bf or are married to one..but then you wouldn’t need this guide.😊

My favorite nam phrik is nam phrik pao. 

Nam phrik pao. Photo: More about what you can do with nam prik pao. Great post!


5. BBQ

The whole Thailand smells like BBQ! That is because we Thais love to eat grilled food. You must have seen a bunch of food stalls or wagons where they sell grilled sauges, meatballs, fish and meat on a stick, everywhere and on every hour of the day.

Grilled sauges and meatballs. Photo: Here

Grilled squid. Photo: Here

Something grilled that is ordered very often by tourist has to be the Chicken Satay with peanut sauce. 

Grilled chicken Satay. Photo: More about the delicious satay here. 

Grilled chicken satay. Photo: Here with recipe

My favorite from the grill is grilled skewer porc with sticky rice and nam phrik!! If you have not try it…don’t wait!

Grilled skewer pork. Photo: Here with recipe


6. Dessert



So much dessert to chose from but alot of tourist has atleast tasted once thai pancake aka roti, right? 

Roti

So so so much different kind of dessert! So complicated to explain.

So I am just going to link some good blog posts about thai dessert.

Enjoy!

Migrationology.com
Live-less-ordinary.com 

Bangkokbits.com


Please let me know if you think something is missing or just let me know your favorite thai dish or dessert. Do you prefer eating noodle, isaan or khao kaeng? 







asia, Thailand

Bang Bao bay, Koh Kut

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I have already been in Thailand on high season so many times before so I know that most of the islands and beaches will be packed with people. It’s really not my kind of vacation but if it was not for visiting my thai family I would have gone to Indonesia…

This is not what I was looking for. At Kamala beach, Phuket.

So months before going to Thailand I was reading alot of blogs and forums to find an unspoil beauty, quiet and less devolopped island to visit. I came across Koh Kood or aswell known for Koh Kut. It’s Thailands fourth largest island and it is close to Koh Mak and Koh Chang. 

According to blogs Koh Kut has beautiful paradise beaches with crystal clear waters, several waterfalls to enjoy, good hotels and best of all…not much tourist! 

Once we decided for koh Kut  I then had to chose a beach. And once again thanks to blogs for helping me making my decision, Bang Bao bay beach was our final destination!

From Bangkok it tooked us around 8 hours to arrive to our bungalow at Bang Bao bay. ( I will write a complete guide of how to get there in another post and about our accommodation). Unfortunally we had bad weather for two days so the water was looking rather greyish and dirty than crystal clear bleu!

It was grey for two days and then on the third day when I woke up Bang Bao bay beach was finally looking as I was hoping for, if not even better!  

Can you see the differences between the photo above and this one? Same same but different, right?

The beach is around 1km long with  6 hotels and we stayed at Siam hut for 1300bath/night. (More about the Siam hut in another post)

Look how emty the beach is!! Bang bao bay beach, Koh Kut

What I really love about Bang bao beach is not only for it’s turquoise blue waters and fine sand, I really appreciate the calm sea and the shallow water aswell. You can walk out quite far before it’s getting to deep. It was the perfect beach for us since we are a small family with a toddler. 

Bang bao bay beach, Koh Kut

The sunsets were not the best sunsets but they were was acutally not bad! 

Since we were travelling with a toddler we didn’t get to se other beaches so I can’t say if Bang Bao bay beach is the most beautiful beach of the island but I can say it was perfect for us. 

Other things to do than swim and sunbath on Bang Bao beach is kayaking, having a massage, snorkling and diving. There is a dive center on the other end of the beach. 

We were lucky that my cousin came over for a night and helped us look for our daughter while she was napping so we could sneak out…kayaking!! She was staying at Natural beach resort and kayaks there were for free for guests. But there are kayaks for rent somewhere at the middle of the beach.

And once we managed to get a massage while our daughter was napping! I had a good oil massage 1hour/400 bath while David had ordinary thai massage 1hour/300 bath. You can find the massage hut at the end of the beach at Siam beach resort.

We had five nights at Bang Bao bay beach at Koh Kut and we really loved it!  Just to bad our little daugter was not on her very best mood! Next time we would love to visit the other beaches and waterfalls!

Have you guys been to Koh Kut? Can you recommend other beach on the island?


asia, Switzerland, Thailand

What Thailand made me miss about being home.

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Yes, I still have Travel hangover and yes I am still crying over to be home. But when I was in Thailand I missed alot of things about being home. To move on with my life and to get over this depression I am now trying to focus on those positve things I missed with home when we were away.

It is important that you understand that I am comparing being away in Thailand and not being away in generally because each country is different.

1. Walking

Lumbini parc in central Bangkok is a good place to walk.

My husband and I love to take long spontaneous walks and in Thailand (mostly in Bangkok) we missed walking alot. Yes you can walk mostly everywhere in Thailand but I wouldn’t call it enjoyable. Here are the reasons why.

  1. It’s to hot! You have between 6-9 am and 4-6pm to walk if you don’t want to melt of the heat.
  2. There no sidewalk! If there is one, it is often occupied by street vendors, dogs, parking cars and bikes.
  3. Traffic! People are driving like crazy and people are driving where they don’t suppose to. I am constantly looking over my shoulder when I am walking.
  4. I have already mention dogs! They are everywhere and they can be nasty!
  5. People! To much people!


2. Eating healthier food

Crispy porc is my favorit!

This is more a problem for a health freak like David but one of the thing we missed was eating healthier food ! When you are in Thailand you are surrounded by food everywhere, 24h! It’s easier and cheaper to eat out than to cook at home. The problem is we thai people (included me) love our food very greasy, sweet, salty, sour and spicy and we put meat in mostly everything. It is so delicious but not always very healthy! And when we ate out we had zero control of what they have put in the dishes. Once I ordered an ice tea without sugar. But the ice tea came very sweet. The vendor explained to me that he have put sugar in it beacuse without sugar the ice tea wouldn’t taste good! And we bought once fresh sliced pineapple where the vendor marined the pineapples with sugar to sweeten them. I have no proof but the pineapples cleary tasted like white sugar!

At home we like to buy our food organic and we eat less meat. Don’t get me wrong, in Thailand there are alot of fresh veggies and fruit everywhere but what we missed was a simple home cooked quality meals.


3. Crazy drivers and traffic jam

A fully loaded tuk tuk.

It’s aweful to be in a car jam with a toddler who hates being in a car. I can survive a car jam, but always having fear for my life everytime I am in a car beacause people are driving like I-don’t-care-about-my-life-neither-yours…that it’s so stressful! There where times we had crazy taxi drivers so we asked to change the taxi. We are happy be to back safely!

 

4. Baby chair

How we missed Mirabelles tripp trapp stokke chair!

Without a baby chair she would constantly jump up on the table. Switch between David and I. Go down on the floor and then up on our knees again. Bon appetit!

What we really missed was Mirabelles hight chair! At home she would sit nicely eating in her high chair. Many restaurants in Thailand have chair for baby but so many more don’t have them. For us it was a problem because without the chair Mirabelle would act like a ape by the table jumping around. We had no peace by the table. It was impossible to make a conversation because one of us always have to look after her. Every meal was a disaster!


For those of you who have been in Thailand, do you agree with me? What do you miss when you away from home?