I LOVE THAILAND

Its our last night and I cant believe its been 2 and a half weeks since we came here.

Had our last dinner and ordered just about everything and MAAAN it was good. Been thinking about Thailand and the places Ive been and quite frankly, I dont know a nicer place. The people are just amazingly nice, so kid loving that its almost too much sometimes. And its not about hussle and shit, just genuine friendliness that Ive never seen before.
I said it before that weve been living in fishing village that does only have so much people, and the people that own houses over here mostly come in the winter, so its been VERY quiet.

Today in Prapchup Khiri Khan some kiosk-owning ladies gave milky drinks to Bella and Oliver and refused to take money for it. Alot of people have been chasing the kids with mobile phones, to take pictures. Like today, the cook spend more time with Bella than making food.
Little kids are waving their hands when you walk by. Thats something very real, no hussle involved. Like munks wanting to shake hands with Bella, they hardly want anything from us. But a smile. And yes, Oliver is just as popular. Specially with his green eyes and blond hair. He can greet and thank in Thai and that is SOOO adorable for them.

Its been raining for the last four days and should keep raining for a week or so, I heard. I also heard that its been almost +30 back home. But then again, Ive been to Thailand.
Seen many things and met alot new people, still very curious about their habits. Hard to find out about them because so few talk english over here.

Ok, the gang fell asleep as usual, waayyy before me. Little miss in the middle of the livingroom floor, Sandra by her book, Oliver next to granpa with a book on his face. That leaves me listening to the amplified sound of frogs or whatever and having one more bia Chang.

Cant wait to come back to this country, specially the place where weve been, hardly any tourists around. Superb food any even superber people. Huai Yang well soon see some naked little butts running around...

Freaky..

Had a few drinks with my father-in-law Hasse after the family dinner and while driving home we heard this sound. While riding/driving! I mean, the scooter does make alot of noise but still we were like, whatta hell is this noise! Everybodys asleep now but I had to go out and hear it one more time, just to make sure we werent making things up, and holy shit! The noise is just SO loud! I dont know if its the grasshoppers or some bugsies making the sound but it sounds like it thousands of frogs screaming at the same time. The jungle makes lots of sounds every night but this is just too frigging loud and freaky.
Btw, bout a week ago the others went to the pool ( I was in bed, cold) and saw a cockroach about 12cm long. 12CM LONG! Sitting by the shower. Hasse had given the monster a little snap and it made a nasty sizzle like a small kitten. No cameras were around, too bad, but even the toughest dude, Hasse, had thought that the fucker was just plain scary.
We took a nightswim with Oliver few nights ago and while in the darkness I realized this predator just might land on me and I would have to show my son the true man I am. By running away screaming and leaving the boy behind. Thank God it didnt happen. But just the thought made our swim a little bit shorter.
Keep it cool!

Wussup dawg!!

Theres a lot of dogs around here. Theyre straydogs, but Ive noticed that they dont look so starved and shitty as the ones Ive seen elsewhere. They come close but still keep a slight distance, just in case. In our favourite restaurant theres two. The waitresses just go around them when they sleep on the floor and nobody does nothing about them.
I remember a dog, I think it was a puppy getting kicked by a waiter in Mallorca when I was a kid and never wanted to go back to that place. They were always chasing away the dogs. Nasty stinky dogs.
But somethings different over here. And now I know the answer.

The community takes care of the dogs. Ive seen them feed them, but they also clip them to keep the number in control. Its a religioius thing. They think that the spritits of the dead relatives go (or might go) to the dogs. Nobody wants to kick their granpa, right?

Today I saw a bird sit on a cow that was eating its grass, not minding at all. The cows and birds look a bit different over here, so too bad I didnt have a camera with me. Theres plenty of trees over here so why was it sitting on the cow? Maybe it was his buddy.

It was a bit cooler day today, been raining all day. No dips in the pool even. Then one couple we met said it was +28 degrees. Only.
Its 28,5 now inside the house and we havent had the air conditioning on all day. Chilly...
So, there was no trip to Hua Hin either. Maybe tomollow!

Took a ride with the scooter the other day to a local national park. Nice ride through the rice fields and coconut farms. People waving their hands. Saw some monkeys jumping from tree to tree. First time ever to see them in the wild. Well, we saw some monkeys about a week ago in a small town Prachuap Khiri Khan, at the foot of a temple mountain. But its not the same thing really. There should be a nice beach over there but dont know if we have time for that...

Thats all folks!!

Internet working again...

First of all I gotta get one thing off my chest. Thats the Thailand hippies. When we were about to leave Stockholm I noticed these people that look like theyre extras from the movie The Beach. I mean, do you really have to show everybody that it not your first time to Thailand. Theres all kinds of hand made blingbling, and thats cool by me but fucking surfing shorts and flipflops!!? Do these people think that the plane is gonna land on a beach?? Somehow they dismiss the fact that theres gonna be a full-on air conditioning straight to the neck for about 10 hours and then youre only in Bangkok. Beaches are still hours away. Feels like these are the Torremolinos-folks of our time. BOSS t-shirts and so on.. Maybe Im just getting old...

We went to Hua Hin to do some shopping, its a bigger town about 120km away and I couldnt help but to be annoyed bout the locals going GoKväll, How are u sir, Come this way and blabla. Ive always hated turist infested places (not big cities likes of New York etc..) and the hustlers that keep chasing you down the street trying to get you in to a restaurant. The village were staying now doesnt have any of that and I know people who would get insane how calm and easy it is over here. I just like the fact the locals dont want anything from you, just waving hands and hellooo. Only a few people speak a bit english. It doesnt really matter how good your english is, you just gotta know how to use it. No "r"s. Tomollow. And so on. One word and a lot of hands. Way better than a fine sentence. It can be a pain in the ass when not even the simpliest request come true. Specially when you got kids with allergies...

Theyre crazy about blonde kids in Thailand. It started already at Bangkok airport. Here they just chase Oliver and Bella and grab them till a small cry comes out. One nice waitress asked after a few rejections that "she doesnt like me?" Oh yes she does, shes just a bit shy.. ( And not even frigging two years old, sorry that shes not running towards you when we arrive..) The people really are genuinly(?) friendly, happy and just very nice to deal with. Just to think of the locals in Gran Canaria, you almost felt hated while walking around and doing business with them. Except for the people I became friends with. Theyre the nicest.

What else... Well, exellent food every day... Even the kids are eating well. No loose bellies. ( Im sure that Im gonna be shitting myself just by saying that!!)

Tomorrow me and the missus are gonna go for a shopping marathon and a dinner in Hua Hin. Grandpa is gonna be with the buggers. Nice.
Seems like were getting used to the heat a bit. Nobodys sweating that much anymore. Still hot as hell though. You cant be in the sun more than an hour, it goes right through you. Now a 30 degree night temperature is ok. And its time to go home... Its gonna be about 18 degree drop.. I guess its the huminity that makes it so unbearable over here. Everytime you come out of something air conned, its like a slap in the face, every time. Dont get used to it.

Now I gotta go and get some dreads in my hair, a SINGHA t-shirt and enter the plane in a pair of flipflops. Im coming from Thailand afterall and I gotta show that to people at the Arlanda airport of Stockholm..

Laters!!

Goodamn tan..

Its a cloudy day and I cant help but to feel stressed about getting a tan. Rediculous, I know! But when you grow up watching your parents fry themselves in Mallorca and hear all kinds of "facts" about tanning, you suddenly realize that you are just like that.

Also, when you realize that you have already PASSED the halfway of your holiday it kinda bummes you out. All kinds of worries are only a week away is ringing in my head. Hard to relax.

I gotta put a picture of that scary motorcyclethingy that we rented. Hasses been playing golf alot, so its ME whos been driving the bugger. Not easy, I can tell ya.

We went to market place yesterday by the Burma border and it was CHEAP! Cool to see all weird things they sell as well. Not only clothes.

Today, a cloudy day, we went to a aquarium 20 min away. Bella took off at one point and when I got to her there was Thai girls kneeling next to her, posing and taking pictures. It looked like we were more interesting to them than the stingrays.

What else.. Yeah, tomorrow we gonna take off to Hua Hin, 110km away, going shopping and gonna check out the evening market place. Should be interesting.

Thats about it for now. Time goes SOOO fast when you gotta rutine going...

Laters!

Hothot...

Whoo, its still REALLY hard not to be overwhelmed by the heat. The pool temperature is nice and freshing 30 degrees, so the air.. its hard to say, because I havent seen a single celsius/fahrenheit meter here. The locals just hate the heat and wear these weird hoods with only small holes for eyes and mouth. Kids think theyre scary. Me too.

Btw, the thaiboxer wasnt at home and the thai directions I got from the mama would have prolly taken me to Burma. Then again, the Burma border goes on the mountains that are about 30km away. We're at the narrowes part of Thailand.

The ocean is WAY warmer than the pool, around 34-35 degrees, so thats not too refreshing either. But its nice! Dont get me wrong. I guess it takess about a week for the body to acclimatize, but its still gonna be sweaty. Scandinavian summer is gonna feel like winter after this..
My cold is pretty much gone, but now Sandra has fever and a sore throat. No rest for the wicked.

Oh yeah, we gotta a new ride! A scooter with a side carrier(?), scary but very handy. Its only Hasse driving/riding that thing, too freaky for me. When you accelarate it goes fine, but when you let the gas go the side carridge(?) tries to go pass the scooter. Like somebody hits the gass on that one. Its hard work keeping that thing on the road, so Hasse is the only one to even try.
Now were hitting the road to a some sort of market place. Maybe find some nice flipflops.
Laters!

If this ain't Thailand...

Me and Hasse (my father-in-law) just came back from the dinner that one of the local security guards was proud to serve us. I was hoping it wouldnt be any thai "specialities", so I was saying CHICKEN out loud many times before the dinner. He was saying KAI, ok chicken its gonna be, but when we found the place it was all raw octopussy at first. And then came the chicken, about the same time. Cool thing was, that Hasse wasnt really sure where to turn so suddenly there was a guy behind us beeping and waving to stop. We stopped and followed him and got to the right place. They had changed the roads, so they placed a dude there to wait us to drive by and then show the right way the dinner. Ps. We heard that the whole village was talking about the dinner, SO, it was more like an honour for the man than anything else. We brought a small whisky bottle just as a good cause and they took it as a nice sign, even though almost being affended by OUR genereousity. Go figure. Anyways, there must have been the buffee´´ee of a lifetime just made for us, cause after we said we were stuffed they still kept coming with all kinds of dishes.
There was talks about maybe marrying somebody but I quickly dissed that by showing pictures of MY kids and Sandra.
The outside toilet was a place that was worth to see. It was located like 20meters from the house and to be honest, skansen workers would have been VERY excited about he crawling walls. So, the son of the family is a Thaiboxer, 7years, very busy with armwrestling with Hasse, hes gonna show me some local tattoo place. Im not sure if he wanted me to (machine)tattoo him or for me to get bambu tattooed by the locals. He said theres a proper studio here, right..... At least a place with a MACHINE and a bambu option.
However, the dinner got done with very little english words and more body language. Also helped that Hasse was making more "scandinavian" drinks for folks so, they were kinda blurry.

Btw, its really overwhelming what kind of noise the jungle makes at night, its all quiet during the day and when the sun goes down, KABOOOOM! they turn their amps on.

Anywayzzzz, its vey exiting to see what the thaiboxer will show/want me to do/want me to get from the locals. I'll try to post later of that.
Pss. It looks like theres more people reading this than Sandra but I dont think there is. I just write it like there was a few more.... And still having a BIGTIME FLU at 33degrees...

Gotta fix the pics.

These pics were ENORMOUS, gotta find a way to pack em with Windows.......

Having a cold at +34 degrees!!

Hows that possible? I dont know. I think it was the 10h flight and then 4h drive from Bangkok AIR CONDITION hell that does it. You jump out to 33-35 degrees, jesus. Bella seems to be well again, eating a bit more now and Olivers cool, not whining about the heat at all. The beach is about 400meters away and we have a pool, so that keeps the kids cooled down. A bit at least. Bella has a bit red arms even though we used 50 on her. So strong the sun is. I burned my back properly yesterday so I had a t-shirt on all day. Just gonna post some pics and hit the sack. Its pretty late here and the kids dont have mercy with sleepy mornings. BUT, they were up to friggin' 1am yesterday and Bella was up till about 23 tonight. The sad thing is, they still get up at 7:30....

A KID FROM HELL

WTF, I just tried for fun if theres any networks nearby that I could use and holyschmoly, must be two guys few houses away that has a internet connection. Yeah, A kid from hell alright...
Our Bella was fucking grumpy from the getgo, prolly tired and had maybe little bit of fever as well. She was whining the WHOLE frigging time at the airport and doing exactly what was not supposed to. And then screaming when she didnt get her will. Jesus, she was EXACTLY the kid you hated and kinda felt sorry for the parents. Before the take off, of course refusing to sit the fuck down I sensed the oh so lovely aroma of cacaa. The planes backing from the gate and she takes a dump! As soon as the light when out I ran to the toilet and changed the diaper. She was tired already but ffs, she lasted about 5 and a half hours of whining, screaming, tossing, refusing and so on.. A KID FROM HELL! Thank God for the Thai Airways, they still serve drinks on board for free, so the worse pain (and a nervous brakedown) was taken away by some beers and whiskys. Kids passed out for a few hours and after that it was a little bit easier. Then came the 4hour minibuss ride to the house, in Huay Yang. It was ok, but the the fucking driver was about to fall asleep, constantly. And I swear all four wheels were off the road at some points.
Coming from the Scandinavian summer of ..tops 24 degrees to the mindblowing 33+ heat was actually kind of a shock. We KNEW it was gonna be hot, but fucking hell, it was like a baseball bat to the head. BUT a dip in the sea and a few jumps in to the pool helped big time. And some local beer tasting of course... Frigging Chang Beer is like rocket fuel, 0,64l bottle 6,4% and youll be singing in the jungle. So, I changed to Singha, it ONLY 5%.
Had some supadupa chicken with white pepper in a local "restaurang". Wrote "restaurang" because they tend to be their houses. To be told, we're REALLY in the middle of nowhere, so not much touristsnor that kind of places to be found. Anyways, my dinner costed food 80 an the beer, I think 70 bat. 100 bat is 2euros or 20 krones. Well worth the price!!! A dinner!!
The beach is about 400meters away and we took a walk with the kids. Went crazy over there! The good thing is that the beach is 40km long so the kids wont get away, by running anyway.
This is my father-in-laws laptop (and somebody elses netwo(r)k, hihi) so Im not really sure how to upload the pics. Im a Mac man you see. But I'll try to some pics as soon as I figure out this idiotic windows Vista....
Thats it for now.
ps. already dreding the journey back home... with the lil' lady from HELL!

So long!!

We'll see if I can update my blog in Thailand. If not, keep it cool for the next 3 weeks!!

5 main elements

THAILAND!!

Its packing time and we hit the plane tomorrow at 14hundred hours. You got the recipe for disaster there, about 10h flight with small children. Just gotta keep em busy somehow. Olivers cool, but Bella is not gonna sit down more than a minute. So, its gonna be alot of running around in the plane.... Father-in-law has bought a house over there in some little fishing village at the narrowest point of Thailand. We got a pool and the beach is about 400meters away. Air condition in the house if it gets too hot and at least you can get a good night sleep.
I must be the only person in Sweden who hasnt been to Thailand yet...

Going through old pictures

This is christmas morning. The track was his first present of the day and I made it ready before he woke up. Talk about excited little man. The face makes it all worth it. The pic below was taken in Alcudia, Spain and was just the loveliest day to walk about and have a good local tapas at a place we really had to look for. Me being the taxi here..

I cant be bothered explaining myself in Facebook and quite frankly I dont know why I do it here, prolly because this is more like a diary. Anyways, found some nice old pics and wanted to post them just for myself to watch I guess.

Finally a laptop..

This is what happens when you watch Discovery and fool about with the PS and Illustrator. Nice to have a laptop though, dont have to be sitting in the bedroom and waking the kids.
Hardcore packing tomorrow. Sandras back in business and the giant kidney stone was exploded from the pipes. So, shes gonna be the supervisor of the packing. A trip aint a trip without forgetting something..

Coolio!

Think one of these babies coming out of your genitals..no thanks.
Heard that some sort of procedure had been made to the missus and shes waking up now. Shit, I didnt even know anybody with kidney stone before.. What are the odds? Its not something you think about when your belly aches, right? Anyways, hope that shes allowed to fly on thursday.
So I/we can start packing..
She called, shes allowed to fly. Coolio!

The Rolling kidney Stones

Sometimes it feels like you should leave the sketch alone after the line work. No colours or nothing. Just the lines. Thats why its good to scan the piece after the lines are done. Then you can basically ruin the drawing as you wish.
Here some flowers I did, liked the lines better than the colouring that I did after that.
Holiday day nr 2. As grey as it gets. Sandras still in the hospital WAITING to get her kidney stone removed. Times running out here. You should be allowed to fly after the procedure but you never know. Dont know if to pack or not.. Damn it!

Zoolander

Lil' lady

Kinda stressed...

Now that Im almost recovered from the operation Sandra gets fucking kidney stone! What are the odds??! Oliver was coughing his lungs out, Bella is having fever and now Sandra is in the hospital. It wouldnt be such a big deal, bur we're supposed to fly to Thailand on thursday, its monday today. Its not even 100% that we can leave at all, but we're trying to be optimistic about it. Bad friggin' timing. It was officially the first day of the holiday today and it hasnt been raining this much all year! Typical. Well, thats how it goes and thats why I wouldnt mind being in Thailand. We'll see how it turns out, prolly just fine. But its stressy as fook.
Oliver already has the gear on..

T-shirt design

Did a t-shirt design for a friend of mine, to his band to be exact. Kept it in one colour, so they can change the printing colour easily and to keep the expenses low. We'll see if it pleases the man...

Just testing..

Trying to figure out how this thing works.. So, posting a drawing just to see if it works..

Ok then..

Hmmm.. Should I write about my feelings or what..? Or post some pics..? Well, the reason I started this blog was.. I guess the chance to write about my feelings and more personal stuff but also to post some not so ready drawings and sketches. Not that I expect many people to read it, if any, but still its nice to show some little things Ive been working on. And to have some sort of a diary I guess, to be able to go back and check whatta hell was I up to at that point in my life.
So, enjoy, laught or just point fingers at it at the office.