Day trip to Koh Lipe, Thailand

This past weekend we felt like going to Thailand for some island hopping, said and done. Early on Saturday morning we took a cab to Telaga Harbour. The cab driver was a little late when he picked us up so he drove it like he stole it.

When we arrived at Telaga the hassle of pass control started. We have to OFFICIALLY depart from Malaysia and then OFFICIALLY enter Thailand yada yada yada, it's the usual bureaucracy that we all love to hate. The paperwork took a while, perhaps because it involved a young school boy driving away with our passports on his moped to an unknown destination for some "very important and necessary stamps". We also had to sign a paper stating in red capital letters that we have been informed that drug smugglers are sentenced to death! That's good to know huh, made us nervous even though we only had baby food in our bags.

In the waiting room there were more Swedes than flies in an outhouse and we appreciated their company just the same. By now after a month in Malaysia we're so used to that strangers are kind and greets you like a friend. The room was packed with at least 14 Swedes, not one of them said hi to us or shared Nellys curious smile.

The speedboat lived up to its name, three 225 horsepower strong engines made sure that we arraived at Koh Lipe less than an hour after leaving Malaysia.

Koh Lipe is a lovely island, the beach is stunning! Beautiful, green-blue water with sand soft as silk, amazing. You can easily picture yourself enjoying the sun with a drink in your hand and some hot company by your side. That's when you don't have a one-year old with you, who refuses to play on the beach and needs to be carried around all the time! Our daughter is the most kind child ever to travel with, but she needs some basics which help us all get along, for example ability to use her stroller. There's no such possibility in Koh Lipe! The entire island is about the beach and the sea, there is nothing which even remotely resemblances a sidewalk.

Once we understood that, we decided to continue looking at the bright side of life and find a luxury hotel, which would compensate the no-stroller inconvenience. I guess it wasn't meant to be! We ended up in the "delux hut", smelling everything but lux, equipped with cold shower only and toilet with no possibility of flushing (there was, however, a shower-like-device providing a close enough function). We are a tough couple and it takes far more than this to break us .... until we saw a few centimeters wide holes where the walls meets the floor, big enough to welcome an entire army of insects at any time. And that was a deal breaker! We changed the date on the return ticket and speeded back to home sweet home Malaysia.

To go through the passport bureaucracy a 2nd time the same day was a bitch but the good news is we passed and didn't have to check-in at Bangkok Hilton.

Dinner conversation

Today we met three kind souls (one very sleepy one). We were relaxing with a Tiger beer and some orange juice, just waiting for our take away dinner. While we're admiring the cute baby you see in the picture the man with white mustache declared with great pride in his voice that "I'm sleeping with her grandmother". Now that's what we call an ice-breaker.





Always stay tuned


Our local fruit dealer, prices are bananas!

Mr & Mrs Lenngren - wedding pictures

As you may or may not know we got married on 6th February at Westin Resort & Spa here in beautiful Langkawi Island, Malaysia. These pictures were taken by an outstanding photographer Aloha Lavina who travelled from Bangkok to document our magical day.

Happy Birthday Viggo!

Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3. Hello Viggo can you hear me? This is Nelly broadcasting on my parents' blog.

I don't know how much time I got, my parents could spot me sitting here any second and then the fun will be over. For some reason they never let me play with the laptop, last x-mas they made outrageous accusations that I broke the keyboard while playing Baby Smash. Anyway all I wanted was to wish you Viggo, my dear friend, a Happy Birthday!

As you know I'm a lot older than you and already have a great deal of experience when it comes to birthdays, and let me tell you, you're in for a treat! On birthdays one gets even more attention then on any given day, and presents! A present is something new wrapped in paper. And by no means don't forget to play with the paper. I'm sure you'll find it just as much fun as I do.

As you know I took my parents on a holiday to Malaysia, they are quite OK travel companions when they don't worry too much. I'm having a really good time here, especially in the pool, have you checked me and my zebra out on the photos? Another new thing I've discovered here is fine dining. Have you tried rice? Oh man, I'm telling you it's delicious! It's a local dish that's also very fun to play with.

Are you standing up yet? I sure am and it opened an entire new world of possibilities for me. I overheard my parents say that I just tripled my zone of terror, do you have any idea what they mean? Anyway standing is great stuff. You can get a hold of a lot of things that used to be off reach. So if you are not standing yet I can highly recommend it. Ask Tilda if you need any further instructions.

Oh shoot, I think I hear mom and dad waking up, I better log out or else I'll be in trouble again.

Happy Birthday man!

Nelly

Night market in Kuah

This evening we went to the night market (pasar malam). The market focuses mostly on food and gets our stamp of approval. We recommend it if you want to try samples of real Asian dishes. Everything is dirt cheap, around 1-3 Ringgit (2-6 SEK or 1-2 PLN). It's nice that it's a night market, cause when the sun sets it's not so frickin' hot anymore.

One really tasty little dish that we wanna single out is the doroyaki (see second picture from the top). It's a sweet Japanese cake with different fillings like coconut milk for example, they were delicious!

We also bought a couple of DVD's, you get new stuff (like Avatar and Sherlock Holmes) for less than 7 Ringgit a piece so we suspect that everything may not be a 100% legit, but what the hell. For that price the subtitles can at times be a little sketchy. For example when Robert Downey Jr tells Jude Law that he "made a rapid recovery", the subtitles said he made a "radical copy", but that's Malaysia for you. Charming.

Birthday girl

Happy Birthday Nelly also know as Plutt, a.k.a. Mini, a.k.a. Terror, a.k.a. Princess, a.k.a. Miss Lenngren, you are exactly one year old today! Your birthday was supposed to be on 9th March, but you were in a hurry to turn our world upside down.

Here in Malaysia most things feel upside down compared to safe Sweden. Cars are driving on the "wrong" side of the street, complete strangers are kind, the media coverage of the Winter Olympics is non-existing and the temperature is heavenly 30 degrees plus.

Still, life here is easy to get used to. Daddy doesn't have to go to work in the morning (mommy loves that too!), instead he can join the Lenngren girls and splash around in the pool, every morning and every evening. Speaking of pool, hope you like your present!

We think that it's amazing how fast you embraced our new lifestyle here in Malaysia (the Malaysian people certainly embraced you). You are a pleasure to travel with! On our three days journey to Kuala Lumpur you didn't complain or cry even for a second - always kept your curious look and cute smile, even when mom and dad lost theirs at the Bangkok airport.

At times you are real pain in the ass (you know that, don't you) but you make our world complete and we love you more than life. However, we would not mind if one day in the near future you would choose to sleep all through the night.

Happy Birthday Sweetie!