Back In Home Sweet Holland!

Hey everybody,

I've been home for a week now, so it's about time I posted my very last story.

From the Lao border we took a couple of busses and made our way to Chiang Mai.
The following day we walked around the city a bit and went to the cinema. (and for the people who went to the cinema last time in Chiang Mai with me, this was in Centrooool :p) At the start of a film in Thailand everybody has to get up to honour the king and his song that was being played. I had to bite my cheek to stop myself from laughing :p. The film we saw was Shrek 3, and it was really funny. (Go see it if you haven’t seen it yet!)

The next day we had a cooking course. We learned how to make about eight Thai dishes. We had a great day and the food tasted really good....just wish I could have eaten more of it. But exactly that day I'd started to get sick, so I couldn't eat much. We all got a recipe book, so I'll try the things I learned at home!

We spent a big part of the next day in bed because we were both not feeling well by then. We took a Tuk Tuk to see a few temples, went back to bed and had a look at the evening market later on. The market was a bit of a disappointment as it consisted mostly of t-shirts and other junk. I'll have to return to Chiang Mai again some other time and see some more of the city..

Another bus day today, which was a good thing because this was the third day of my Gatorade diet (the only food/drink I could trust to stay inside of me...) as I wasn't feeling all that great.. We arrived in Phitsanoluk in the evening.

The next day we went to Sukothai, one of the ancient city's of Thailand. This was the first thing in Thailand I really recognised from when I went there with my family six years ago. The ruins are all mostly intact and they're really beautiful. There are lots of temples and Buddha statues. I climbed onto one of the buildings (it had stairs and no sign to tell me not to climb them..) and then the gardeners started to shout at me that I should get down, so I did, but after I’d taken some photos :p

We started our journey to Ko Samet today, 11 hours in the bus to Rayong. There was a woman with a very cute baby boy in the bus, and I could hold him for a while. He fell asleep on my lap for a few hours, sooo sweet :) When we got to Rayong it was already late in the evening and we had some trouble to find a hotel, but there was still one open so we could get some sleep before continuing our journey the next day.

For the last bit of the trip we had to take a Sengthaew and a boat to get to the island. I'd been to Ko Samet the last time I went to Thailand, but the island has changed a lot, and not for the better. It's chockablock full of resorts now and there is dog shit on the beach. It's supposed to be a national park, but the only sign of that is the 400 baht you have to pay to get in!

We went to explore the island a bit to find a nice spot to hang up our hammock. A couple of bays later and after climbing over rocks we found a quieter bay with a boat landing. Not as idyllic as palm trees, but good enough for a day of looking out over the water and reading a book, and of course take a swim in the ocean.

The next day we found some trees on a hill to 'hammock' for the day. Two dogs discovered it too; the filthy animals started licking us, soooo gross! It started raining after that, so we went back to the guesthouse settled for the comfy sofa for the rest of the day :)

We left the island the following afternoon and caught a bus back to Bangkok. We stayed in the same guesthouse as last time. Odd to be back after three months, nothing much has changed, only that the girl where we buy our fruit shakes is now pregnant :)

Time to go shopping today. Buying the last souvenirs. It's so annoying you have to go to Ko San Road to buy souvenirs coz they're very rude. I was bargaining about a pillowcase and when he wouldn't lower his price I walked away...and I got "Fuck you" shouted at me. So I screamed back a lot of fuck you and other things alike back at him. These people really ought to follow a course in "how to treat your potential customers"!

We packed our bags that night (and I won't have wear lots of clothes coz my bag is a lot lighter that I’d expected :)) and the next day we searched for flip-flops. The Thai ones are the best; I walked on my last ones for 5 years before they fell apart. We finally found a place where you didn't have to buy them per dozen so now I've got something to walk on for the next 10 years. And I also bought sneakers for 5 euros to replace to ones I left behind in Laos.

Our plane didn't leave till around midnight, but because we almost missed our plane a few time at the beginning of our trip we always show up very early now :p It rained when we left Bangkok, very symbolic :) and we were so busy catching the bus, checking in and getting on the plane that at first it didn't really sink in that we were actually leaving Asia. But 12 hours later we arrived at Heathrow (London) and we were back in Europe! Because of the terrorist threat there were lots of security measures at Heathrow. Don't see how they plan to stop terrorism by making passengers putting all their luggage in one bag though :p

Couple of hours later we got on our plane to Barcelona and met up with my sister Sarah and her boyfriend Nacho who picked us up from the airport. It already started to feel like home then, with Sarah there and being in a European city again. That night there was a party in the city because it was the longest day of the year. It was fun and a good way to get over our jetlag! :p

We had a sleep in the next morning and then went to Nacho's house and spent most of the day by the swimming pool :) In the evening we went into the hills to see the view of the city.

The following day we visited the cathedral and one of the Gaudi houses, La Pedrera. The Gaudi buildings are what sets Barcelona apart from other European cities, and there are quiet a few buildings scattered around town.

We spent the next morning at the Picasso museum. It was a great museum, I didn't know Picasso made so many painting and that he had a very different style in his earlier years. After that we went to Parc Guell and the Sagrada Familia. This was our very last day in Barcelona, and of our trip. Very strange to say "See you tomorrow" in an email!

Sarah and Nacho took us to the airport and I had to say goodbye to Sarah again. But she'll probably come to Holland again in about two months, so I'll see her soon. Our plane was late so we thought we'd miss our connecting flight at Gatwick (London), but that plane was also late. So we ran through the airport and were in time for the plane (New York déjà vu!). We saw the Dutch coastline from the plane, and Dutch cows and houses and then we landed and we were actually there. It was a very very strange feeling.

We had made it in time for our flight, but our bags hadn't. So we waited a while and had to fill in forms etc. So the big welcome didn't work out as planned, we even set of an alarm when we wanted to go through the doors! But on the other side of the door my mum, my aunt Daphne and my grandmother were waiting for me and it was great to finally see them again! Then it was also time to say goodbye to Mijke and to go our separate ways, very strange that she wasn't around anymore.

When I got home I just walked around the house like a zombie. Everything looked exactly the same, and I wasn't sure anymore that I'd actually been away at all. It was the strangest feeling ever; it was especially strange because it was so normal.

The next morning I went to see my ear doctor, great to finally go to my own doctor again :) My ear wasn't as bad as I had expected, so that was a great relief. I got some eardrops and have to come back in 10 days. I went to visit my friend Ruveyda next who lives near the hospital. She left that evening to go to Turkey for a year, so I was just in time to see her and it was fun to catch up again. My bag arrived later on and for the first time ever I actually tidied it up straight away :p In the evening Hieke (friend from work) picked me up and we went to Barbera's (other friend from work) birthday party. It took us 1,5 hours instead of 45 minutes to get there. We kept getting lost and realising we had to turn right 5 seconds too late... I'm going on holiday to France with Hieke in August, we haven't defined the actual place we'll go to, we won't be able to find it anyway :p

My dad had been away for work but I saw him again a couple days after I got back. Life is all back to normal again by now and it's so normal that I'm part of it all again, which makes it so strange :s
The TV doesn't freak me out anymore (the first few days I only watched BBC because I found it too strange that the TV spoke Dutch :p) I've been busy with applying for university. I've mailed my application to Leiden University yesterday, so I'll be studying History there in September :) And hopefully I’ll find a room in Leiden soon.

I've also started working again. I was afraid I would have forgotten how everything worked, but I got used to it again straight away. I work behind the bar and in the kitchen at our local tennis club. I'll be spending most of my summer working, but it's a fun job and I have great colleagues, so I don't mind :)

The weather is Holland is just as shitty as it's always been; it's just rains and rains and rains. Apparently summer came early this year (in April) and we've already moved on to autumn now...

I miss the chaos of Asia now; it's not all that exciting back here. But it's time to start something new. I hope I can make another big world trip after Uni. And in the mean time I'll just go on holiday in the summers :)

Well I guess that was it, the official end of my trip! Hope you’ve all enjoyed reading my stories and thank you for all the replies!

Ciao Ciao,
Laura

P.S. my msn has stopped working, I'm now using msn with my other address. I've lost all the addresses in the old list, so add me as lauramecredy@hotmail.com :)

I keep forgetting stuff, I'll post pictures of my Transmongolia trip from last year as I still have some photo space left. To see those pictures click on "alle berichten" (top left of the screen) and then the photo's will be under "searching for a network in Siberia" and "All the way from Mongolia"

I think I haven't forgotten anything else. Now I'd better get on with posting those pics so I can read through the next load of letters that the Uni has sent me! :p