From Equator to the Polar circle

Ok, maybe not exactly, I was down to 7 degrees north of the Equator when I was on the Philippines, but I am 3 degrees north of the Polar circle now. I only miss 4 degrees for the heading to be exactly correct.

No matter the degrees; the weather and landscape speaks for itself. I went from having the sweat dripping down my back in Thailand to woolen underwear and thick socks in Lyngen in Troms in Norway. No mangos are growing here... But they do have fantastic mountains:

This satelite photo (from Google maps: Norway, Lyngseidet) must have been taken late in the summer, because is still lots of snow and the trees are just getting green here now. The landscape here is magnificent with steep mountains and snowcapped peaks divided by fjords where the water holds 4 degrees Celsius. Souds like something from a Discovery Channel program, but, yes, I think they could make a good program here. There are certainly a bunch of videos of skiing, climbing and hiking out on the internet from the Lyngen Alps.

But my stay here is not about expeditions in the mountains (just a small skiing trip on Saturday); I am enjoying Norwegian comfort and coziness! Western toilets, hot shower and ohh, the food: whole wheat bread with Jarlsberg Cheese! I also got my jello with vanilla custard for May, 17. And now I have made home made bread and cake for my sister's birthday tomorrow. And outside is 8 degrees, cloudy and Midnight Sun.

I got some pictures:

"Sigh heart, but do not break".

Should be something like "Sukk hjarte, men brist ikkje."

It is with a wistful (vemodig) mood I am sitting here in the sofa in the KRCEE office thinking about going home. The last 24 have brought with them a wide range of feelings. I happened to come by NATO's website (North America Telemark Organisation;-) and and on their homepage is a picture of a person skiing thorugh the birch woods in 1 1/2 meter deep snow. I could not help but cheer out loud by the thought of going to Lyngen in Troms above the Polar circle and find the last remaining patches of snow. I got some some oblique glances from the rest of the office because of my cheering, but; Ahhh, what a brilliant way of coming home; celebrating the national day, May 17, skiing in Lyngen! I must be the luckiest person in the world.

But then also I have to leave all the wonderful people at the KRCEE office. Before I came here I was of course very curious and a little anxious about how it all would turn out, but I was thinking if I meet people who are half as good hearted as my Karen friends in Norway it will be fine. And here I have come to learn that they are not only as good hearted, but also as hospitable and caring. So it is with a small lump in the throat I am looking over at my packed backpack and checking my watch to find out that it is 45 minutes to I am leaving.

Yesterday KRCEE gave me my own Good bye ceremony and here are some pictures.



My last day has been perfect with mix fruit smoothie at T-corner, cooking "Italian food" for everbody for lunch, swimming in the "pond" and for the first time in my life picking mango from a mango tree!!!



Excuse me for this post being made in a hurry, but I wanted to post before I leave at 8.30 pm. I am going to Bangkok where I have 18 hours before I am sitting on a plane home to Norway!

Thank you all for following me on my journey. I am looking very much foreward to see you all at home!!! And to you I have got to know the last nine months; I hope to see you all again! I guess there will be some more pictures here in the blog; Lyngen is my next stop. I would be happy to see you continue to drop by;-)

Tourists Roaming World Heritage Site

Sukhothai Historical Park is situated only three hours from where I am here in Mae Sot. I thought it would be to bad if I not got my butt over there to have a look before I went home. It is a World Heritage Site, which is like the three-star Michelin ranking of cultural heritage sites. Carmen, who have volunteered for another organization, was also planning to take the trip so we decided to go Monday and Tuesday last week. (I was working the two last weekends so I have no bad consciousness for taking two days off.)

The tourist factor the last weeks has been quite low, so we had a lot of "tourist energy" to spend and so we indeed did! We spent the whole day in the park with sun hats, sunglasses, cameras and audio guides.

After having satisfied our hunger for red brick ruins, we took our bikes and went looking for a swimming pool. The hats, glasses and long sleeved sweater was not a joke for the camera: it was a necessity against the sun! You can imagine we were good and sweaty and longed for a cool bath. We found a beautiful guest house w/swimming pool and it made me understand why Thailand is such a popular tourist destination! And they had the best strawberry-pineapple frosty/milkshake. Mmmm! So when I open a restaurant or café I am going to serve Thai soups (delicious!) and milkshakes like they make them here:-D Someone who can teach me?

On our way back to our own (and cheaper) guest house we stopped by a massage place and got foot massage while the rain suddenly was pouring down outside.

The historic park of Sukhothai (3.38 km2) are the ruins of the capital of the first Thai state. Beginning in the 12th century, a people from Yunnan in China settled here and got known as the Thai (free men). A Thai prince married a Khmer woman, then rebelled against the central power and created the first Siamese state.

Its architecture, built from brick with decorations in stucco and wood, has its origin from a mixture of elements inspired by the Buddhist Singhalese or Hindi Khmers. But the architecture of Sukhothai developed into its own style and have subsequently influenced all Thai art.

The site has been excavated and studied since the mid-20th century. In 1988 a 70 km2 area was declared a historic park and in 1991 it became a UNESCO World Heritage site. It was impressive to see, but maybe not stunning. A paved road was built through the whole site for lazy tourists and cars was driving through the park. It was very neatly tended and that made it look more like a leisure park than a historical site. But the result was that is was not grand enough to be a leisure park and not historical enough to be a historical site. Do misunderstand me right, it was well worth to go there and very well arranged for tourists. But imagine how exciting it would have been to go there if the jungle was still been covering the ruins and you could explore from a network of small paths, getting lost among lush green forest and ancient ruins!

I recommend a look at the historical park's website (even though it is a bit slow -be patient). It is quite nice. Unfortunately is it not all up and running; several links brings you only to "Error page: the page cannot be found".

Or you can have a look at UNESCO's world herritage list where you also can find a video from
Sukhothai.

And at end, a picture from "home":

It was raining the other day...

INTO the waterfalls