IBatPB 1995-1998

13-14/2/2001
Oj, jag har visst helt glomt att jag ar ett IB barn! Sorry guys! Jag befinner mig iaf just nu i hjartat av Skottland och studerar det de har gott om har: vatten & miljo. Och NEJ, jag vet inte vad jag "ska bli" efter det men det ger sig sakert. Jag har avverkat forsta terminen som gick som en dans. Eftersom manga skottar tycks borja pa universitetet direkt efter skolan maste forelasarna anpassa nivan till den ibland obefintliga studiemotivationen sa det ar ganska lugnt i borjan. Bra ide forresten KA med seriost miljoplugg till hosten. Det gillar jag!
For ovrigt sa paddlar jag lite kayak nu och da pa de skotska floderna (nar jag inte trillat ut och simmar i stallet dvs), spelar lite i en orkester och umgas med vanner i CU och kyrkan. Jag skulle kunna skriva mer men det gor vi nan annan gang for nu ar det alla hjartans dag och da vill jag sova sa mitt hjarta far dromma sota drommar om den dag man vaknar med ett kort under dorren, for det lar ju inte ligga nat dar imorgon...
Cheers!

Samma ställe den fjärde juni.
Skulle bara förklara att jag skrivit på engelska för att jag träffat en hel del utrikiska friends på resan som jag också mailat till (jag orkade inte skriva om det på svenska för er som ju är bättre än mig på engelska!).That's why Emma! Förresten vad har du för e-mail? Du kan väl skriva en pling!

Jönköping, Sweden May 30
Dear friends!
I've now finished my journey through Asia. It's been ovewhelming and enriching in many ways as well as pretty hard sometimes.
The last weeks in Thailand were spent partly on historical ground and partly in the city and on the beach. We went to the west of Bakok for some days to experience the lush forests (and all that's in it) of old WW2 historical province Kanchanaburi. The climate was a bit colder, more humane, than Bankok and the humidity was almost unbearable. Few tourists find their way here and you can meet the local people in a relaxed way more easily than elsewhere.
Among the rainforests and waterfalls there was an old railway, the Death railway from WW2 of which some parts still remain, which cut through the jungle over thousands of bridges and through many a pass. It was not without sorrow one perceived the pain of the prisoners of war having worked here, many of which ended their days in the jungle. It was both horrific and majestic to see the works of those men. The nature there with its wildlife and waterfalls is amazing and well worth a visis for anyone planning to go to Thailand.
We spent some time shopping in hectic but pretty ok Bankok before we went to the beach of Pattaya, for a last glimpse of that part of Thailand. We knew beforhand that Pattaya is mainly for the sex tourists in Thailand but we reckoned it would be pretty ok still... How wrong we were!
I could never imagine that such a horrific place existed on earth. I thought that the reports from it back home were exaggerated but found out that it was rather the contrary! Everybody is in some way involved and they make it seem as if it was the most natural thing on earth! We saw hundreds of mid-age white men all with an accopanying thai woman or man, and ONE woman on the duration of our stay! Walking down the street involved dealing with shouts from virtually every bar and restaurant on the way, and girls coming out from these trying to persuade you to come in... Lying by the hotel pool meant coping with continuous stares from gay thai men, residents of the hotel, which never missed one oppurtunity to flirt and invite us... As you probably understand I would NOT recommend anyone else to go there, DON'T DO IT!
The last little part of our trip involved flying, without any fuzz, via Colombo with SriLankan Airlines, to Stockholm. A very pleasant flight with such luxuries as your own TV-monitor packed with music, movies, TV & radio channels and a pilotview camera for superb starting/landing views!
I've had a nice trip, I hope you've had a nice time and nice reading in the meantime. I hope to see you soon! And for all of you that have assisted and helped us on the way, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!!

/ God bless, Jafet

Bankok the 14 may.
Hi to you all!
Sitting here in a warm Bankok night starting to think about going home again...
Me and Kalle spent our second beach/relax week on the island Koh Tao in the Gulf of Thailand. We went there more of a chance than of our specific choice because our friends from Malaysia were going there and...
Anyway, Koh Tao is an island that's very much into diving, which is exccelent there if you can bear the sort of dive-factory about it. The beaches are not very good for swimming since the shallow lagoons are all more or less coverd with very sharp corals. If you're a snorkeler it's paradise but when I went swimming I couldn't avoid cutting my both feet wich speaks its clear language towards swimmers!
We found another very chilled out beach where our friends stayed which had a pleasan little sand beach and volleyball net just beside the water... We found a good place for our butts and our hammocks and just settled down for a week or so. It was great, once more, after all our travel pre-Perhentian Islands.
The pleasure of the day were simple but still so nice! A bacon baguette filled with sallad, tomato and mayonnaise together with an ice-cold lime-juice for breakfast is perfect while you listen to the music of the ocean just beside your little bungalow. Lying in the hammock reading a good book or just sleeping during the early morning sunrise listening to the tropical music of the night is unbeatable. Feeling the sun eat its way under your skin while waching a vast variety of fish just surrounding your body is not that bad either!
One of the days we actually made something more of our time, we went on a snorkeling trip around the island. We were out for the whole day, visiting completely deserted beaches with marvellous snorkeling. Everywhere from the very surface down to the bottom you could see all kinds fish (from barracudas on top to a big one-metre stingray hiding under a rock on the bottom). It felt a bit like swimming in an aquarium with so much funny-looking fish around. Not that I've done it but I can imagine...
Our beachlife has now come to an end and we arrived together with our swedish travelmates yesterday to the 6 million, pretty developed, capital of Thailand.
We've got roughly two weeks to go until we're flying home, wich is a bit sad at the same time as it wil be nce to come home...

TAKE CARE! I CARE!
Yours truly / Jafet

Phuket 4 May 2543 Hello everybody!
I start to thank you for all the mails I get, its really good to hear what happens around the world sometimes!
We have now moved from the east side of the peninsula to the west, from Malaysia to Thailand and from "backpacky" Perhentian to "ultra-touristy" Phuket. It's been a pretty nice air-con busride with a stopover in Hat Yai in the middle of the country. The stop there turned out to be disastourous! Kalle had his moneybelt with all his traveller's cheques and passport stolen while I was in the shower and he was sleeping at a shabby chinese hotel (the only one with a room after half an hour searching the city centre!). Our stay there consisted of writing policereports, phoning an American Express representative to get new ones and explainging for the fifth time how the name KARL is spelled! Since it was a major holiday here we had to wait another day there for the bank to open, meaning we just missed the bus to Phuket with a quarter of an hour the next day... Hat Yai is a pretty boaring place! If you want to shop fake stuff outside Bankok this place might be of interest but otherwhise it's just a place to sleep at!
We left Hat Yai and went on to Phuket to fix an emergency passport and to book airtickets home. Luckily this was a pretty easy thing to do. We rented a motorbike (no driver's license needed!), went over to the other side of the island (with all the tourists and their accessories such as McDonald's and loads of prostitutes in every bar) and went around to the different travel agencies around, both swedish and thai, and found a flight home exactly the date we wanted just about US$130 cheaper than expected!!! We celebrated with an icecream at McDonald's! The consulate of Sweden here is situated on a luxurious beach in a very luxurious hotel complex just by the beach. A place were one almost feels ashamed walking in with a rucksack and flip-flops. Stupidly enough they're only open for 1.5h two days a week so we had to wait a day for them to move from the swimmingpool to the desk to help us. It seemed to be us and a lot of men (all ages) with a thai woman close beside them wanting to talk with the staff about who knows...
The beach was indeed luxurious but virtually deserted! We took the chance to enjoy Phukets sand beaches and good bathing (sun and water ditto) without any tourists around. It was almost as nice as riding the little motorbike on the small serpentine roads up and down the hills, from one beach to the other.
Tomorrow we will take a swim on the other side of the island... Enjoy your life! See you!
/Jafet

Kota Bharu 29/4/2000
Howdie!
We're presently situated in the very northern part of peninsular Malaysia in a very muslim town. Me and Kalle stayed a couple of days in Kuala Lumpur (KL) just to get well and then went right through the deep jungle with palmtree forests and all on a real highway in a VERY good bus to the paradise-like islands of Perhentian. We've been there for a week and every day has just been magnificent! Kalle took his diving certificate there while I felt more for just relaxing and enjoying the whitesand beaches, the lush green djungle (in wich I treeked one day), the crystal clear water and the shark barbeque for dinner (and everything else of course!). After a day or so two swedish girls we'd met in KL arrived and as the time passed more and more swedes joined our little group until we were 10-something playing volleyball, snorkeling and just spending time with each other on this very laidback island. Needless to say we had a very good time toghether! In the 30-degree warm water one could see all kinds of fish, from small tuna to big 3m sharks, and turtles and sometimes dangerous jellyfish. In the jungle there were monkies, on the beach crabs and in our bed at night (looking for food) big rats (up to 30 cm) and gecko lizards! The food on the island was just delicious. With all sorts of milkshakes(mango, watermelon, banana, M&M chocolate, Snickers a.s.o.), all sorts big barbequed fish (stingray, shark, barracuda and king fish), loads of sandwiches and juices and a bunch of good tasting pancaces. Then I've not even mentioned all good exotic rice- or noodlebased malay food around. These islands are magic! I can't but recomend them warmly to anyone wishing a laidback beach paradise with very little or no tourism (depending on the beach chosen). Maybe the best thing there is going up at 6 am, walking the 30m down to the shoreline and, with the beach completely for yourself, watch the calm sunrise. I write this directly after arriving from a very funny malaysian culture show on the other side of the road. They displayed traditional music with BIG drums and a malaysian oboe, malaysian martial arts and professional top spinning, all of which the visitors could try out with expert guidance. I couldn't hold myself from trying their sonorous drums, it was good fun! We leave for Thailand tomorrow.
Take care and live well!
/Jafet

Kuala Lumpur 18/4/2000
The last week has been pretty hectic and filled with cultural chocks! We went around in Calcutta for a couple of days enjoying the city's charming yellow taxis and the hand drawn richshaws (only place in India!) together with the modern metro making the vast city much more accessible. We went to see the largest monument of the British rule of India, The Victoria Memorial, but it was closed so we strolled around the Calcutta lungs, The Maidan, with its parks, forts and golf courses instead. Not to forget about Calcutta or India is the one man we met in a church there. He was the only one openly confessing what all tourists already know, that almost all indians try to cheat you in some way or the other, and he excused on the behalf of his people for "the inconvenience". He also reminded us that all are not the same (even though it seems like that in India), that there are honest people everywhere in the world. This might sound self-evident and a little silly to mention but in India its a different thing! We flew, after 2,5 months on the overland journey from Jonkoping to Calcutta, for the first time to Singapore via Yangoon,Burma. We met our second day of precipitation throughout all that period, in the form of a cyclon, just before departure but it didn't (luckily) last long! Arriving to the Changi intl airport (some say its the no 1 in the world) was a real culture chock. Everything was so westerised, something we'd not seen since we entered Russia, STOP READING! . Everywhere was clean halls and toiletpaper on the clean toilets, but if you didn't flush you could end up paying up to ca US$600! Singapore as a land/city is just amazing after India! In the high-tech prone city every part of life is digitalised and everywhere is clean, much cleander than at home in our cities! The only thing that Singapura, the lion city, lacks is a soul! We left expensive Singapore after buing some electronic material considerably cheaper than at home but still not in the budget (oups), and headed over for Malasya and Kuala Lumpur. This city turned out to be almost as industrialised as Singapore (with the Petrona Twin towers and a lot more) only with the one importat exception that it's kept it's soul in the different parts of the multi cultural mini-towns all over the city (Chinatown, Little India, Malay etc.). Today the sky opened over us. The roads flooded and for an hour or so nobody even thought about going out! Okay, that's it for today!

Calutta 12/4/2000
Howdie! Sitting here in a hot and humid 12 million indian town longing for a good creamy not-to-spicy winesauce. Both I and Kalle have been feeling ill more or less throughout India and after a while, when your energy fades, the chaotic India together with the heat tears you down. Anyway, leaving Dheli was nice and arriving in Agra with the world famous Taj Mahal was even better. We spent a couple of days, visiting an old deserted red- stone city built and deserted within 20 years and, of course, going to the beautiful Taj. It is truly an amazing building displaying the Mughal (muslim) emperors wealth and sense for arcitectural beauty. To make it all symmetric the emperor even had a fake mosque, not facing Mecca, built by the skilled artists wich had their hands cut off or eyes pierced afterwards to not be able to build any other building with equal beauty. To linger there watching the first rays of sunlight hitting the white marble monument of love is like having a cold drink under a shadowing tree when the temperature never succeds to fall under 40+C. Another thing to remember about Agra is the very special little corner restaurant serving banana lassi, a banana-flavoured yoghurt wich is a marvellous breakfast, especially in otherwise very dry-tasting India. Today we arrived from Varanasi, the holy city by the river Ganges. Varanasi is just hoplessly touristy! People obviously try to cheat you about everything and they litteraly drag you to their little place to sell you some junk! The old town could have been pretty charming if it wouldn't have been so obvious that people go to Varanasi to die! There are shabby dogs, cows and rats everywhere in the narrow alleys together with many ill people in a VERY dirty environement! As you might have understood we disliked Varanasi! Calcutta lives by itself, with or without tourists. I like that! We're staying here for some days and then we probably leave for Singapore.
Serve , strife and don't yield!
Jafet

Hi everybody!
For newcomers me and my friend Kalle have went from Sweden, through Russia, Mongolia, China and Nepal in roughly 2 months to this date. We're having fun. Welcome to join our Asia trip.

It's been some time but whatever... From Kathmandu and illnes we went, in a too hot non air-con bus, to Pokhara 6h west of the capital. Pokhara a is beautiful, though touristy, town situated just beside a lake at 800m with the backdrop of th Annapurna Himalayan range of 8000m height! Every morning is just marvellous. Many of our worlds finest trekks start from this city and though the lack of time I just HAD to walk the 3 hours straight upwards to the 1600m viewpoint of Sarangkot with undisturbed 6 o'clock sunrise (apart from a gang of japanese tourists). I could have stayed there forever! But unfortunately Kalle was ill and we had to continue to India!
We took a 14h night bus, non recommendable since you only get about 2 hours sleep during the whole night, to Nepalganj and further on to the western-most bordertown of Mahendranagar after some butter-toasts for breakfast. It took the whole day, in a very titing bus both for your mind and your back but the Nepali's are nice and very helpful so it was allright. We crossed the border after sunset (hm, I wouldn't do that again...) and found out, the hard way, that it was a grueling 5-6km between the two boardertowns! On the Indian side we partially hitch-hiked with some friendly Indians on the back of their all to hard bicycle until we were so exhausted by the continuous move from one side of the road to the other and the following 20kg backpacks on our back that we decided to walk, forever as i seemed, the remaining part. Eventually we reached a noisy hotel were we slept for the night, or at least until the 5 o'clock muslim minaret singer started annoying us more than just mildly!
We went on the following day to our destination Corbett Tiger Reserve north of Dehli but didn't reach it before the following day again. Finally there, it was heaven! No horning, no pollution, no overcrowding and so on.
We went by jeep with a very funny Indian driver that, inside the park, let us drive while he was looking for tigerprints! Tigers are the main attraction here and everything is centered on spotting one! The Indians even have a small temple at the jungle resort where they pray to their tiger-god to show them one! The first evening, around sunset we were only 100m from spotting one taking a deer as dinner but the only thing we saw was a bunch of deers calling in fear and alarm of the tiger. Another jeep saw it taking its prey. Five o'clock in the following morning we went on an elephant-ride into the jungle. It was silent, apart from the berping, trumpeting, shiting elephant. It was amazing to see them work, walking on tracks no larger than for humans, constantly eating and using their "finger" to move trees that stood in their way. Corbett was sparsely populated but had many different interesting animals such as wild elephants, 200kg deers, wild hens thath could fly, different monkeys, python, cobra, alligator, crocodile and a heap of special birds, xsmall to xlarge!
Now we're in Dehli, the worlds most polluted city according to some people. It's juge and the traffic jam is worse than anything I've ever seen! Everything drives everywhere as they like and always on the margin! Kalle was hit yesterday by a life-threatening auto-rickshaw!
We're moving on to Agra and Taj Mahal tomorrow!
Have a nice life/Jafet

Kathmandu 23/3/2057(According to the Nepali calendar...)

Hi everybody!
To start with, thanks for all your letters! It's great to hear from you! Unfortunately my time and money are limited why it's hard to reply individually even though I would like to...
After a week in Nepal mostly in bed, we've met a whole new culture and a pretty relaxed way of looking at life. Nepal is a sort of mix culture: buddhism and hinduism,sino and indian people a.s.o. Here in Thamel, the tourist district, everybody wants to sell you either tiger balm or a special Ghurka knife if it's not some of all rafting scouts eager to get you on one of their tours.
We went on a two-day raft the other day on a river called Bhote Kosi flowing from the Himalayan mountain range south into Nepal. It was four/five hours exercise every day with three boats trying to find their way down the river, getting stuck and smashed toward the rocks! We went with a nice, pretty young team of two swedish girls from Helsingborg and some britons having been working as volounteers in different Nepali villages. Today is a day of ace in every possible muscle and naturally rest to recover from it.
Tomorrow we head for a lakeside city in the west called Phokara before we head over the Indian border.
Have a nice life!
/Jafet

000316
Tja! Jag ar ledsen att jag inte kunnat uppdatera innan men det beror faktiskt pa Asiens mindre bra Internet-access mer an pa mig! Jag ar just nu i Nepal efter en vindlande resa over land fron Svedala genom Ryssland,Mongoliet och Kina. Haromdan trekade jag upp till Everest Base Camp pa 5200m (sorry KA, couldn't help it...) pa vag till Kathmandu. Jag far skriva mer sen far det ar svindyrt med Internet har! Jag har det iaf bra och ser mycket! Ciao!

991227
God Jul p?er s?här lite i efterskott! Jag fortsatte faktiskt att plugga musik i Strägnäs fram till jul tack vare att Försvaret var s?snälla att dom helt frivilligt godtog att jag p?deras bekostnad studerade för sveriges mest kände och kanske bäste hornist (Ib Landzky-Otto, kul namn va!). Jag lyckades ocks?mygla till mig en dirigentutbildning p?högskoleniv?(skitball!) under de knappa sex veckor jag var där. Som med allt, i alla fall i försvaret s?fanns det ju en liten hake... Jag var tvungen att fortsätta mitt liv som "trogen tjänare åt kronan p?pliktmässig grund" fram till jul ocks? Men jag förlorade i alla fall inte pengar p?det.

I vår ska jag till Ryssland, Mongoliet, Kina, Indien för att slutligen ta mig till Thailand. Jag och Kalle (min reskompis) är i full gång med planeringen och idag bokade vi biljetter till transsibiriska järnvägen och hotell i St. Petersburg och Moskva. Är det nån som har tips och vad man måste se/besöka eller övriga erfarenheter från life abroad s?hör av er!!

Kul att höra om er i världen i alla fall, med K-A p?Kuba, Johanna i Reykavik, Emma i New York, Anja i Argentina och Helfrid och Tin i Skottland, och alla andra ox?för den delen. Jag joinar er snart ute i världen och saknar er alla! (Det är faktiskt sant!)

990922
Tjenare alla ib barn! Äntligen har jag lyckats komma in i det allra heligaste p?den här sidan! Jag har försökt i månader! (Hm, börjar visst tappa de knappa data kunskaper jag en gång haft...)

Det här året tillbringar jag som musiksoldat i armén. Det betyder att jag gör lumpen i en musikkår som turnerar i hela landet och även utomlands. Såhär p?sluttampen av de tio månaderna (muck 5/11) är man lite trött p?det hela med att bo 24h tillsammans med människor som man "inte alltid älskar", men avslutningskonserter och en skivinspelning om några veckor känns motiverande att inte balla ur.

Vi har verkligen fått vara med om massor med kul grejer under året. Ett exempel är när vi gick högvakt p?slottet och gamla musiksoldater jublade när vi gick förbi i 2km!; eller när vi fick rycka ut till en bombhotad spelning i danmark, och p?snabbast möjliga tid (från kalsong till paraduniform) leda de över 400 församlade hästarna bort till ett säkert ställe. Det finns många fler exempel men dom får jag berätta om nån annan gång.

Eventuellt kommer jag att plugga vidare musik till jul men det är ganska svårt att komma in s?vi får se... Vad som däremot är klart är att jag och en kompis (Kalle Hübsch) åker ut och reser i vår, troligtvis till Sydostasien via Transsibiriska järnvägen.

Nu måste jag börja packa för avresa till Storsjöodjurets land, Östersund i Jämtland.