Under the Same Sun

Sometimes I forget how incredible people I’ve met during these past two years. Then I go back to browse my photos, and suddenly it all comes back to me.

First Copenhagen and the magical selected seven. Then Australia, European Bartender School, surf camp, Christmas, New Year’s eve. Chicken papa. A giant spider on my shoulder, a giant spider on the floor, a giant spider in the tree. Eating pizza on a deck and witnessing a random dolphin just swimming around in front of us, among all the rest random things Australia made us encounter. New Zealand and free seafood meal from a random hostel friend who was just feeling lonely. The craziest tide but the most beautiful views in Kaikoura. Walking around the Hobitton. Swimming in smelly Rotorua. Dragging some abandoned Christmas tree in Budapest in a February night with some Aussies. Ireland and trekking in Killarney. Legendary night in Dublin. Edinburgh and my dear hostel and all those people. Nine months. Captain’s. The Jazz Bar. Finnegans and Opium. Road trip around Scottish highlands and Isle of Skye with my Finns. Le-gen-dary. Falling asleep in the staircase. Hanging around in the hallway and karaoke at the reception. The list is never ending. Iceland and the people. The road trips. The people’s pool and the snow storm. Northern lights and lying on the snowy ground, staring the dancing sky. My birthday and a surprise cake. Human dartboard in the cellar. Drunken hostel owner. Will never ever forget that week… Asia. Oh boy. Hitchhiking in Thailand. Meditation retreat and turtle lake. Oh my Buddha. Tubing and getting sick in Laos. Camping on a beach and swimming with glowing plankton in Cambodia. Sleeping in sleeper buses, trying not to get hit by a scooter and having my friend’s birthday on the top of a skyscraper in Vietnam. Almost getting drowned in Malaysia and having to trek hours in the rain in the middle of a jungle to get to our hostel. Having a coffee with a millionaire in Singapore at one of the Southeast Asia’s best luxury hotels. Singing Backstreet Boys and sipping Singapore Slings. Practicing yoga and climbing up volcano in Bali. Enjoying cocktails at a beach bar in Gili Islands. Getting almost eaten by dogs in Lombok. Spending four days on a boat in Indonesia, 100 % sure about being shipwrecked at any second, especially during the big storm. Snorkeling at one of the best spots in the world, swimming with giant turtles and manta rays and hundreds of different colored of fish. Having the best green tea frappe in Flores. Traveling all the way from Bali to Koh Phi Phi in Thailand, in 24 hours. (Too hot hot damn.) Phi Phi, Krabi, crazy times. Never again. After that Bang!, Bangkok, and finally Finland, home sweet home.

So many places. So many memories. Too many places! Too many memories! I seriously need to calm down with this traveling. 😀

If anyone ever asks me what was the best part of my travels, I will answer the people. One of the best things about staying at hostels are the other travelers. Life can be really colorless and, well, meaningless if you don’t have the right people there sharing it with you. When you travel you get to meet these amazing people from all around the world. You become friends with them, you experience all sorts of stuff together and if you’re lucky, you might even meet the partner of your dreams on the road. I’ve heard that happens actually quite a lot. But oh boy, I love travelers. They’re such an amazing source of life. They live in the moment. They’re so chilled. No stress, they just let life happen at it’s own phase. No rush. No schedule. They’re always willing to help out, whatever issue or mission you’re on. They’re always up for having fun and making life worth living. They’re exciting and interesting, I’ve had one of the best conversations with travelers. It’s because their eyes and minds are open for new. Every one has their own stories and so you learn a lot about different people and cultures. One of the most common expression among travelers is “sharing is caring”, which all travelers know to be true. Me and my travel mate Maija, we’ll always be grateful for our friend Rob who brought us juice and electrolytes when we needed it the most. Food poisoning hit us and we couldn’t move from the bed, and he kindly came to us and asked if we needed anything. Thanks to him, we survived! 🙂

I often think about the people I’ve met on the road. There’s someone from every continent, except Antarctica. I have so many couches I can sleep on!!! It’s crazy! But what’s even crazier is that we’re all here, living on the same planet, under the same sun and the same moon. Right now, everyone I’ve met are living their lives somewhere else, continuing writing their own stories. My brother once told me to think that the planet earth is a house, a home, and countries are just rooms in it. So when you go anywhere, you’re just in another room. The thought of that brings comfort, it makes you feel you were closer to both home and all the rest of your friends, no matter where you are. 🙂 I like that.

My dear travel mates, I hope you’re all well and happy, wherever you are. I don’t know what most of you are doing right now, where you’ve ended up or how life’s treating you. I know we can’t live the past again but instead, let us cherish the memory of us and the good times we’ve had together and then embrace it. It’s important to remember, especially if you’re feeling down or lonely after your travels. Oh boy, me and you, and our adventures together. And you and the rest of your travel buddies. All the unforgettable memories we’ve created, the breathtaking moments we’ve lived. Only travelers can understand what kind of a richness in life it is to have friends and experiences like that. So I thank you. 🙂 xx

Here’s some beautiful people who I’ve been lucky to meet during these past two years. I’m so grateful our paths crossed and that you’re a part of my life and memories now and forever more. 🙂 xxx

Sleeper’s Square. / Phu Quoc and crazy boat people!

My lovely people in Bali and Lombok. ❤

Maija and Kuala Lumpur. / Edinburgh, Salla and Rob.

 

(N)iceland.

Edinburgh and my hostel.

   

NZ and Australia. ❤

 

Iceland / Edinburgh

 

  

Cambodia / Bali

 

Chicken papa and Saana in Australia. / Copenhagen and selected seven. 😉 / Iceland.

Cake competition in Edinburgh with Rob. Yum.

 

It’s surely been quite a couple of years! No regrets. Thanks for sharing the moments with me. You people are the light of my life! Keep your head up and mind set in your ways, sings Ben Howard. ❤ I wish you all the best and who knows, maybe we’ll meet again one day. 🙂 x

“Travel light, live light, spread the light, be the light.” -Yogi Bhajan

Peace n love, until the next time xxx

– Jenna 

My Memoir: The Big Bang – Chiang Mai

Tomorrow it’s been eight weeks since I left Asia (barely, but I made it) (I overslept and almost missed my flight) (#forevergrateful for the taxi driver who drove like a maniac for me in the streets of Bangkok). Phew!

Anyway… There’s not a day I don’t think about my travels. It’s with me, wherever I go, whatever I do. It’s like a new pair of glasses or shoes you wear, nothing’s the same anymore. You see differently, you feel different. I’m at home, working and living normally, but I find myself quite often just wondering a lot. I’ve been to a lot of places, I’ve met a lot of different people and learnt a lot of things about life. Here, I find myself observing people. I wonder what are they doing and why. Are they grateful for the things they have here? Do they know how well things are here compared to the rest of the world? They are the lucky ones. Do they even think about it? Do they care?

I’m sitting in a bus. It’s quiet. There’s loads of space to sit. Nothing stinks. The aircon works perfectly. The traffic is easy, calm. I didn’t even have to pay for my ride, I have a bus card. No hustle and bustle with a strange currency. Everything works, even the landscapes are beautiful! There’s a lake and a sunset over it. Unfortunately you soon realise you’re the only one who sees it, everyone else are too busy with their phones or whatever, looking unhappy and dissatisfied. It’s a shame, really, Finland is gorgeous but people often forget it. Makes me sad. Why don’t we stop and look at the beauty around us?

No vans, no curvy mountain roads. No monkeys on the streets, (in fact no monkeys at all!). No chickens in the back of the bus, no “NO SPITTING” signs in public transport. No wondering whether this bus stop, the next one or maybe the next one is the one you’re supposed to get off. No confusion. You know the stops and everyone speaks your language, it’s easy. Everything’s so easy.

So, just like I mentioned in my last post, you get bored. There’s no excitement! Not even problems with the language. Nothing to make you really feel alive and Yourself. You’ve tasted the best of the best that life has to give and now feel like you’d have less. Even though, I know, there’s always stuff to do at home, but it’s never the same. You feel like it’s all out there, somewhere else, and you’re not there.

I’m really confused with all this. Coming back just makes me want to go back.

I’ve traveled the craziest roads, by the craziest vehicles… I’m actually quite grateful I’m still in one piece, and nothing too serious has happened to me (*knocking the wood*). I’m all okay, no traumas (much), no need for a therapist (yet). So far wine’s perfectly good!!

It’s time for me to get over my after-travel confusion and get my life back into order (or at least try). It’s really not easy at all… to just live as fully as you do when you’re traveling. When traveling, every day feels like it’s going on for AGES. You’re memorizing ‘the good old days’ and then you realise it actually just happened LAST WEEK. Or when you try to remember what happened when:

You: “Remember when…”

Your friend: “Yeah, but wasn’t that yesterday??!”

(The confusion. You thought it happened a week ago.)

It’s insane, nobody except the ones who’ve traveled can understand this; This magnificent way of life, no sense of time. Who needs time?! You live, you don’t care about time! You have no schedules! You’re alive and you know you are, and there’s nothing that can stop you. You go, you be, and you live.

You gain stories from all these places, you gain confidence and trust in the flow in life. You know that you’ve lived and it makes you glad. You know that you have all these people, these new friends with whom you’ve experienced the craziest stuff with, and they’re all around the world. They’re all there, somewhere. How amazing is that. Sad, that you can’t be there with them, but still more amazing than sad. You’ve had your moments with them, and that’s all that matters.

In addition to human beings, I found myself connected with a few animal as well. I became friends for ex. with two of the dogs at my meditation retreat in Northern Thailand. I loved those dogs, I could go back for them. Here’s a nice pic I found of one of them 🙂 (there’s also my travel mate Maija in the photo) (and yes, we looked like we were in a mental hospital)

We had a little turtle lake there as well. 🙂 xx

Here’s some life advice from the Buddhist monks. Wise, eh?

Cheers, for life!

My travels in Asia begun on the 2nd of February 2015, precisely 7 months and 1 week ago. It feels like only a moment ago since everything happened. And I look at myself now and once again I’m confused. I’m glad, I’m grateful and happy I got to experience everything I did and grow from it. 🙂 What makes me keep on going, is that I’m even more glad when I start thinking about all those journeys I yet have not lived. They’re all there, waiting for me. And I know the day will come… I’m on my way, I know I am. (Sitting by Cat Stevens, YouTube) 😉

So I’m gonna start now. I’ll be honest. I’ll tell you what happened, how it happened. Short (or long…) stories from my travels around Southeast Asia and Indonesia. Correct me if I forgot something! My memory is not the best one (unfortunately), but I’ll try my best. 😉 Kop-khun-khaaaaaaa!

It all begun in Thailand…

I flew to Bangkok, what a big bang. Bang Bang Bang. My mind was blown. We were staying at this crazy hippie hostel in between Bangkokian backyards (story for the term Bangkokian will be told later…) (there’s always a story behind everything). The taxi driver barely found the place and almost crashed his car when trying to drive in these smallest alleyways there is in Bangkok. It was ridiculous. We tipped him.

I was excited. Everything was ahead of me, and I knew it. Will I like Asia? Will Asia like me? I wanted peace and balance, instead I got a BANG. Asia hit me. And it hit me hard. 😀

Everything was different. It smelled different. It all looked different. People, houses, food, atmosphere. There were the Buddhist temples everywhere. Also, on bigger hills and mountains, there were massive statues of sitting Buddhas. In the middle of the hills!! Crazy!! But it was beautiful, we only have churches here and there, blah. They have a golden Buddha on the top of a mountain. Asia…

The traffic was chaotic, there were way too many scooters around. People didn’t really seem to care too much about the traffic rules. I was terrified to go on a tuktuk the first time. But after the first time, it was all fine.

Slowly, the backpacker’s laid back -attitude sneaks into your mind and builds a camp there. It’s all fine, everything’s always fine. Things will happen, problems will arise, but you’ll always find a way. Just let go of the control and you’ll be fine…

We took about 12-hour train journey to Northern Thailand, to famous Chiang Mai. There’s was a Canadian girl sitting in front of us, and we started chatting. She was traveling by herself, like most of backpackers does. Then an older man from South Korea or something saw her, and they started chatting. He sat next to her and sat there the whole journey. I was sure he was harassing her and that she’d need help. 😀 Unfortunately I was right, I mean, ‘harassed‘ as I’d say when a man follows you to the train’s bathroom when you go to brush your teeth and sits next to you and keeps asking you if you want to go for a dinner with him this evening. My friend took it well, she was just like “nah, he’s just being friendly”, and politely refused man’s request. Then he asked her to join him in his bed tonight. I was peeing in my pants, I was sure he was a rapist and a serial killer and I kept giving the guy bad looks so that he’d know she’s not alone. 😀 Girls got to stick together, hahah! In the end, we wanted to make sure she was safe and we decided to go to the same hostel together, me, my friend and her. The guy left when he heard it was a package deal, us three instead of one. Ha!

Long story short, that’s basically how you make friends when you travel. 😀 Easy! And with that girl, we got to experience a lot of fun stuff together. Haha, oh boy… I think the best one is when we decided to go to the Elephant Sanctuary. 😀

We took a random local bus there, but didn’t purchase a return ticket. “We’ll figure something out. It’ll all work out.” Turned out the Elephant Sanctuary was in the middle of a jungle, with only a motorway next to it. Nothing else. 😀 We went to the sanctuary and found a cool elephant hospital as well, and then we went back to the bus stop. “What now?” There’s no transport from the Sanctuary, no one has local phones nor numbers. No one spoke English, only Thai. We knew how to say “thank you” and “hello”. What to do when you’re in the middle of a jungle and you need a ride back to the city few-hour drive away? You hitchhike.

Hahaha. Omg, we waited there for ageees! Well maybe not ages. But enough, because it was getting dark really soon and there were all sorts of animals living in those jungles (I was sure of it). Mostly I was afraid of the malaria mosquitoes. Argh, such an annoying species; bite you everywhere without a reason and then the bites itch like hell for the next weeks. (But thank Buddha for Asian Tiger palm!!! And no, it’s not just a cream. It’s a heavenly product created by magical forces.)

Anyway,… after waiting for a while and desperately trying to hitchhike a bus for us back to the right direction – with no success unless you count the numerous local cars that stopped for us, wanting to help us. Aww. But we still wanted a bus, so we decided to wait for one. It got darker and darker, and it was not fun unless we found a transportation for us. Then we saw it. A little local bus stopped and we got a ride back to Chiang Mai!!! The bus was awesome. It had no doors, no belts (obviously), and barely even windows. The ticket-woman sat us down in the back of the bus (separated from the normal seats, usually for monks…) and there we were. Next to an open door, laughing our asses off. It was hi-larious! I suddenly heard some weird sound, like a chicken. I was like, nah, it can’t be. But then again, we are in Asia, Anything is possible. And then I looked at a box behind me. There was a cardboard box with a chicken in it. Aahahahahaaaa!!! Amazing! A random chicken in a random bus! I love my life!

The ride was slow and bumpy but we were so happy. The feeling was unreal. Life just… happened (once again) and somehow we survived (once again). Apparently that’s just how things go. 😉

To be continued.

Meanwhile, here’s a great song with great lyrics. Enjoy! 🙂

Follow The Sun – Xavier Rudd (YouTube)

Follow, follow the sun
And which way the wind blows
When this day is done
Breathe, breathe in the air
Set your intentions
Dream with care
Tomorrow’s a new day for everyone
A brand new moon and brand new sun

So follow, follow the sun
The direction of the birds
The direction of love
Breathe, breathe in the air
Cherish this moment
Cherish this breath
Tomorrow’s a new day day for everyone
A brand new moon, brand new sun

When you feel life coming down on you like a heavy weight
When you feel this crazy society adding to the strain
Take a stroll to the nearest water’s edge, remember your place
Many moons have risen and fallen long, long before you came
So which way is the wind blowing
What does your heart say

So follow, follow the sun
And which way the wind blows
When this day is done

Thanks for reading! See you soon. 😉  Hasta la vista, beibi! See you in Pai!

Love ‘n peace,

Jenna