On tuesday we went to Monkey Mountain!

I don't really know what I expected but I at least wasn't prepared for how many and unafraid they were!

These two are obviously gossiping.

Hi there, tiny monkey!

One of the tourists bought a bucket of food for the monkeys and all of the animals rattled over the ground like rats and the girl in the middle looked very shocked and even squeezed her eyes closed trying to get away as the monkeys were climbing each other to get to the food. Some monkeys carry rabies so I really don't understand why they do that as a tourist attraction.

We climbed the stairs up to the top.

And admired the view over Hua Hin.

After that Claes' dad took us to a restaurant close by, frequetly visited by thai people but not by so many tourists.

The food was lovely and so was the bright coloured ice tea.

On our way home we stopped by a fruit stand and I bought fruits that I've never seen before. Some of them were amazing and some of them were quite boring. I love buying fruit when I'm in Sweden and even more over here. I could survive on fruit only.

On the afternoon David and I went on a little adventure but that deserves a blog post of it's own so I will show you all about that tomorrow.

Now lets jump straight to dinner on wednesday instead!

We went to one of the pier restaurants. This one had a little bit too much to choose from. Here you can see David struggling with the decision.

The view was lovely. I really can't believe how beautiful Thailand is!

A moment later this guy came to take his boat.

In the evening David and I walked to the little shop close by our house.
Dolly the dog ran ahead but waited for us to catch up. Such a sweetie!

Bird with tassel on it's head sang a tune for us.

KIT KAT!!!

This is just outside the shop. It's in the middle of countryside! Dogs and cows everywhere.

The flower of the day is my favourite thai flower this far. So pretty!

Bye for now and see you all tomorrow again!

/Lotta

On our last day in Bangkok we had a few hours before we had to leave. We started with taking some silhouette photos in front of the big windows.

Us.

Then we went out to get som food. Everywhere in Bangkok there is a crazy amount of electrical wires. It doesn't look very safe but I kind of like the mess.

Sometimes we felt like we were walking around in a film set supposed to look like Bangkok. It's almost too typical.
I love these kinds of streets with lots of stuff going on at the same time.

A car mended with tape. Of course.

A tiny old house sqeezed in between two big, boring new houses. There's a place for everything in Bangkok.

Street cat. Cool cat.

We finally found a restaurant and when they served us our rice they had shaped it into different animals. I got a fish, Claes a turtle and David got this bear.

David is morbid and chopped the head off of his bear.

Then we walked back to our hotel.
So much happening in this photo: The guy with all the eggs to the left, the street food people doing the dishes, lots of different houses, cars and stuff. And then the trees. They pop up everywhere on the sidewalks and sometimes it's really big trees. I love that, it's an enormous city with lots of people and cars but there's still room for trees.

When we got back to the hotel we picked up our bags and waited for the ride to Hua Hin.
Bye bye Bangkok, it's been some really amazing days!

We arrived in Hua Hin in the evening. It was already getting dark, which happens very early in the evening here in Thailand.
We live in a gated community in the country side. It's not what David and I are used to on our trips, it feels so fancy. We have our own house and there's a pool on the area. Thailand is a country with big income inequalities and it becomes apparent here where Thai people guard, drive and wash the foreigners clothes.
Thai people are very service minded and sweet and as a swede I'm used to be doing all these things for myself. I find it hard to really accept these differences but at the same time I know that this is a job for them and they want to work to get an income. Especially now when there are very few tourists here and it's harder to get jobs for them.
It's a tricky question and I struggle with it quite a lot.

Cat on (hot tin) roof.

When we woke up the day after we couldn't wait to see the city of Hua Hin! It's a very nice little town with lots of tiny streets and houses.

And they have a beach!

We haven't been down to the water yet but don't worry, it's coming.

I leave you with this pretty flower. I have been taking many photos of thai flowers during this trip. I love to see all the amazing flora that we haven't got in Sweden.

Okey, this is from the first evening again but I just had to show you some more photos from that amazing sky bar on top of our hotel.
This photo was taken by David and it was almost pitch black at first but after some editing I really like the grainy feel to it.

Cocktails and smiles.

The golden dome.

Aaaah, the view! The sky bar was at the 64th floor and the hotel staff was everywhere around us telling everybody to walk carefully. I was not allowed to stop and take a photo from the top of the stairs because apparently lots of people trip and fall from the strong wind up there so therefore I had to wait with the photographing until I had reached the skybar safely.

Fuzzy kissing with a view.

So, new day!
This guy showed us the way to the boats. When he saw Davids film equipment and my camera he started to talk about film making. He was a real film afficionado and loved the work of Luc Besson. He talked so passionately about cameras, camera angles and how the tecnology today makes it easier for everybody to make movies. He laughed all the time and told us he makes films too. He also told us about the time he had worked at a hotel where Oliver Stone had been working on a movie and he got to help out a bit.
He was really proud of that. Such a sweet heart!

Hello!

Sweaping guy in alley.
I can't believe my luck with this photo. The glistening water on the ground, the man in the middle sweaping and the dark framing. I love it!

Under the bridge.

On the boat! David looking all proffesional in the front of the boat.

Pretty view.

And now follows some photos of houses along the edge of the river. I'm amazed over the different kinds of houses built on top of eachother. Lovely, in my opinion.

I love that people here wave when I take photos of them! That almost never happens in Sweden.

What is everybody looking at?

Ahaa! The giant golden Buddha!

Isn't that indian woman pretty!? I love how she's posing so gracefully in front of the Buddhas enormous feet.

In the temple garden.

We tried to find a quicker way out. It didn't work but we got to see some sleeping people along the way.

I really like that thai people just lay down to sleep wherever they are in the middle of the day. They always put a blanket over their eyes and then just shut out the rest of the world for a while. It looks peaceful.

In the afternoon David and I went to the movies!
We saw Prometheus in 4D. That means 3D plus the chairs are moving, they spray wind and steam/water in your face and there's smoke coming out from the sceen, among other things. We were a bit worried that it would be too much of the moving/splashing thing but it actually worked really well on this film. When the spaceship was flying over a planet the chair moved slowly and it felt as if we were flying for real! And when a head exploded and water got sprayed in my face I screamed out loud thinking for a split second that I had gotten blood all over me.
Before the movie started everybody suddenly stood up. At first we thought the people next to us was leaving before the movie even started but then we realised that everybody was standing because of a "commercial" about the king. It was almost like a music video with clips of the king doing great stuff for the people and lots of happy kids smiling.
As a Swede I can't imagine doing that kind of thing for our king.

After a quick lunch David and I visited the giant electronics market Pantip. It was HUGE! I bought a Bamboo tablet to get my handwriting into my computer easily. You will see soon!

Later in the evening we went to the Red light district. David and Claes are working on a short documentary about ladyboys and prostitution and we went there to film the surroundings. We went in to a bar where young girls in bikinis where dancing on a stage in the middle of the room with numbers on them for the customers to choose. We took a beer and I wanted to drink it as fast as I could because I just couldn't stand to be in there. It was horrible! The girls looked so young (one of them looked like she was about 12 years old, but thai girls look younger than they are so she might have been older) and some of them looked really sad. I just couldn't cope with seeing how the (white) men came in there looking at the girls like they were objects for them to buy. And for them I was the same! No, I most definitely am not! When we got out of there I started to cry. It was really shattering to see this so openly.

The day started with a train ride to Copenhagen. David is here seen in the window reflection pondering at the Helsingborg stop.

Then we listened to what this dude had to say about life vests.

We were up in the air! Surrounded by fluff!

We landed in Bangkok and after a taxi ride we ended up at this place. Our hotel!
We didn't get our rooms until later so first we used the hotel gym to take a much needed shower. This is part of the gym. Yes, fancy.

This is balconies. Many of them.

Fancy snack.

Bird bath de luxe.

After the shower our producer Claes had arranged for us all to go this beautiful place for a 90 min massage session! I think this house looks a little bit like a thai version of Pippi Longstockings house Villa Villerkulla.

The massage was heaven! Absolutely amazing after such a long flight. And then we got tea and mango. Lovely!

They had a pretty garden.

And a pretty gate.

Time for a snack! Claes orders a banana pancake.

Tasty goodness in the making.

In the evening we went up to the amazing hotel sky bar on the 64th floor to have a drink.

Pretty incredible view.

Went out for some dinner later and went back to the hotel with this tuc tuc. The crazy driver drove insanly fast, zig zagged between the many cars and offered us some amfetamin. We said no. He looked dissapointed.
And that was our first day in Bangkok. These were all taken with my iphone. The real camera came out on day two and you will get to see those photos later.