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Cape Town Kite Club

January 8, 2015

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So the house where I stay is called Cape Town Kite Club and it's absolutely great here! These pictures will speak for themself.

This is the house seen from the garden.

The view from the balcony on the top floor

The middle floor is common space that all guest are free to use. This view is from the kitchen.

James, the owner of the house working behind a desk in the livingroom. In the back Lisa is working on my computer in another room. The room I call "my" office.

So this is my office where I can work with a quite amazing view. It´s also great with a high table to you can stand up working!

I woke up with a sore throat after a night of fever this morning. It's becoming a habit to catch a cold every time I go on a longer trip somewhere, my usual luck... I rarely ever get sick back home in Sweden so I guess I that i shouldn't really complain, still I find it a bit annoying. My cold or whatever it is will hopefully go away quickly though. As a matter of fact I feel better already, but I decided to not go kitesurfing today even if the wind finally has arrived to Blouberg.

I went however down to the beach to check out the other kitesurfers. The conditions here are quite rough with waves and strong winds as you can see in the pictures.

Back in the house now. They have an open fire here where they now and then start up a fire so you can grill whatever you like. I bought some chicken breasts that I will prepare with loads of garlic and rosemary 🙂

The house is great in many ways. There are beds enough for about 15 people and there are lots of shared spaces, like a big livingroom, a well equipped kitchen, balconies, pool, garden, etc... and the people staying here are all really nice. Many activities are done together, like the dinner tonight for instance. But also kitesurfing session, gym training, yoga, penguin watching and all other kind of trips.

That´s all for now. Laters!

Penguins and short kite session

January 3, 2015

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Woke up today and felt pretty rested after a 13 hours long sleep =)

After breakfast I went on a little car trip with the owner from Cape Town Kite Club and another guy. Our first stop was at Boulders beach next to Simon's town. Boulders beach is famous for the penguins that come there to breed and just chill (judging by their lazy behaviour).

The next stop was at a place called Scarborough beach where we went for a short kite session in the waves. I felt a bit rusty of course after the long break since last time I kitesurfed. But it went alright. Here are some pictures from Scarborough.

South Africa – Blouberg

January 2, 2015

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Time to wake up this for a long time sleeping blog...

My current trip goes to South Africa so I'll do my best to update this blog for a while now. I arrived safely to CapeTown this morning, super tired from a night flight with not much sleep, you all know how good you sleep on airplanes squeezed into a tiny chair where you barely can straighten out your legs... Anyway, I´m all settled at a nice place called Cape Town Kite Club which is located in Blouberg, about 45 minutes from the Airport in Cape Town.

I didn't do much of interest today but buy some food and other necessary things. But I did at least take some photos that might interest you =)

I´m tired now, so I´m just gonna head for the bed soon. To be continued...

Mirissa – Sigiriya – Kalpitiya

January 18, 2014

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Phueeew! I´ve been travelling a lot for the last two days. We´re talking about 20 hours on train, bus and tuk tuk. And the comfort on public transports here compared to European standards is extremely poor! On the other hand it´s so cheap that you can't really complain. Anyway, I left Mirissa and went to Sigiriya to be a bit cultural and check out the "Lions rock". Basically Lions rock is a huge rock in the middle of the jungle. A king decided to build his palace on top of this rock about 1500 years ago. Nowadays you can climb up this rock and check out the remaining of his palace, such as old stairs and brick walls. I was the first one on top this morning so I had the whole rock to myself for a while before the other tourists started to swarm the place. Unfortunately it was a bit foggy in the morning, but I took some photos.

A last photo at a distance before I turned my back to Lions rock

At the moment I´m back in Kalpitiya. I´m staying one week at a really nice place called SriLankaKite. There are a few other guests here and they are of course all kitesurfers =) The forecast says sun and wind for the coming week, so it can't be better! What is also nice is the fact that I´m done with traveling on crowded public buses and trains. To jump on a public bus here in Sri Lanka can be fun and exciting at the beginning, but it´s less fun once the bus is so packed with people that some literally are hanging out from the open doors! On top of this comes the smell of dirt, dust and exhaust from the all other vehicles rushing ahead on the crappy roads. All accompanied with their horrible music that (for me yet unknown reason) blares out from the speakers inside the bus, loud enough to drown out the music you where planning to listen to in your head phones... Some photos of what I´m talking about:

What are you staring at?
Nice camera you got there!

Mirissa – on the country side

January 14, 2014

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I have finally recovered from my cold. For once it didn't take like two weeks, but only 5 days, so I´m happy about that =)

These days spent for recovering haven't been to exciting since I mostly spent them just chilling in the shadow. I did however go for a long slow walk yesterday, probably around 2-3 km or so straight into the country. Mirissa itself is very touristic, but more genuine areas are obviously waiting around the corner. I was quite surprised to see that the wildlife started only a few hundreds meters from the busy main road in Mirissa, almost like going on a safari! I spotted one wild bore, three pea cocks and several other to me unknown birds and last but not least around 50 monkeys. Then of course dogs, cows, squirrels etc... the kind of mammals you see everywhere in this country.

I have also taken the opportunity to learn some sinhalese, the native language in Sri Lanka. My vocabulary now extends to about a dozen words. I know, not very impressive, but it's enough to at least greet the locals here who always shine up extra much when you say something to them in their own language =) Overall, the locals are super friendly and welcoming. A fact that ways up for some of the less good things about this country, such as the garbage and the maniacs that drive on the roads. Regarding the garbage the locals have found their way to get rid of them in an easy way, but not very environmentally friendly, they burn it! Every day small fires and smoke are seen on the backyards the locals houses.

Here are some photos from the place where I stay in Mirissa

The kitchen where I cook my food

Look how clean the table cloth is...

The entrance looks nicer!

Here are some other photos from the garden where the host of Mount Garden grow all kind of vegetables.

Lime is of course essential so one can make mojitos!

This is a small cinnamon tree

I met this fellow during my walk on the country

Mirissa – Sri Lanka

January 9, 2014

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Just woke up on the third morning here in Mirissa, with a sore throat... so most likely I won't be doing much for the coming days until I´m well again. Other than that I had some good days in this tourist area! Mirissa seems to be the only place in Sri Lanka which is sort of developed to host a larger number of tourists. This means that there are restaurants along the beach and further inland, plenty of hotels and guest houses to choose from and various activities to do. The main activity is probably wave surfing. I went to a nearby beach the day before yesterday to take a lesson for one hour. It went quite well, but I can tell that the way to surf a barrel is long!

Yesterday, I went with some other swedes to a lighthouse in a nearby town. To transport yourself somewhere the easiest way is to go by tuk-tuk. It´s normally quite nice to go in tuk-tuk's but the traffic here is crazy, so it doesn't feel to safe to ride on the roads here. Luckily there were no incidents on the way to the lighthouse nor on the way back. The view from the lighthouse was as one can expect from a lighthouse, very nice! However, the residential area close to the lighthouse itself was also very nice. We walked through this area while friendly and curious people showed up everywhere to greet and welcome us =)

Here are some photos from this little tour:

Kalpitiya – Sri Lanka

January 5, 2014

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My first stop in Sri Lanka was a place called Kalpitiya, a small town located in the Puttalam district. Or actually my first stop was at a lagoon about 3 kilometers from Kalpitiya. This area doesn't really have anything to offer, but wind almost every day all year round. Therefor this place is a paradise for kitesurfers but that´s also pretty much all. Today is my third and last day here. Tomorrow I'll be be heading south to a place called Mirissa. Looking forward to come to a more civilized area 🙂
Kalpitiya is not bad, but a bit too desolately for my taste. I stay at a place called Calpentyn which is run by a nice couple from Bulgaria. Atanas, "the boss" is also a kitesurfing instructor so we went kiting of course, but I kind of feel for doing something else now after three days of kiting. Perhaps will I come back later during my trips, who knows.

Here are some photos from the area:

The place where I stayed in Kalpitiya

2 months travelling ends with a visit at the hospital

March 20, 2013

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The last weeks together with my mom in Mexico has been nice, but it could probably have been even nicer if a throat infection not had ruined my last week. It all started with a sore throat, just like when you have a normal cold coming up, but the soreness didn't fade away, but kept getting worse. The second day my throat was so sore that swallowing my own saliva was so painful that drolling was preferred. Then my soreness got a bit better and I thought that I could cure myself with ibuprofen and other stuff from the pharmacy. But today, the day before I fly back home, I woke up with a strange feeling in my mouth... You know the feeling when you eat popcorn and one of those flakes get stuck somewhere between your teeth. You feel it immeditaly when you have something in your mouth that shouldn't be there and it´s extremely annoying! In my case if sort of felt like I had a second toungue under my toungue and a check in the mirror revealed two salivary glands that had taken enormous proportions. Besides that my throat was more swollen than ever. So instead of watching the sunrise me and my mom went to the hospital where I got antibiotics and a shot of some kind of steroids in my gluteus, so most likely I´ll be back to normal within no time =)

My last day in Cancun was ok, I rambled around in a huge shopping mall where I spent my last bucks. The night however was far from ok... I had made a reservation in 4 bed dorm room in order to have good last night of sleep. Instead I was put in a 16 bed dorm room due to some mistake from the staff. The spring coil beds were extremely uncomfortable, almost painful to lay on. And if you made the smallest move the whole bed squealed like a pig so your constantly heard the other people turning back and forth in the beds. On top of this the temperature was way over doable sleeping temperature, probably at least 25 degrees. Falling asleep was not an easy task but around midnight I was finally about to pass away, but then at 1 am a couple of mexicans enter the dorm room, talking loud, laughing and acting respectless to everyone else in the room. After about 30 minutes they finally leave again, just to come back 30 minutes later. This time the girls cellphone apperantly is gone and she makes a big scene of it. They turn the light, they yell and simply make it impossible to sleep. Later it all escaletes until five people or so are arguing loudly about something in spanish inside the dorm room! Finally at 3 am it all calmes down a bit and they move out to the street to keep fighting there. I think the police came at this point. I was pissed of and tired and in quite bad mood when got up at 7:30... But now I´m on my way back home to Sweden now and it will damn good to put my feet on swedish ground even if the weather over there apperantly isn't to pleasant. At the moment I'm at the airport in Mexico City, waiting for my connecting flight. I´ll end this blog with some random photos taken with my iphone and with a video that I made during my trip. Hasta la vista!

This hermit crab is not smoking a joint, he just got his claw bended up by a splinter so I could get my finger loose!

Just another sunset at Caye Caulker

Chilling in the sun and the incredible view at Isla Mujeres all day long when not feeding on nachos dropped on the floor by the tourists. This iguana sure knew how to enjoy life to the fullest! A view from the airplane over Yucatan.

This is the view over Mexico City, a bit different huh?

And here is finally the long and waited video!

Kitesurfing in Mexico from kite2013 on Vimeo.

Belize – Caye Caulker

March 1, 2013

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So I´m currently spending my third day on Caye Caulker, a nice layed back island located about 30 km from Belize city.

I went to Belize City with the nightbus from Cancun and arrived in the morning. First thing I did was to walk 15 minutes to get to the "water taxi" that goes to Caye Caulker and that short walk itself made clear to me that the Belize people is a very different kind of people. Unlike the mexicans the people here are black and they often look like Bob Marley with their dreadlocks.

I was tired from the bus trip so the first day I didn't do much, but exploring the island a bit and I went to bed early. I stay in a hostel which also is a cat sanctuary, so there are plenty of cats here, 84 to be more precise. Ironically the little hut where I sleep is inhabited by mice which found my brand new bag of coffee while I was sleeping! I didn't have to open the bag when I was about to prepare a cup of coffe the morning after, since the mice were kind enough to punch several holes in it to make sure that the coffee poured out all over the place...

One day two I decided to go on a snorkling tour in the afternoon, which was really great, the best snorkling tour so far!

Day three offers bad weather. It´s cold and windy, so I 'm better of rigging my kite somewhere for an afternoon session. Here are some photos from Belize:

We had a freerider on the way back from the snorkling tour.Far from all boats on Caye Caulker are not in top shape, but this one looked quite cosy despite its poor condition

Ever experienced the feeling when a stingray stresses over your head? It feels a bit like someone licks you with a humongus toungue, actually quite nice =)

Perhaps should I apply for a job at the local fire station?

One of the 84 cats at the hostel where I currently stay

One of those fishes that can blow up himself to a spikeball if he gets scared, but I was unfortunately not scary enough =/

And tomorrow is my niece's Alicia's birthday party! I wish that I could be with you Alicia and your family to celibrate your birthday tomorrow, but I´m unfortunately stuck here in Belize... but hey, let's celibrate you once more when I´m back in Sweden! I recon you don't mind an extra day with cakes and presents at all =)

My little blog

Cape Town Kite Club

A windy and sunny day

Penguins and short kite session

South Africa – Blouberg

Mirissa – Sigiriya – Kalpitiya

Mirissa – on the country side

Mirissa – Sri Lanka

Kalpitiya – Sri Lanka

2 months travelling ends with a visit at the hospital

Belize – Caye Caulker

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