Instabomb: January

Thought I'd share my instagrams from the past month. January was a slow instamonth actually, I didn't post too much. But enjoy what I did post!

1. A news article about Hilde-Marie who is one of the owners of Babel in Cambodia. 2. My new home. 3. Crochet dreamcatchers. 4. Oatmeal pancake with cottage cheese and mandarine. 5. JD after our Globalstudies presentation. 6. Me after our Globalstudies presentation. 7. Time to do nails and watch Revenge. 8. Globalstudies at the educational fair. 9. My cat, Catalina. 10. The horses and a early sunrise.

Friday

Yesterday was the last day of the educational fair, and we had a blast! Hopefully we recruited a lot of new students, that would be awesome! Those we didn't recruit does not know what they are missing, because it was the time of my life.

Educational fair

First day of the educational fair is over, and hopefully we have recruited a few new students for next year. Had a great day at the fair, even if it was a long day and I am so tired right now. So that means bed next, good night!

Children Are Not Tourist Attractions

Last week I came across this Australian article about critical part of the tourism industry, children and orphanage tourism. This is a topic we had a huge focus on while I was in Cambodia, and this is an important topic that every traveler should be aware of. So I truly hope that you will all read this article, because together through awareness we can hopefully create a better and safer future for the children exploited by the tourism industry.

"There is a scene early in Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona where the dry, male narrator remarks that the young American tourists (Scarlett Johansson and Rebecca Hall), ‘photographed everything from silly-looking dogs to grim-faced children.’

I immediately snorted with recognition, recalling my small collection of similar photographs from my own youthful backpacking odysseys in Mexico, Colombia and other non-English speaking countries. In fact, I’ve barely come across any holiday snapshots that didn’t contain a variation on this theme of sage, wise-beyond-their-years-looking foreign kids.

But how many of us would take random, surprise snaps of Aussie kids walking down Sydney’s Pitt St Mall? Probably about as many who would want pictures of their own children adorning a complete stranger’s photo album."

Read the whole article here.

To learn more on how to be a responsible tourist, especially when it comes to the topic of children, go to the ChildSafe pages. This is run by the Friends International Organization, and they try to raise awareness among locals and tourist, and try to educate people to make the correct choices.

//ChildSafe

Apsara Photoshoot

This is the first of many memories from my days in Cambodia that I am going to be sharing with you guys.

Me and a few other girls decided to go to a photo studio, get dressed up in traditional Apsara Clothing, and get our picture taken. It was weird and fun, we did not understand one word that the photographer, the stylists nor the photo-editors said, because they barely knew any english. But I do think they laughed of us a lot, because they were constantly giggling as they put on our make-up. But I would probably be laughing myself, because this is not what most tourists do, they are probably not used to westerners, and the make-up they put on where in fact hilarious; they put gold glitter on my eyebrows! Yes, my eyebrows! And also the editing afterwards is insane, whiter skin(because to them; the whiter your skin the better), ten times more airbrush than you will ever find in a fashion magazine and several crazy backgrounds.

Haha, all in all, i now have some pretty unique pictures from my time in Cambodia. Even if I only liked one of them, which they luckily added a pretty decent background to. I also snapped a few photos with my iPhone during the whole thing for you to enjoy.

The clothing btw, was soooo heavy! But I sort of liked my tiara.

And the results: 

If you wanna do the same if you are ever in Cambodia, you can probably ask the staff at your guesthouse/hostel/hotel and they will probably know a good place. At least we did it at 7 Photo in Siem Reap, you find it on the same street as Lucky Mall, between the mall and Pub Street.

Globalstudies Tour 2014

Globalstudies, the Norwegian school I studied with in Cambodia is now doing promotion for a new fall semester. And of course I am a part of this promotional tour. Today we had a presentation at a school here in Trondheim. I had a lot of fun doing it together with John-Daniel, the father of the girl that runs Globalstudies. And afterwards we went for lunch and then shopped for our stand at the education fair. Because on Thursday and Friday we will have a stand at the educational fair here in Trondheim. So come and find us! We are gonna have a blast at our stand!

The Cambodian flag is of course with us!

Early Sunrise

I spent the weekend back in my hometown with my family and my horses, I spent a lot of time in the stable, but I love it there. On Saturday I was up before 8 am(!) to let out the horses and feed them breakfast. To be honest since it was saturday, I went straight to bed when I came home again. But as I was feeding the horses I couldn't help to notice the wonderful early sunrise there was, we probably wouldn't be able to see the sun in yet a few hours then(because we only have a few hours of actual sun in the winter, but few more with daylight). But as daylight starts here it often comes with incredible colors!

Top 25 Hotels

Yesterday TripAdvisor revealed their annual Top 25 hotels in the world, based on the reviews by their users. I, as many of you I bet, use TripAdvisor frequently. I love that site, I always check it before I book a hotel, and I almost always leave a review. It is a good tool for any person who is traveling.

The hotel that came out on top this year were the Grand Hotel Kronenhof, which you can find in the small town Pontresnia in Switzerland, only 6 kilometers from St. Moritz. The history of this 5-star hotel dates back to 1848 when Andreas Gredig, from Prättigau, bought the restaurant "zum Rössli" in Pontresnia. During the following 50 years the place went through a lot of extensions, and in 1898, then known as "Grand Hotel Kronenhof and Bellavista", presented the horse-shoe structure, which is the same you will find when arriving the hotel today.

Today the hotel has 112 rooms, of which there are 9 suites. The hotel offers a 2.000 m² wellness area, which you can only begin to imagine what includes, just let me say; it is a lot! Within the hotel there are several restaurants, a bowling alley, and the hotel is perfectly equipped for a family retreat. Even if you get sick of the kids, they offer both day care and babysitting facilities... You probably won't get sick of them, but if you would like to have a dinner all to yourself as a couple, that is facilities that might come in handy. Of course there is a lot more they offer, I do not even know where to begin. So just let yourself be swiped away by the beauty of the pictures from this extravagant hotel.

//Kronenhof.com

I do know that I feel tempted to spend a weekend getaway just being spoiled in a place like Kronenhof, if you do too, you find their site here. And to get here, you catch a flight to the Engadin airport, which is a small airport with flights connecting it to for example Munich, Milan, Geneva or Zürich. 

The rest of the Top 25 list of TripAdvisor is:
2. The Upper House, Hong Kong, China
3. Gili Lankanfushi Maldives, Lankanfushi Islands, North Male Atoll
4. Nayara Hotel, Spa & Gardens, La Fortuna de San Carlos, Costa Rica
5. The Oberoi Udaivilas, Udaipur, India
6. Casa Gangotena, Quito, Ecuador
7. Lindos Blu, Lindos, Greece
8. The St. Regis Punta Mita Resort, Punta de Mita, Mexico
9. The Oberoi, Mumbai, Mumbai, India
10. Trump International hotel & Tower Toronto, Toronto, Canada
11. Palacio Nazarenas by Orient-Express, Cusco, Peru
12. Al Maha Desert Resort, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
13. Four Seasons Hotel Istanbul at Sultanahmet, Istanbul, Turkey
14. The Grand Del Mar, San Diego, USA
15. The Milestone Hotel, London, United Kingdom
16. Rosewood Hotel Gerogia, Vancouver, Canada
17. Taj Lake Palace Udaipur, Udaipur, India
18. French Quarter Inn, Charleston, USA
19. Hotel Schwarzenstein, Lutago, Italy
20. Baros Maldives, North Male Atoll
21. Bardessono, Yountville, USA
22. Harvey's Point, Donegal Town, Ireland
23. Soneva Fushi Resort, Kunfunadhoo, Baa Atoll
24. Four Seasons Resort Bora Bora, Bora Bora, Society Islands
25. Four Seasons Hotel Firenze, Firenze, Italy

I love stuff like this, I might be a bit of a hotelgeek, so believe me I will write about other stunning hotels in the future.

Monday morning

New week, new chances, right? So I had a healthy oatmeal pancake breakfast, while catching up on some blogs. And now I am headed out for a job hunt, wish me luck!

Crochet Dreamcatcher

Yesterday I saw this incredible dreamcatcher with crochet online, and I got several ideas for dreamcather designs. Btw I forgot to tell that I learned to make dreamcatchers in Cambodia. But there was one problem when it came to making a crochet dreamcatcher, I did not know how to do crochet. So I went on youtube and I learned. So in one night I was able to make these two dreamcatchers. The white/turquoise one is made after a doily tutorial I found on youtube and then attached to the ring. But the brown one I made purely on my own fantasy, and I used the ring as a base. Which was something I had to find a solution for myself, because there were no tutorials on how to do crochet within a ring, haha! But I am sort of proud of myself for being able to teach myself crochet in one night, and in that one night make something without following a written pattern or a tutorial. So there will definitely be more crochet dreamcatchers in the future.

The only picture I remembered to take while I was making them!

Friday Night

The first friday night in my new place is spent just relaxing with girly tv-series, a glass of wine and a successfully homemade tuna salad. It is good to just chill for an evening now and then. And also I've been looking through pictures from Cambodia, and gotten a little nostalgic, haha!

Goodnight!

Trondheim

I got home safe and sound! I've been home for 27 days now, and I know my blogging was bad when I was gone and after I came home. But I've decided to still keep it. Because there might be a new trip in the future, and I will be sharing ideas I get for that trip. Places to see and visit. And since I am a travel geek and love to read about amazing places all over the world, I will probably share some of my other dream destinations, which are not a part of my partially set plan yet. And of course I will slowly but surely, as I get through my 10.000++ pictures, share more from my wonderful days in amazing Cambodia. And I'll probably share a little from my everyday life, which is now taking place in Trondheim. I officially moved out of my parents' home this week, and I am renting a room in Trondheim. One private room, and I share bath and kitchen with a couple guys. I think it will be good!
So please tag a long for the next part of my journey, maybe not as exciting at first, but I promise there will be a lot of fun in the future. Because I am still following my dreams!

A few pics from my room in the city. 

A picture wall, which I will cover with pics, just got to have them printed.