Cute!!

Some things are just soo cute, that you just have to share them with the world.

Took this picture last week in Egypt.. how cute can it be? Almost tried to buy it and bring it home, for a couple of oil barrels. But with the current oil prices and the dollar falling, too much of an investment. Besides, my balcony is not that big! :)

Thailand in 15 Days - Day 3

Day 3 ? Time to wake up early and fly to Chiang Mai (Northern city, quite important for Thai people). The flight is really fast (1hour) and I liked the fact that the "Domestic Flights Area" at the airport had this sign saying that you should report to the airline in case you would like to travel with weapons. :)

So, and there we were in Chiang Mai. Once again, Lonely Planet is not very accurate about "how to get out of the airport". There were almost no alternatives when we got there besides going into this ?red van?. We paid 60 Bahts for both and that was it. He left us exactly where we asked him to leave us and headed to Sara Guest House since it seemed to be an ok place accordingly to Lonely Planet and quite central too.

Once we got there the first thing we noticed is that Chiang Mai is actually quite a small place and that the map on Lonely Planet just makes it look huge! (well, we could have also simply noticed the scale line on the map instead of keep accusing the guide, but what to do now?). We checked the place and actually didn't like it that much, a little bit too old and musty and it didn?t seem to have that many people, and we wanted to make friends! ;) (me and my need for being social!) So, we ended up walking back a little and stayed at Tana Hotel. Although we didn?t even noticed it in LP as its description was quite plain, it is quite a nice place. They offer different type of rooms for different types of budget. At the time we were there, just to give you an idea, it was 700 Bahts for the "hotel type of room", 400 Bahts for the new building rooms and 350 Bahts (with AC) or 250 Bahts (no AC, just fan) for the main building rooms, the ones in which we stayed and that were quite acceptable. Plus, they have this open area on the ground floor where you can just chill out and talk to other backpackers. And they also have a swimming pool too.

Yes, I did force Nadine to pose for this picture, anticipating this posting!

Funny thing is that most of the people staying there are Israelis and they even have poster frames of Israel on the walls! :) Apparently, the hotel has this big deal with a youth tourism agency in Israel, coupled with the fact that all Israeli have to attend 2 years of compulsory military service (both men and women!!) so majority of them choose to have one year off, simply traveling, once they finish it.

I have to admit that after being in the Middle East for a while, you end up talking about Israel much more often that when being in Europe but at the same time you never really hear about what is happening socially in the country apart from all the Israeli-Palestinian conflict topics. So it was quite interesting to meet Israeli people and get to know them on other levels besides war and regional conflicts.

Back to Chiang Mai "topic"?It is a cute "little" city with lots of backpackers and activities especially addressed to them. It is quite relaxed and chilled out and I would definitely recommend it. Since we had 6 full days in town, we had time for lots of activities and now that I look back I wouldn?t even mind staying one more day or two.
Our first day in town (actually, half day, as our flight arrived after lunch time) was spent crusing around the city and checking out the main Wats. Since it was Sunday, it was also "Sunday Market" day and I would also recommend planning your stay in Chiang May in a way that you get to see it. Majority of the products are hand made sold by hill tribe natives, to provide extra income to sustain their families.

We found things for sale here that we didn't see anywhere else and I actually regretted that I didn't buy a couple of things as I wrongly assumed they would also be on sale at the night market (yes, Chiang Mai also has a night market) or in any other store in Chiang Mai. Some things you can also still find in the night market, but without so much variety and more expensive too?

That night, we headed towards the river (10-15 min walking from the guest house, on the other side of the bridge) and once again enjoyed some nice cocktails - If you are used to pay 50 Dhs for just a simple drink in Dubai, then you will understand why I say Thailand is heaven? On average, we paid about 10 to 15 Dirhams for our drinks!! :) There are 3 or 4 nice places right on the riverbank which are quite nice.. I guess we ended up staying in the "poshy" one, but it was also the one that clearly didn?t look like an English pub so it easily won the battle against the not so fierce competition. Ahah. For location's reference, I think it's the third one, but anyway, it is not difficult to find.

After a couple of drinks, we simply headed home. Big days awaited us!!!! :)

Parallel Lifes

If all was as one wanted it to be, I would have been in Portugal this weekend. And the weekend before too.

Today I wonder to which point the sacrifice of living a parallel life is worth it.

I know I will be fine tomorrow. But today I miss my friends, their laughs, their everything. And not being able to share all these special moments with them just makes me feel like an outsider, wondering if I will ever be accepted back into the circle.

Thailand in 15 Days - Day 2

Available soon...

Thailand in 15 Days - Day 1

Day 1 ? As we arrived to Bangcok airport, the craziness begins. As expected, everyone wants to be your taxi driver and take you to your hotel or help you make reservations for all you might need. Just ignore it and go straight to the public taxi line. There will be some people at a desk, asking you where you going and writing it down in Thai so that the taxi driver knows where to take you. They will probably also tell you how much you will have to pay? Ideally you should simply ask the taxi driver to put the meter running and add 50 Baht to it in the end (airport fee). He will also ask you if you want to take the highway or the normal road... Up to you, toll fees are about 60 Baht if my memory is not failing me and it does get you quicker into town.
For a clearer idea, the first time we took the taxi from the airport we paid what the guy at the stand told us to pay (without meter):550 Baht and we didn?t take the highway ? which was actually cool for the fact that it took us ages and I actually slept for the most of it. Next time, by the end of our trip, 2 weeks after our first taxi ride and much more ?taxi experience? :) we just asked for the meter and ended up paying something around 300 Bahts + toll. So, we ?saved? about 10 Dhs (2 Euros) which is really not that much! That brings me to the point that sometimes you will find yourself in a situation that you don?t really want to bargain or go through the hassle for just some bucks ? and this comes from a Portuguese person (we just love to bargain) so you can imagine! This also reminds me that in Bangcok many taxi drivers will simply refuse to start the meter, especially at night or if you are near touristy places. Obviously, they prefer to simply quote you a price and try to get a little bit more out of you, you rich tourist!! :) Once again, up to you... at one point we had to go through 4 taxi drivers until one accepted to use the meter. Needless to say that at that point Nadine and I were already melting due to the heat, desperate to just go and would have probably paid twice the normal price to get there, but luckily the next taxi guy was a nice one and we gave him a nice tip, so all ended well :)

Moving forward... Accommodation: For the nights in Bangkok, we decided to stay in Khao Sao Road (I swear, for some reason I kept forgetting this street name? the stupidest things would came to my mind every time I was trying to mention it: Cola Cao - a chocolate drink, Dartacao -Portuguese name given to that cartoon in which D?Artagnan was a dog, Cao San - cao means dog in Portuguese, so I guess this means son of a dog. Anyways, I know.. its not relevant but just felt like sharing. And sharing is caring :)

So.. where was I? Oh, yes.. Th Khao San. Basically it is a backpackers hangout area.. you will see 99% of the people on the street and surroundings are young people just like you, just cruising around, having some beers, and doings loads of shopping?You will get loads of fake t-shirts, flip flops, Lonely Planets, bracelets, fake IDs (yes!! You can get student ID?s, driving licenses, etc etc.. all in 30 min and with quite OK quality), paintings, bags, henna tattoos, hair extensions and dreadlocks, and so on. Its pretty cool and just cruising around and seeing people walking by is quite an experience.

Accommodation wise, there are loads of guesthouses and you will not have difficulties in finding something for your taste. We ended up staying at this really nice place called Mango Lagoon Place which is listed in Lonely Planet (its located at Soi Rambruti) and paid 700 Bahts a night. It is now a 3* place and it is quite ok (own bathroom, pretty clean, A/C, electric plugs) which seemed like heaven after we checked another guest house in which we would pay only 300 Baht but for a really dirty room, with no window or AC, would have to use a public toilet and bathroom and leave anything that we wanted to charge (mobile phone, camera, etc) at the reception as there were no plugs in the room. Basically, my suggestion, as Lonely Planet also mention is to just check a couple of guesthouses and then decide which one to go for. Most of them are within walking distance and all in the same area.

Walking around ? From Khao San you can easily walk around the surrounding streets and also walk into the ?historic? part of the city, which is quite close by. During our first day in Bangkok we basically walked around Khao San and then walked towards the river? There is a pier nearby and we took the public boat (there are also private tourist bots you can take, obviously for another price ? I think we paid 4 Bahts) all the way to the last station (well, its actually station no1 - Lumphini) which allowed us to get an idea of the city from the river and just chill out and enjoy the day. Once we got there, we took the monorail into Siam area. As Lonely Planet will also tell you, this is pretty much a shopping mall area, which is normally full with young Thai people just walking around and socializing after school. Its quite interesting to walk around and once again just check out people and the way they interact.. You can simply cruise along the streets with all the shops or actually get into the shopping malls. We were not in a ?high fashion? shopping mood (we do come from Dubai where we get enough of that) so we decided to stick to the streets and this shopping mall called MBK (quite a big one, but for me it just seemed that all the shops were selling the same over and over again, a bit like Chinese shops). After, we got into the closest pier, Ratchathewi ? not at the river but at the khlong (small canals, that flow through the city) and just jumped into a taxi boat. It was definitely a crazy experience as these boats go crazily fast and are essentially used by Thai people, so it was nice to get away from the ?tourist? way of moving around? From the boat you can also notice the ?other side? of Bangkok as you can see many old houses, where people live in really poor conditions. We ended our ride, once again at the last stop and then realized we were really close to the Golden Mount, so we went and checked it out. Unfortunately it was already closed (8am-5pm) but it was still worth to go all the way up as it offers an amazing view over Bangkok. After, simply grabbed some fresh sliced pineapple from one of the street vendors and walked back to the confort of a nice shower and some AC. After all, we had to get prepared to our first night in Bangkok! :)

Thailand in 15 days - Intro

Oh my God! Thailand was amazing? Obviously, every country is something different for every person, and it impacts you in different ways at different times of your life.. But I have to say that this trip was definitely all that I needed, even if I didn't even expect it to be so good.

After some investment in cute backpacks (and yes.. for all of you now worried about me becoming so superficial, I also looked into the practicality and space/weight aspects of it?) we were ready for our backpacking trip. Its important to mention that we were not exactly the best example of backpackers? we were kind of a "half half" - half backpacker, half "I already own loads of money (ahahaha) and want to have some comfort and avoid bugs in my bed type of person".

Oh, and obviously we also bought a Lonely Planet. Actually, we had to buy it at the airport, as we forgot our first copy at home ? which actually represented two mistakes in a row! Once we got to Bangkok there were loads of them being sold on the streets, new ones, second hand copies, all for half price! Oh well?

Anyway? obviously Lonely Planet was a great help, but I found it to be a little bit outdated (it was printed right after the tsunami and things changed quite a lot since then) and sometimes not very helpful either? for eg it?s not very clear in best ways to get from the airport somewhere and it will spend half a page telling you where to play tennis when you are in this amazingly beautiful northern city with loads of nature and adventures, just to give some examples.

So, for the following paragraphs I will try to give you an idea of our trip (lonely planet way) as I think it was quite a nice itinerary in case you are in a similar situation like ours ? only 15 days to spend and looking for some good combination of nature/beach/chill out/history/partying under a moderate budget and a young spirit! :) So, apologies to all of those who just wanted to know how my trip went? All the below must be really boring unless you are planning a trip to Thailand soon. Or maybe not. As they keep saying it Thailand it might just be "same same, but different".

Change is needed.

Some people just talk and talk about how they will change. I have stoppped doing that. No need to write over and over again saying that I will be writing soon and then not doing it.

I have been a busy bee... too much of work.. plus a nice trip to Germany after an amazing holiday in Thailand. Plus a new addiction: Facebook. What can I say.. its not easy to admit it but sometimes you just have to take the step further and face the truth... besides, there is a stalker in all of us, right?! eheh :)

And, as everyone says, when kids get a new toy they just stop playing with the old.. It might be true, who knows? But at this moment I still think the passion for writing will win over the gossiping phase... ahah, how tough it is to be a woman! :)

So here it is.. My first post in a couple of months. No promises about any others to follow. But who knows? Things might change at some point...

With love,
directly from Dubai,
to all of those people out there still reading my blog in an attempt to know how to get rid of molls.
Me.

M.I.A

If you are wondering why I am MIA for so long, the answer is still the same as before... A mix between having a lot to write but being too busy & feeling like writing but not having something relevant to write about, if you know what I mean...

But the good news is that the long awaited break is upon me and by this time tomorrow I should be cruising the crowded streets of Bangkok, bargaining for stuff and chilling out with other backpackers.

By this time in a week I should then be up in the North of Thailand, around Chiang Mai, bargaining for stuff and trekking in the middle of nowhere.

And by this time in 2 weeks you will doubtlessly find me in a random paradisiacal island, probably still bargaining for stuff but also enjoying some nice chilled out time on the beach, having a thai massage, or simply diving.

See you later alligator!!

Happy Anniversary!!

Wedding Bells.

How do you know you have find the one person you want to stay for the rest of your life?
How do you know what to follow.. if your head, if your heart? Is there going to be someone who is perfect and how do you recognize him/her? Is it going to last forever? Or are there different people who will be perfect for you at different times in your life? And what if it doesn't work out? And what if it does? What if you missed the opportunity or what if you are not sure if you want to grab the opportunity? What if you say yes and then you mean a no? Or the other way around?

Too many questions and answers meddle throughout the lives of so many hearts. But in the end of the day, all happens for a reason. And normally love finds its way, through all challenges. Like in fairy tales, regardless of the dragon and the mean king.

I therefore cheer for those who go beyond. Those who go up and down, who smile and suffer, who get together and then get apart. Who fall in love and fall in hate. Who go beyond and find love once again... Helding hands by the beach or not studying English because they have to date their wives over Skype.

Parabens Mae, Parabens Pai, pelo vosso Aniversario de Casamento.

What is making me happy right now...

Sun. Beautiful weather. Horse ridding classes. Shakira.Shakira (the concert!!!). Tickets for the World Cup Race. Dreamgirls (the movie and the soundtrack. Just amazing). Friends. Good Friends. Unanswered text messages (go figure!!). Unexpected haircuts at the Burj Al Arab. Professional pressures. Professional achievements. Did I mention Sun already? Cute blue eyes. Belly Dancing classes(part II). Going to the gym on a regular basis. Funny encounters at the gas station.

TN-In-AE-AE-2007-1288

- If you are interested in having the coolest manager ever (ahah), love marketing, and you are not afraid to work hard and learn intensively...

- If you have a passion for working with different cultures and nationalities and would like to live in a place where there is Summer for at least half the year...

- If you have marketing experience and an SN ID...

LETS MATCH!!!

PS- I have to admit that it is a great sensation to finally contribute to AIESEC purpose, from another point of view. I guess the cycle is now complete :) I was a member, a trainee, and now a TN taker. Or should I say that I took a leadership role, went abroad and I am now contributing to someone else learning cycle?! ahah. The irony.

Quem e que disse que a felicidade tem idade?!

Se fui eu... retiro ja o que disse.
Se fui eu que disse que quando era crianca eh que era bom.. tudo era cor de rosa, da cor da Barbie, sem problemas, sem traumas ou coisas do genero, retiro ja o que disse.

Hoje ao acordar ao meio dia, ao ligar a televisao para me "ajudar a acordar" voltei a ser feliz. Ai, ai tao feliz...

Tudo por causa do LECAS!!! Se nao estivesse a kilometros de casa estaria neste momento a gritar "O mae, o mae, o Lecas esta na televisao!!! O Lecas!!!!"

O mesmo que me fazia construir "tendas de cobertores" entre os sofas.. o mesmo que me fazia acordar as 6 da manha e esperar que a emissao comecasse. E quando comecava la estavamos nos, eu e o meu irmao, enfeiticados pelo seu a vontade e pela sua voz tao caracteristica.. A certa altura nos ja nem sabiamos o que preferiamos.. se era o Heman, os Transformers, ou o apresentador.

Agora nao sei se ele esta de volta aos ecras ou se uma "memoria", parte da celebracao dos 50 anos da RTP (eu aqui so tenho a RTP Internacional).. mas isso nao interessa nada, a sua energia positiva ja me contagiou.. e deve ser o suficiente para durar ate ao proximo fim de semana. E o melhor de tudo eh que nem tenho que me levantar as 6 da manha nem nada...