Jokers Cave of Games

The electrical wiring of places like this puts a different standard on the table than what we perhaps tend to be used to. Facades of buildings are withered and broken with garish signs attempting to cover it up.  A concept that tends to fascinate me as a Westerner, whenever I go to Asia, Africa or the likes, is the local market. The way people in the destination actually live their everyday lives. Of course, it is sometimes hard to reach beyond the tourist market and find the real ones, but that is also part of the challenge of experiencing the other culture. We go to other cultures, other countries and try to get a sample of how they live their lives, but the more the destination is adapted for tourists, the less of that we actually get. When I looked through the travel agency's recommendations for eating out, for instance, one of the most highly recommended places was Viking Pizzeria. Yep, for that ultra-Swedish feeling, it was the place to go if you were Scandinavian, ...

Vacation. For me, it's always been hard to relax, to take a vacation and really enjoy it. Guess I am tense that way. Still, to arrive way early in the morning, just after sunrise, and feel the 35-degree heat blasting down with palmtrees of the jungle swaying all around you and the gentle seasurf rolling across the beach, that helps a lot. The Apsara Beachfront resort left something to be desired, for sure. The rainforest is aptly named and rain will quite often crash down unlike anything we are used to in Scandinavia. And it eats buildings up. The locals tend to have very waterresistant houses, putting energy into the lightweight roofs, while walls are very often totally non-existant. A hotel can't really have that luxury, since we tourists tend to keep valuables and a sense of privacy with us, no matter where we go.  The first room we got lasted for the day. During the night, we slept very poorly and awoke to strange, pattering sounds. Vendela thought the room was swarming w...

There will be no order to the pictures or how they are presented. Just basically spur of the moment and the story will unwind with no regard for narrator thread.  This first picture is from the first surprise, from the room. Imagine storming in and rushing into the bathroom the first thing, like you do, only to see the dark wall light up as your roommate starts to unpack. And around that time, you're surely not able to lift yourself off the porcelain throne :) Who has a full-wall window between the bedroom and the toilet? One-way mirror would be something else, but this? And to make matters more interesting, our friends Darren and Kelly were actually upgraded into a room that was more or less the same, except there was no window! No… how shall I put it… soundproofing. The next picture is the Ila Lounge, the bar for us who went All-Inclusive. Truth be told, we shouldn't have. It wasn't really cutting costs and you did get somewhat tired of the food in the rest...