Sweden - Bangladesh - Sri Lanka - Bangladesh - Sweden

Well, yes, we are back, and so almost 2 weeks already. I was planning to make a blog post for a while ago, but little Hayden's final flight put me in respectful silence (www.rastalesstravelled.com). This little hero really has touched my heart during his short but so intensive life. Not the least, his incredible mother and her wonderful talent for writing has impressed me a lot. Bernadette and your family - you will ALWAYS have a place in my heart! Now, take time to live, love, sleep and heal. Your Mighty Superhero will always be with you, probably guarding his sister from the skies.

Our trip to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka was absolutely wonderful. We had peaceful, happy days together. As my husband is travelling a lot, our family time is from time to time a bit limited. Therefore just being all together was so nice. All 6 flights went very good. We already knew that Jennifer is a very good traveller. She continues to repeat that she wants to become a pilot. But it was pleasant to learn that also her little brother has absolutely no trouble with flying. Our wonderful stuardesses made it also possible for Jennifer to see the cockpit on almost every plane, which was so exciting for her. But most of the time, our kids just slept throgh the flights :)

 In Dhaka, we had wonderful time with my husbands best friends family. We had plenty of pool-time and so-so much relaxation! As the family already had a nanny, they kindly hired one more aaya during our visit so that we had a chance to leave the kids at home and just do things on our own. This almost never happens at home hence it felt both very wierd and fantastic. Most of all, it gave us a possibility to make day trips to places that would either be interesting nor even suitable for children. Dhaka is a megacity and just sitting in a car in order to get out of town could take hours and hours. Some areas were dangerous due to demonstrations and/or hartal. Therefore, it felt great that our children could be safe in our friends apartment in a quite secure area. But for us, those trips were very interesting and pleasant.

My happy little girl had so much fun in the pool

Erik loved this!

Just a normal day in Dhaka traffic

Dhaka river harbour. Stinky but still beautiful!

A river boat

 Erik got his very first haircut in Dhaka. As Jennifer had her first in Mumbai, we thought this would be an interesting place for him so that he won't need to be jelous at his big sister in the future. I used to go to a ladies beauty saloon in the area close to our Dhaka residence. So one day I just brought him with me and asked whether they wanted to give him a nice hairstyle, which they did :)

Yes, I had a bad hair day and yes, I got a haircut too, the day after :))

After a week in Dhaka, both us and our friends family flew to Colombo, Sri Lanka. We had plans of taking the train from Colombo to Galle but as it was getting very late in the afternoon, we decided instead to let a taxi drive us all the way to the very Southern point on this Paradise-like island. We stayed at a hotel at Koggala Beach. It must be one of the most beautiful beaches in the world! Hearing the Indian Ocean sing it's lullaby when we were going to sleep and waking up to it's sound was mighty and still so meditative. Everybody who knows me, knows how keen I am about water and swimming. But these powerful, strong waves of salty, very warm, blue ocean just took my breath away. We stayed at the beach as much as possible, as also our kids had so much fun in the sand.

It's me! Wheeeee!

Just so wonderful!

Could it be more beautiful?

One early morning, we took a cab to Galle in order to join a whale safari. It was a 3-4 hour tour with a great boat belonging to the Sri Lankan Navy. We spotted several blue whales (WOW!!!) and also a group of dolphins. Unfortunately, I have no good pictures of it. But I have a few of us on the tour!

Sunrise over Galle harbour, Sri Lanka

One tired sailor

Happy!

Spotting for whales :)

On our way back to Galle

The same afternoon, we visited a Sea Turtle Hatchery nearby, which was very interesting and exciting, too. It was wonderful for our kids to be able to see those amazing animals. I have always been so facinated by them and it was rather emotional for me to hear how the staff was truly passionated by saving them.

Behind this fence there are hundreds of eggs waiting to hatch. The staff buys eggs from local people who other ways would use them for food. This way they both get help and can save the little miracles from being eaten. As the sea turtles have hatched, they keep them for 5-6 days, so that their shield gets harder and more resistant.

My friend :)

The most amazing thing, seen by my husband and his friend during a late night walk on Koggala beach: a wild sea turtle, who came up in the moonlight in order to lay her eggs. 

We celebrated my husbands 40th birthday on Sri Lanka and had a fantastic day!!!

Back in Dhaka, we had one more week of day trips, relaxing and shopping. It was fabulous, I must say it again. We also had a photographer coming to our friends residence in order to take some photos of our kids. I will make a new post with some of those pics next time.
I'm sitting right now at my kitchen table, listening to the storm rising outside. Plenty of snow is on it's way this night. Knowing this, it really warms my heart that 2 weeks ago I thought that 25 degrees of Celcius in our bedroom in Dhaka was quite cold...