Let me introduce myself.
My name is Lee Persson, I’m a Swedish young woman at the age of 29.
I’ve been living on Koh Phangan on and off 3 times.
I started backpacking in 2009 and I ended my trip with a visit at Koh Phangan 2010 when I was doing Yoga.
Of course I fell in love with the beautiful island and the only thing I wanted was to go back.
I returned in January 2013 and in October I decided that it was time for me to become a full time local in the Sri Thanu area.
I went home to Malmö, Sweden and I sold everything I had, took the little thing I had and moved to Koh Phangan for good.
Or so I thought....
Now I’m in the progress of moving from Thailand to Mexico.
Another big step in life.
Follow me on my journey trough something we call living the life to the fullest.
♥ ♫ ♪ ✿ ♡ღ ツ
So far so good.
It took us 1,5 days to sail from Isla Mujeres to Cuba.
We are taking 4 hour shifts to captain the boat.
I was a bit sea sick when we first started sailing but it went away after an hour or so.
We arrived in the afternoon at a bay and there we stayed the night, went snorkelling, had a great lunch and we stayed at the same spot for the next day as well.
Deniz caught some lobsters, so I wasn’t complaining!
We have no lights except from my computer at the moment.
It’s dark, calm and peaceful.
All I see when I look around is the moon and the stars and the reflection of the moon in the water.
Absolutely amazing.
I just wish that there were no roof on the boat so I could just lay here and look up into the sky.
All of us are up on deck.
Ed is captain at the moment, Dawg is sleeping on the couch and me, Cory and Ina are on the floor, sharing a blanket.
Ina is sitting up and watching the stars. Deniz is sitting in the chair.
We couldn’t leave the boat for 2 days until we came to Cayo Largo where they had a marina because we needed to sign into the country with the boat first to be able to leave the boat.
In total I didn’t shower for 5 days....
Felt so fresh when I arrived in the marina. We stayed onboard the boat for 4 days and then we arrived to Cayo Largo, where we spent 3 days.
What you find on that island is mostly just beautiful beaches (Cubas best beach actually).
No one actually lives on that island, not even the locals. They come in from mainland and work 20 days and then have 10 days of. They stay at dorms where they work, get fed by their job (mostly the hotels) because there are no super markets or restaurants near by.
NOTHING! A couple of bars, but that’s it. There are only 4 hotels on the island and the rest is nature and beach more or less. The only place that has internet is one of the big hotels and it costs a lot 8 dollars / hour.
One of the nicer things of being on a boat is fishing!
We had a lot of fish on our way.
Barracuda, Groper, Lobster, snapper and 2 other fish that we didn’t know the name of.
And I have to say that the lobster in Caribbean is way better than any I’ve tried before.
The energy onboard is a bit tensed at the moment. Since we’re 6 crew members with very little small space, we all need to get of the boat tomorrow and have our own space to be able to breathe for a little bit. It have been couple of arguments between most of us here and there, but isn’t that just life? It can’t be too good all the time.
And I’m glad to have a little break from everything to be able to just read, write, relax, meditate and just think for a little bit…. But I can’t wait to get back to Isla.
After our 3 days in Cayo Largo we sailed on the third day for 12 hours and arrived to Cien Fuegos (mainland) early morning. Ina left the day after to go traveling by herself.
It’s nice to see a bit more of Cuba.
The old cars, the architecture and how the locals live.
That’s pretty much just why I’m here.
One of my ex boyfriends flew to Cuba after our break-up, he is a collector of cigars and fine rum so I guess this is his paradise.
Me on the other hand don’t enjoy it the same way.
Reality slapped my face today when Cory and I was walking around in Havana.
How poor they are, how much they earn (which is almost less than the Thai’s, believe it or not), how they like to rip of the tourists (as any other place where there are tourists).
And the worst thing is how the only thing they eat are either bread, pizza, hamburger or anything else with bread and cheese.
Since I’m a pescetarian (I only eat fish) and greens and fruits are hard to find, I would never survive in Cuba long-term.
Also I don’t understand how the locals can live like this. I’ve been giving away money and stuff already because I felt so bad, but I barely have anything myself and I need to survive also.
But how do you tell a Cuban that you are not on vacation and barely have money? They won’t believe you, because for them – you do have money!
The Cuban Spanish is BARELY understandable here. I don’t understand a word anyway and I feel very blond… Rubia. I’m used to listening to Mexican Spanish and this is not even close. And I have to say it. I miss Isla Mujeres. I’m super super super glad to be here and to have the opportunity to join these lovely men on the boat to Cuba but I don’t think that I will stay for as long as I thought I would.
I felt depressed today after our long walk in Havana.
I guess that you need these reality checks once in a while.
Boom, in my face!
We arrived to Havana 2 days ago and our first day was very long for all of us.
We took a private taxi from Cien Fuegos to Havana. In Havana we waited at the bus station for Denis friend for 3 hours and then we were suppose to stay in Havana but somehow we ended up in Santa Maria just outside of Havana (don’t ask me how).
After couple of hours waiting and deciding of what to do, I decided to go back to Havana so I could sort out all my stuff in the morning and do what I needed to do.
Cory joined me and we shared a house together.
He is leaving the same day as I do, so it’s good for us to it together we thought.
Today both of us just have been tired and pissed at every single Cuban that have been trying to rip us off.
It’s just one of those days today when you get pissed of people taking you for granted that I should give them money just because I’m a tourist, or that it’s ok to try to rip them off, I really think that they have to re-think because I think that Karma will come and fuck them in the ass with a cactus one day if they don’t. Yes, that’s my honest answer to all this hahaha…
Me and Cory left the next day to try to find a flight ticket out of the country.
Even that was a whole story by itself.
There weren’t any tickets out of the country for DAYS, and it’s a lot of flights every day.
This is apparently normal for Cubana airlines. Flights get cancelled. Everyone told us to go to the airport. So we did the next morning and after 9 hours of waiting, we finally got 2 tickets to a flight back to Cancun.
Total waiting time: 20 hours.
We were so happy that we were jumping up and down like 2 little kids, hugging each other and making high fives. Ridiculous thing, but were so happy to leave.
- And our flight was delayed! HA HA!
Period.
A Sneak Peak into next chapter of Lees adventures reveals trustable information on where her hearts REALLY belongs ;)
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