mickan in world

How annoying! Please mind that this is my second time in writing this entry; the first one disappered in a huge anti drug commercial who closed down the page. Argh.. very well.

The other day I realized that since I left Sweden (1,5months ago) I have spent approximatelly 5 hours on my own. In realizing this I suddenly felt this great craving to go solo. To have some personal space, to do only what I want to do and most of all to stretch my wings and try them out on my own. So this is what I did.

I might be going a bit ahead of myself here. Before this great discovery I spent two more days in Hue with Andrew. We spent the days biking around town and doing some imperial sightseen. We went to the old Citadel, which is said to have been an amazing imperial city; but which is now mostly ruins due to the Vietnamese War. One thing we saw though was Vietnams tallest flagpole, isn't that something!?
The second day I spent on my own, taking the bike to the tomb of Tu Doc; Vietnam's longest ruling emperor. The tomb was actually more of an estate than an actual tomb. There were palaces, ponds, lush parks and of course housing for the emperors 104 wives and concubines. The actual tomb was made by a 40 ton iron block, which it took three years to transport to the setting, and is inscribed by the emperor himself (who actually named the place; Humble). Kind of ironic when you consider the fact that Tu Doc was so worried about grave robberers so he was buried (with all his treasures) at an unknown location. He took major precatiouns against the discovery of this secret tomb; he ordered each of all the 200 servants who buried him to be beheaded.

Just so you know: New Years is celebrated during a couple of days here and there is no escaping the riswine.

We left for Hanoi on the night bus. I have to admit it, you got me, I'm getting just a little bit sick of night buses. 13 hours and a sprained neck later we arrived in the outskirts of Hanoi at 5.30 in the morning. Since it was to early for the bus to be allowed in town he simply dropped us off to get in to town by ourselves. I hitched a ride with some English guys and found the town closed and deserted,due to the early hour but mostly due to Tet. After an hour or two of wandering around I eventually found an hotel and fell asleep.
The rest of the day I spent walking around, doing nothing really, everything was closed. I'm getting a little bit sick of New Years too actually. I phoned home and had a wonderful chat with the familyand then I sat myself down, reading in a cafe. There I met a very agreable English guy and he invited me out for dinner and drinks that evening with two friends of his. I gladly accepted and we had a really nice evening. His friends turned out to be very nice, a Zimbabwean girl and a Southafrican guy, and we played 'I have never..' and drank too much local Halida beer.

Surprisingly enough (detect the sarcasm), everything's closed today. But I'm going to head down to the train station and see if I can get tickets to Sapa, which I have named my next destination.

I hope you are all alive and well!
Miss you guys and you are in my mind.

Some advice which I read on a wall of a toilet:
'I wish I was what I was when I wished I was what I am.'
Ponder that!