2007-01-26

Blog problems?

I've been having some troubles reaching my blog from Vietnam since I left Nha Trang. I'm not sure why, but I wouldn't be surprised if the government is blocking blogger or something... You wouldn't want Western propaganda to be spread to much now would you? :)
 
Anyway, I just realised that I still can publish things on the blog by sending an e-mail to a secret address (not that secret really, but secret enough... :), so here we go.
 
At the moment I'm in Hue, "small" town of Vietnam (only 2 million people or so?). Yesterday I spent the day on a tour, seeing all the tombs and the citadel of Hue. It was a nice day and it was very interesting to see all these stuff. It feels a bit hard to write about what I've been doing since the last time though, it feels as if it was ages since I wrote something.
 
Let's see... I spent a couple of nights in Nha Trang which was a really great time! I was staying with a girl from Singapore, Azny, and we had good fun together. I went for a diving trip on one of the days - that was awesome. Saw lots of stuff like barracudas, crabs, wonderful corals and the visibility was really good as well. My buoyancy was perfect, which makes it feels as though you are floating in mid=water. I love that feeling - the feeling of being weightless. When you take a deep breath you go up, and when you exhale you go down. You kick a little and you float forwards through the water effortless. I love diving, I'm just wondering when the next time will be. During the nights I was partying at the different bars of Nha Trang - that was good fun. You always meet lots of wonderful people. The first days I spent with a German girl, Tina, which I had a really great time with and then I met two Australian girls which I ended up traveling with for a couple of days.
 
So.. After the dive I went straight on to the bus ride to Hoi An together with the Australian girls (Lucy and Sophie). It was a night bus, which means something like ten hours of almost-sleeping and waking up, going off the bus to eat, sleeping a bit more, having unconfortable seats and trying to find a way to position your legs so they fit under the seat in front of you. I think the buses are to small even for Asian people, even much more so for me... But anyway, you get along and try to sleep and you save one night of hotel costs which makes it quite alright. Some people go for Valium on the night buses but so far I've been fine without it.. Hoi An turned out to be a very nice town. It is a small town at the riverside and it's absolutely filled with tailors. There isn't very much to do and see in Hoi An, so you end up at the tailors tailoring stuff for a couple of hundred dollars... Break the budget! I got four suits and two shirts tailored and later sent home by boat for $250 dollars - the same price that I would have paid for one suit of the shelf in Sweden. In Hoi An we also saw some of the old houses, went to a couple of museum and the like. Nothing extraordinary, but it was very interesting and a nice way to spend the day waiting for your suits. :)
 
After a couple of nights in Hoi An (I'm losing track of time wuite fast, I'm not really sure of which date or weekday it is - it doesn't really matter when you're traveling I've found out) we continued on to Danang where we spent one night. I really liked Danang. I had a day by myself (although I still were staying with the Australian girls) when I rented a moto-driver ($5 for a full-day) and went to the Marble Mountains, the Cham museum in town, had a great lunch with him and then saw the China Beach and other sights around town. Danang was an interesting place, full of contrasts. The Marble Mountains were really nice with views over the city, some dense jungle-like parts, huge caves filled with marble carvings, some temples and pagodas and more. I had almost two hours of just walking around in caves, exploring the site, looking for great views, visiting temples (one of them seemed to be in active use) and being amazed by the lack of tourists (of course there were tourists, but not very many - saw like five or six couples/families and a group of Japanese youths...). The town is interesting as well - mostly because this was a place used by both the Viatnamese and the US army. Just outside of the town you had the US airfield which was interesting to see - still being used sometimes I think, but kind of falling apart and there were cows strolling around amongst the barracks and everything... The China Beach is a huge stretch of beaches which supposedly was used by the US army for relaxing. Extremely white sand, nice waves and just a few resorts spread out on the immense beach.
 
After Danang we continued on to Hue where we had one day of just strolling around in the town, trying to avoid the rain and the cold (we didn't really succeed - it was f***ing freezing!) and then one day of seeing tombs and citadels. The Australian girls left in the evening for Hanoi so I spent the evening by myself (not really by myself - once again I ran into the Canadian couple Rob and Steph so we ended up in the DMZ bar drinking, eating and playing pool). Today I've been relaxing, seeing the churches in the town (had a catholic motodriver which insisted on showing me all the cathedrals in the town for free - good deal for me) and then just hanging out for a while. Should head back to the hotel for some food before I take the night bus to Hanoi though.
 
My plans for the moment are to go to Hanoi. That's it. After Hanoi I'm not sure where I'll go or even how long I'll spend in Hanoi. I've been talking to Asa at my work, so I'll probably have a much longer trip than I intended from the beginning. I haven't decided about the details yet, but it seems I'll spend one or two months more traveling in Asia which is absolutely wonderful - I'm really grateful for getting this opportunity - it's really a once-in-a-lifetime offer!
 
Anway. I'll write more about everything when I get to Hanoi - I might take some hours to upload photos, organize them more, reflect about my travels so far, write more about the food and the people and other stuff that I haven't mentioned that much so far... Continue to write comments and long e-mails about my blog or what's happening back in Sweden (or in the countries you're visiting at the moment for those who I've met during my traveling!). Cheers!

2 kommentarer:

Illvillja sa...

VIll bara meddela världen om att jag numera är pappa! :D En son på 2790 gram pch 50 cm tittade ut igår den 25/1 :)

Olle sa...

Hej Anders,

Mina resor är numera litet mindre exotiska och mer rutin: idag från ett Stockholm där det fortsätter att snöa till Hull där trädgårdarna nu börjar visa vårblom och det känns vårligt i luften. Allt gick smidigt och enligt tidtabell idag (de små förseningnarna ledde inte till några missade förbindelser).

Hoppas nu på bilder från dig. Det är härligt att höra att du trivs så väl med resandet; extra roligt för mig för det får mig att minnas min första långa resa. Den ändrade hela min världsbild och även om jag nyktrat till på vissa punkter så är grundidérna från den kvar i mig menar jag

Idag när jag köpte en coca-cola och en macka på Manchester Piccadilly så sa mannen i kassan (som var svart): Kan jag fråga dig en sak?

Jo det var ju OK.

Har du rest runt jorden? Jo, det har jag ju gjort sa jag, jag har rest mycket i Asien och Afrika.

Jag kände det!, sa han och såg glad ut. Det känns.

Jag sa något om att folk är i grunden lika i hela världen och att jag tycker om det. Jag missade att fråga varför han hade frågat egentligen och vad han såg/kände. Kanske han inte hade kunnat svara - det var ju en känsla bara. Frågan gjorde mig glad i alla fall.

Att resa som jag har gjort förändrar en faktiskt! Tydligen tyckte mannen i kassan att det var en bra förändring.

--

Idag flyttar Malin och jag håller tummarna för att allt går vägen.

Ringde Maja förra helgen och då var både Ola och Einar (med barnen) där. Allt väl på den fronten. Det är bra med Anna också.

Hälsningar
Olle