When we got back from Halong Bay, Philipp and I walked towards our hostel. We had one day left together in Hanoi, since P was not able to extend his visa because of the holidays around the new year celebrations. He booked a flight on the 5th to go to Bangkok again.

We slept in and decided to walk around to see where we wanted to go. I wanted to see the mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh, the president that passed away and is preserved in a glass case. When we walked towards the mausoleum we decided to just pass it since there was a queue of a couple of hundred meters waiting to get in. We continued walking and did not do a lot more that day. Frankly, I can't even remember what we did the rest of the day. I do know that we ate at a Korean fast food chain that had something that came close to sushi. I did book a tour to Sapa, a mountain area in the North of Vietnam. Famous for its terraces of ricefields. I felt good about the deal I got; 72$ for 4 nights and 3 days. 2 nights in the nightbus, 1 in a hotel and one in a homestay. Food was included and the trekking during the day as well.

Then we came to the moment when P left. He took a taxi to the airport and was gone. It was a strange feeling, being alone again a full month travelling with Daan and/or P. Luckily I met some Polish people at the hostel and we went out for streetfood and beers. It got my mind of the issue of being on my own again.

The next day I walked with one of the Polish guys through Hanoi. We wanted to go to the mausoleum but we forgot that it was only open in the morning. A bit bummed out since it was the only thing I wanted to see in Hanoi since the rest was similar to what I have already seen. We went to a temple dedicated to Confucius, a famous philosopher. It was quite interesting to read about his life and what he achieved. The temple was one of the, if not the, first universities in the world and Confucius was a teacher there.

In the evening I was picked up from my hotel to go to Sapa. The nightbus would take about 10 hours.