Bangkok again. this time we are staying for 4 days so we should have some time to explore, go out and relax a bit. I have managed to get a cold. stupid cold vietnam.. hehe just kidding. Vietnam was a great country to visit, but must say that Cambodia still is in the lead as my favourite. and it surely has something to do with Jay, our Cambodian tourguide. haha the other day in a hotel reception a phone suddenly rang, and it was Jays ringtone! for a second there we thought he was back..but I guess it is just a popular ringtone.

Since our tour in Asia is over we had to say goodbye to our group. and I hated it. but we are going to meet Sean and Dave tomorrow in Bangkok. Have som dinner and a night out. We ere out yesterday in Hanoi as well. Bar hopping. It was a good night. With good company. and it was very strange to say goodbye. although it is not goodbye since we will see them in Bangkok, and hopefully in Sydney later in February as well. They are nice guys. We also said goodbye to Danni and Cassie, but hopefully we will see them in Sydney. Rachael asked us to come to dinner at her apartment so that will be nice. And we are supposed to meet Sara and Ann Marie in Bangkok this Sunday.

Since my last blog entry we have had some time in Hue. I must say I was not very impressed by that city. We went to an old summerpalace of an emperor. Supposed to be his resting place, only the grave was fake since no one knows where on the property he actually was buried. It was a nice place, but I think I have seen enough old nice places for a while. Then we went to the Purple city. I think this was the place where the King used to have all of his concubines, and no one was allowed to enter. Today it is a tourist attraction and sadly it had more new fake plastic dragons than the original housing. A lot of the purple city was bombed during the Vietnam war. It is a shame what war can do to places like that.

We had one day in Hanoi where we went to Ho Chi Minhs resting place. There was a lot of guards and the guy is still almost like God to the Vietnamiese. It was over pretty quick, we just walked around his glas chamber. Then we saw some of the houses he had lived in. He was a man of simple needs and did not want any luxuary. he refused to live in the palace the government build for him and wanted just a little house on stilts. before he died he wished to be cremated. he did not want a big fuss around himself. so we asked ourselves why the vietnamiese government decided to build this whole place for him, and to balsamate him. the man has been dead for 40 years but still he looks like he died yesterday. I hope I'm not affending anyone now, I am just trying to understand.

The day after Hanoi we went to Halong Bay. It was a beautiful place, we stayed at Cat Ba Island. Before we got there we had a 4 hour boat trip between many islands. I just enjoyed the peace and quiet and the smell of the sea. I truly love the sea. Halong Bay is known for its caves, there was a big cave with three chambers.it was very beautiful. we went to bed early that night, and the next day we went kayaking. haha it was so funny. we padled to an island named monkey island. and there we saw some monkeys, then we padled through a small cave and into a bay. it was very peaceful. on the way back to the village, me an Marthe sang norwegian pirate songs and was joking around. hahah all the locals around us laughed and pointed. we had a grat time.

Back in hanoi we had the last dinner together with the group. only Sean and Dave wanted to go out with us, so we had a great night ut together. and while I'm on the subject, all the bars "closed" at midnight. with that I mean that they, pulled down their metal gitters, and closed the doors, but you could still walk inside and have a drink. We tried asking a waitor why, but he just said yes to all our questions so I don't think he understood what we were asking.

This morning a taxi picked us up at 6 am at the hotel and took us to the airport. The flight was on time, and after a few hours we found ourselves, once again, in Bangkok. We took another taxi from the airport to a lodge, but the driver had no clue where it was and ended up driving in circles. we refused to pay the amount on the meter. haha and we won. he gave up. the lodge is quite nice, but not located in central Bangkok so tomorrow we are going to Banglampu, the backpacker district. that is also where the guys has their hotel.

So to sum it all up. everything is gooood! I just need to loose this cold and it will be perfect. I am going to enjoy my days in bangkok and I am looking forward to going to Australia on Tuesday. and everybody back home, send me some news from Norway. not newspaper nerws because I can ead them on the net, but what you are doing and how you are doing. I love you all!!