Welcome to Vietnam

The journey South from Vietnam’s capital Hanoi is usually done by bus or on a motorbike. The journey is incredibly beautiful, with a glowing coast-line boasting various sights including miles of deserted beaches, abandoned houses, school kids on bicycles, street vendors, palaces, slums, tourist resorts, palm trees, conifers, buffalos, rice paddies, traditional river boats, monks, temples and karaoke bars etc.

My return trip from Hoi An to Hanoi will stay in my mind forever and proofed to be completely different from the initial journey down South. At first I traveled alone from Hanoi to Hue on a night bus, which was initially supposed to be 13 hours (including a toilet), both of which were a lie. The trip ended up taking 19 hours as we spent nine hours at the police station whilst they searched our bags. Whatever they were looking for they didn’t find it and we were eventually allowed to continue our journey.

Once I arrived in Hue, it became a quite a historical day, walking for four hours in the royal palace and the beautiful gardens. Hue was great, although I didn’t feel like staying more than one night and really couldn’t wait for the morning and my bus to Hoi An.

The city of Hoi An exceeded my expectations and gave me more than I could have desired. On the first day I was asked by the shy and cute boy to play ‘featherfootbag’ with his friends. Although the game wasn’t easy and I screwed up a couple of times it was still fun and afterwards we went and drank some beers. The night was filled with talking about life, looking at each other, telling stories and sharing experiences. I knew right away that we would have a lot of fun together, regardless of how many days we would be able to spend together.

As the days went by in the company of my new friends I felt more alive than I had ever known possible. I drove to nearby beaches, ancient temples and the ruins of My Son, all on the back of my new companions motorbikes, sharing the amazing Vietnamese countryside with buffalo and cows. Although I had spend almost a week in Hanoi before going South, it didn’t really teach me much about Vietnamese life and culture as Hoi An did, and I would therefore recommend a visit to the beautiful ancient port city.

our motorbike gang

My real great adventure began when the boys asked me if I wanted to go back to Hanoi on their motorbikes and you can guess what I said. The trip was amazing as I saw and felt so much in just one week and ended up falling in love with travelling on motorbikes. I cannot compare anything to those few days and I look forward to being able to drive again with somebody hopefully in Cambodia. After arriving in Hue, the boys sold their motorbikes and we took a night bus back to Hanoi. Once again it seemed that my luck with long, unfortunate and somewhat amusing bus experiences in Vietnam was back. A supposed one night turned into a 36-hour trip that we ended up spending on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. We spend 24 hours in this one family style restaurant (which meant they cooked us noodles and gave us beer) and were marveled at by tons of Vietnamese toddlers and schoolchildren. A couple of daring Vietnamese girls came to me and Jordie and asked for his Facebook name and took photos of us with them. Now there are photos of me looking like a homeless crazy haired girl on the Vietnamese girl’s Facebook page. Haha great..

What happened to the bus and the reason why it broke down, nobody knew or bothered to tell us, but we kept drinking (because there was nothing else to do), playing with the street kids and chilling. About fours hours before we were on the move again someone told us that it was the engine and the wheels that needed repairs. It’s no wonder that the repair took 24 hours, especially since the driver himself did the repairs. Once again I was exposed to the common practice in Vietnam where if something breaks, you fix it yourself and one shouldn’t expected another bus to pick you up at midnight in the middle of nowhere, quite unlike Finland.

At last we arrived back in Hanoi at four o’clock in the morning and without sleeping went straight on a one night boat trip to Halong Bay. My friend from Finland was waiting for me in Hanoi and we all went together. It was beyond beautiful and life on the boat was amazing with great food and gorgeous views. The previous night we ‘slept’ in a large for-bed bunk bed in the back of the noisy bus, so I decided to have a really chill time on the boat. Halong bay was great and definitely worth a visit , although a little freezing at night and quite cloudy.

This beauty at night, Halong Bay.

Vietnamese people treated me very well and the only problem was the cold, which was my fault as I had given all my warm clothes to my friends in Pai. The nights were so cold that I was forced to pull of the homeless look, which I think went quite well putting on all my clothes at the same time. Two weeks in Vietnam were enough for me, but I could have totally travelled further South to Saigon if I had more time. On the other hand back here in the warm Ko Lanta is keeping me happy.

What Vietnam taught me was to love and be happy no matter what. I had so many good times, especially with my travel mates. Driving a motorbike on the coastline was a dream come true. Crazy dancing with funny bartenders. Smiling Vietnamese children. Toothless old ladies. 36 hour bus rides. Sleeping outdoors. Round fishing boats. Hoi An’s stunning atmosphere. Deserted beaches. Broken buses. Broken motorbikes. Too many free mojitos for ladies. Cheap rates. And last but not least an incredible new friendship that will last until we see each other again and over and beyond.

Thank you everybody who made those two weeks amazing.

Lonely beach I walked into with just two monks playing. This was somewhere middle between Hue and Hoi An

 in Hanoi

 Selling some hats in the big city

The Panda Crab at the beach

When guys are trying to pose..

And while me and J tried to pose. haha..

"Oh, Vietnam."

a story about a change

This is a story that happened in a small city called Pai in northwest Thailand, near the border of Burma. The exact place on the map is not really important, but the life changing journey what I went through there is. It can maybe be harmful for you if you are not planning to travel there any day soon. I'm not telling you at full lenght what I did, but I will tell you my spiritual, and mind changing part of this story.

"I woke up this one morning, hair messed up, yawned and saw sunlight coming out from a hole in the wall in my bamboo hut. The light found my knees and warmed them up with a gentle touch. I heard birds singing, someone playing guitar, an old lady with a calm voice. I had no idea what time it was, what day or how much time I had left before I had to pack my cameras, book and leave. I was going to have a new day, new paradise in a place I lived and loved, and with people I felt connected with; my Pai family.
I looked at "the Alchemist" on my bookshell and realised that I'm following my dream too, just at this specific moment. I'm in the present and I'm happy.
Just few seconds later I already sat on my meditation stump. River in front of me was quiet but pleasant, I felt few leaves falling of from a papaya tree next to me. Imagining the sun turning to different colours, blue to red and moving slowly towards me, I opened my eyes. It had been approximately 30 minutes since I sat on the stump. Meditation and yoga were my morning routine. I felt better sitting in lotus position clearing my mind and soul this amount of time than using it to anything else. I felt spiritual and pure.

Little decisions and new ways of thinking had really made me change a bit. I felt pure happines just from doing meditation. I didn't need anything else than this moment, and still don't need.
My days in Pai were individuals all of them, every day is a new start for your life. Having a chance to recognize the beauty of life again and again is amazing. But regretting something happened earlier harms your soul and mind.
I'm trying to remove the burden from my shoulders and find the balance in happiness. I am a worrying kind, and I don't like it. I want to free myself of thinking and just live. Here I've had hundreds of magical moments, conversations what had changed my life, and I start to realise what things make me complete, what to value, for what I live for and what things are not for me. Learning like this about myself is like a huge gift from everyone I have met.

As I later wandered up the hill in a kind of daze, two old ladies in colourful clothes and sharp bamboo hats walked past me, carrying big bags of something. I looked at them and smiled and I was smiled back with missing teeth mouths. I was high in the mountains, where green and blue captivate the scenery. We had drove motorbikes to the waterfalls and spent couple of days just lying and looking at changing clouds. I was amazed by the beauty of cornfields, stone forest, elephants, hot springs, birds, colours, lying in hammock, people, food, everything. I was surrounded by nature and "the green tits" as mountains. I couldn't feel happier or more alive.  This was that kind of place I could stay forever.

I ended up staying in Pai for almost 3 weeks. Time flied and it didn't feel like it because I was enjoying so much with my family and my guesthouse's thai hippies. We played instruments everyday, sang, laughed and talked about things what matter and those what really don't. I've now friends for life which I'm going to see soon on my travels. This place was something else, our home and it was so sad to leave. But now I have a memory, still very bright and lovely. And one part of me will always be a "Pai part". Saying goodbye doesn't mean nothing like I thought before. I'm changed for good and I'm going to hold on it tight. Now goodbye just means a new hello."