Until we meet again

This is sort of a sad post. I've been packing all day, dropped off my sim card at work and signed a bunch of papers, got a book for the airplane and now I'm writing my last post from Trich Sai, Hanoi.

On Tuesday I said goodbye to my lovely colleagues at FAO. I couldn't have asked for a better and more supportive team. Living in Hanoi for four months has been a great experience. Coming from a small city like Copenhagen (not to speak of Vasa), let's be honest, I never imagined myself living in a big bustling city like Hanoi. Big city life has it's ups and downs. The biggest down here would be the pollution and crossing streets on foot. But even my second point has gotten better over time (my pulse stays fairly normal now). I'm (or was) a light sleeper, but I think Hanoi has cured me of that. Now I sleep through my neighbourhood's 5 am aerobics practice, motorbikes rounding the corner (honk honk beep beep), the dogs and the roosters.

As for the good things, the list is long. To mention a few: midnight pho, the alleys, Westlake at 5.30 am, the friendly people of Hanoi, the temperature in December, suprisingly well functioning bus system and every Grab driver who took me safely from A to B. Not to mention all the fantastic friends I have met here. And this is just Hanoi. Northern Viet Nam has so much to offer.

Now I will spend some quality time with my homies here in Hanoi before I head back home to get no sleep at all because I have to wake up at 03.00 am to go to the airport. Ugh

So being a person who strongly dislikes goodbyes (it's such a final word), I will just say: until we meet again! Because we will :)

Last day at work

Winter in Hanoi

When I arrived in Hanoi in August I was told Hanoi has a winter season. I laughed a little and didn't think much more about it. Until late November. As the tough Finn I am, I refuse to turn on my heater (yes, you can reverse the air con function). The result has been that I sleep with two layers of clothes and two blankets. And I'm not gonna say what the outside temerature is because I'm worried Finland will force me to denounce my citizenship if I do.

To get to even cooler weather, last weekend the dream team left the hustle and bustle of Hanoi and took the very local bus to Mai Chau, a village in a valley between mountains. Depending on who you ask, the bus trip could be rated anything between terrible and excellent. But it sure is cheap. Someone had the great idea to meet at the bus station at 5.45 on Saturday morning, to avoid the morning traffic out of Hanoi (not mentioning any names but it was me). Well, there was no bus to Mai Chau until 7.50 (apparently you can't trust everything you read online, who knew!) but luckily we found an alternative route through Hoa Binh with only one bus change. We were in Mai Chau by 10ish. The view from the bus was stunning and the entertainment on the bus was good - the ride provided a few adrenalin peaks.

Mai Chau is lovely and once you get off the main road, the countryside and rice fields quickly take over. There are several small villages, some a bit touristic but December is definitely not peak season here so everything was pretty quiet. Our homestay was a cute little place between some hills and rice fields. On our first day, we borrowed bicycles and biked to Gò Lào waterfall. Our homestay host said "it's hilly" but hey, how hilly can it be?! Well, pretty damn hilly cus it's in the mountains. We did a solid 12 km uphill and the same way downhill. Big uphill, beautiful waterfall, nice downhill.

Our homestay cooked a fantastic dinner and the rice wine was on the house. The evening was pretty cold and the dorm had no heating but had the best blankets ever. So most of us managed to keep warm.

On Sunday our active holiday continued and we climbed one thousand stairs (took a solid 20 min) to get to Hang Chiều, or the Chieu Cave. It was worth the climb and now there was also no need to do any more exercise for the next week. Except we also had to get down the one thousand steps. We took a quick peak at the local Sunday market at headed back to one of the villages for lunch. For our ride back to Hanoi we chose a private bus company this time. So much leg space.

Mai Chau was wonderful! Thanks guys for making it the perfect weekend getaway!

Comfy ride, eh?

Waterfall action

We have the band picture, now we need the band

Step no. 786. Taking a rest