“I have to see everything, because if I don’t see everything I might as well go home and my life is a failure and I should just end it.”
– Me
At this point I was in a state of FOMO-panic so when I read about Hue’s old imperial city I decided I had to go see it.
“If you want to gather a lot of knowledge, act as if you are ignorant.”
– Vietnamese Proverb
After I had done the Tam Coc boat trip I didn’t really have anymore plans… I let Lys talk me into having her husband drive me around on his scooter all day.
“If you want to travel fast, use the old roads.”
– Vietnamese Proverb
A few years back I had this incredible image of a river running through intense green fields with mountains around as a desktop picture on my computer. I remember my friend Greg said “we should go there”, so for the purpose of this trip I picture-googled and found out where it was from…
“That’s ‘Mee Sahn’ Not like English ‘My Son’, that means ‘my little boy’. This is not a little boy, this is a sanctuary!”
– Our guide
“Mỹ Sơn is a cluster of abandoned and partially ruined Hindu temples constructed between the 4th and the 14th century AD by the kings of Champa. The temples are dedicated to the worship of the god Shiva, known under various local names, the most important of which is Bhadreshvara.”
“A day of travelling will bring a basketfull of learning.”
– Vietnamese Proverb
I knew I was going to Hanoi… So why not stop by Hoi An?
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“We became so tuned up after a while that when the other person would flick an eyelid up or down, you really knew he was there, in the corner, not even hiding anymore. Just sitting and waiting. They were the ones you never killed. You just backed out and told them up above the tunnel was cold.”
– Tom Mangold, The Tunnels of Cu Chi
After being brought up on war movies by my older brother, (thanks, bro), I knew that even if I were to miss everything else in Vietnam, I would make sure to see the Cu Chi Tunnels.
“I don’t quite know what today was about, really…”
– Karen
I had so many things on my list for Vietnam that when they slashed 5 days off my visa I was quite annoyed, this spurred me to book Mekong Delta as soon as I arrived at my hotel in Ho Chi Minh.
“At the center of the Khmer kingdom rises a golden tower, the Bayon, flanked by more than 20 smaller towers and several 100 stone chambers. On the eastern side is a golden bridge guarded by two lions of gold, one on each side, with 8 golden Buddhas spaced along the stone chambers.”
– Zhou Daguan
Cambodia was one of my “first list items”. The first countries I knew I wanted to see when I started planning this trip. Angkor Wat had, like Petra, been on my bucket list for as long as I could remember. Turned out Angkor Wat was not to be my favourite temple after all though…
“I don’t consider myself a politician or a hero. I’m a messenger. If Cambodia is to survive, she needs many voices.”
-Dith Pran
Cambodia was one of my “first list items”. The first countries I knew I wanted to see when I started planning this trip. Angkor Wat had, like Petra, been on my bucket list for as long as I could remember. I decided to start out in Phnom Penh though, because the plane tickets there were cheaper than to Siem Reap. I’m practical at least half the time…
“Better to see something once, than to hear about it a thousand times.”
– Asian proverb
February 26th 2018 I had officially been travelling for a whole year. I celebrated the day by checking off a bucket list item: Cu Chi Tunnels. The tunnels the Viet Cong used in their resistance against the US in the Vietnam War. It’s an item that was high up on my list since I started planning this trip so I organized it for this day to appropriately mark the date.
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