SLEEPLESS IN HUE

They hate us. We can feel it as they Tetris  around the backpacks to make room for our huge suitcases. We fidget in false embarrassment, because after all we are Swedish and we are raised never to make a fuzz, but really, no annoyed faces could ever make us go back to backpacks.  We've both tried the backbound traveling already and do not miss the odeur that bag could produce after a few weeks, nor the impossibility to keep a structure or find that specific piece of clothing. 

Hue has been a sleepy stopover, although I still have a hard time falling asleep sometimes. 

After rushing Hanoi, we've slowed down to recaps and find some kind of second wind. 

THE STORY ABOUT THE VISA, THE ANGRY MAN AND THE SECRET PLACE

Oh, the aliveness of Ha Noi. It strucks me with surprise every time, every day. There are scooters honking and cars driving and women in hats selling fruit and dogs sleeping on the dusty pavements. And yet, with all this aliveness, I find my inner calm here.
"It's weird." I told Claudia yesterday as she licked on her forth ice cream for the day, "that I've only been here once and yet, somehow I feel at home. Ha Noi is home in a strange way I can't explain."

We talked about nyckelböcker the other day, a Swedish word meaning books that is really written about a real person but the names has been changed, but the direct translation is "keybook". A famous podcaster had got it all wrong and thought it meant books that really captures the essence of ones soul, and now, he described in one episode, he felt like he missed the word that he once used as "keybook", as he had applied "key-" to many other things that he thought described him perfectly.

Ha Noi might be the keycity for me.
It's so vivid, so alive, it's talkative and cheerful but yet, there is this island-vibe slowing down our steps and makes us stop and smell the flowers (slash, the smell of loveliness from the endless amazing food stalls).

Yes, the pace is slow but the options eternal. The other night we were out partying and bumped in to... well, probably everyone who was out partying in the whole city, but mostly we hung out with these two guys from London, one of which had already stayed in Ha Noi for 10 days and had no plans on leaving. I totally related. Claudia keeps asking when I want to leave the city, of course, but I have no answer.

LIKE, - EVERYTHING! - WE DID IN SEOUL (In Pictures)

Tomorrow, it has been 8 weeks. If not 8 weeks was a long time in itself, I am also approching a milestone: In the next couple of days, I'm breaking the record for the

Longest Time I've Been Away From Home.

Maybe that's what's haunting me, subconscious thoughts about if things will be different, harder, now, when home is further away time-wise?
I've had trouble sleeping since Shanghai, been up some nights crying and tossing and turning. The other night I simply laid on the floor because I was sick and tired of pacing back and forth in the bed. I actually fell asleep there.

I miss home. I miss wine with friends on Andra Lång and morning coffee, Swedish brewed, in dad's apartment in Majorna. I miss not having to 'make-the-best-of-every-day', because I see it like this: sleeping late and doing nothing is something I can do at home, so I better see as much as possible while here. I have a habit of wanting to return everywhere just to collect the sights I missed, but this time I want to be done. I don't know when or if I'll have a new shot at going to Asia anytime soon, and it's just plain stupid not to suck in every moment.

There we were again. Making the best of the time. And of course you should. But when not sleeping and not having time enough to write, I simply don't feel as motivated at exploring as I want to feel.

Still, we have pushed. We have done stuff here I Korea, believe you me. I even present a LIST of things we've yet done here.

BEST OF HONG KONG

Life has been a fastforward-sequence from a romcom these last couple of days. I can't even remember the last time I put up the computer. Thailand? May be. You simply have no time for editing and writing when the scene around you is a technicolour festival.

It's now about two weeks ago we left Thailand to go to Hong Kong. Since then, we haven't had one single island-style day, which might not be so odd since we've entered East Asia, the buzzling euphony of colours, flavours and feasts for every sense.

Our time in Hong Kong has been fast-flying, exciting, wuthering and fantastic. Being such an expesive vacation-place, my wallet is glad we did not stay longer, but my heart sure is crying.

DYING IN SELF-PITY/ FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF KOREA

This day has been a real pain in the butt. I woke up feeling shittier than ever before and I had a really hard time moving. I was afraid I was going to either faint or puke if I moved too quickly and in the back of my head somebody had detonated a bomb. My nose was running, my throat both sore and filled with... Something disgusting and I couldn't breathe, which is really the trigger for Bitchmode-activate

Oh, and I also lost my voice so Julia is thrilled not having to listen to my jabbering. Yay for her yes we are all very thrilled for her sake.

17 DAYS IN THAILAND: Budget and saving-tips

This post is an extract from the whole Asia budget which I continuously update. 

You can find the original post 

- HERE -

Oh Thailand. You blow my mind every time. How you can be so gentle, so open, so warmhearted and still so breathtakingly beautiful and unbelievably inexpensive.

In this post I counted for EVERYTHING, everything, we bought and ate and paid for our 17 days here and put it in to neat piles so you guys easily can track and get a picture of how much your own trip would cost.

I mean, everyone doesn't have a spare account solely for coffee..

In the end of the post there is a list of extra tips to make your trip even more affordable!

I'd be happy to hear your thoughts after reading.

Kisses! 

MACAU - LAND OF MADE-UP HAPPINESS?

Just outside of Hong Kong, there is an island that seemed to be separated from the rest of the world.

BUYABLE BODIES IN PATTAYA

11 weeks.

11 weeks.

!!!

I’m writing from bed, hiding from the sun. The climate in Pattaya is not only hot, it’s humid, which makes you slower, sloth-y, in minutes outside. This is Julia’s last day in the sun so she can’t afford to complain if she want to come home somewhat tanned, but I have a lot of time in the part of the world left. At least 9 weeks, to be exact.