New year, new country

Time just flies when you're having a good time! I can't believe that I'm already halfway through my journey...

I celebrated Christmas in Hoi An with a group of backpackers, it was great fun and may have involved some vodka and teaching of schnapps songs (of course "vargen", my favourite)... The day after I went to a cooking course with lots of lovely food. I really need to start cooking more when I get back. I guess at least I will have the time as will be unemployed..., and noodles are cheap... Oh well, will try to not think about the future too much yet!

I really liked Hoi An, it's such a sweet little city. I've got a suit made up, it came out really nicely. It was such an amazing, and quite addictive, experience to have clothes made to really fit you. I SO want to go back to Vietnam with an empty suitcase to just shop: clothes, shoes, pottery, china, laquer....

After Hoi An I went to Hue. Hue could be nice I guess, it has lot's of old buildings and citadels, but the rain was pouring down the whole time. Also, we were really hassled the whole time there. That night in Hue I was so homesick. Days of rain (it rained most of the time during Christmas in Hoi an), alone (Steph left for Hanoi while I stayed in Hue), tired, cold, and hassled every step I took.... After a take away pizza eaten in bed while watching spiderman 3 on TV, everything felt a lot better.

The next day I continued by sleeper bus to Hanoi. The other sleeper buses have been OK, but this bus was older and my seat was way too short (shorter than all the others...) for me to try to be comfortable. Combined with Vietnamse karaoke videos on high volume (always appears to be only one volume setting, extremely loud or off), and someone used the toilet resulting in a very persistent stink througout the bus. All in all not a very pleasant journey...

In Hanoi I stayed at a hostel, with one of the best beds I had for 2 months, great! Great hostel overall, met lots of fun people. I was in Hanoi for about 4 days, I thought about going to Halong bay or Sapa, but decided in the end that I was quite tired and really wanted to stay in the same place for a few days. I celebrated new years at the hostel, lots of fun! I had a very relaxing first day of the year, just strolling around with a couple of the girls from the hostel, eating lovely ginger ice cream and lots of great Vietnamese food. If the rest of 2009 is going to be like the first day, then this will really be a good year :)

My plan originally was to go to Yunnan and Guangxi in China after Vietnam, but I changed my mind. Already Hanoi felt freezing (15-18C, but I've so got used to warmer climate now...) and was quite rainy, so I decided although I still really want to go to China, I'll save money and go next year (2010) instead at a time when the weather hopefully will be better. I hate to be both wet and cold... So where to go instead? Talk about luxury problem.... I've talked to my sister, discussing pros and cons of Malaysia, Laos and India, and finally decided on Malaysia because it's warm, cheap, and I really want to see the rainforests and orangutangs on Borneo.

I got to Kuala Lumpur yesterday, and I'm staying at one of the friendliest hostels ever. Great great staff! I've been walking around a little yesterday and today, and it's really hot and humid so once in awhile it's nice to cool down in one of all the shopping malls. KL is such a contrast to Vietnam. Lots of traffic here too, sure, but it's so quiet! Not the constant honking and millions of motorbikes and cars, and you can actually walk on the sidewalks as they're not used as parking space/garage/restaurant/shop/road.... And they have a metro and tram system!

Hmmm, just read through what I written, and don't want it to sound like I don't like Vietnam. I had a great great time in Vietnam, and really want to go there again, but Vietnam can be a bit full on at times. A bit exhausting really.

Anyhow, I booked a flight to Kuching in Sarawak region of Borneo for Monday. Not sure exactly what I'm going to do, but hope to first see some of Buko national park, maybe do a river trip along the Batang rejang and stay at longhouse. Then I think I either want to go to Gunung Mulu national park and then go to Kutu Kinabulo (KK) in the Sabak region of Borneo, or go directly from Kuching to KK. From KK I want to go to the Mount KK national park. Although I will for sure not try to walk up the mountain..., and from there to Sandakan and Sepilok orangutang rehabilitation centre. After visiting the orangutangs I think want to go to Sipadan to dive or snorkel, supposed to be amazing reefs there. Then finally back to Kuala Lumpur, then to Manila in Philippines via Hong Kong. I don't think I have time for both Gunung Mulu national park and Mount KK national park, but can't really decide on which to go to...

I've just been to the KL tower, amazing view despite clouds and drizzling rain. Walking around the towering scyscrapers feels almost like walking through a surreal forest made of concrete and glass... I'm going to head to Little India for lunch now (dhal, mmmm....) and to Chinatown later (more lovely food there I hope!). Sometimes I feel a bit obsessed by food, but I think it's one of the greatest things with travelling. And so far I've been lucky to not get ill no matter how much street food I've had... Yesterday tho I feasted on sushi, first time in 2 months so really had bad bad cravings for miso and wasabi.

Tomorrow I plan to do some more sightseeing, and also some shopping. I need new underwear! Seriously, this is a problem, and I couldn't really buy any knickers in Vietnam as I'm the size of two Vietnamese... When I was planning this trip and getting advice on what to pack, everyone said to not pack a lot of clothes because you can do your laundry everywhere and really cheaply. Sure, but after constant washing, my 5 pairs of underwear are falling to pieces... Really, how much more space and weight would another 5 pairs have taken???

Really really time to get going again, I'm starving...

Have an amazing new year all of you!!!