After staying in Hanoi for much longer then I wanted due to a cold/fever I caught, I'm finally On the road again.
About four days ago I was scared about my travel to the south of Vietnam. The reasons are still not totally clear to me, but it seems that I had completely forgotten about it. I just remembered my fear when I was 30-40km away from Hanoi as a long ago memory that had nothing to do with my current situation. I felt free and was looking forward to new places and moments of joy. Taking action again and going south was just what I needed. The street was dirty and dusty and the cars were many in numbers, but I was convinced to be heading in the right direction and filled with the relaxation and the will to move forward. With Music in my ear(ACDC "Thunderstruck" and a clear view in my eyes I was heading towards Ninh Binh on my Motorbike. I felt cool and free like Charlie Sheen in "Hot Shots".
In Hanoi I met a couple of people I liked and who I now left behind, probably never to see again. The down side of traveling, but if you have your goal and if it feels like the right thing to do you must do it.
My last day in Hanoi.
Almost in Ninh Binh I decided to take a look at the Ancient Capital of Hoa Lu.On the way there I visited a garden with a small little temple. The atmosphere around it was very quite and peaceful.
It was already 5pm when I got there and I knew it would get dark in one hour. I climbed up a mountain next to the temple. At first there were stairs going up about 80 meters, the rest was free climbing. It was not as hard as it used to be and I realized happily that I had gotten better control of my fear of heights and my climbing skills have increased. The view from upstairs was nice, but I didn't have much time to enjoy it since I knew it would be extremely dangerous to climb down in the dark.
It took me about 40 minutes to go up and down and when I got down the two temples had already closed and the people who worked there were gone. I arrived in Ninh Binh when it was already dark. If I know there will be traffic I won't be driving in the dark again. Some truck drivers are just passing you insanely close and it was very scary one or two times.
One entrance gate of Ninh Binh.
I found a nice hostel and they gave me many recommendations on what to do tomorrow. I think it is going to be a nice day.
Safe travel
Cosmin
PS: I also met a nice guy on the way, but he wasn't very talkative when I asked him for directions.
