| Last days in Vietnam and going home |
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I spent my last days in Vietnam, hoping to get a better impression of it, but unfortunately I didn't. The reason might of course be that I was getting pretty ready to go home, which was a good thing because I had to.
Ho Chi Minh City is big and noisy, but the shopping is OK (bargain hard!!) and there are lots of restaurants and bars to hang around in. I also checked out the War Remnants museum, but found it alarmingly anti-American and very war-focused (duh). A little too depressing. The taxi drivers do their best to rip you off here, some quick Internet research helps you get an idea about how much you're supposed to pay. I spent my days on the Internet and in a nice café (after being there twice the staff remembered me and what I was going to order), buying my last souvenirs and just relaxing. When looking for a hostel, I ran into a nice Dutch girl who offered to share her room in this charming, authentic alley! I got a glimpse of real life of many Vietnamese, and during my week there was both a wedding and a funeral here.
As I was sitting in the taxi to the airport I was nearly dumbstruck when I started realising my trip was over already. 6 months seems like a lot when you are looking forward to it, but when looking back it felt like I left home last week. All the places I had seen, the people I had met were now distant memories, but it was definitely worth it and I was really glad I went. Budget airfares means a lot of waiting. I had booked my flights with lots of room for delays, but not one of my flights had any. Lucky me got to spend 48 hours on planes and airports: Ho Chi Minh-Singapore and 8 hours in Singapore (Changi budget terminal: "enjoy the difference" says the slogan, but if the difference is hard chairs, a McDonalds restaurant only and no beer, I'm not enjoying it!), Singapore-Kuala Lumpur and 8 hours in KL (where some youngsters thought it was funny to use my bench as drums when I was trying to get some sleep), KL-London and 6 hours in London (Stanstead is absolutely dead at night and extremely cold) and then HOME to -10 degrees and roughly 1 meter snow.
After sleeping off my jetlag I started marveling at the snow and ice, the well-stocked supermarkets and the fact that everyone actually spoke Norwegian. I had to get used to wearing so much clothes I could hardly move and speaking Norwegian again. But I have to admit that in spite of the cold (and the expensive beer) it is wonderful to come back to my beloved home country, to family and friends, traffic rules, proper waste disposal, social services for the handicapped, clean tap water, cheese and other lovely things. 
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