(Day 218 on the road)After my violent and very unpleasant departure from Cat Ba Island, I went to the city of Ninh Binh, some six hours south (of course I was overcharged about 25% on the ferry and bus as I later found out). The bus driver was crazy: Going way too fast through the small villages and constantly honking his horn, he literally forced scooters and bikes off the road into the ditch or else we would have hit them. As in China, it is Darwinian traffic laws to the extreme in Vietnam. Put simply: If your vehicle is bigger and faster, you have the right of way, regardless of any traffic laws or consideration for others. Ninh Binh as such is not spectacular, but the surrounding countryside surely is! The primary feature of the ... read more

(Day 206 on the road)My first impression of Hanoi: Loud and full of touts constantly hassling you for your money. They met us at the bus stop where the bus from Nanning in China dropped us, and haven't left since. One guy followed us for a good 30 minutes, despite us repeatedly telling him that we don't need a taxi. I had heard a lot of bad stories about these touts (and quite a few scams and theft) being present all over Vietnam before coming here from fellow travellers and from travel blogs I had read, and it seems that they were right. To a much greater extend than in China, I feel reduced to being a walking wallet, with everyone just after my money. I am planning of giving the country a fair chance, but ... read more

(Day 200 on the road)I am not a daredevil. How I found out? By climbing across wooden planks that were attached to a vertical mountain cliff, a 1000 meters high up in the air! The pictures I took do not really do the experience much justice, but it was by far the scariest experience of my life that I had sought deliberately. Chinese official statistics put the death toll on this hike at a comforting zero (how comforting indeed), but non-Chinese figures show a much higher rate of death, some of them putting it as high as 100 per year. Who knows who is right, but I was going to make damn-sure I would not be included in these statistics. I am not sure how dangerous this hike really is (some call it the most dangerous ... read more

(Day 195 on the road)Back in Seoul, I spent the night in one of the numerous 24-hours spas. The spa I went to (near the Olympic Park, site of the Olympics of 1988) was massive, and for 5 Euro you can use all of their facilities for a full 24h. Most of the spas here are like little independent cities, with various hot and cold pools, numerous saunas, resting areas, sleeping rooms, a few restaurants and snack counters, a golf driving range, an Internet cafe, a cinema, and a swimming pool. Not bad at all! But I wasn't going to stay long in Seoul, my aim was to go to the Joint Security Area (JSA) about 41km north of the city. The JSA is actually located inside the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) and lies on both sides ... read more

(Day 190 on the road)To merely describe Seoul as big is an understatement. With roughly 23 million people living in the city area, it comprises of almost half of South Korea's population. I arrived in the city just before midnight, but had no problem at all to find a restaurant that would serve me some nice food. To the contrary, most of the restaurants and shops in the area where I was staying was open for business. As I discovered, a great number of places are open 24 hours in Seoul, giving the city a very vibrant feel at any time of the day or night. The next morning, my first stop was at the Chinese embassy to apply for another Chinese visa. Or rather: I went to a travel agency as the Chinese embassy no ... read more