Last day in Nam and already looking forward to returning to Kong. I can never fully relax when traveling. My life has been highly structured. I long for returning to those daily routines like long walk up the hills, morning reading, afternoon drinks, and late night jazz.

Like Schopenhauer once said and I catastrophically came across at an impressionable age, life swings like a pendulum backward and forward between pain and boredom; my longing — or human longing — is constantly moving between adventure and security.

Yesterday, after a quite good trip to Ha Long Bay, I still came to conclusion that I tend to like travelling in more developed places (gasp!). As much as I love the beauty of Mother Nature, I am equally appalled by its philistine nature.