HA NOI?

Greetings All!

Northern Vietnam is just as full of people trying to sell shit and car exhuast as the Southern half, but at least here the heat isn't attempting to kill us. 

Gordy and I made it to the capitol city on Tuesday morning after the sleeper bus ride from hell- for those over five feet tall and who enjoy not slamming their heads against metal bars to sleep that is.  The city was full of guesthouses, and those guesthouses were already filled with travelers at 8 a.m. from the previous day.  We had the lovely pleasure of lugging our packs around for two and a half hours trying to find a decent room for under $8 but finally we just said "f-it" and took a crappy little place for 9 bucks a night.  It made sense because we splurged on our Ha Long Bay tour trip (going for the priceier 2days/1night to sleep on an all inclusive traditional junk boat), that left on Thursday.

Ha Long Bay was incredible, and we spared no expense without guilt and called it our Christmas Present to each other.  Totally worth every penny, being able to Kayak and climb in such a gorgeous place.  Unfortunatly though, that's what most people say and we saw at least 25 other big boats around us for most of the trip. Oh well, I got to see stars on the South China sea and jump off a junk boat into Ha Long Bay.  Who cares if Japanese tourists took picutres of me while kayaking?  I always wanted to be in a random family album...

We are getting the heck out of Vietnam this weekend if all goes planned, and into Laos via the Tra Trang/ Xoi Hang border crossing.  Tomorrow holds the lovely gift of a 16 hour local bus ride to Dien Bien Phu.  I just pray that this one might not include me sitting with chickens under my seat, although it was a great comic relief after the first few hours from Rach Gia.

Night!

PS i know it's a short post, but gordy and i are both are feeling a bit crappy after the amount of free food we ate the last few days on our boat trip.  i never knew it was possible to feel ones stomach actually stretch with real food after eating noodle soup for a month, but by god it is.  And is it painful. I think gordy might be going into some ridiculous kind of food shock, but then again he did eat an entire plate of french fries and three Choco-Pies within five minutes.  oh well, good-night.