Good Afternoon Vietnam!

Or good morning, or evening, or whatever time it happens to be for you. It is Sunday afternoon for us here in Hanoi, Vietnam.

We intended to spend our long layover in Guangzhou by taking a taxi into the city and having lunch. However, after reading a not-too-enticing description of the manufacturing city in our guide book we decided against it. Besides Jen had spent the evening before losing an intestinal kung-fu match with some kung pao chicken that we ate, so she was feeling less than adventurous. We instead spent the day wandering around the airport, which was without exaggeration larger than the town that I grew up in. It had many restaurants, a shopping mall, a 7-11, and absolutely no benches that were handle free and would allow one to stretch out for a nap. Some of the locals were able to contort themselves around the handles, but we don't bend that way. So we stayed awake by playing cards and talking to the many people who approached us and asked if they could practice their english with us.

It was a late night getting in to Hanoi and an early morning pickup the next day for a four hour drive to Ha Long bay in the north part of the Gulf of Tonkin. There we had a one night cruise around the bay, which is an area that seems straight out of a fairytale. The bay is littered with around 3,000 limestone islands each roughly the size of a couple of football fields. They shoot straight up out of the water with their shear white sides broken only by the most aggressive of plants. We're not able to post pictures now, but will soon.

On the boat we met a very nice couple from outside of London, Tim and Maria. We ended up having dinner with them upon returning to Hanoi. Fueled by the local Tiger beer, I think Tim and I were able to identify many of the world's problems the first evening and solve them the second. Alas, I awoke this morning to find that those solutions escaped my mind, only to be replaced by a sharp pain centered between my eyes. Oh well.

Jen and I are loving Vietnam. The people have been very friendly and the food is amazing. They drive like the Chinese, only on smaller streets that have even more mopeds. Did you know that a family four can fit on a motor bike complete with luggage and the family pet/dinner? It is pretty wild to think that the generation of American's that came to this country before us had a much different experience, and we feel very fortunate to be able to travel freely and safely here. If there is any resentment toward Americans left here we haven't found it, and it feels like the locals speak better English here than is spoken in some parts of the U.S.

This evening we take an overnight train to Hue, then to Hoi An for a few days before heading to Ho Chi Min City (Saigon).