Heading north

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After a bunch of hemming and hawing we decided it made more sense to head north to Hanoi and visit Hao Long bay and leave the Anghor Wat return for another trip. We're hopping a plane there today and we'll be bookending it with a day in Hanoi on either end of 3 days and two nights on Hao Long bay, one on a boat (made to look like an old chinese junk) and one in a hotel on 'Monkey Island'. Probably we'll post here again from Hanoi but I doubt we'll have internet on the boat.

Another interesting factoid; Lots of young people are working in the shops and restaurants around the tourist areas. Carolyn and I talked to a few of them at length and it seems they are making only around 50 cents per hour. They all have the same story about being university students during the day, working 7-12 hours at night and sleeping ... maybe they don't sleep, not much time left. In any case it is very friendly here and CC, with her blond hair, gets lots of attention from the young women.

I'm pretty sure Jacob is having a good time too. This morning he woke me up around 5:30 am laughing in his sleep.

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Photos

An impatient girl
CC was not happy about waiting for us while we booked the trip to the north. Not wanting this on her permanent record she managed to go from fierce scowl to this the moment the camera came out

Home away from home
Our room in the 'Beautiful Saigon Hotel' in the Pham Ngu Lao area of HCMC. The staff are friendly and we'll be back here again when we pass through HCMC during the rest of the trip. Comes with a computer, TV, AC etc for $50/night. Nice and clean and a good restaurant downstairs.

These things are big
Jacob checking out an old CH-47 Chinook at the war museum

Comments

[cat]

CC--Nice recovery!!
And it's always good to have a mug shot handy!