Hanoi started with even a more exciting adventure than Hue. We met some people on the bus and we all decided to get a big van into the Old Quarters...it was about 5:30 in the morning and we were a few kilometers outside of the city. We set a price and told them where we wanted to go and we were off. The driver ended up stopping at a different spot and then told us we all owed 3x more than what we had said. We paid him what we were suppose to and he started being all aggressive and ended [View Full Entry]

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On the way to Hue I met a French guy named Xavier who I spent the next couple of days with. We got dropped of in Hue and this guy got mad at me because I wouldnt look at his hotel. He walked onto the bus and said "Whats a matter with you!". And then some lady got on the bus and lied to us and told us this was the buses last stop...even though we knew it wasnt. AHHH. So we went to the booking office and then this guy comes and says he will show us his hotel and [View Full Entry]

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In the hotel I am staying at I made a few friends and have been enjoying their company during my lunch break and at night after the orphanage. This week I have: Learned to drive a motorbike Went swimming as the sunset Relaxed at the beach Danced for two hours on a pool table with about 10 other people Drank the first two beers of my life Another very unique experience was getting my ears cleaned. It cost 1 dollar and she cleaned my ears for about 30 minutes. I asked her to wash the tools before hand and then she [View Full Entry]

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So it has been an eye opening week an the orphanage for me. I have always known we were lucky...but now i know we are really really lucky with everything we have at home. On my second day at the orphanage a 13 year old boy got dropped off with cerebal palsy. He had been there before but came back because he cant go to school and he can get some sort of edcuation at the orpahange. I was sitting with him and his body kept going into spasms and he was sobbing. It looked like he was in so much [View Full Entry]

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So I made it to Hoi An after that exciting bus ride and then spent a few days wandering around town. The town seems nice...but the parts I have seen our extremely touristy. I have been trying to make a friend that knew how to ride a motorbike so I could go to marble mountain and the beach without getting on one of those very scary local buses, but currently no such luck. As I loitered around trying to make a friend I ended up getting a jacket tailor made for $30. As I waited for it to be fit, I [View Full Entry]

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The fateful ride to Hoi An....I have currently had no problems in Vietnam, and I had been looking forward to this sleeper bus where the seats recline really far and you sleep and arrive at your destination. Sounded promising. So I get picked up with two other people (an English couple) and we head off to the bus station. They put us on a bus that says a different destination then where we should be heading...and we are the only tourist. Thank god I was with them. They make us sit in the back, so we end up spooning (I am [View Full Entry]

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Getting my SSI Open Water... A little paranoid at first (surprise surprise) but it actually became an enjoyable experience after I started feeling more comfortable. We got to see some fish, a sea snake, eels, and swim through rock caves. I got stung on the face by a little jellyfish and scraped on some coral...but I have lived to tell the tale and plan to scuba again. [View Full Entry]

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Canyoning...besides being extremely scared....I managed to climb down mountains and waterfalls, jump of an 18 foot rock into the water, and go down rock water slides. It was one of the coolest things I have ever done. [View Full Entry]

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Dalat is about 7 hours away from HCMC...but the bus ride was supringly doable considering there were only 7 of us on a huge bus. I took up four seats and spread out completely. After the ride I just wandered aroud and checked out the city a little and set up my tour for the next day. The pictures show the tour highlights... [View Full Entry]

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I went on a three day tour of the Mekong Delta. The tour was okay...lots of traveling time and pretty touristy at points, but I got to see things that I think would have been really hard for me to see on my own. We learned about rice exporting and husking and saw how rice paper and popped rice is made. The people on the delta are so friendly. Young and old will shout hello all the time and they have huge smiles on their faces when you wave back. You would think it might get a little old for them, [View Full Entry]

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