After yesterday’s debacle, we figure things had to get better…we were only a little correct with this assumption. The hotel we were in only had rooms for us for one night, so we had to set out on a quest to find 2 new rooms—we also found out it was a holiday weekend and Vietnamese were coming out in full force for the occasion. We finally find a place on the beach; there were small huts with two hammocks hanging inside. They were cheap and we weren’t picky. Before settling into our new beachfront home, the girls and I sought out bus tickets to get down to the next town, Hue (pronounced way). The first travel agency wanted to rip us off by 100,000 Dong; luckily, we tried a second one. With bus tickets in hand, ... read more

Tuesday morning rolls around and we’re all packed and ready to country hop. The group of us (sans the American girls who did something else) hike down to the bus stop and pile on for the 7-8 hour journey to Hanoi. The ride was lovely. As soon as we got away from the cement sidewalks of Nanning, fields are bursting with different shades of green. The farmland seems to extend for miles, circling large mountains of limestone. The area is known for it’s limestone topography—had I been more adventurous over the weekend I would have gone and checked it out, but sometimes it’s nice just doing nothing. We arrive at the Chinese border where Juhani and I assumed we’d be returning to the same bus and both left our books on board. I have carried Anna ... read more

To get my money’s worth out of my 24 hours of internet usage I get up at a decent hour, pack my bags, and run downstairs to get to Starbucks. At this point I was made aware that Hong Kong is under a level 1 typhoon warning. Of course it would be…I hustle out the door, dismissing the many offers for ‘this’ and ‘that’ and get to my sweet haven, Starbuck’s. My drink order starts out as an iced chai to combat the wicked heat outside. Although the clouds are hanging dangerously low and are a menacing shade of gray, the overwhelming heat is the only thing on my mind. I sit long enough to order a second drink—a hot chai tea, because the air conditioning is too much for me, and watch the bay become ... read more

My stay in Macau was quite pleasant. I wandered the streets for a few hours during the day—wandered till I was properly drenched in sweat and would then return to the homestead and watch dvds till I couldn’t see straight. I managed to get through seasons 1-4 of Entourage and got to see a little of season 4 of Prison Break before I departed. Macau has a lot of Portuguese influence, which was a beautiful sight for me. I have gotten rather bored with refurbished Chinese architecture. The city was easy to maneuver, once I embrace the alleyways I could get just about anywhere. Each alleyway has hundreds of windows over looking the dingy street; most have makeshift ‘balconies’ where they keep their green leafy plants. After bobbing and weaving through alleyways for a bit, I ... read more

Travel days for me are never dull. I don’t know if it is because I’m blessed with “good luck” or if it is because I’m my father’s daughter and particular people and situations gravitate to me like flies to shit. Maybe it’s my uncontrollable urge to smile and laugh when I have no other response or my awkward way of not quite saying no, more or less a “we’ll see, maybe, perhaps” stumbles out of my mouth… I finished my packing this morning, horrified at the monster my backpack became. I swung it onto my back, did a few lunges—the only true test as to whether I’ll be able to withstand its weight over the next few weeks. Sure enough, I was able to lunge across my bedroom, so I kept going. Closing the door ... read more