MichaelElana

I'm not really sure if it is worth me writing a blog for today, because all we've been doing is travelling home. But I'm really bored, because there's still at least 30 mins before we can board our plane at we've been in this airport (Sublaskdfjldakfljsdlfkjlf airport) for almost 6 hours now. Also, all the comfy chairs seem to have gone. So it is the crazily low internet chair for me! We got up pretty late because the first item on our agenda for the day was check out. Mike tried to check us in online for our flights, but yet again Vietnam Airlines' online service wasn't up to that job. Check out took a little while, because we had to explain to the receptionist that we wanted to pay separately for the things we'd charged ... read more

Just to let you know that we are alive and well in Hanoi, Vietnam. More might follow if we can get better Internet connection.... read more

Hello world! Man, is it good to have internet again! However, the lack of internet over the past few days means that Mike and I have a LOT of catching up to do. So, I'm writing this post about our (long) journey from Hue to Hanoi, but by now we have left Hanoi (contrary to the location data for this post), and are, in fact, in Bangkok. We are waiting (for hours and hours...) for our flight home. We can't even check in for another hour, and we've already been in the airport for 2 and a half hours. But I digress. We had been excited about our overnight train journey to Hanoi for a while. Neither Mike nor I had ever been on a train for 14 hours before (I'm fairly sure the longest train ... read more

I have Vietnam Fatigue. Our guide book mentions beggar fatigue, where one gets fed up of being begged at and having tatty products shoved under one's nose, and this is contributing to my Vietnam Fatigue. But it goes deeper than that. I'm totally fed up with the Vietnamese. Period. Save for a couple of nice, helpful Vietnamese employees, I've been really irritated by their laziness, and the constant hawking, and their scamming. I hate that everyone puts their prices up to an unreasonable level just because they see we aren't native, like the HCMC cyclo driver who tried to charge us almost $8 each for a 1-minute cycle ride. The logic is, as explained by the guidebook and also some of the lowlifes trying to sell us utter garbage, that since we are foreign, we can ... read more

We've now arrived in Hue (pronounced 'whey'), the former Imperial City of Vietnam, which was heavily destroyed in the Vietnam War and attacked during the infamous Tet Offensive, which turned the tide of public feeling in the US about the war (that's the end of the history lesson....for the time being). Having been given the option by Ms Anh (the travel agent) to take the bus to Hue at either 8am or 1.30pm, we decided to opt for extra sleep and chose the latter departure. This meant that we were able to wake up really late. Well, that's how I wish it had happened. Instead, Elana had to have yet another fitting for her dress- this time at 10am! And Elana wasn't even sure that she wanted the dress anymore. I was therefore kicked out of ... read more