Vietnam, so far

I'm not sure what I expected from Hanoi, but this certainly wasn't it. This place is crazy! It's like it has been overtaken by gangs of people (every man, woman, and child) on motorbikes. I've never seen anything like it and you can't possibly imagine it without seeing it for yourself. We were told before we came that in order to cross the street in Hanoi, and apparently Saigon as well, you just need to walk. So that's what we do, mostly with our eyes closed. We have learned that we must look out for cars, but the bikes will look out for us. You cannot stop or hesitate as that causes more confusion and the bikes don't know which way to go to get around you. So far things have worked out well for us.

Hanoi is much closer to the China I know than Hong Kong. It's sort of dirty, there are a ton of people in a very small space, the streets are lined with all sorts of different shops selling anything you can imagine and there are tons of places to eat on the street. They even have meat on a stick! However, most people that we have come across here are very nice and they speak English. Definitely a change from Yantai. We spent our first night just wandering around the city. We felt an immense sense of pride that we were able to leave our hotel, wander around the city, eat, and find our way back. That seemed like enough for one evening. Our hotel is really nice and the people here are the most accomodating I think I've ever come across. For $55 a night we have a great room, a great staff and a full breakfast menu. They have helped us book everything we need from entertainment to hotel rooms elsewhere. Awesome.

The past 2 days we left Hanoi and went to Halong Bay, a 3.5 hour drive away. The drive was fine, we passed a lot of of paddies and small towns and "restaurants" specializing in dog (thit cho - which we were sure to memorize in Vietnamese before setting out). Halong Bay is absolutely beautiful. We lounged, ate, drank, kayaked, and saw a cave. We spent the night on the boat and then left there today around noon.

Once back at our hotel, we dropped our stuff and were off to do a little more roaming around the city. Unfortunately, by the time we made in back to the hotel, most of the touristy stuff had closed. And since we are leaving tomorrow morning, we won't get a chance to see it. We did see the One Pillar Pagoda and the outside of the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. Good enough. We've decided that since we only have a few days in each city and we're doing so much traveling that we weren't going to pressure ourselves to see everything in the city. We're pretty content just seeing a couple things and moving on. We also saw this water puppet show that was a bit odd and a bit cool.

So far vacation has been amazing - all 4 days of it! Missy is a really easy person to travel with as neither of us has a set itinerary, we're both happy to do whatever or nothing and are both flexible, understanding that not everything goes according to plan, which is sometimes better anyway. After my past few months in Yantai I have learned immense amounts of patience and flexibility.

We leave tomorrow to take a plane to Danang and from there a short(ish) taxi ride to Hoi An which is supposed to be beautiful. Very excited, and right now, very tired.

Anonymity

I MADE IT!

Hong Kong was great. Missy and I managed to meet eachother at the airport (w/o the use of our cell phones - imagine!). I was SO excited to see her I was literally almost in tears. In HK we meandered our way through the throngs of people, saw a very beautiful park in the mountains overlooking the city (which is not HUGE but consists of only skyscrapers), ate some sort of crappy Mexican food (but significantly better than what I have in Yantai, which is nothing), rode the tram for hours looking for a temple, which supposedly was across the street from a giant park, neither of which we found before giving up. However, the ride in the tram was entertaining enough. We also rode the ferry a couple times, which is a nice way to get from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island. We also navigatged our way through the subway systerm (which is a much faster way to get from Kowloon to HK). To borrow words from Missy, by the end of our trip, we were masters of Hong Kong public transportation.

We also had to get up early to go to the Vietnam Embassy to complete the saga that is my passport. While I was going in expecting lines and complications, it was surprisingly easy. We were 2nd in line and they told me they would have my passport ready in 15 minutes and get this - THEY DID!!! WHAT!!! Clearly Hong Kong is an entirely different entity than China :) In China I would have had to talk to 6 different people, fill out pages of paperwork that no one would explain to me, leave, come back, wait in more lines, promise my first born child, and offer them a pint of my blood and maybe my dog. This was way easy, a pleasant surprise.

We had a very short time in Hong Kong, but it was enough. We could have managed to find more to do had we stayed longer, but with a limited amount of time to go to all the places we wanted to see, I'm happy with what I experienced in Hong Kong. It's a very modern, diverse, crowded city. To me, it could have been a city pretty much anywhere. I thought I would like not being stared at everywhere I went, but as it turns out, I sort of missed it. Me wanting attention?? Who knew?

XXL

I bought a new winter coat today (for the bargain price of around $14).

At 5'2" , a hundred (and some odd) pounds, I am considered XXL.

I know the whole world thinks Americans are huge, but really, should I be considered an XXL person? China says yes.

Progress

My passport made it to Qingdao!! It arrived today, Sunday January 4th. I am now thankful that China post works 7 days a week. Turns out that the lady in the office "forgot" to send it. Just an oops for her, while the whole of my travel plans rests on her ability to put the envelope in the mail. argh! (ohh, and now apparently I'm a pirate as well, who says "argh"?)

So now we are onto Phase 2, which is obtaining my residence visa so that once I leave the country I can actually come back in (although I know there are some people who would prefer I not be allowed back in and therefore forced to return to Chicago, not mentioning names you know who you are). I will get my visa for Vietnam during the day and a half Missy and I are in Hong Kong. What's the over/under on getting that in time?? Well, one issue at a time...

Passport Issue #6,832,957,401

The problems never end. I sent my passport to Qingdao (a 3hr drive from Yantai) on Dec. 26th. Today is Jan. 2nd and it has yet to arrive there. I leave for my Hong Kong/Vietnam/Thailand trip on Jan. 10th. So at the moment I have no passport, and obviously no Chinese visa.

This is a HUGE problem.

Ugh.