Vietnam

We were stuck in Vientiane for about 5 days, waiting for money and our bus departure date. The $50 we were able to get from our Visa that one day ended up coming from nowhere. We called Visa and they had no record of us taking that money out - awesome! We got everything sorted out with the help of my (Noelle) mom. Continuing with our bad luck in Vientiane, Randy was super sick for a few days and we checked into a hotel with bed bugs. Luckily Randy did a thourough search and we found a bed bug!! We high-tailed it out of there before the bugs had time to do anything.

The bus trip to Hanoi, Vietnam was quite an adventure. It took us 30 hours on the sleeping bus. There were around 35 seats, but at least 60 people were crammed into the bus. It was so crowded. There was a couple sitting in the isle between Randy and I. At one point, the woman was sleeping with her head on Randy's chest, and her legs on my lap. The border was also crazy! It took us 3 hours to get through. On the Laos side, we had to push and shove our way to the counter to get our passports stamped. The power went out and we were scared for our passports to get lost in the crowd. We waited and eventually they got stamped. We then walked to the Vietnam side in the cold rain. There we got stamped again and waited some more for our bus to pass through. The Vietnamese guards thouroughly checked the bus and yelled at Randy when he took a picture. After more waiting in the rain, we eventually boarded the bus again.

Hanoi was a crazy city. The traffic is nuts; when crossing, the mopeds weave around you. It might almost be easier to cross with your eyes closed :) We went to visit the Ho Chi Minh museum-not too exciting. We took a 2 day boat tour of Halong Bay. It was beautiful, but cloudy so we couldn't see as much as we had hoped. We visited a cave and went kayaking. In the evening, our tour guide and the cooks on the boat sucked us all into a karaoke party. Apparently it's big in Asia. Randy wasn't feeling well again, so we left soon into it.

We arrived in Hue 2 days ago. We visited the old city which is completely surrounded by a wall and a moat. Inside the city is a Citadel, which is also surrounded by a wall and moat. This is where the emperor resided until the early 1900s. It was cool to see the old buildings, or what's left of them. Yesterday we spent the day relaxing. We watched some movies and took a short walk. It was New Year's Eve so we walked to the River and watched some fireworks at midnight. The streets were so full, and the traffic after was the craziest thing ever!! There was constant honking (even at the best of times in Vietnam, people are honking for no reason). Today we head to Hoi An. Hopefully the weather will be a little warmer there (it's been around 10-15 C and mostly drizzly). We'll post pictures soon again.