Here is an email I sent my parents…
Heya!
Sorry it took so long to write to you…I’ve been trying for the last 6 hours or so but someone’s been on the free internet at our hotel.
Flights went perfect (besides me freezing my inflight entertainment system about an hour into the 13 hour flight to Hong Kong). But the airport here was a bit nuts. We may as well have had a big target painted on us because we looked like deers in headlights. Everyone wanted to take us to “their” hotel and rip us off in the process. but it worked out fine. We took the minibus and saw a cow hanging out on the side of the highway, a cage full of chickens on the back of someone’s scooter, 2 ducks on the back of someone’s scooter, a family of 4 on one scooter… and we almost hit about 10 people and about 50 vehicles on the way into town. Rules dont really exist on roads here.
Got here yesterday at about noon… 10pm your time… and it was a bit of a gongshow getting to a place to stay. got ripped off by a few people and everything… still only managed to spend a bit over 15 dollars to get from the airport to the hostel we stayed at.
Today we met up with the group, had some beers (20 cents for a glass at one place on the side of the road), and food (less than 4 bucks for a nice noodle stirfry with beef and veggies and a big bottle of “Tiger beer”).
Tomorrow we head out for Halong bay in the morning. Should be fun. Hanging out at a secluded beach, chillin’ in a boat, having some drinks… Couldn’t get much better.
Time to go to bed. Have to be up at about 7am to get some breakfast, exchange some money, find a little day pack, then be ready to jump on the bus by 8:30.
When I get home, Look for my full journal to be posted here. Until then, it’s all just copies of emails.