Hanoi, Vietnam, Asia I found out this morning that I was going to have to pay $30 to cancel my trip to Sa Pa, which didn’t make me too thrilled, and I decided to move to a different hotel that was cheaper. Triumphal Hotel has been brilliant, but at $22 a night for just me, it was a bit pricey, so I booked Hoan Kiem Grand Hotel for $9 a night for a single room. Of course right after I…
Hanoi, Vietnam, Asia Today did not start out well. I got up at 6:15am after getting about three hours sleep to watch the last Red Sox game of the season. We had to win to have a shot in the playoffs and it was looking good for a while. We were winning 3-2 and the Rays were losing 7-0, but it didn’t stay that way. The Sox gave up their lead in the 9th to lose 4-3 and the Rays…
Hanoi, Vietnam, Asia We slept a bit later today and didn’t wake up till 8am, which was pretty nice. This hotel room only has a window out into a hallway, and not outside, so it stayed pretty dark, which was excellent for getting some much needed sleep after that long day of travel yesterday. We had breakfast up at the restaurant in the hotel and watched the Red Sox win a pivotal game against the Orioles to stay tied with…
Hanoi, Vietnam, Asia We got up this morning at 7am, packed up our things and went downstairs for breakfast at 7:30am. At exactly 8:10am the bus pulled up to bring us to the pier, right on time. We were on the bus with all the same people we hiked the mountain with yesterday, so it was nice to say hi and see some familiar faces. As soon as we got to the pier though, they headed off in one direction,…
Cat Ba, Vietnam, Asia I woke up this morning after a pretty awful night’s sleep. I didn’t realize that the power had cut out at about 1am, so the A/C turned off and came back on just as a fan. It was roasting in the room. I tried to fix it in the dark, but it turns out the remote was only in Japanese, so I had no idea what any of the buttons did or what it was saying…
Halong Bay, Vietnam, Asia We woke up this morning after a surprisingly good night’s sleep at Astoria Hotel and packed up our things. We had a very basic breakfast at the hotel, but it was enough to give us the energy we needed to get through the morning. In hindsight I wish I had eaten more, but I’ll get to that in a bit. We were picked up by the tour company at 8am and we were in a pretty…
Hanoi, Vietnam, Asia We got up this morning, packed up our gear and checked out of the hotel at 6:30am. We had a breakfast-to-go bag waiting for us at reception and a taxi was outside, ready to bring us to the airport. We had another smooth check-in at the airport, got through security and walked straight onto the plane. Vietnam Airlines has been wonderful both times I’ve flown with them now, I would highly recommend them. The plane was only…
Hue, Vietnam, Asia We woke up this morning at 7am to the sound of pouring rain outside. We checked out the forecast for the rest of the day and it didn’t look like it was going to get any better, so we headed down to the restaurant for breakfast and then out for the day. The rain never let up all day long, but at least the temperature is much lower than I’ve been used to. It’s only about 29*C…
Hue, Vietnam, Asia We got up this morning and realized we’d slept later today than any other day of Dad’s visit. It was 7:15am and it was still pitch black in the room. They had some really good darkening shades in the room, so we weren’t disturbed at all. We were still early enough to watch the Sox lose another game to the Orioles before going to have our buffet breakfast in the restaurant by the pool. They had an…
Hoi An, Vietnam, Asia We got up this morning and had a nice breakfast at our hotel. They made us omelet’s and served them with a nice French baguette. I guess the French influence hasn’t been completely lost in Vietnam. We walked up to the War Remnants Museum and got there for about 9am. It only cost 15,000 dong ($0.75) to get in, and it was the most interesting museum I’ve been in on this trip. We obviously learn about…