After a long, long time travelling, we finally made it to the hotel in Hoi An that we booked for one night before our volunteering is to begin. We will be picked up to move to another hotel of our host's choosing tomorrow.

The trip has been full of surprises, both good and bad, but mostly good.

The stops in Los Angeles and in Taipei were fine. We spent some time in the airports waiting for the next flights, but all was okay. I'd rather have extra time on layovers than have to rush between flights.

When we arrived in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, after twenty-nine hours traveling thus far, the surprises started. This is the first time I have been to Asia, and it is the first time for both of us to visit a communist country. I have been somewhat apprehensive about going through customs and immigration, but it all turned out okay.

When we arrived at the HCMC airport, we picked up our luggage and headed for customs and immigration. We took the green line through customs since we had nothing to declare. At immigration, there were lines for various citizenship groups. The lines for Vietnamese coming home and the lines for other southeast Asian countries and China were the shortest and moved quickly. We found the lines for North Americans and Europeans which were the longest and slowest. While we were waiting, we chatted with others in line as many of the people did. We were quickly chastised for that by the immigration agent at the head of our line who told us to be quiet and to straighten the line. He stepped from behind the counter and made motions with his arms to show us to put the lines straight and single-file.

When we finally got up to our time to talk to the agent, both Philip and I walked up together. The agent shooed Philip back into the line and said, "One at a time." He motioned for me to come forward which I did. I handed over my passport expecting a formal exchange of words with the agent. I was so surprised. He inspected my passport thoroughly then looked up at me and smiled sweetly saying, "You Bah-Bah-Rah." I smiled back at him and said that "Yes, I am." He stamped my passport and handed it back with a "Welcome to Vietnam." When Philip stepped up next, the agent changed back into the serious, no-nonsense person we were expecting.

We found an ATM inside the airport to get some local currency. I put in my debit card and pressed the button for 2,000,000 dong. How funny it was to see such big numbers on the ATM. I have never before and probably will never again get two million of anything out of a bank. It is equal to about one hundred dollars. With some cash in hand for tips, we went looking for our next contact.

We were not able to print our Vietnam Airline tickets for the last flight from HCMC to Da Nang, because it is not allowed. I don't know if the government doesn't allow it or the airline, but we arrived in HCMC with only a voucher to trade for prepaid tickets. Our travel agent used her contacts to make some of the bookings in Vietnam for us, and one of the things she arranged was for us to get the airline tickets from a guide we met at the HCMC airport who would also take us on a quick city tour and to a restaurant for lunch. After making it through customs, we went to the meeting point to look for the person with our on-going tickets. We found him, but he didn't seem to speak much English. He gave us the tickets, showed us the way out of the international terminal to the regional terminal, and indicated that we should go ahead and check in with Vietnam Airlines and leave our luggage. After we checked in and dropped off our luggage, we returned to the same place to look for our guide for the afternoon. We never saw him again. But we had the tickets we needed, and weren't too disappointed to skip the tour. We were pretty tired anyway. We ate lunch in the airport at the only place we could find which was a very basic cafeteria--just a few packaged foods.

The flight from HCMC to Da Nang was quick--about an hour and a half. The plane was huge with ten seats across and better snacks than what we get at home. We had seats near the center of the economy section. One of the other volunteers arriving for our program told me through email a few days ago that she would be on the same flight, but we did not connect with her.

When we arrived in Da Nang, we picked up the luggage and everything made it with us. With all the changes, I was worried that we might not get here with it all.

Another one of the arrangements our travel agent had done for us was to book a car service to pick us up at the Da Nang airport and drop us off at our hotel in Hoi An about thirty kilometers away. Outside the airport, we found a line of men with signs with peoples' names or companies written on them. We looked through the line once, then twice and didn't find our name on any of them. We retreated a bit to talk over this development wondering what to do next. We didn't have to wait very long before one of the men stepped out of the line, came over to us, and asked us who we were looking for. His English was good enough for us to understand most everything he said. The other customers from our plane all seemed to be dispersed by then so he wasn't going to miss finding who he was there to pick up.

I told him that we were supposed to be picked up by someone from the Trails of Indochina company and showed him our itinerary with the company logo on it. He said he knew who that was and made a phone call. Another driver came over to help, too. The second driver turned his clipboard over and showed me that he had a Trails of Indochina sticker on it. He worked for them, too, but was at the airport to pick up someone else from a different flight. He pulled out his cell phone and started making calls. They both made more phone calls, and after much discussion told us that we were going to take a taxi to the hotel. I objected telling him that we had paid for the transfer in advance, but he insisted that we would not be expected to pay. The person who was supposed to pick us up wasn't coming for some unknown reason. I don't know why we trusted these guys, but we did. I guess seeing that one had an official-looking label with the company's name on it made them seem legitimate.

He led us to a taxi and explained to the driver what he was to do. We loaded up all the luggage in the trunk of the car which seemed like a good idea at the time--more on that to come--then got in the taxi. I had the phone numbers for the tour company with me and instructions on what to do if plans fell through, but we didn't call them. Before we left the parking lot, one of the policemen stopped our taxi. The driver told him what he was doing (I imagine) and called over the first man that helped us. After more discussion, we were told that we could go and they made way for the car to proceed. So we were off to the hotel enjoying the beautiful and exotic scenery in a cab with a driver who spoke no English. I could tell we were heading south as expected since the sun was setting to our right side. That was a good start.

We expected the ride to take thirty-five to forty minutes. After forty-five minutes and what seemed to be a little bit of back-tracking when we thought we should be getting close to the hotel, the driver pulled over and got out and talked to a man in front of a shop. Everybody chattered and pointed animatedly before the driver got back in the car and we started off again. This happened three more times while Philip and I were wondering what was going on. It was over an hour past the time we left the airport, and we realized that the driver was lost or didn't know where the hotel was. He stopped and asked for directions four times. Repeating... this man asked for directions over and over, and it seemed normal.

As I mentioned earlier, we put all the luggage in the trunk of his car including the Vietnamese phrasebook and dictionary I brought so we couldn't ask him for an explanation. Phil pulled out his cell phone and tried to offer it to the guy, but I'm not sure if any of us would have known how to make a call from it.

The fourth time he stopped, it was well past sundown, streetlights on, dark outside, and more than an hour after leaving the airport. This time he pulled over suddenly right up to the curb in a busy urban area. All we could see at first was a pair of legs outside the window and an arm reaching down to open the car door. Guess who it was! The second man that had talked to us at the airport was there and climbed in the front seat. He explained that the driver did not know where the hotel was, but he was going to show him the way. We were close, but it was a few more kilometers away. Shortly, we arrived at the hotel. The taxi driver unloaded our luggage and disappeared quickly taking our good Samaritan with him. We left the voucher for our transfer with the hotel so I suppose he did get reimbursed.

Check in at the Life Heritage Resort Hoi An hotel went smoothly. Yay! We were given a welcome drink of mixed fruit juice -- very tasty and cool and welcome after our exciting cab adventure. Our junior suite is beautiful--a private lanai in front with two daybeds; inside the louvered double doors is a sitting area with couch, chairs, dining table and desk; then up two steps to a king-sized bedroom and huge bathroom with walk-in shower. It's on the second floor, walk-up, with a wonderful view of the river.

We had dinner at Senses Restaurant on the resort's property and went to bed early although we were not as tired as we had expected.