Hanoi--Toto, we're not in Hong Kong anymore!!Now I realize how smart it was to stop in Hong Kong on my way to Vietnam. Hong Kong was meant to ease me out of familiarity. The different time, different food, different language... My plane landed 2 hours ago and my adventure has begun. Nothing is familiar.Off to a good start. I met another solo traveler on the plane. we shared a ride into the Old Quarter, dodging through bikes and motorcycles sharing the narrow ...

The Wisdom PathImagine a tree 2 feet in diameter split straight down the middle, bark stripped from the round side. The flat side has Chinese characters carved in it. 260 words are used, 38 wooden collumns enscribed with the Heart Sutra are placed in a figure 8 (the symbol for eternity) rising from the hillltop. Each collumn faces the same dirction around the 8, thus the front sides face out on 1/2 the 8 and in on the other 1/2. The heart sutra describes the real...

Just a short postcard for everyone! I've arrived in Hong Kong. Safe and sound. I've just been tooling around town today and ran into this internet cafe. (Ironically, it's inside a McDonalds.) No new pictures downloaded yet, but I'll get to that soon enough. For those of you interested, there's a 12 hour difference (13 for some of you), so your day is my night. It was a fairly easy transition, surprisingly enough. Guess all that excitement kept...

Hi there, Feeling a bit sentimental today with 3 days to go. And already thinking that I'd like to see all of your crazy faces when I'm on the road. So I've posted a new photo albumn with some not so perfect pictures that seem to make me giggle just a little. Danita Jo

The question of the day: When do you leave? The answer: Saturday, Dec 9th Oh My! I can't believe it's actually here. I'm running around trying to wrap up a million different things so I can leave with nothing on my mind. But for all of you who just want to know more about my plans, here's the overview of my schedule. Week 1 Hong Kong and Vietnam Week 2 Vietnam (the northern cities) Week 3 Vietnam (working my way down central cities ...