Hello Again, this time from a hotel in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. We woke up this morning and had to decide on whether we were gonna pay for another night in our Bangkok hostel (despite the pounding noise from 2200-0200, it was a pretty cheap and convenient location) or were we gonna hope that our Vietnam visa letters came in so we could get a flight out that night. As we were debating and the time to check out was drawing closer and closer, the letters arrived, so we quickly looked online and found flights out to HCMC at 1530. So we booked them, rapidly packed up, ran outside and found a place to arrange our transport to the airport as well as print our letters. It was hectic but we managed.

A bit of background on Vietnam, essentially as a foreigner you have to either apply beforehand with your passport or you can get a letter of welcoming from a travel agency in Vietnam and then the country will issue you the visa at the airport. We didn't want to waste the time waiting for our Visas from an embassy, so went with the second option.

Upon getting to our flight check-in counter we realized we were gonna have to pay a crapload of money to check our bags. So, we did a minor purge of our belongings and got rid of some non-essential items (mostly clothes) and after putting on two pairs of socks and underwear, wearing 2 shirts, 2 jackets, and checking the weight of my bag about 5 times we made it through with only one checked bag (still $43usd, so annoying) but that meant we saved the same amount by not having to check Ally's bag. The flight was uneventful and we got our visas in HCMC with no hassles. We then took a taxi to the backpacker area of the city in district one called Pham Ngu Lao street, and after negotiating for a bit with several hotels found one with a huge room (and clean) that was within our budget.

First impressions of the city are that its just as hectic and crazy as Hanoi. The streets are filled with honking cars and millions of scooters that weave in and out of the traffic. Its pretty fun to watch, and I'm looking forward to paying for a taxi scooter ride. We have about 5 days here before we have to leave for the Philippines Frisbee tournament. Should be a fun couple of days exploring the city and checking out all the temples, pagodas, and museums.