We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) fortified by time away from cities in Hoi An and Halong Bay. Southeast Asia has officially entered the wet season so our first view of HCMC was through the rain-streaked windows of our taxi. Despite the rain (or perhaps encouraged to be decisive precisely because of the rain) we found a place to stay in a guesthouse near city center fairly quickly. After a number of days here, we are still confused by the family th...

For three days Christina and I enjoyed the quaint Vietnamese town of Hoi-An. Hoi-An is located in the middle of Vietnam along the eastern coast a few miles south of China Beach and Danang which the US military used as a major port of entry for the Vietnam War. Within Vietnam, Hoi-An is especially known for its ubiquitous clothing and tailoring industry so we decided to look into getting some inexpensive tailor made clothing. A few steps from our hotel we found To...

We are currently sitting on a boat in Halong Bay, Vietnam.We do not have internet here, obviously, but I will post this entry as soon as we are near a computer again.We arrived in Halong Bay two days ago and have had a fun time onboard the boat.This trip is our first "tour" since beginning our travels and we were initially rather wary of such a structured program.However, we wanted to visit Halong Bay and it is a difficult place to visit on one's own.Wh...

We arrived in Vietnam about five days ago and spent the first few days in Hanoi, the capital city, located in northern Vietnam.The minute we arrived in the Hanoi airport, Vietnam felt very different from any of the other Southeast Asian countries that we have already visited - perhaps more similar to China than to Laos, Cambodia or Thailand.The people that we have met thus far in Vietnam seem much more aggressive than any of the other Southeast Asian countries an...