Hello from Vietnam!

I just got back last night from Ha Long Bay, where I spent Halloween on a tiny private island during a 3-day cruise.  It was one of those budget last minute holiday deals that ended up being a delightful trip.  Half the boat thought I was Zach Galifianakis, the other half figured out my pirate costume.  Good times were had by all.

Now for some bad news.  The OSX partition of my hard drive has gone wonky, which means all the posts I was working on are now unavailable.  I’m having to use the Windows partition I have for gaming as a temporary fix.  Unfortunately that means my Annapurna series is on hold for a bit, but I’ll come back to it as well as India when I can figure out the problem.

Right now I’m back in Hanoi, though I’ll be leaving for Hue this evening by bus.  Vietnam has been really fun, especially our hostel here.  These guys do it right.  Spacious lockers, private charging stations and bed lamps, great food and drink, and tons of helpful staff.  If I ever open my own hostel, I’m totally stealing all their ideas.

The food here, especially the street food, has been delicious and cheap.  Lots of pork, chicken and beef.  All the noodle dishes are fantastic, and spring rolls cost just 5k dong (.25 cents US) a pop.  The great thing is most of it isn’t fried, which is one thing that was difficult for me about the street food in India.

I’ll have more to come soon, as well as pictures, but right now I have to check out!