Good morning Vietnam!

Wow its been a while. We've been so busy trying to figure things out as well as walking around and the computers at the hostel are quite slow.
Anyhow, we arrived in Hanoi, Vietnam on Saturday April 26th in the afternoon. I had booked a hostel with the recommendation of the trustee lonely planet so that we would have a destination. I didn't want to get picked up at the airport because i was nervous about the set price and the hotel manager wouldn't get back to me with the acual price. Anyhow, we arrived at the airport and a lot of people were being greated my family and friends and we were joking that our friends were also going to meet us and welcome us. Just then, Julie looked over to a sign and said, "hey isn't that your name?" ahahaha. The hotel had sent for a pick up without us expecting it. The driver was really nice, him and is friend drove us into the old part of Hanoi to the hotel. This is where the craziness began.
We had heard about trying to walk and cross the streets in Hanoi however i had no idea it was going to be this insane. There are traffic lights at the odd intersection however there really aren't any rules oh which way to drive or a right of way. IT is acually like the game frogger where you slowly make your way accross the road hoping not to get it. We found that it was best not to look and just walk because it really doens't make much difference.
Hanoi is really neat. Its developping really quickly however still has a completely asian feel. It has a lot of markets as well as a large lake in the middle of the old section of the city which you would think would help with navigating the city however everytime we leave the hotel we get lost for an hour or more! The roads literally change names in the middle of nowhere for no reason. At least there is a lot to see.
Julie has a cousin who lives in Hanoi therefore her husband and her came to pick us up at the hotel on skooters and brought us out for a great meal. We also went to the ngiht market and to see the house where Julie's father was born. It was great to travel around Hanoi or motorbikes, there were points that i had to close my eyes.
Our hotel is really niceas well and the hotel manager is a workaholic. He is always there wether its 10 at night or 5 in the morning. He arranged our Laos visas for us as welll as our tour to Halong Bay and CatBa (where we are now).
The boat tour to Halong Bay was absolutely amazing! There were only 10 of us on the boat that picked us up in Halong City at which point we had a great lunch and chekced into our bunkees on board. We cruised to Halong Bay to see the caves and went kayaking around the moutnains for a while. We got back on board and hung out of the top deck with great lounge chairs and listened to music, read a biut and had a snooze... rough life eh? Then it was dinner time! We met a really sweet English couple as well as a girl from Australia who has been travelling with a Russian Punk star...so halarious... He acually played with one of the Ramones! HArdcore!
What else???? WE slept on the boat last night which was really nice and woke up for breakfast and a cruise to the Cat Ba island where we were brought to the Cat Ba national park. Unforunately we didn't see any monkeys. We did an hour treck to the top of a samll mountain. Unfortunately we didn't know this was the plan and had to do the trek in our flip flops! We sucked it up and did it anyhow! At the top of the mountain was a rickety old rusty lookout tower that had a sign posted that read '5 people at a time' the other side read '20 people at a time'.... we decided to go with the 5 people rule just to be safe although our guide kept flipping it to the 20 people side....SKETCHY! Then we spent the afternoon on a beautiful beach! We will be staying here for a few days.
On Friday morning we will be headed back to Hanoi to then find our way to Loas.
Tonight we hope to find our way to a Kareoke bar to rock out with Dennis the Russian Punk Star!

Talk to you soon,
miss you all, really... except those of you who my mom has pushed this blog onto and that i don't really know because i wouldn't know to miss you would i?