A venture into Vietnam (and personal blog writing)

Once again Donavan and I have left the cat-infested comfort of our North Portland home for a curiosity voyage. Vietnam has lured us with the promise of beautiful landscapes, cities packed with interesting goods and people, and most of all, cheap and exotic foods. With only a flight into Hanoi, two nights at a hotel booked, and a flight out of Ho Chi Min City, we have the freedom to venture from the top of the country to the bottom in whatever pattern we desire over the next 15 days. The planning side of me is nervous, but the adventurous side couldn’t be more stoked!

This is not the first trip that we have taken where we blindly fly into a foreign city with only a few ideas about where we will end up, but it is the first that I am digitally documenting. Writing about my own experiences is not something that I am particularly deft at yet, but I have written so many articles professionally, that I’m hoping one about my own wanderings and musings will be well received.

I write to you comfortable and well-rested from our hotel room in the old quarter of Hanoi. The prior 48 hours were an exhausting blur of uncomfortable plane seats and rushing through airports, which left me delirious until we finally got a proper night of sleep last night. Even in my stupor, we were still able to venture out yesterday to try a fishy, salty bowl of noodles with crab and shrimp, and walk to a temple in the middle of a lake with lights that blinked on as the sun started to set, magically lighting up the incense smoke wafting throughout.

I’m not sure how we survived not being hit as we crossed the streets; while I had read that the city streets are bustling with scooters with no rules governing right-of-way, the actual experience of walking into a street brazenly hoping that no one will hit you is another thing.

Also, I saw my first Vietnamese cat of the trip.