Less than one month to go!

25 days and counting until we leave for Vietnam!

We couldn’t be more excited about this trip.  It’s going to be the experience of a lifetime!  After having booked our flights about 4 months ago, we have finally started putting the rest of the trip in stone.

We got our Vietnamese multi-entry visas a few weeks ago.  The process was very quick once we were able to determine the cost (the embassy takes their time responding to emails!).  This is my first visa, so I may be slightly more excited than Jaime when flipping through my passport.  Not all of us get to tag along for business trips to China!  We also got an extra passport photo for the Cambodian visa that we’ll get at the border.

I recently received immunizations for typhoid (four pills) and hepatitis A (a one-time shot).  Luckily I was told malaria isn’t much of a problem where we’ll be going.  Mosquitoes tend to love me wherever I go and I expect it to be a global trend.  Jaime on the other hand decided to “wing it” and didn’t get any shots.  Here’s to both of our’s health on the trip!

Now for the tentative itinerary:

We’ll be leaving March 20th and arriving in Hanoi at 11pm on the 21st.  We’ll be staying at the Rising Dragon Hotel, and have opted for the airport pickup service they provide since we’ll be getting in so late.  We’ll leave on Wednesday to fly into Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Depending on the arrival time in Cambodia (it looks like late afternoon), we’ll check out the city for the night and visit Ankgor Wat on Thursday.  Wednesday night will be spent at the Dead Fish Tower Guesthouse.  Yes, the name was a major selling point.  The other was that guests receive a free head massage upon checking in!

Thursday, at some point, we’ll make our way to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) where we’ll spend our final four nights at Madam Cuc Hotel 127.  The name was less of a draw for this one…I promise.  Then on Sunday night, we begin our journey back to the United States with a nice 12-14 hour layover in South Korea.

As far as attractions go, Cambodia is the only easy one.  In Hanoi, we will definitely make a side trip to Halong Bay, and then in HCMC we’ll visit the Mekong Delta.  Everything else is pretty much up in the air for now.  I’m sure we’ll come up with a few other attractions, but we generally like to go with the flow and see what opportunities arise en route.

That’s it for now, and may be the last update before we leave, but we’ll be sure to share our favorite stories when we return from this trip!