Day 2 Here I come!

After my giant 35 cent meal for lunch, I was very happy getting a chocolate milk, some bread and eating my complimentary Asian pear in my room for dinner last night.

Oh and also hibernating in my room rubbing my sore feet from walking all day, enjoying a good shower with my shampoo and conditioner and putting some new clothes on since my bag arrived!!! Yay.

TV in the room featured aaaaaaa AMERICAN IDOL (and the recent episode too)..It almost felt like I was home:) That was followed by falling asleep to "Funny People" on good old HBO...Before that was some serious ESPN watching (but it was with British commentators?).

Anyway, its 6:15am and I think I finally got a full decent night's sleep. Last night I really was looking into my next plans after Hanoi. Tonight I have booked myself a 3 night/2 day trip to SAPA into the mountain villages of Northern Vietnam to visit the H'mong people and some trekking--I'll be ready to get out of the city. It's an overnight train ride both ways but I know will be such an incredible experience many miss out on. I get back Monday morning at 5am and am getting on a bus to the famous Halong Bay after that for a 2 night/3 day adventure.

Its after Halong Bay that I am tossing a lot on...my first thoughts were always to make my way south to the central coastal cities of Hue and Hoi An. Lots of history there with the war and meant to be a beautiful train ride...but my 12 week trip doesn't seem that long anymore when I try and map out where I want to go after that....but I think I am going to do it though. I really want to see the differences in the major geographical parts of Vietnam. I'm planning on then just flying from Hoi An (Da nang) to Ho Chi Minh City after that to stay with the Doty family.

So today on the agenda, headed to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum to visit the corpse of Northern Vietnam's great leader Ho Chi Minh. Somebody said I gotta get there early.....Then walking, museums and getting to the famous water puppet show that is at 2:15pm which I bought a ticket to yesterday. I think I'll be pretty wiped and head back to the hostel after that. The hostel is great and let you shower and hang out even if you are not staying there for the night. I am meant to get picked up at 8pmish for the Sapa trip.

Time to get going...