The main point is to see the world

Hey all,

Who knows whether I'll get the time to update this much, but as I woke up at 5:30am this morning, might as well create it in case there are other times I get a chance to write. This way if I happen to get lots of time you can read at your leisure instead of me flooding your inbox...

We'll start with the two emails I've sent to the immediate family:

Saturday afternoon:
Got to Vietnam safe and sound. Just hoping our luggage follows soon (did not make it on our flight) :(. Met a nice couple from Melbourne on the plane, shared a taxi to Hanoi with them, and found nice hotel rooms for $15 per night. Had a nice lunch with them and our bags are supposed to be delivered to the hotel tonight. Cross your fingers for us.
Talk soon!

Saturday evening:
Alright, got the bags.

Wow, you should see the way traffic works here. I really don't think it can be explained in a way it can be understood without experiening it. Suffice it to say the only road rule it seems has any semblence of a following is to sort of stay to the right two-thirds of the road. Pretty much, everyone just weaves around just as you would when walking on the sidewalk--even at intersections. No stopping, just weaving around other vehicles. Of course everyone's constantly giving courtesy honks (not rude honks) to make sure people know they are there. When crossing the road on foot, you just have to go for it realizing that vehicles don't stop, they just weave around pedestrians. Insane, but we got used to it in about 15 minutes.

More later.

--Jerm