Updated Itinerary

NOTE - it's a pretty long, wordy post...sorry! I feel like I needed to update everyone on what's happened so far! =)

It's been a crazy and somewhat unproductive week - I swear, I shouldn't travel by the seat of my pants. =) On the bright side though...if this is the worse that it will be during the next 5-6 weeks...I'm golden!

There's a theme though...I was officially done with work on the 1st of November but I don't know where all the time went!! What's happened so far:

• week of November 4th thru the 10th - worked sporadically to finish up some transition items
• 5 November - I finally made it to New Market in Dhamondi. Man - I wish I had visited there before! =)
• 7 November - movie night at Geetha's - we watched Water (it was my second time, but I still cried!)
• 8 November - Homebound movers came to pack my fragile items and put everything in a big box to ship over the ocean. Damn - I should have taken a picture, it was pretty cool!
• 10 November - JIPL Career Planning, CV Writing and Interviewing Skills workshop
• 11 November - departed Dhaka to Hong Kong (via a long layover in Singapore)
• 12 November - arrive in Hong Kong in time to meet up with my dad for dinner (yum!)
• 13 November - busy busy busy!!
  - get Vietnam visa (while you wait in the HKG office)
  - repacked (when I left Dhaka, I threw EVERYTHING in last minute)
  - left my luggage at the hotel for an extended stay (to get picked up on my way back)
  - booked tickets for the international portions of my trip via my dad's travel agent in HKG
  - and took the ferry to ZhuHai with my dad. He has a nice apartment there. Can't wait to spend more time there - he's right across from the beach...FANTASTIC views! (I'll post later)
• 14 November - relaxed in ZhuHai...repacked my travel bags (man - when I'm rushed, I over pack!!)
• 15 November - back to Hong Kong via Ferry, picked up my tickets for the remainder of my trip and attempt to check in for my flight to Hanoi, Vietnam only to find out that my Vietnam visa is dated for entry based on my original itinerary (before I booked tickets)...so the adventure begins and we/I:
  - change my ticket to depart to Bangkok on the 8pm flight instead of 3pm...and change my connection to Hanoi for the next day
  - eat brunch since we rushed into Hong Kong from ZhuHai to make an 11am appt for my dad to get additional pages added to his US passport at the US embassy
  - go to the Vietnam embassy to update my visa
  - check in for my updated flight to Bangkok
  - have an extended stay at the HKG international airport, so then update some flights since my dad wants to return to the US on the 22nd of December instead of the 23rd...so I changed 2 flights to accommodate. (I could already see that I was going to get tired of traveling on my own and could use an early return to Hong Kong to break up the return flight to SFO.)
  - fly to Bangkok, hoping to check in for a good night's sleep at the transit hotel...get quoted $285USD for an executive suite because there was a flight delayed and passengers were all routed to stay overnight.
  - decide to go cheap and stay at the hotel business center until they close at 1am - before returning to spend the rest of the night at the BKK airport before my 7am flight to Hanoi. (It was only like 6 hours! Thank goodness I found shower facilities that I could pay for in BKK - I was pretty RANK from all that running around!)
• 16 November - fly from BKK to Hanoi

...and here I am now, in Hanoi. The plans were to book a train, bus or plane directly from the Hanoi airport to get to Central Vietnam to spend the majority of my time. I was told that there's been some severe rains in that area, so better to fly in. Thank goodness flights were relatively cheap on Vietnam Airways ($123 round trip to Danang from Hanoi). No flights available for today, so I'm on the first flight out tomorrow morning.

So - I booked a hotel and got into town around 12:30pm. It was about an hour ride into Hanoi from the airport and $10 on the taxi (kind of expensive considering that my hotel in Hoi An is only $10 a night). I'm using this extra time to rest up since I didn't really sleep in the airport last night...get caught up on travel plans and of course catch everyone up with what's happened so far. =) I haven't been too adventurous, although I did walk around the neighborhood to get my bearings and purchase some necessary hygiene supplies and water. Conversion rate is roughly 16,000 Vietnam Dong to $1USD and the extra zeroes are seriously throwing me for a loop! Everyone just drops the zeroes in their price quotes. Weird.

Here's my updated itinerary as far as I know it now - I still have yet to firm up some travel in Cambodia and book tickets for Laos...but I'll keep you updated as things change. My dad gave me a SIM card to use while I'm traveling and I'm SMSing him as I arrive at various locations so my family knows where I am. I'll update the blog as well whenever possible.

Can I just mention how FAST the internet is here in comparison to Dhaka?!! SUPER HIGH SPEED!! (I'm such a peasant...easily impressed!)

Okay - back to the itinerary...man this is a LONG POST!!

• 16 - 24 November - Vietnam (Hanoi, Hoi An and Hue)
• 25 - 29 November - back to Bangkok (Ko Samet and Ayuthaya)
• 29 November thru 11 December - BKK to Chang Mai (Chang Rai, Thailand for a couple of days, then off to Laos - Ventianne, Luang Prabang)
• 11 - 20 December - Cambodia (Phnom Penh and Siem Reap)
• 21 December - Phnom Penh to Bankok to Hong Kong (pick up luggage, meet up with my dad...maybe do a day trip back into China to get a stamp in my passport so that I can get a multiple entry for my August Olympic trip.)
• 22 December - return to the USA. =)

phew!! I'm tired just typing all that out. Now I've got to go confirm some hotel bookings and write down which flights I need to make reservations for. Talk to you all soon!!