Went down to a travel place to see about the possibilities for making it into Vietnam in time for Tet on Feb 3. It's do-able, but I'm gonna have to pay the price for leaving it til the last minute.... not that I'd change a thing, as the day to day check-in seemed truer than any fixed itinerary. But now that I've uprooted from chillin' in Chiang Mai, I'm ready to push it a little bit and put on some miles.
The best option would have been a direct flight from Luang Prabang to Hanoi, but they're sold out, so I have to go south through Vientienne and then connect to Hanoi. I could fly to Vientienne, but the connection isn't good so I'm looking at an overnight, 12 hour bus ride and then a flight that puts me into Hanoi on the 1st of Feb. in the late afternoon. Then I'll have to figure out how to get to Lan Anhs mom's house the next day, or maybe later that same day. There's also the matter of the visa, which is $90 for a month's stay in Vietnam, but that can't be helped.
It would be easy to just say, forget it, do something else, but there's a huge draw in seeing my Vietnamese friend, and more than that, I'm REALLY ready to get off the gringo trail and get away from 'where you from?' 'how long are you traveling' It's been too easy, too tourist centered, and it's time to get off that train. So I'm gonna spend the money and stay up all night as some kind of penance, that hopefully puts me into a non-tourist environment. That's the theory anyhow, and once I lay the money down tomorrow morning, It's a go. I'm ready.
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