It's a rainy day in the neighborhood...At least, that's if your neighborhood is Hanoi. Not that I'm in Hanoi, because I'm in America for Uncle Bob's wedding. I would never ever clandestinely take time off from work to hop borders in southeast Asia. So, I know offer you the musings of my alter-ego, who just happens to be traversing around Vietnam and Thailand. Vietnam is amazing. Just getting out of China in and of itself is a wondrous relief from the ordinary. Hanoi is just as busy as Beijing, but with even more deranged traffic. We've been offered to following advice for crossing busy streets: Just walk across slowly, but, whatever you do, don't stop. It's a real adrenaline rush after you escape several near-misses from more motorbikes than you can count on both hands. My first few days were spent sightseeing, stuffing myself, and dodging traffic.

The few things I've left to conquer include my fear of riding motorbikes, and the humid disaster that is my hair. My only hope now is that the day-long torrential rains might deter the cockroaches from skittering out of the sewers tonight. Oh, Vietnam!