First of all: we have lots of new pictures posted due to a fabulous internet connection (see below for explanation). Check out the Guilin, Yangshuo, Lijiang, and Funny Stuff galleries for new pics.
On to business. Happy fourth of July to everyone! It's the end of the day here but festivities should just be beginning at home. We safely arrived in Hanoi. We prearranged to have the hostel pick us up from the airport, which was good because it was quite a ways and would have been an expensive cab ride anyways. By the way, the exchange rate is 17,801 dong to 1 US dollar. We are gonna have to dig up our old division skills. Anyways, we arrived at the Hanoi Guesthouse and were told they just opened a new, nicer hotel 2 days ago. They offered us a room there, the Golden Sun, for the same price as the room we reserved. So we took them up on it, and that's why I am sitting IN our private room at a brand new computer with internet while we watch Arnold Schwarzenneger in True Lies on our flat screen tv. This place is so clean, new, and luxurious. For $8/night/per person. We are very happy with our accomodations! Gonna get some rest so we can go out and explore Hanoi tomorrow. We left to eat dinner (yummy) but that's all we've done so far.
Enjoy the fireworks and parades and pool parties!
Jennifer
PS - the time difference is now 12hrs instead of 13 if that matters to anyone (for Chicago). 11hr time diff for the east coast
