Chilly and damp, but still a great turnout!

Home and rested, but the cupboards are beyond bare, so out for breakfast at the Guenther House.

No pho to be found on the menu, so we had to settle for waffles and biscuits with country gravy.

...they've finally begun boarding our flight to Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon.

Good thing, as the baby was getting cranky.

Couple of quick phone pics from the cruise -- Halong Bay turned out to be more breathtakingly beautiful than I imagined it woul be, even shrouded by fog as it was during our short cruise (just under 24 hours on the boat).

Better pics from the camera to come later...

Last chance for WiFi for a while. Here's Brad's promised (though blurry) Vietnamese Dong pics. Bills ranging from 500,000 down to 2000. Exchange rate is around 18,000 to the dollar.

We are settled in our hotel in Hanoi -- staying in a little bit upmarket place here (in Saigon and Hue, we were in backpackers' hotels, on the high end of budget at around $15-20/ night for a very basic though modern room --ac/hot water/wifi when it worked, TV with cable, scrupulously clean -- kind of like a motel six but with very nice, attentive service). Here, nicer linens, bigger room, an elevator instead of walkup. Still only $38/night for the "city view" side -- lake view was $45 but was full, and while in theory would have been quieter, we're in a very busy part of town -- buildings are constantly being remodeled. We popped up to the top (7th) floor to check out the views ended up preferring the city view side because we have we're at treetop level and have a wonderful tree outside our balcony, and the street life is more fun to look at than rooftops. Besides that the lake view side is just as loud, and on the lower floors, we would have barely been able to see the lake anyway...

Construction/demolition/rebuilding/remodelling seems to be a constant ongoing process.

Lake side