Exhaustion Sets In...and a Lighter Bank Account

By the time we hit Vietnam, I have pretty much thrown in the towel and decide to cut short our Asia trip. Money is getting low. We could stay and do some sightseeing, but frankly, I am becoming a little jaded and tired of the Orient. The big draw near Hanoi is a trip to Halong Bay, but all my research concludes that it is just another bay with karst mountains, similar to the Li River in China and Phuket in Thailand. Spending money to see yet more karst mountains is not particularly appealing. There are other small tours throughout Vietnam that could be fun, but again, most of them are similar to other things we have already seen or done--such as going on a bike tour or visiting quaint artisan villages. The only things that are specific to Vietnam that I really want to see are the Cu Chi Tunnels and some of the war sites, but honestly, the thought of dragging us through more train rides and travel just for those, has dampened my enthusiasm considerably.

So I decide to give up on really seeing Vietnam and just spend a few days in Hanoi and then fly home. In keeping with our original Asia Bucket Trip tickets, we are allowed to change the dates of the flights as often as we want, but we have to hit every destination that we originally booked. Hence, we have to fly out of Ho Chi Minh. When I first conceived of the trip, I thought we would travel overland from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh, but now that I have scrapped the overland, I have to buy airline tickets instead. Luckily, short flights in Asia are generally not very pricey.

Meanwhile, we have a few days to kill in Hanoi...and I am in the mood to go shopping!