Day Six in Paradise

Yesterday was a fairly uneventful day; it was still good, due to the kindness and hospitality of the hotel and restaurant, but I got a cold sometime over the last couple days, and today it's as bad as ever; as of now, I'm probably just going to stay in bed today. It's raining outside, which precludes the possibility of most outdoor activities today; I guess I could visit a bar in Tam Coc or something, but even going that far (barely into civilization) would get me properly soaked. I do have that poncho thing, but I believe I'm sort of overstaying my welcome...or overstaying the welcome of the land, or something.

I don't really know where I want to go next; at present the most prominent options are Sa Pa in the north, or Hoi An toward the south; to go farther, I could go to Hue, or even to Ho Chi Minh City, but I'd be leaving the north behind, and skipping much of central Vietnam. I kind of want to go north, because it'd be more mountainous and there are gorgeous views at/around Sa Pa, but the temperatures there are as low as 40 F right now.

The temperatures here in Tam Coc are about 60 F or so, and in Hoi An they're about 80 F. I can choose to go twenty up, or twenty down. Being that I have a cold, I don't know if I should get on a bus for eight hours at all...but I've spent a ton of time here, and while I've done some here, I've spent the last two days kind of wasting time. I need to get moving or I'll just stay in this rut.

Sa Pa is cooollldd. I've got a cold. But would Hoi An's heat actually be good for me right now, or not? I don't know.

I asked Anna what the price for a bus between here and Hanoi would be, and she said about eight dollars. They leave in the afternoon, so I'm thinking I'll stay one more night here, pack, and leave tomorrow afternoon for Hanoi. I'll probably stay in a hostel in Hanoi for a couple days and have a flight from Hanoi to Hoi An booked for a couple days out; the prices for the short flights in-country are pretty amazing. Less than $25 after taxes and fees for a ~1 hour flight. I hopefully will keep my travel expenses for getting to Hoi An under my daily budget, but I'm probably going to eat or something and end up going above anyway. I think my budget is holding, overall, though.

So, with any luck, I'll stay tonight here, a couple days in Hanoi, and be in Hoi An by late on the 18th.

Signing off and trying to arrange this...


!Noah!