Vacation time

So it's December 18th and once again I am not going home for Christmas, nor am I staying in Japan during the break. Once again I'm off to Southeast Asia- last year I did Cambodia and Thailand- this time-- Vietnam and Laos. Although my travel plans got off to a bumpy start- things are sort of looking up. My travel companions changed a number of times. Unfortunantly my husband will not be joining me on the trip- despite the fact that he has a plane ticket booked for Japan to Vietnam and then back from Laos, a visa for Vietnam, and a junk cruise around Halong Bay booked. As it turns out- airfare to Japan now SUCKS and neither of us have the money to cover the fee- so looks like I'm going without him. I will however be flying into Hanoi with two friends and meeting up with 4 others at the hotel. The following day we're going off for a 3 day trip in Halong Bay. After that the details are... well, undecided. I know I'll return to Hanoi and stay at least one more day but not sure after that. Originaly the plan was to catch a flight or travel by land into Laos and meet up with James to celebrate his 30th on the 28th. He'll be up in the northern regions of Laos for his birthday and the probablity of us meeting to celebrate it together are highly improbable. So I guess I'll just make my way over to Laos (not sure how yet) some time between Dec. 28th and 31st. Hopefully, I can head over before the 31st so that I can meet up with James. I would really rather not celebrate New Years alone again this year. I guess I'll just have to wait and see how things work out- maybe it'll all fall into place.

Now-- I only need to worry about my Vietnamese visa which is due to come in this week- otherwise-- no visa, no passport, NO TRIP!