That will be more appropriate for tomorrow, but I’m not planning to do any posting then! In reality, my clothes are packed. I’m simply debating on whether to take a long dress, another pair of pants and 2 more tops. The forecast is for at least 3 days of rain during my 7 in Hoi An. I AM going to take my umbrella out of the suitcase, though, as the hotels supply them. No need to take anything extra! My toiletries are also packed, except for what I still need to use tomorrow. My jewelry will be packed after this post; not taking much. The only thing I can’t find is the last diary I was writing in. Obviously, nothing exciting has been happening in my life since May, as that’s the last time I wrote in it!
Does the slight stress of a new place outweigh the fact that it should be, for the most part, a relaxing vacation? Tomorrow could entail getting on a plane and sleeping for 12 hours straight, though that rarely happens. I’ll eat (yes, they always give us a meal at 2:00 a.m. on the flight to Taipei!), sleep a few hours, wake up and watch a few movies, then go back to sleep until breakfast time. Approaching Taipei around 6:00 a.m. in the mist and fog will give me about 2 hours to make a maniacal dash through Duty Free with my calculator before the flight to Hanoi takes off. The slight stress comes from flying somewhere for the first time when I don’t speak the language and am not sure what to expect going through customs at the airport. My “Visa letter” was prepared months ago, yet don’t know if it will speed me through Customs or delay me at all. The one saving grace is that a driver will be waiting. I hate flights of more than 10 hours, only to land somewhere unfamiliar, fight for a cab, then worry that the cab driver will try to rip me off.
My mood is of excitement, tinged with apprehension. Honestly, I’m missing Bali like mad. This is the only time out of 8 trips that I’ve managed to stay away from Bali for a year. This trip to Vietnam will force me to expand my horizons. The pros are that I’ll probably get more value for the same amount of money and that the food will be better and fresher (though I love Indonesian food). The con is that I expect the Vietnamese people to be more brusque and maybe less friendly than the Balinese.
That being said, here’s my Musical Monday song posting (although I’m not flying TO someone this time). This song makes me think of my neighborhood bar, Ports, back in West Hollywood. This song was always playing in there when I was with Johnny. With that, let me finish my little bit of packing and bid you “adieu” until my next post from Vietnam.