VIETNAM CAMBODIA LAOS - it only took me 6 months....

i know i have been promising to write about this trip for 6 months now, and most of you have not seen any of my photos, so here goes.  i went with my cousin, ian, and we went to visit our other cousin teddy and his wife lisa who were teaching for the school year in hanoi, vietnam.  we then travelled around through vietnam and cambodia and met back up w/teddy and lisa in laos.  it was a FANTASTIC trip.

and here is everything i carried.  i am pretty proud of that since i have packed much more than that for a single weekend.

we were on a giant plane that even had an upstairs!  but no matter how big a plane is, 13 hours is way way way too long to be on it.  we did watch two movies - the tourist and true grit.  true grit was great and the tourist not so much.

the tokyo airport seemed very empty.  which i am sure is not normal but we were there a couple weeks after the earthquake.  it is so huge that we had to take a shuttle and a train between gates.  we actually had an escort to get our boarding passes.  wondering if that is normal japanese service or if they were bored because no one was there!

they have wasabi kit kats in japan!  ian bought one.  on the japan air flight to hanoi i swear there was one flight attendant per passenger.  that plane had a camera showing what the pilot was seeing.  not sure i like that.  but the anime on the safety video made me laugh.  could have also been because i was punchy after no sleep for a day and a half or so...

as tired as we were, it was not hard to find teddy and lisa at the hanoi airport - not any other super tall white people waiting in the crowd!   here is their really cute apartment -

 i was super impressed they had a washer in the apt.!

 
tomorrow (day 1):  chicken pho for breakfast, CRAZY traffic, barber on the street...