Christmas

Sorry for my absence in the blog-o-sphere. It has been a busier week than I anticipated it being.

My students' exams are over (THANK GOODNESS!) to mixed emotions of my own (I will share more reflections later) and now I am hopefully on my way to Nha Trang for a lovely Christmas beach vacation.

It turns out that Ha Tinh and Nha Trang might be the two most difficult cities to access in Vietnam, so booking my transportation to/from Nha Trang has been a nightmare.

The 24-hour bus option made me want to scream, since I hate the Vietnamese bus system even after one hour, and the thought of being stuck on a Vietnamese bus for 24 hours seems just plain awful. Then the flying option would take me north from Ha Tinh to Hanoi, south to Nha Trang, south(er) to Ho Chi Minh City, North to Vinh, and then south to Ha Tinh (aka a complete waste of geography, time, and money) at the tune of around $500. And train tickets must be purchased at the station which is two hours away from me, and there is no way to reserve tickets online.

In other words, I think I deserve a vacation just after going through the stress of trying to book the tickets!

The end result is for me to take the 24-hour train down to Nha Trang (trains are much more comfortable than busses) and arrive on Saturday morning, and then fly back to Vinh on Tuesday and take the bus from Vinh back to Ha Tinh.

Confusing, huh? The only gamble in this equation is on the hopeful promise of "around 30 seats left on the train to Nha Trang" from a very baffled ticket agent who was able to call the Vinh train station to ask about availability.

Friends and family, cross your fingers that between now and tomorrow morning at 11:56, 30 people do not have the sudden urge to travel from Hanoi to Nha Trang and take my precious train seats.

If all goes according to plan, I will be lounging on the beach with Kelly 48 hours from now.

PLEASE, VIETNAMESE TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM, WORK FOR ME.