Geez. That was the longest leg of traveling I’ve ever done! Two hours to Seattle. 12 hours to Tokyo. 6.5 hours to Ho Chi Minh. 6 hours layover in Ho Chi Minh in the middle night while we wait for our 6:30 a.m. flight. (We ended up waiting in the airport on a metal window sill. It’s times like these when I REALLY ask myself, “what the hell am I doing?”) Then 2.5 hours to Hanoi airport, 1 hour bus ride into the city, 30 minutes walking around to find a hotel, 5 minutes checking out the room for acceptable sanitary conditions, and finally 10 seconds taking a deep breath knowing I finally made it.

During all this, I kept my watch on Utah time so I could log the exact amount of hours it took from leaving my garage in Park City to finding a place to sleep in Hanoi–our first stop. 36 friggin’ hours!

Whatever. I’m finally here and ready to get rolling.

First, some background info. I’m traveling here with a young man named Jeff. I met Jeff about a year and a half ago thru my BFF Kat in SLC. He’s a 26-year-old kid from Arizona who has some boring business-y job in Salt Lake (he said it, not I). Jeff and I played golf a few times the summer we met then lost touch and didn’t see each other until last June. We again played some rounds until Jeff threw out the idea of going to Vietnam. I told him don’t invite me to go, because I’ll really do it, and…well…yadda yadda yadda…here we are.

Right now I’m sitting at a cafe somewhere in the middle of the city typing away on my iPhone. It’s a totally Americanized restaurant, which I really try to avoid while abroad, but I’ve been traveling for so long, eating nothing but airline food and granola bars, that I’m anxious to eat before a hypoglycemic headache sets in. Also, I’m just not mentally ready to eat some of the sketchy stuff I’ve passed on the side of the street.

I feel I should try the local food, but I need to psyche myself up for it. Jeff, who loves the stuff, graciously agreed to settle on this cafe.

So as I’m typing right now, I’m looking out the window at this scene I feel perfectly captures what I’m feeling right now.

It’s an intersection where everything from cars, motorbikes, push-carts, bicycles and humans are all criss-crossing at once admist the noise of horns, motors, and yelling vendors.

I had to cross this street earlier (to get to the restaurant) and jeff told me the key was to not stop whatsoever in the middle of the street, for if you hesitate, you throw the caotic order of the whole system off. So I just put my head down (Actually, don’t put your head down. That would be stupid. But be unwavering in your stride) and walked steadily across the street. If I felt any deer-in-headlights reaction at the sight of an oncoming motorist, I forced myself to keep my feet moving.

This is likely a good analogy of what this brief trip to southeast Asia will be like: sheer caos. But if at any moment I feel like I’m gonna get run over, I’m just going to stay pace with my step and hope I make it across the street.