Hello all; It has taken a lot of time and work, however we now have a travel plan and all components are in place. I required Visas to visit both Thailand and Vietnam, a process that took a month in each instance. I just received the Vietnamese Visa last week. Until I had these documents, I could not make any reservations for hotels or flights in the region. That is now completed.
I will have a few hours at the Bangkok airport upon arrival on May 28, then fly north to the city of Udon Thani, which is near to where my friends, (Thai Family ) reside and have a huge farm. They have around 30 acres of rice, 200 Oil Palm trees and 800 Rubber trees. I will be there until the 25 of May, and attend the graduation of their son from University. I have helped some to make this possible, and it will be exciting to attend this event. On May 25, I and a family member will be driven across the Mekong river to Vientiane, the capital of Laos where we will stay one night and fly over to Hanoi the next evening. We will be in the Hanoi area for seven days during which we will take a hop over to Ha Long Bay and area.
After seven days in Hanoi, we will fly over to Ho Chi Minh, (Saigon), and tour for another seven days. We return to Bangkok on June 9. I picked up my Vietnamese currency (known as the Dong),on Tuesday of this week...for 500 dollars Canadian, I got five million Dong....one hundred thousand is equal to ten Canadian dollars, so I got large bills, fifty thousands and up. For this trip, I will be carrying Canadian and U.S. dollars, Euros, Thai Baht, and the Dong. For easier travelling, I send some funds to my Thai friend's bank account by Western Union, and get it when there.
We are still working on plans for my last 11 days in Thailand before returning home.
I expect to do an update before departing on this adventure....May 16.
