Bodyclock problems was the first title. I have just changed it to sooo much food.

An alarm set for 6am on holidays is alarming. To wake up 30 minutes prior is sad.  

Breakfast in some kind of order was: a bowl of pho with hot chillies, sweet and sour pork, stir fry noodles and veg, pork sausages and tomatoes × 2 for every thing except pho. 

The long bus trip was very familiar. Same route as 2023, same shop halfway, same boat to Halong Bay and the same room on the boat.

Lunch on boat was in no particular order sweet and sour pork, fish, some squid thing that, to my credit, I ate a bite of, and just plate after plate of food that kept coming.

I have been brave by not identifying as a hater of seafood.

Dinner was same as lunch but with oysters and massive prawns, and fried pork and about 100 spring rolls. And all of this with only 5000 steps on the scoreboard.

Coming off the plane last night, we had to walk down stairs to the tarmac. My right knee hurt lots. Today stepping up a big step off the boat, my left knee recently hurt. The result was a walk halfway up a big hill with lots of steps. I hope it's side effects to malaria tablets. 

We did some kayaking and saw monkeys on a beach. A couple of guys from our group tipped their kayak when getting in and ended up soaked. My first response was to get Annette to take a photo. Does that make me a bad person? Probably. 

Currently we have karaoke coming from our boat and the boat anchored next to us. Chisel, Bryan Adams and Eurythmics have been murdered so far. It could be a long night.

Superbowl Monday

What sort of idiot agrees to leave on holidays the day of the Superbowl? In case you can't see, my hand is in the air. Not to fear, wifi plus Kayo allowed me to watch the game in the check-in line, and while hanging around for a delayed flight. Stupid Sydney weather. 

A half-full flight allowed plenty of leg room, but the constant breaking down of monitors turned the flight into a giant game of musical chairs.

We survived with podcast and Netflix downloads and my 2 meals were "not the seafood".

Annette has only been in one altercation so far, that being with the Tourist Refund Scheme employee who advised her she was not getting a refund because the scheme was only for tourists and not Australians. Luckily my guy behind the counter sorted it all out.

During check in and at immigration in Hanoi we invented a new game of Predict the People Who Are On Our Tour. I think we had about a 40% rate of correctness.

Customs, meet the tour group, bus to hotel. Sleep time was approximately 3:30am Australian time. So very sleepy.