Headed Out

Ok, sorry for the slow updates... been busy not being online!
We are now in Ho Chi Minh City(Saigon)in SW Vietnam. We have been here for a few days already and are staying until thursday(wednesday night in the states) so I can get my Visa to Thailand. I didnt think i needed a visa for thailand, but if you enter over land, you only get a 2 week visa exemption, not an actual visa, thus it is impossible to get a visa extension. If you enter by air, you get a one month visa exemption upon arrival, but we arent flying anywhere. So, today we walked back to the Thai embassy to drop off my passport and get an actual visa, good for 60 days in the country.... On to Vietnam
So far, our Vietnam journey has taken us first to Vinh(from Laos), then north to Hanoi. From Hanoi we went to Haiphong, then took a ferry to Cat Ba island. We stayed on Cat Ba for a week(mostly because we were both really sick for 3 days), then went on a 2 day, 1 night Halong Bay Tour. The tour ended with a free bus ride back to Hanoi, where we stayed for a couple days. We then caught a 24 hour train to Nha Trang, on the beach of Southern Vietnam. After about 4 days there, we hopped another train to Saigon, where we have been for 3 nights so far.
Overall, Vietnam is pretty cool. The country is really pretty, but has way more people than Laos, and their impact is rather obvious. The infrastructure outside of Hanoi and Saigon is basically awful. The roads throughout the country are all only 2 lanes, one each way. This is despite the millions of busses that drive the obvious North to South(or vice versa) route from one beach town to another. Additionally, the power problems here are pretty obvious. Cat Ba Island literally loses power every day from 7am to 8pm, relying only on generators during this time. This seemed like something that would happen in a small island off the beaten path. Even more unexpected though was that Nha Trang, a city of around 400,000 has no power at all from 8am to 6pm every other day! This has made using the internet, or the AC, or chilling out and relaxing for a day rather difficult.
Now that we are in Saigon, things are much easier. The city is really large, but the downtown is rather small, and walking around is pretty easy. We are staying in the backpacker neighborhood, home of tons of cheap hotels, tons of great street food, even more fake books(yes, fake books, the ultimate in SE Asia backpacking ridiculousness), and near basically everything you'd want to do in the city.
Our hotel is really nice, we have a normal size room, AC, with a refridgerator, TV with tons of channels(at least 6 in english including ESPN, CNBC, NatGeo, Discovery, and some australian and euro channels,)a nice bathroom, and big fairly comfy bed. The hotel also has an elevator, which is a huge plus and is really secure.
Chilling in Vietnam has been fairly uneventful, and mostly just hanging out near or on the beach, lounging in our hotel(when we have power), seeing some cool sites, and taking in Halong Bay. I have managed to find and finish a bunch of great books, and also eat tons of awesome Pho! More to coom soon!