We made it!!

After 3 flights and many many hours in transit, we landed in Viet Nam!  It's night so we haven't had a chance yet to see it by light, but the airport is gleaming new and the highways look new too.  We drove straight to our first home stay, which is definitely full of character.  It's a beautiful old wooden hand carved house with two floors.  We are staying on padded mats on the floors, three to a mat, tented under large white mosquito tents.  The windows are permanently open in the old style (no glass) and the house is filled with quirky modern art and beautiful carved wood antiques.  We walked down a part path, part dirt road, part garden track, part driveway to get here, rolling our bags past small walled courtyards from crumbling old French colonial houses, each with its own barking dog and towering fruit trees.  It's really humid and the air smells faintly of woodsmoke and flowers.  We are up at 6:00 am tomorrow morning to get started.  The adventure has begun!