Excuses

Hi Everyone,

First I would like to exclaim WOW how time does fly.  It is 2012, and I have been plucked from my balmy travels and plunged into the icy depths of West Coast Winter.  I'd say it's good to be home, but just look outside for a minute!

Secondly, you have our apologies for posting heaps of nothing as soon as we left Hanoi.  I've been meaning to put up some photos, really!!  My only excuse (aside from laziness) is that internet access and quality in SE Asia is truly poor.  In Vietnam, when we could get online (most of the guesthouses had only 1 or 2 dodgy old computers for all of the guests to use), half of the important sites had trouble loading.  This means that every second guesthouse computer or so wouldn't connect to Google.  And then Facebook.  Twitter?  Out of the question.  There was even a device that was so dated I couldn't figure out where to insert an SD card to upload photos anyway.

For some reason, the other countries we visited had better quality net surfing (save Singapore - very space age place), but guesthouses and hostels only provided WiFi access.  (unless you wanted to pay for use at an internet cafe).  On my teensy, browsing-capable phone it was about as ridiculous to reply to a Facebook message using the touch pad keyboard, as trying to write calligraphy with one of those giant pencils.  Let be writing a coherent blog post.  And then deny you all photographic evidence!

What I'm getting at is that since we've neglected sharing our experiences on the road, and now that there is a reliable/fibre-optic/4G/"real" internet connection and we've got heaps of time on our hands (Yay Unemployment!), we/I can begin filling you in on what happened from Hanoi to Sydney, Australia.

Thanks for your patience, and I hope you are still interested in what we have to share!

- milly