I've been to Viet Nam twice but we've done it self-tour both times. We're not really organised tour people. It is remarkably easy to self-tour in Viet Nam, easier than you would think. April is a nice time to visit. For ideas you could check out the Vietnam forum on TripAdvisor. Some people have recommended reputable tour companies they have used. One thing I would say is that if you do use a tour company you should use one based in Viet Nam, as overseas companies tend to add on a huge markup. You will need a visa to enter Viet Nam and you can either pay a lot and get one beforehand by sending your passport, passport photos and the application form (available online) to the Vietnamese Embassy in the US along with the payment (fairly expensive) or you can get it for less than half the cost by getting an approval letter from a Vietnamese travel agent, then taking the letter, appropriate paperwork, passport photo and USD 25 to the Visa on Arrival desk when you get to Viet Nam. If you arrive in HCMC the wait to be processed can be up to an hour, in Ha Noi it's not generally much of a wait. If you take USD to exchange for VND, take clean, crisp, undamaged and undefaced bills- they won't accept even a tiny tear in a bill. Don't use USD to pay for things- some will tell you you can, and some places will accept them but at an exchange rate favourable to them :-) You can also get VND out of an ATM if your bank doesn't have a huge foreign use/exchange fee (some do, some don't). Three star hotels are very nice, about the equivalent of a nicely furnished, clean ordinary hotel, and they cost about $30-50 a night. Often they include a simple breakfast. Just make sure there's an elevator, if that's an issue for you.Five star hotels have a lot of things you may never use (business facilities, gym, etc) and cost about ten times that (I kid you not). We've loved the three star hotels. What sort of things do you want to do and see? How long do you have to visit?

Oh thank you all so much. I just found out he has some internal injuries, some broken bones, his right hand was crushed. I think they were going to operate on the hand today. Hope they can fix the hand, he said "cops need their gun hand"....... It could have been so much worse. He is a nice, man, and a good provider.

I agree that school funding should not be on the backs of homeowners, through real estate taxes...and it is not fair to take the meager incomes of seniors to pay for school funding. My father will be 90 in May and is living on Social Security. Because his income is small, his real estate taxes are reduced dramatically. I think that's a wonderful program, and if it isn't nationwide, it should be. Education costs have skyrocketed and are spiraling out of control. The union is a major part of the problem, but that's an issue for the "Hot Topics" forum. I think it would be wise to abolish the Department of Education, and send its funding to the states. Education should be a state issue, IMO. In the olden days, education was a part of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. That department was replaced by the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Education. Whenever the government creates a new bureaucracy, it incurs tremendous new administrative costs. If necessary, oversight at the national level could be absorbed within the Department of Health and Human Services. A major source of funding for education should be lotteries. I remember when the Maryland Lottery started, they said proceeds would go to fund education. The lotteries are a huge source of revenue. Unfortunately, the politicians play games with the lottery money (if a state has revenue from lotteries, they reduce the funding for education so they can divert the funds to other projects). Just like the politicians took the Social Security and Civil Service retirement fund monies out of the "lockbox" and put them into the general treasury for their own spending spree. [The subliminal message here is to get rid of all 536 spendthrifts in Washington, D.C.] There is a push in Washington to raise the mandatory education age to 18. That's a wonderful thing in theory, but I can't imagine that it will work. It's hard enough for parents to keep their kids in school until age 16! I heard that only 43% of Washington, D.C. students graduate from high school. If members of congress can't keep their own kids (and those of their neighbors) in school, how are they going to enforce that in the rest of the country? Sorry, nanny, I didn't mean to hijack your post. I'll get off my soapbox now....

I really do like how bright it made that area look. I like it with the floor (which we both just love). I'm concerned that wood will look too "woody" traditional with the floor and table. Also, I thought it might be a good backdrop for the granite and backsplash which I have all along been coveting as my potential stars. Again... I can tell DH is not convinced. Not objecting, but I feel like it's a big concession for him. He actually values the opinions I get from this forum.