It's countdown time (again)

We finally had our musical performance at school today. The morning was spent doing last minute practicing, and the afternoon performing and then relaxing by letting the kids watch Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (the great old claymation one).

Sapphire girls

Sapphire boys

Not only do I now NOT need to worry about if my kids have memorized their scripts, dance moves, and staging, and get back to actual teaching, but today also marks my standard countdown time (I don't like to do countdown unless it's a week or less) until I leave for my Vietnam/Cambodia travels.

So here's the rough itinerary I've been building for myself for the past few months:

• 12/23 - Skype my parents and have our Christmas exchange online.
• 12/24 - Board a plane at 10:30am. Fly to Hanoi, and transfer to another flight to get to Siem Reap in Cambodia around 5pm. Get picked up at the airport for free by Earthwalkers and taken to the guesthouse.
• 12/25 - (Christmas Day) Take a tuk-tuk to Angor Wat before dawn so I can see the sunrise over the temple,
  
  
  
  take a ride on an elephant around the ruins,
  
  
  and get a bird's eye view of the temples from either a hot-air balloon or helicopter
  
  
  

• 12/26 - Either take a trip to the floating villages of Siem Reap or take a dirt bike tour of 'hidden Cambodia'
  
  
  
• 12/27 - Take a last look around my guesthouse, and then catch a flight at 2pm to Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon), where I'll arrive around 3pm
  
  
  
• 12/27 - Arrive in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) and get settled in the hotel.
  
• 12/28 - Do a walking tour on my own of Ho Chi Minh City
• 12/29- Take a boat from HCMC to several islands, including Dragon, Phoeniz, Turtle, and Unicorn Islands. Take a row boat trip around Unicorn Island and bike through one of the villages.
  
  Take another boat to Ben Tre province and attend a handmade coconut candy workshop. Take a boat through the canals to Vinh Long and bike to a home-stay with a Vietnamese family, where I'll have dinner with them and stay overnight.
• 12/30 - Go to the Cai Be floating market in the morning
  
  
  and then take a boat ride to get get to a local orchard. Take a bike ride through the village, then stop back in Vinh Long where I'll take a bus to a Bonsai garden in My Tho, and then back to HCMC.
  
  
• 12/31 - Fly from HCMC at 8am to Hanoi, where I'll be picked up at the airport by my hostel. Do a walking tour of Hanoi and the Old Quarter, buy some souvenirs, and ring in the new year with other travelers and then get some sleep
• 1/1/10 - Take a boat tour of Halong Bay.
  
  
• Spend the night on the bay and watch the sunset and sunrise
  
  
  
• 1/2 - Explore more of Halong Bay, any last minute things in Hanoi, and then head back to the airport for a midnight red-eye back to Seoul
• 1/3 - Arrive back in Seoul at 5:30am, get a bus back home, catch up on some sleep, upload my pictures and call my parents to tell them about the amazing trip I just had.
  

(most pictures found via google search or through the hostel websites)