"staying flexible"

So, that's what they all say: Be flexible. And that's just what we're attempting to do.
After lovely Hoi An (we were rightfully afraid to leave!) we made the same journey we'd already made, back to Hue. When we stopped in Hue (in the pouring rain) the first time on our journey south, we continued immediately on to Hoi An knowing we'd have to come back the 4 hours north to catch a bus into Laos.
Once we arrived back in Hue, we realized it apparently never stops pouring rain here this time of year. It hasn't. At all. Wet cold clothes are an issue when you only have one full outfit.
Long story short, we spent an entire day wandering through the cold pouring rain trying to find a bank that would exchange the large sum of Vietnamese dong we took out into dollars. We needed a large sum of dollars to purchase our visas at the Laos border and to spend at our arrival. After stopping in to a dozen or so locations all over town, we were finally told "nowhere in the entire country" would sell us their US dollars.
The internet at our guesthouse was down all day as well, and we were unable to research if we'd be able to get across the border and through the country (that has no ATMs/banks, where we were headed) with only the currency we had. So. We didn't buy our ticket into Laos.
When we woke up the next morning, we were still hoping to find our solution, or just buy the next bus ticket and hope for the best (though we'd been told the journey there could be tricky.) However, there were no more buses leaving for the next two days, which would put us in too much of a bind.
We are ready for the next country, so we purchased a ticket all the way to Saigon to cross into Cambodia. This means a 23 hour bus trip. Yep, longer than the airplane ride across the world. Even better, where's our stop for dinner break 4-5 hours into the journey? Back in Hoi An. We'll have made this exact bus trip 3 times, and really had no need to be in this wet city when we could have stayed in that happy little town and taken a shorter (cheaper) bus trip south from there. Argh.
It doesn't help things that Kevin has admitted he hates this trip. It hasn't been easy.
Here's to the second half... one country shy of the goal and a bit more drenched in rain and complications than originally hoped.
Here's to staying flexible and doing the best we can. :)