The Wandering Chocoholic

I leave for Vietnam in about a week, and I thought this would be a good chance to review a few pre-trip practical details.

Will that be Visa or…?

Those quirky Communist governments being what they are, you need a visa to visit Vietnam, and you need to get it in advance.

There are two ways for Canadians to get tourist visas at the moment:

The first option involves visiting the embassy (in person in Ottawa, or by mail) and sending in forms, passport and fees and getting the visa processed. Needless to say, this is time-consuming, inconvenient for people who don’t want to send a passport through the mail or be without it for any length of time, and once you add courier fees, can be more expensive than the second option.

The second option involves getting a “pre-authorization” letter from a Vietnamese travel agency, which can arrange this for you for about $10-$15. Then, you take that letter and your passport, photos and about a $25 USD “stamping fee” to the customs queue at the airport upon arrival to get your visa stamped into your passport.

Needless to say, I chose the second option. It took less than a day and only a few clicks, and I’m now holding a letter that promises to secure my entry into Vietnam. Will it work? I guess we’ll find out, right? If it doesn’t, I’ll be home a lot sooner than planned.

Ding Dong, have some dong

Vietnam’s currency is the Vietnamese Dong (VND). One Canadian Dollar at the time of writing this is worth just over 20,000 dong. In other words, I could theoretically go to an ATM (assuming I find one that works) and withdraw a million dong — worth about fifty bucks. I’ve always wanted to be able to say I’m a millionaire.

And I thought I felt rich in Japan… hah!

Unfortunately, the currency is very restricted, so it’s nearly impossible to get ahold of from outside the country. This means I will probably be at the mercy of jacked-up airport exchange rates upon arrival.

It also means I’ll have to get really really good at dividing by 20,000 in my head. All those zeros… dizzying!

Putting the “flash” in flashpacker

I’m embarrassed to have to admit this, but my backpack this time will be loaded with far more “flashpacker” items than ever before. On my packing list this time are my travel hairdryer, cell phone, netbook, and camera.

Even reading that list makes me nostalgic for the days when I traveled with nothing requiring batteries, and “staying connected” meant stopping in to an internet café about once a week.

On the other hand, I won’t be bringing an iPhone, iPad or anything that starts with “i” other than myself, so I suppose I haven’t crossed entirely to the dark side just yet.

Feeling hot, hot, hot

We’re finally getting some winter here in Montreal, just in time for me to give up the joys of cold and snow for the hot, humid, sticky weather in Vietnam. The long-range forecast for Hanoi calls for highs in the high 20s with humidex indexes in the mid-to-high 30s… and Saigon’s forecasts are even worse, with highs in the high 30s and humidexes in the mid-to-high 40s. Yikes.

Those of you who know me understand that this is not exactly making me jump for joy. I’m a cold weather kind of girl, and I’m not entirely sure how I will manage in the hot weather. Remind me again why I’m leaving beautiful wintery Montreal to wilt in these insane temperatures, just when ski season is finally getting good?

Another edition of Fun with Time Zones

Not only will I get to cross the international dateline twice on this trip (yay!), I will depart during standard time and return to daylight savings time in Montreal. Vietnam doesn’t change its clocks; it’s too close to the equator to have any significant seasonal variation in daylight hours. So this means I’ll be 12 hours ahead of home for the first few days of my trip, and 11 hours ahead for the remainder.

Oh, and I have another one of those flights home when I arrive a full two hours before I depart. Yes, I’m a geek when it comes to this stuff.

Eight days to go!