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Published: July 26th 2010
Just a quick story from me as David is going to blog in more depth about Hoi An - but I can't resist posting about actually getting here!
Vietnam is apparently famous for its border beaurocracy, and it is the only country that we have had to take at least a step towards arranging a visa for in advance. We had to apply for an 'Approval Letter' before we could enter the country, which basically says that our credentials have been run past an official and they have agreed that we may apply for a visa... but not given us one.
A visa can be arranged in advance at a Vietnamese embassy, but as we obviously don't have access to one in Newcastle and we weren't sure of our time scales anywhere else we took the approval route, and decided to arrange the actual visa at the border.
Before we even got out of Cambodia we had to pay their hefty departure tax of $25. This tax must be paid before you can leave the country by air, and even Cambodians have to pay $18, which possibly explains why you see so few of them around the world - what Cambodian had $18 to spare?
So we forked out the cash (which in all fairness we knew about in advance) and passed through to departures... unlike several extremely angry passengers who tried to pay by credit card, to find the machine was broken! Never rely on Cambodian technology!
The flight was short and uneventful, and got us into Da Nang at 5:40pm. We had to pass through a thermal scanner (!) to prove we weren't ill, but then were grabbed by two official looking women before we even hit passport control. They took our letters from us, our passports and our passport photos with no explanation, and left us sat on seats watching the rest of our flight companions pass through without a hitch. PANIC!!!! We sat for what seemed like ages (2 mins maybe?) while the Vietnamese border guards strolled around like sharks in brown uniforms.... border guards freak me out. After a lot of shuffling we were given the visas (another $25) and sent on our way, but we still don't know why we were the only ones pulled back, as other passengers looked to be wielding similar letters!
Next came passport control, which has never been a problem before, until Vietnam! Not one, not two but THREE Vietnamese border guards looked at my passport, looked at me, looked at my passport, looked at me... all the while David has long since passed through and is nervously watching from the other side. The initial guard shakes his head and I start to sweat... even more. Another shakes his head, and smiles a slightly evil smile at me. How did they think I got to Cambodia? My passport is dated 6 years ago, of COURSE I look different. In a state of extreme nervousness I take my hair down, as it is down on the picture, and finally this proves sufficient. The frowns disappeared, and the guard in charge even tries to flirt with me to make up for it!
This whole process has ended up taking a good 25 mins, so our airport pick up guy is not happy, but thankfully... Good Evening Vietnam!
More later,
Rachel xxxx
P.s - Facebook isn't working for us in Hanoi so we're sorry if people are trying to contact us... leave us a comment on here 😊
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travelShrimp
Anh Tom
Facebook works
but through a proxy. Vietnam uses the same internet filtering technique as China. But most Vietnamese I met have a facebook account anyway. It's not that difficult to get around. You can use a proxy, but use it wisely ... proxies are not always safe ... so NO banking stuff ok? Surft to either : - proxylicious.net - newipnow.com - chewthefat.org - totalnetprivacy.com - sitegetter.net - swifttunnel.com - proxify.com There are countless of others. Just surf to one and then fill in the address you want to go to and click "go" (usually). You'll have to live with adds on the page though. If you don't want that. Ask a nerdy friend at home to set up a SOCKS tunnel for you, as I have. And let him email you the instructions to make it work. It's best to ask a friend who uses Linux (and a pc that runs 24/7). All you have to do is change some settings in Mozilla Firefox (or other browser, but I use Firefox). Hope this helps. And again ... be wise about the use of proxies. Your credentials are not guaranteed! Tom (also in Vietnam atm, leaving Mui Ne in a few minutes, going to Nah Trang)