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Our arrival to Vietnam was stressful, to say the least.
To begin with, you must apply for a visa to enter Vietnam at least 3 working days before your planned arrival. We did so online but did not get our confirmation until the last minute (picture Roxanne stressing - I tend to be pretty good at it). The night before we left we found out we had to take passport pictures so we were scrambling around to do that as well as find a print shop to print off our entry letter of approval. Upon entering Vietnam, each person had to pay a $45 USD stamping fee (in "clean, crisp bills"). However, we assumed that a) there would be an ATM and b) there would be an exchange counter like at 99% of the other major airports we have visited (before customs!). We arrive in Vietnam. The ATM is out of money (so now I'm like - what if it still charged my card?). There is no exchange counter. We have to wait about 45 minutes to get called up after filling out MORE forms. Fortunately they take our Malaysian Ringgets (crumpled and sad) but as a result I think
they charged us a bit more. I recommend anyone applying for a visa go through a travel centre and let them take care of it for you. Much less stressful.
Of course we decide to wing it and not book a hostel ahead of time (you think we would have learnt by now) so when we get a cab to the hostel we wanted to get a room at, they were booked. We found a great room across the street and in the end, it all worked out. It's a miracle what a good night's sleep can do for two cranky people.
Today we got a lot of sightseeing in in a short period of time. We started our day by walking about 30 minutes to the War Remnants Museum. Now usually museums are a bit boring but this one was fantastic. It gave a very unbiased and authentic look into the war and how it affected the people of Vietnam (and continues to do so). The photos and memoirs were so uncensored and raw that I literally teared up more than once. The photos of innocent Vietnamese civilians killed during the war (including babies) and the photos
of mutilated and deformed children born after the war (and are still born this way sometimes today) from the chemical spraying was very upsetting for me.
Some interesting (and very sad) facts from our visit:
- During the Vietnam war there was over 3 million killed, 2 million injured and over 300,000 missing
- After the war (1975-2002) 42135 killed and 62143 injured by bombs or explosives
- Agent orange was the chemical spray that affected between 2.1 and 4.8 million Vietnamese people
- As little as 85g of agent orange could kill an entire city with a population of 8 million people
Following our visit we headed to the Independence Palace, the place where the President of Vietnam and government worked/resided (nowadays they have a Prime Minister based out of Hanoi). This was also an interesting tour as we toured the basement of the building where there was bomb shelters and secret passageways where the President worked during the war.
After Independence Palace we stopped by the National Post Office to mail a few postcards and see the replica of Notre Dame Cathedral (pretty cool when you have been to the real one!) before we hit up the markets where you can buy knock-offs of various brand names for quite cheap. Being 6'1'' in Asia left me kind of SOL but we picked up a few things and found it to be a pretty interesting experience. Then it started POURING rain, so we bought ponchos and decided to try our luck taking the bus back to our hostel (nice try, girls!). The gist: major fail. We ended up who knows where and had to take a taxi back. Again, it all worked out in the end but we have noticed that the language barrier here is quite a bit more noticeable.
Had only one Vietnamese ask for my photo today (ha ha)! There was groups of Vietnamese school kids that would try talk to us (to practice their English I think).
Some other interesting things:
- Vietnamese love their coffee. There is coffee shops on every corner. I noticed lots of people drinking iced coffees (I had my first one in two weeks and got the jitters).
- So many motorbikes here and traffic is insane. It was literally an experience in itself crossing the street - you have to weave and dodge through the bikes and vehicles pretty much. There is also no yellow traffic lights here. We have noticed bikes with families squashed on to them (mother, father, kid).
- All hail KFC (no surprise there)
- Cops on every corner. Our hostel people also warned us of pickpocketing so we were very cautious.
- More bugs and stuff - had a gecko climb up the wall next to us during
lunch today!
- The Vietnamese Dong is kind of hard to get used to. About 100,000 VD is $5 so some things cost millions of VD.
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Phyllis
non-member comment
Those statistics are disturbing. How fortunate are to live where we live. Enjoy the rest of your vacation!