Scrambling

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My letter of invitation (well, e-mail of invitation) came from Viet Nam early this morning. I had requested it three weeks ago, but we had a communication glitch. As my time is comparatively short, I decided to use a visa expediting service and FedEx since I'm leaving soon and the bad weather in the U.S. earlier this month has resulted in a lot of delayed deliveries. This company requires a letter from your employer (if it's a business visa) with each visa application stating that you will get out of the country and no burden their government. Nobody who could sign the letter was around this morning, though eventually I got it worked out. The visa application for Viet Nam was straightforward; the Cambodian form was a little problematic and the live help chat from the expediting company was not very useful. Nonetheless, it's all sent off now, to the tune of around $225 all told (but better than the alternative, which is to waste time waiting around at the Vietnamese consulate in Phnom Penh in a few weeks). I didn't have to get my Cambodian visa beforehand, except that when I'm doing business travel, I don't like to just hope the line will be short and the personnel reasonable at an airport after long travel.

I hate sending my passport away for visas or renewal, a feeling that Homeland Security hysteria only strengthens. I don't like to be without my travel documents, and I don't like having a major piece of ID floating around out there.

I didn't intend to work on any of this today, but by the time I got letters written, forms filled out, questions not answered, photocopies made, photos taken, and the packet sent, 5 hours had passed.

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