August 22nd, 2009
You have been approved for transit
I’ve been planning it for a while, but a few days ago I finally decided to set aside the time for a trip to Vietnam. I took a couple days off of work and arranged a flight to the nation occupied so much of the American conscience in the late 1960s. Since our countries are still not the best of friends politically, an application for a tourist visa is required from the sleepy embassy in Moto-Yoyogi. Yesterday I did just that.
(This photograph was taken with my new 8-megapixel camera phone, not too shabby visual quality. I didn’t even have to apply any of my curve and sharpening Photoshop actions.)
I chose Hanoi over Ho Chi Minh (Saigon), as the city experiences 80mm less rain on average in September, though still technically the tail end of the rainy season. I’m just beginning to sift through the information on Wikitravel, but already it seems I have taxi scams, motorbike versus pedestrian, diarrhea, and cobra blood wine all waiting for less than three dollars. Hedging my bets, I’ve already starting digging up travelogues of vegetarian backpackers.
Oh Heart of Asia…
