Communism meets capitalism, yet beuracracy conquers all

Ok, so more frustration. After attempting to talk to the Vietnamese Embassy all last week, having never gotten them to answer their phone. They finally answer this morning, only to further complicate my situation. So here's the skinny on what's going on.

I need a Visa Approval Number. This is something according to the website for the Embassy that my "host" should get for me. Gabby says she never got this number, but my concern is that because Gabby is visually impaired, she may not know she has the number, it could be sitting right there on the paperwork. I've emailed her about this several times now, and she's, as reported before, bad on communication. Its been 4 days since I last heard from her, and I'm supposed to be leaving the country next Saturday as of the last communication. So anyway, I finally get someone to answer the phone at the embassy this morning, and in very terrible English she tells me that my host should have the number, and she can't understand why she doesn't. But if I'd "Like the embassy to help me" it will cost an additional 80 bucks. So the visa that originally was only going to cost like 25 dollars, after I pay the expedite fee, since I'm now RAPIDLY running out of time, and I pay the increased cost for multiple entry over 3 months, it'll cost me $150. The multiple entry, I hadn't thought about needing, but apparently since I'm so close to Laos, and other countries, if I go over there I'll need the multiple entry visa otherwise I can't go back into the country. So its recommended that I do this now rather than get stuck later.

So this trip, that is volunteer on my part, and is supposedly all expenses paid, is starting to get expensive. I mean, a trip to Vietnam for 150 isn't a bad deal, but I'm beginning to get quite frustrated, and am worried that this whole thing is going to unravel at the last second. I still don't have any idea if the tickets have been purchased, or if they have, what the date is. I requested that it not be the 21st or 22nd because Melissa is working those days. She never responded about that either. I don't want to pay the 150 only to find out that Gabby had the approval all along, or to find out that Gabby doesn't get me the tickets, and I wasted 150 and am not going to Vietnam after all. I don't think they offer refunds...

So all in all, if this falls through, I guess I'll find a Vietnamese restaurant somewhere local, then go play in some really bad traffic with a blind fold on, and call it my summer experience. In other news, my dad is coming up on Thursday and we're going to spend a few days doing outdoorsy father/son stuff and exploring some rivers in his new Kayaks, so at least there's that to look forward to. Hopefully more positive stuff on the next posting.

~Mickey

ps. There's a subscription box on the right of this post that you can put your email into and it'll automatically send you an update when I make a new posting. Just thought I'd point it out.