Woo-Hoo...Visa Success!!

Here it is folks...

the 3 month visa!!!

Everything on the trip went so smoothly. Thanks so much for all your prayers...I could tell that so many of you were lifting this up. All the details fell into place, and we saw God provide time and again.

We got to Vietnam around noon on Tuesday. It was so fun to see what we missed the last time:) After a short taxi ride to the hotel (which by the way we paid way too much for. Live and learn.), we dropped off our stuff and went for a walk to find something to eat. I have to say that I was so focused on figuring out how to get the visa that I didn't think about doing any research for what we would do once we actually got to Vietnam. So, I got a map at the hotel desk, and we just started walking toward where we thought we could find a place to eat.

The area our hotel was in was not in the area that tourists usually go. (Though, gotta say that our hotel was nice, and I got the best night's sleep that I have had since I have been in Asia.) We had walked a few blocks and still had not seen anyplace that looked like we could eat at...as in, we would not get stomach illnesses as foreigners eating stuff we shouldn't:) And then, it started to rain. We decided as we were getting wet to go a little farther and turn back if we couldn't find anything.

After a couple more blocks, I saw the word...


Kentucky? Could it be? And then, I saw...

the Colonel!!

He was a sight for sore eyes. We were wet and hungry and excited for food we could eat. Isn't it funny that the safest thing for us to eat at that moment was American fast food?! And now I have had KFC in 2 countries here. I'm thinking about making the tour around the rest of Southeast Asia:)

The rain stopped after we finished eating, so we decided to keep walking and found the tourist area...lots of shops, restaurants, and internet cafes. Honestly, I wish we had more time there to explore. There were places of interest on the map that I would love to get to. But, my purpose for going was a visa, not tourism. Maybe another time.

While we were there, we couldn't help but to compare Vietnam with the other countries we have been in. The first obvious difference to Cambodia was the road system...as in there actually were roads. Nice ones. With more than one lane. And no holes. We came in on an actual 4 lane highway. It's been so long since I have seen one of those!

A few other differences to Cambodia that we noted...

• Vietnam is a lot cleaner. No trash laying on the side of the road.
• But it's also louder. The noise volume from the traffic was really loud!
• The moto drivers in Vietnam are not as aggressive. In fact, I didn't even realize for a while that there were any moto drivers. They weren't constantly asking to take us places like they do here.
• But, drivers in general were a lot less accommodating to pedestrians. Here in Cambodia, drivers usually slow down or go around you as you are walking. There...we had to watch out even when the light told us to walk across the street!
• We saw a lot more trees and plants in the city. There were even a couple of parks.

The trip back to the border was uneventful...thankfully! I had already spoken to the bus operators about visa. Mine was a different type of visa than everyone else on the bus who were getting regular tourist visas. So, when we got to the border, I kept mine, and they pointed Megan and I toward a window. I had such a peace about the situation as I handed them my passport and forms. They didn't even ask any questions...just stamped my passport and that was it. Woo-hoo!

The funniest part to us was that everyone else had gotten back on the bus and drove down the road to the rest area while the bus people handled their visas. We had to get on a moto to get to where they were. We laughed as we realized that we had been to the border twice and had to take this moto ride both times instead of being on a bus. Luckily this time, we weren't carrying all of our luggage, though!

Thanks for all your prayers!