Good Morning Vietnam!

Well as most of you know one of my favorite things in the whole world is to travel...my hope is to go to at least 30 countries in my lifetime (and hopefully many many more). Well, next Saturday I'll be adding at least one more to my list, well...HOPEFULLY anyway. I have a very interesting story to tell about my hopeful Vietnam trip.
About a month or more ago I had talked to my friend Sam about going on a possible summer trip, he said he wanted to go with me but that he had to work an English camp and couldn't go. So, since I did Thailand at Christmas I figured I'd head to China (there is an AWESOME island called Hainan in soutern China) since I'd never been there. Well, I had booked the trip and everything and the following Monday got a text from Sam he said "I messed up the dates, I CAN go, so let's go somewhere!" I told him I had already booked the trip, but I would try and see if I could just add him to my current trip. Checked with Expedia, they said no go...couldn't just add someone (which makes no sense since the flight I had booked was still listed, and of course I had already booked a hotel, but anyway...) so I decided to just eat the $35 fee and cancel. I was excited about the prospect of having a travel buddy finally for one of my trips...traveling alone can be rewarding, plus you don't have to put up with someone possibly annoying you...you can come and go as you please, see what you want, whatever. On the other hand it's not near as memorable to not have anyone to share the memories with. So, anyway...I asked him where he wanted to go. He said he had never been to Vietnam or Cambodia and I hadn't either, and thus the adventure began.
Well, Sam teaches university and as soon as they finished school he said he would go to the Vietnam embassy (this was about 2 weeks ago) and I thought that sounded great. We had looked online and the listed price for a Vietnamese visa was $50. A little steep we thought, but whatever...so, he went to the embassy in Seoul. He filled out the paperwork, etc. and then the guy quoted him at $85. Huh?! He asked why...why was it so much more. "Well, you know paperwork, blah blah blah" the guy said. So, he told me "sorry man, it's $85!" Ugh...OK, it's not your fault, let's just pay it, whatever. So, Sam goes back to get our passports and visas, and lo and behold...the price had jumped up to $120! OK, now this was getting ridiculous. More fees for blah blah blah...what can you do?! So, very very very reluctantly Sam paid the fee for us. I wasn't upset at him, but NOT HAPPY with the situation. So, Sam's driving home after we've already been beaten and left on the road to die...and the guy (I swear) calls Sam and says "Sam, I'm sorry, I forgot...that was only half of the fee. I need you to deposit another $120 each INTO MY PERSONAL ACCOUNT and then I will just send the money on to the embassy for you." Sam says "No, I'm not going to pay you any more!" and hangs up. So, we met last Friday, we decided we were NOT going to pay this guy any more money. I e-mailed a guy that has a travel blog on Lonely Planet and asked him if he had ever had this happen, he said "no, I've never paid more than $50 for a Vietnam visa." So...we vowed and swore with a blood oath (OK, not really) that we were not going to pay the man/crook/evil bad extortionist/jerk any more money. We had our visas in our passports, with a receipt for $220 and so we're hoping these visas will be good when we get to the airport in Ho Chi Minh next Saturday night. If not...um not sure! HA! We do have a plan B, take Air Asia (which has amazingly low flights) to Thailand or Malaysia, but hopefully it won't come to that. I sure hope when we get to the airport they will just scan the visa and let us in. The guy hasn't called Sam back, and so I hope he realized that we were not idiots and I hope he didn't have the power to cancel them. Ugh...if so, we might have to call Al Capone or Tony Soprano to intervene on our behalf.
So, anyway...haven't even left yet and already a really interesting story. So, the plan anyway is to head to Ho Chi Minh on July 24th, and then off to Cambodia for a few days, then back to Vietnam to ride some scooters and chill on the beach. We'll see if it happens! HA!
Wish us luck!
PS: Sorry the pic of the visa has some paper over it, I had to cover my passport number since I am currently in the witness protection program and don't want to be found!
:)

The Land of the Free...The Home of the Brave!

I'd like to wish everyone a Happy 4th of July! Oddly this is one of the few holidays I've noticed that I get homesick, maybe it's just the patriotic side of me, but every year (this is the 3rd) I'm away from the States on the 4th I feel a little sad. I'm thankful for the role the United States of America has played over the years and the freedoms that those before us have helped to defend.
I think back to some of the most difficult and trying times in our nation's history and I'm almost brought to tears when I think of the sacrifice that has been made for each of us, to be able to enjoy our daily lives. I was reading the other day about George Washington and the Battle of Trenton when the words written by Thomas Paine were read to raise the morale of the troops:
These are the times that try men's souls; the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.
I love reading and learning about history but as much as I appreciate our early soldiers, I never could seem to relate to them as well as those who have fought in the more recent past.
I've tried to read and understand as much as possible about World War II, for some reason I am fascinated by it, not in a weird sense that I think it's "cool" but more so that I am in awe that people who lived during that time were able to accomplish the things they did. It's impossible for me to truly ever comprehend what those men and women did to preserve our freedoms. One of my favorite World War II quotes came from Major Dick Winters. Major Winters seems to be everything that was good about those soldiers and although Winters has received many special accolades over the course of his life, he has always remained a very humble guy. At the end segment of Band of Brothers he quoted a passage from a letter he had received from Sergeant Mike Ranney: "I cherish the memories of a question my grandson asked me the other day when he said, Grandpa, were you a hero in the war?' Grandpa said 'No… but I served in a company of heroes…'"

This is one of my favorite Johnny Cash songs and very fitting for the 4th!