Southeast Asia travel prep

I've made great strides in preparing for my upcoming Southeast Asia tour. I had some free time on Friday, so I took the subway to Anguk Station and climbed a tall, sinister, sweaty hill to the Vietnamese embassy to apply for my visa. I was expecting a grand, colonial-style brick building with curtained windows, armed guards in crisp uniforms, and velvety carpet floors, but what I found was a series of squat little huts with peeling white paint and asthmatic air conditioning. The rusty gate hung half-open and the tiny apron of rough asphalt inside was empty. There wasn't a single Vietnamese person in sight. Behind the desk in Hut B4 was a young, surly, sniffy, trilingual Korean woman just back from lunch, who imperiously asked for my passport and jabbed an application form and a pen at me. I filled it out while the other supplicants, a sharp-dressed harabeoji with his two hyperactive grandchildren and a harassed salarywoman, hovered in the background. Ten minutes later, I had a pink slip in my hand commanding me to bring ₩95,000 to this very hut at 5:00 p.m. on Friday the 27th of June. Boom. Visa applied for. 

I took a cab to Itaewon and the international clinic there to get some immunizations. Dr. Kim, educated in the United States and almost wholly without an accent, gave it to me straight: according to the CDC, I didn't need malaria meds unless I'd be traveling to the uncharted interior of Vietnam or Cambodia. As long as I was sticking to the cities, I'd be fine. After a two-minute discussion, the good doctor directed me to his head nurse, who jabbed me with a 6-month flu shot, a three-year typhoid injection, and a first-time hepatitis A vaccine, which I was instructed to renew in half a year's time. The harridan scribbled three entries into a vaccination card, thrust it at me, took my payment of ₩143,000, and bowed me out of the waiting room. My arm was sore for the rest of the day. I attended a World Cup-themed dinner party in Hyehwa later that rainy evening and raising beer bottles to my lips became an unpleasant chore. 

I have also successfully reserved a four-berth soft sleeper on the SE3, the two-day train from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City departing at eleven o'clock on the evening of July 14th. Seat 61 recommended Vietnam Impressive as the best travel agency for booking train tickets, and not without reason. I was very impressed with their fast service and their clear, forthright run-down of timetables and payment information. I'd recommend them to anyone. Their notification request system seems a bit spotty, but less than 24 hours after I sent a follow-up e-mail, I had payment and reservation confirmation in my inbox. My view of Vietnam is going to look like this: 

Reckless Wonder

So...yeah. Flights are reserved, hotels are booked, train tickets will be waiting for me, and everything's go for launch on July 12.

This is gonna be great.