Interesting Little Excursion

I am trying to write more about the little things Ian and I do in Korea. There are so many amusing, different and cultural things we see everyday but don't mrntion because we are used to them!

So, Ian and I went to the Vietnamese Embassy yesterday to apply for out Multiple Entry Visas for Vietnam. Let me tell you, it was an interesting experience. Maybe because the only Embassy's I have been to are the Canadian, American and Korean, but still.

So we took the subway to Insadong, which is the pretty, older area in Seoul. We took a cab to a large building where a man saluted to us and told us we were actually about a block away from the Vietnamese Embassy. Fine. So we walked along a hill and entered some 'welcoming' gates that had a little plaque on them that read "Vietnam" (The only English word). So we walked in and turned left, to see what looked like a run-down, wartime house. We walked up the steps and through the doorway into a waiting room of Korean and Vietnamese mothers with their crying babies, men and families. The carpet was brown and torn, there was a cash register against the wall with no attendant and a dusty counter for filling out applications with no pens in sight. We walked to the right to the next doorway and found a door with a plaque on it that read "Consular" and opened it. There were two desks most likely from the 1970's and one man was at each desk.

We were told that we were supposed to come before 12, and that they were about to leave, but they helped us anyway. After taking turns writing our applications in the waiting room with the one pen I had and watching the Consulate worker apply white-out to fix our written apps, we had successfully applied for our Vietnam Visas.

We go back on Monday to pick them up. That's all she wrote!