planning (sort of)

Guess what, the visa plan is not going to visa plan.  I ordered my VOA visa through some shady Vietnam visa agency, paid my $8.04 Can, and I haven't heard from them.  Now that I am finally finished my course, I guess I have to deal with that, and quickly since I am leaving in a month!  A MONTH!.  Whose crazy idea was this???

I have bought a few things (ha, a few...). Black Friday was my best friend and worst enemy. 

For my last couple of trips, I borrowed Paul's small binoculars.  I figured I need my own so I bought a pair.  They haven't arrived yet but they are:

Nikon ProStaff ATB 8x25 Waterproof Binocular

I also read that northern Vietnam can be cold in the Winter so I bought a packable IgniteLite reversable winter coat from Eddie Bauer (in Dark Berry with Orange lining in case I need to do some road work while I am there - just reverse!)

While I was in Eddie's website, buying 50% items, I bought some more packing cubes which turned out to be tiny.  But lemons/lemonaid, I seem to have a million cords for all of my vacation electronics so one of them will be perfect for that.  But the cords are already tangled. 

This is the biggest one of the three (barely a cube)

Etsy.com (HaroldandDot in Quebec)  to the rescue.  I just ordered these (pack of six, special order of one of each colour) so they haven't arrived yet.

And my bird book.  I have one from Thailand but the Southeast Asia one has more pages so I bought it even thought there is some crossover. 

I have been reading the Lonely Planet book a bit (I was forced to sit quietly for 2 hours while I had an iron infusion so I don't die on my trip).  One month trip is not enough time.  I see why everyone takes a year to travel in SE Asia, it is the least amount of time to see everything worth seeing (which is everything).