Visas

We need visas for China, Vietnam, Thailand and India. The China visa seems the most difficult to get because of the Olympics right now. We have to have confirmation of our hotel booking, and we're still waiting on that, and we need to have proof of travel in and out. We still need to get our flights out of Hong Kong and into Vietnam so we can't get our Chinese visas until all that's settled. It only takes a day or so to turn it around, so we should be okay.

Nadim had last Friday off and he took the kids to the Vietnam embassy to get Visas. Apparently they only accept cash and Nadim didn't have enough so they had to go twice. They got that paperwork started and then went to the Indian High Commission to ask questions about the Indian visa. Initially we thought we could only get a six month visa and that it would start from day of issue. This would have been an issue since we won't be reaching India until January and there wouln't be much time left on the visa at that point, ... but Nadim found out that we can get a one year visa that costs slightly more, but then we don't have to worry about trying to apply for visas for India while in Thailand or something. We pick up the Vietnam visas tomorrow and will hand off our paperwork and passports to Thailand for the next set of visas.

When I came home from work last Friday the girls were very excited to tell me that they had been to Vietnam twice and India once and that they had stood half in Vietnam and half in Canada. Somewhat confusing, but in fact quite true!

CM

Hong Kong

Hotels in Hong Kong are expensive! We also had some trouble trying to find something that would offer rooms for families with two children. They all seem to offer only one extra bed. Hmmm.... I wonder if the one baby law in China has anything to do with that!

We did a lot of searching and found a family room in the Dragon Hostel in Hong Kong. All accounts say that it is clean and that the staff are very helpful, and its in a great location. They also say that the rooms are really small, but I think we can deal with that.

I was reading up on Disney Land. I guess when it opened it didn't get great reviews but things have improved since. I'm sure the kids will be impressed in any case. Nadim is still boycotting the USA so this will be the closest we'll be getting to Disney for some time.

CM