Day 11 - part 2

So Tuesday we shopped, Wednesday we went to the temple on the lake. It is a very nice temple dedicated to some general who according to legend tossed a sacred sword into the lake where it was picked up by a turtle and hidden until it is needed again to save Vietnam. Or something like that. There is a species of turtle in the lake that is found nowhere else if I remember correctly. Last summer I remember reading about someone finding one of the turtles. It was a big deal as they hadne't been seen since the 1960's and they were presumed extinct. Anyway it was a pretty cool temple.

Today we went to get Dat's passport, we had to do that first as I had to sign something to get it, then we went to the SOS clinic where they basically verified that Dat was the same child in the passport photo and that he was alive and didn't have anything obvious wrong with him.

After lunch we wandered through a department store as we had time to kill and I managed to find some jade I couldn't live without. Didn't spend that much, a little over $100 american. Then off to the Embassy for the interview and Visa. I payed the money, we sat and waited and waited and waited. I had a 2:00 appointment, so around 3:15 I was called up to a window, asked if I would swear that everything in the package they had was true and accurate to the best of my knowledge, I so swore, and the guy said to come back between 4 and 4:30 for the visa. The boys and I came back to the hotel and Hang ran some errands of her own, then picked up the visa for me. She just dropped it off. So we are good to go.

Tomorrow we'll sleep in, go across the street and get the boys the boats they want, check out of the hotel, then go to the airport and kill the rest of the day waiting for our 11:50 pm flight out.

Back home Saturday am. Yay!!!