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danbrew > This was the visa that I used for my 2007 trip (http://danbrew.smugmug.com/Travel/Russia-China-Vietnam-August/3028366_W6wdM) - it cost me $138 or so. The visa was $65 and the rest was for the Visa service firm that I use for my trips (Traveldocs.com - they're great!). I typically don't mind paying Traveldocs for their thing as they're experts and can help get a number of visas in really short order. I was going to use them again this time, yet the guy at OffroadVietnam.com mentioned that they are now doing the Visa preapproval letters. You basically register in advance, get a copy of a preapproval letter for $20 and pay $25 upon arrival for your visa.
danbrew > So... if you've ever wanted to see a Vietnamese Visa... well, here 'ya go. Good for a month, although I'll only be in Vietnam for about a week. I've been spending a lot of my nights & weekends looking in the guidebooks, visiting travel forums, etc., and can already tell this probably will not be my only trip to Vietnam.
danbrew > This is getting to be old hat for me - although this visit will be the first time in the summer. Yeah, that's right, I've visited in the middle of winter all the other times. Crazy, huh? I'm not quite sure what got me interested in Russia, other than the fact that most Americans don't vacation there. I like going places where most other people don't. Also, I suppose, it's probably tied to the fact that I grew up in the cold war era and remember learning as a kid that the "russians" were our enemy. It didn't get any better when I was in the Army in Alaska in the early 80s - all we did was sit around and wait for the Russians to come over the pole to get us. How stupid was that? It's great to know that we've all survived and didn't blow up the planet. I have photos of the January 2004 trip posted to my smugmug account (http://danbrew.smugmug.com/gallery/2252365/1/117546107). There's some details on how to do it yourself if you feel like taking the same kind of trip.
danbrew > Here's my Chinese vias. Interestingly enough, I had a valid Chinese visa in my passport from the January trip that I didn't use - it expired in July, I think. The folks at the Chinese Embassy simply stuck this new visa on top of the old one. Really looking forward to China - I think I'm going to overnight on the Great Wall somewhere. How cool is that?
danbrew > And my Russian visa. I was a little worried about how fast this one would be turned around, but TDS received my submission on 5 December and you can see that the Russian consulate issued it on 6 December. Wow! I'm counting the days - this is gonna be fun.
danbrew > My Chinese visa. I use Travel Document Systems in Washington DC to facilitate ordering my visas - I could have done it on my own, but imho, it's much easier to use a service. www.traveldocs.com. I sent my passport to Travel Docs on 5 December, the Russian visa was issued on 6 December & the Chinese visa was issued on 15 December. I got them back in via UPS today (22 December). Two weeks two days, not bad at all. I have a friend who visited China a few years ago and she did the visa for China on her own and it took a couple of weeks. Figure the Chinese one took just a few working days using TDS. Very very pleased with TDS.
This was the visa that I used for my 2007 trip http://danbrew.smugmug.com/Travel/Russia-China-Vietnam-August/3028366_W6wdM) - it cost me $138 or so. The visa was $65 and the rest was for the Visa service firm that I use for my trips (Traveldocs.com - they're great!). I typically don't mind paying Traveldocs for their thing as they're experts and can help get a number of visas in really short order. I was going to use them again this time, yet the guy at OffroadVietnam.com mentioned that they are now doing the Visa preapproval letters. You basically register in advance, get a copy of a preapproval letter for $20 and pay $25 upon arrival for your visa.
danbrew > This was the visa that I used for my 2007 trip (http://danbrew.smugmug.com/Travel/Russia-China-Vietnam-August/3028366_W6wdM) - it cost me $138 or so. The visa was $65 and the rest was for the Visa service firm that I use for my trips (Traveldocs.com - they're great!). I typically don't mind paying Traveldocs for their thing as they're experts and can help get a number of visas in really short order. I was going to use them again this time, yet the guy at OffroadVietnam.com mentioned that they are now doing the Visa preapproval letters. You basically register in advance, get a copy of a preapproval letter for $20 and pay $25 upon arrival for your visa.
This was the visa that I used for my 2007 trip http://danbrew.smugmug.com/Travel/Russia-China-Vietnam-August/3028366_W6wdM) - it cost me $138 or so. The visa was $65 and the rest was for the Visa service firm that I use for my trips (Traveldocs.com - they're great!). I typically don't mind paying Traveldocs for their thing as they're experts and can help get a number of visas in really short order. I was going to use them again this time, yet the guy at OffroadVietnam.com mentioned that they are now doing the Visa preapproval letters. You basically register in advance, get a copy of a preapproval letter for $20 and pay $25 upon arrival for your visa.
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