Yesterday a couple of us went into the Vietnamese embassy to get our visas for Aug. Expecting the usual difficulties presented in embassies (okay, the Russian embassy in particular- only open 9-12.30 4 days a week, long queues, no visa, ended up having to pay someone more than double the cost to "obtain" them for us), we got there early.
Well, I can tell you, the Russian embassy officials could learn a thing or two about efficiency from the Vietnamese- we were in and out in 15 mins, and they were quite happy to help us to cut up & stick our "neutral-faced-passport sized photos" to the application form.
So now it felt like the trip is definitely on. We felt like celebrating.
Being too early to start drinking, we headed to the next best thing; the Natural History museum around the corner, pacifically to the simulation of the Kobe earthquake in the geology section. They have made a whole section into a replica of a corner shop in Japan, and as you stand there admiring the CCTV footage (or the Japanese groceries if you are myself) the 'room' starts to shake as if to simulate the actual event. It's probably in reality about a 0.1 on the Richter Scale, otherwise the kiddies (and us) would be sent flying, but it's still interesting nonetheless.
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