Vietnam Post Number Tam

Since I was expecting to fly out on Friday afternoon, I had to rush to see a few things before going to the airport.  It was a 30 minute walk to see the mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh, but the viewing portion was closed, his body goes to Russia every year for maintenance, I guess he didn't come back yet.  There are a few other museums in the area, but by the time I got over there I needed to head back to make it to the airport.  After getting to the airport I noticed that my flight was not on the departure list.  Hmmm.  I showed my ticket to a gate agent and then things got bad.  There is no flight to Vientiane on Fridays (I believe it exists in the summer only, never got a straight answer).  After an hour of asking different people before finding someone who actually gave a shit, I was 'assured' that I would be on the next flight Saturday morning.  I had no confidence that this was the case, but I thanked the Vietnam Airlines manager for helping me.  I didn't want to go back to Hanoi, so I found a hotel close to the airport, it was probably the most depressing hotel I have ever been at.  It was really, really bad.  Had dinner in the 'cafe' next to about 6 Vietnamese guys who were all chain smoking.  After a crappy sleep, headed back to the airport.  My fear was the agent would have no idea what I was talking about when I gave my ticket that was for the prior day, and I was right.  They said I wasn't on the ticket.  I begged them to call the manager from the previous day (he gave me his cell number) and after a quick call I was given a ticket and felt hugely relieved.  Kind of scary that a personal call to someone would all of sudden get me on a flight.  A short flight later, arrived in Vientiane and went through the slowest immigration process of all time.  It took them at least 90 minutes to process one small plane full of people (40? 50?).  What I like the most is that visas are different prices for different countries.  For some reason, Canadians pay the most - $42.  The U.S. is $35, and South America is free.  Weird.  Met Matt and Senoe after this long delay and had to check in for the next flight leaving for Hoiesay two hours later.