Vietnamese Visa: Speedy Service!

We will be visiting Vietnam on our up coming trip to Asia. Canadians require a visa, so we downloaded the visa application forms from the Vietnamese Embassy website, however prior to sending them in, we had to call the Embassy to get the cost to process our visa applications. Seems the price is subject to change.

On Monday morning I sent the applications along with our passports to Ottawa by FedEx. The Embassy website states that they require five (5) working days to process a visa.

However, the following Friday morning we were surprised to find our passports were back with the visas attached.

Very speedy service indeed.

Ottawa: Winterlude

For some wintertime fun visit Ottawa and take in the Winterlude festivities.

I joined the crowd and skated on the Rideau Canal. For the novice skater The Canal is 7.8 kilometers of ice, so turning and stopping are not immediate problems.

The Crystal Garden in Confederation park is the site of the ice sculpting competition. Ice slides and snow sculpting at Snowflake Kingdom, the world’s biggest snow playground is in Jacques Cartier Park in, Gatineau.

Other activities include The Snowbowl concerts and fireworks displays.

Winterlude is a fun way for the whole family to enjoy the Canadian winter. This great party takes place in February from the 2nd to the 18th.

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Ottawa: A Visit to the Canadian War Museum

The new Canadian War Museum building opened on May 8th. 2005. This date also marked the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II and the 125th anniversary of the museum.

I had visited the museum at it’s old location in an archives building on Sussex Drive. The building felt confined and dark. It didn’t do justice to the collections displayed!

The new building located on the south shore of the Ottawa River at 1 Vimy Place. It is a low lying structure of copper and concrete that resembles military fortifications. The exhibits are housed in four sections that trace military history from the Plains of Abraham, South Africa, the World Wars, Korea and the numerous peace keeping deployments.

The LeBreton Gallery has an extensive collection of artillery, aircraft, tanks and armored vehicles used by Canadian forces and their adversaries. The plaster casts used in the construction of the mounument at Vimy Ridge are also on display.

I spent the best part of a day touring the exhibits on my visit in April 2006. If you are a military history buff or just want to learn more about Canada’s role in conflicts the museum is well worth a visit.

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