Big dongs are scary

I'm freaking out!  2.5 weeks till we leave!  Where the frig are our passports?  Gave them to Flight Centre weeks ago to send to Vietnamese Embassy (I assume) in Sydney for our visas.  No sign of them yet.  I've rung Flight Centre (FC) twice this week and they assure me that all is on track.  In the time I spent in FC I've had the opportunity to watch those pretty girls closely when they answer the phone.  They're very adept at keeping freaks like me calm.

I sill have 5 'snap and drag' bags to buy.

I just applied for a visa debit card. The bank informed me this was crucial to have while overseas.  It'll take 7-10 days for the card to arrive at my place, and then a visit into the bank to activate it.  Cutting it fine, but I think it will be right.  Apparently, you need one of these so you don't get charged ATM withdrawal fees and foreign exchange fees each time you withdraw money over there.

I need to get some dong to play with.  That was "some" dong.  Not "a" dong.  he he.  I really don't want to be working out the money situation when I get there.  Need to build up a small amount of familiarity with the VND (that's the abbreviation for the vietnamese dong)  At the moment $1 Australian = 21600ish VND.  It seems to come in quite large amounts in the notes. For example, this is like $4 - $5 to us:

I'll have to find out who the dude on the front is.  Nothing comes up when I google "dude on front of vietnamese dong".  Having trouble finding info on him. Anyone able to help?  Secretly just hoping for my first comment on this blog.  Don't be shy.

I found this site which seems simple and helpful with the general principles of travel.   Specifically designed for imbeciles, so I'm using it a lot at the moment:  http://www.activetravelvietnam.com/

At this time in the morning (just after midnight) I need simple.   

I'm off to sleep.  Tomorrow afternoon I shall have a close look at the GoPro camera that was delivered today from America.  It's this tiny camera you can strap to a bike, a helmet or a hat that takes great moving video.  The real reason I bought it is because the boys want to film themselves skateboarding down hills here at home and make videos they upload onto YouTube.  I think it will be great to strap it onto our heads (like a miners light) as we attempt to cross the road in Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi.  I should get some good footage of that.  We are all taking bike helmets too, so I'm sure we can get some good shots from that.  Pop a bit of music over those clips and you'll feel like you're in the cinema when I load the footage onto this blog.  Check out the GoPro here: