@pnuts What is the answer to your question about the needle?

@GayotFow I am not sure about the current status of the trip I was planning for but it has not yet happened - at the time I asked I (half) expected it would be finished/finishing by now. I have just heard, separately, about the same or another possible visit to the same place but was then almost immediately advised "deferred due to the war in Yemen" (?) Have yet to ask for clarification! So for now 'fraid answer to you is I don't know answer - (possibly never will).

I commented another K question to mention that I do know a British passport holder was there last year for a month who did not require a medical - he thought perhaps because he was born there (so needle irrelevant).

I suspect however that the medical requirement may now often be waived.

@Gala About the return trips question? There was a flag on that, which to be fair seemed correct. The specific flight might be different, but the answer is essentially the same. I added a note to @Relaxed's answer flagging that up.

@AnkurBanerjee! long time no see!

@hippietrail Likewise! :D How's your trip going?

yeah good. just started my second month in vietnam.

badly need to buy a pair of jeans or shorts since my only pair of shorts that hasn't died is filthy and sometimes it gets cold here in the mountains - but i've found nothing bigger than size 34!

also the ATMs here suck bigtime!

cold in april????

two nights have been maybe 15 degrees

last night and tonight are really nice

been doing lots of coding and trying to learn vietnamese with the help of numerous locals

are you on or off the road right now?

Nah I'm still in London. Going to Singapore in a few weeks though! :D

Vietnamese is one of those tonal languages again ugh.

At least they have a Roman character set

@pnuts the bounty will expire on it

the tones are pretty salient though compared to chinese, especially when they shout, and they don't drop them when they sing like chinese do

lao doesn't use roman characters and didn't take long to learn though i'm a worse speller than reader

@pnuts The question is possibly misconceived. There's no real governing authority in that region and the 'country' has not established their credentials beyond its borders.

A good read for people who frequent this site........

money.cnn.com/2015/04/17/news/worlds-most-powerful-passports/…

I'm in touch with the company who put together the list as part of my work

They are impeccably credible

@MarkMayo have you see we are at 100% answered?!!!!

@MarkMayo, I have an FB friend who lives in Miami and commutes in and out of Tehran because she owns a house there. She has the same advice regarding your suit, which is bring one or forget about it altogether.

If you have a wedding in London, you can borrow my highland kit. I wear the Black Watch kilt (BW modern large check) with BPC jacket and BW flashes. You're welcome to borrow.

I wear it at weddings in the UK and US and also in Russia, and would have no hesitation whatever to wearing full kit in Iran either.

@RoflcoptrException That one really should have been migrated. Getting dependent visas is an Expat thing, EVEN THOUGH she applied in the wrong category (as a tourist).

@GayotFow always wanted to get a black watch kilt for ceremonies.

@JoErNanO I recommend it. The only problem is you cannot travel with a Sgian Dubh. Sad, but true.

The BW kit is gorgeous though, I must be in over 50 wedding photo albums because everybody wants a pic :)

Truth is I don't know how people outside of the Commonwealth would take it: an Italian in a kilt. :)

I am here! And now I have 3K rep.

@MichaelHampton Well done! Glad you made it.

Curious to know... Which part of the climb you think was most difficult, 1 to 500? 500 - 1k? or other?

I always thought the worst part was 11 to 250 but that was on the main site, not this one.