I realize there is a lot of info about this on TA/LP, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to post a first hand account here.

I went to the VN consulate on Wednesday morning at 930a. My taxi driver had a bit of trouble finding the location because she kept on asking people for the VN consulate (as opposed to the office building in which it was located, even though I repeatedly told her this was the wrong approach), but I could get back there easily if I had to do so again (large BOC branch in the lobby, left side of Pumin Lu, 100 meters north of Minzu Dadao... Nanning's main street).

The entire process took less than 1 minute:

-y450 for the visa (more if you want multi-entry, which they are glad to offer)
-y25 to scan the picture from my passport (instead of providing them with my own picture)
-y10 to kuaidi it back to me 2 days later

I'm planning on checking out Hanoi next weekend. I'll be sure to provide reports both here, and on Wechat.