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After landing in Ho Chi Minh City on the 18th we jumped in a taxi to go the hotel, instantly we were amazed with how many motorbikes were on the roads, I would guess that to every car there must have been about 30 or 40 motorbikes... Crazy!!! Plus, I've notice they seem to drive on the pavements, cut corners and turn around whenever they please regardless of how many bikes and cars and coming towards them.
Once we got out of the taxi we had to cross the road to get to the hotel, which looked so challenging a Vietnamese man could see how puzzled we were and helped us cross. The traffic never stops here, you have to slowly walk into the middle of the road and just let the bikes go around you, we were told never to stop nor take a step backwards! Apparently that's very dangerous, and I can see why. We then checked into the hotel and went for a little walk around the corner, I was shocked at how many times we were offered cocaine and weed. We also saw a fair few prostitutes too. It was a bit of a shock. I wasn't sure what to expect when we landed, but I didn't think it was going to be quite like this! For some reason I had it in my head that it wasn't going to be that different to Thailand. Obviously I was wrong. However, at this point we had only seen Ho Chi Minh at night, so it was hard to say what we thought about it.
That night Lee really came down with food poisoning (he must have eaten something in Thailand that really didn't go down well). By the 3rd night of Lee really suffering and not getting any better I started to worry, we hadn't left the room since the first night and by 2am we jumped into a taxi and got dropped off at some sort of walk in clinic… it was a very open room, with about 8 or 9 beds in it, and curtains to separate the beds. It was so dirty in there it was unreal, I could see a plastic bag hanging up on a trolley which has someone's bloody tissues in it, Yuk!! instantly I started to panic, Lee looked as if he was going to pass out any minute and the doctors didn't look in the slightest concerned… one nurse slowly waltzed over and pointed to his stomach and said 'hurt?' I tried to explain what was wrong and she didn't understand. So she disappeared and a sloth like doctor made his way over and said the same. Again, we didn't get anywhere! After a few minutes they stuck us in a taxi and told the taxi driver where to go… we had no idea what was going on.
We then got dropped off at the main hospital, which was such a relief, it was very clean and all the doctors and nurses spoke English. After 4 or 5 hours of Lee being on a drip they then decided he had to be admitted, so we then spent the next 4days in a hospital room with lee on a drip! But thankfully after day 2 you could see he was pretty much back to normal!
After being discharged we made our way to a nice hotel where I had booked a suite for one night as a treat. We then went to the War Museum, it was all about the war with the Americans. It was mainly full of photographs of children and adults before or after they had been killed by the Americans, it was really distressing to see and after a while I had to stop looking! You could really see the fear in their eyes and it made me feel physically sick, not a museum for children, that's for sure. It also showed images of severely disfigured people thanks to 'Agent Orange'. Apparently 500,000 children were born with birth defects after their parents had been exposed to one of the most toxic substances ever found. In fact, walking around Saigon it's not unusual to see disfigured men and women which are probably a result of the tragic past Vietnam holds.
When we were on our way to KFC (yeah, we have been eating western food since Lee's ordeal, the doctor actually told us NOT to eat locally at all) I noticed a Vietnamese man taking pictures of myself and Lee, I'm not quite sure why but I wouldn't be surprised if it's because we are so pail… so I just hid behind Lee. I have a feeling we are going to come across a lot more of that as the month goes on!
We have just booked a train to Nha Trang for tomorrow, so we are heading to the beach for about a week so we can unwind a bit… 9 hours on a train, Yay :/
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Sue (Mum) Well what an adventure you've both had since arriving in Vietnam, lets hope things improve from here. Have just seen some film clips on youtube to get an idea of the traffic etc. in Saigon and must say I feel for you both. Good luck and stay safe. Mum XX P.S. Type into Youtube 'MAN CROSSES BUSIEST STREET EVER' and also look at 'VIETNAM CRAZY TRAFFIC' and 'TRAFFIC RULES IN VIETNAM?'
Lauren haha, we have just had a look at the videos, that's exactly what it is like there! Crazy! in fact, the 'Vietnam Crazy Traffic' video was filmed from the KFC there, I also filmed a few minutes from there! Even after a week of being there we still found it mind boggling!! xxx