Vietnam Is A Nutshell

Everything inside is nuts.

It's been a week or two since I returned from Vietnam. Memories are hazy, like Hanoi, where I ended the trip in a hospital with needles poking out of my arms at the airport, just before I was supposed to go home. I wasn't attacked by drug addicts. What happened was, I was suffering from potassium deficiency, which leads to very nasty things. I don't really want to talk about it too much, there isn't really much to say from my viewpoint anyway, I just felt weak, couldn't breathe and I honestly thought I was going to die.

I'm going to give away the ending here and tell you I didn't die. The mystery is what caused the potassium shortage. Doctors don't know.

I was feeling sick in Vietnam for quite a while. On the last day I was so sick I had to sit down every few minutes. Yet I still foolishly had ice-cream and two cups of coffee. Well, I was feeling miserable and wanted something sweet and sinful. Temptation damned near killed me.

Okay, enough of that. The gist of the trip.

We landed in Ho Chi Minh city. Ho Chi Minh, if you didn't know, was an old guy with a beard whose picture is in every Vietnamese person's home. We share a surname. The city was sooty but the architecture was brilliant, the traffic less so. In fact, the traffic sucked. Quiet is an unknown concept in the big two cities of Vietnam. Every vehicle communicates through honking and it never ends. Motorcycles accelerate past corners and honk you because you didn't see the bastard.

It didn't help that traffic crossings stretched interminably. The secret is to just walk, and pray. "I want to die" was a commonly heard phrase from my travelmates.

Charming town, Ho Chi Minh. Hanoi's Old Quarter was worse.

We saw a bunch of things. I don't really remember. Who cares? The hotel we stayed as was cheap and exceptionally clean.

I promise more detail in the next update. If there is one. Cheerios.