Before I forget - South Vietnam
My mind is like a SIEVE. It is very inconvenient. Especially when I'm trying to write up things a day in the past and there are gaping holes in everything *sigh*. Worse still when it's 3 months down the track. But hopefully my brain will only seive out the mundane bits and leave you with the good stuff... This holiday was exactly exactly what I needed - ED isn't hard
work by any stretch, pretty much routine but man do the personalities in it make it a shit place to work. This one week was a godsend - except for that horrible sinking feeling I got 3 days before I left, when I realised I'd read my calender wrong and booked a flight when I had a shift that evening. Got thoroughly screwed over in a swap, but at that point I'd have sold my soul - so the prospect of 14days straight on return didn't phase me :).
New Years Eve in Vietnam was... *flailyhands*. Imagine christmas lights EVERYWHERE. Vietnam definitely can haz moar neon lights. It is sparkly, incandescent, iridescent craziness at its best. Now throw in at LEAST 5 million people, now imagine 9/10 of those >5million people dancing like mad to a loud loud bass beat. It was SO AWESOME. People would
randomly assemble into circles as someone would start breakdancing or just going all out (or if some drunken westerner was doing something stupid) and then everyone would cheer and join in. So good. Some italian person came onto the stage proclaiming her love for everyone and then this awesome guitarist joined the DJ . Man, its just so infectious and the music so good. Almost passed out as well -oops- Perth is making me forget my humid roots. Not sure what that means for the new year, but I'm taking it as a sign that I just need to drink more water. Definitely wished some of you guys had been there as its hard to rock out when your parents are standing there awkwardly wondering what all the noise is about. Maybe this is something to try and organise in the future :P
Stayed in a really awesome place in the middle of the city, which meant you could walk anywhere/everywhere and get as wonderfully lost as you wanted, only to realise it was a short trip back. Bought so much stuff in the markets that I really didn't need to, bought a couple of tailor made powersuits which later came in handy for surg. Went on random boats,
to a floating village that reminded me of Miri all over again;, saw the chu chi tunnels which gave me the opportunity to see my parents scrabbling around in tiny tunnels, and also to see my dad shoot an ak47 looking like an excited schoolboy. :) It seemed like a toy to be honest. There was a bit of a kerfuffle when - in the middle of the jungle, a very german voice called out ' "Is anyone a doktor?! We are needing a doktor!" and you get that feeling of mild resignation as you hang out for 5 seconds hoping some older man/lady will rush forward going 'why yes! I'm an emergency physician here to save the day, everyone else move along," but no, there is silence and everyone staring about and your mother and father raising their eyebrows wildly at you. Hmph. To be honest, theres really no difference between a doctor and anyone else when you're in the middle of woopwoop, someones recovering post collapse with incontinence - I mean, I guess we're a little more up to speed with first aid stuff, but thats about it really. It's more of a get-on-the-floor,legs-up,no-chest-pain?-no-seizure?-good,-have-a-lolly,-fluids++-and-lets-wait-for-someone-who-can-actually-do-a-blood-test-or-something.
Fortunately that was the only thing that seemed like work on
this trip. We checked out the delta, stopped at random villages, held bees/snakes/other things I didn't particularly want to. My favourite bit was randomly stealing a bike for and hour, nipping out behind the restaurant and then pedalling away down this dirt path with tiny kids rushing up whenever you went by, wanting high fives. On the way back I couldn't remember which turnoff I'd taken which led to a hilarious 15mins where I randomly go down one and end up in the middle of some surprised family having dinner. I think my parents went a bit nuts over the coconut drinks that were everywhere - and the fruit. Got to say, the War museum was the biggest shock I'd had in a while - never expected anything so graphic and horrifying :(. *sigh*
anyway, loved South vietnam, going to save North vietnam for adonis and my scooter trip (also for when its warmer).