Drugged in Hoi An

In Hoi An, Pieter had to immediately head back south. He had been traveling south and had already been to Hoi An, but didn’t want to pass up the 5-day motobike trek and went with us back north for the trip (he did it the boring way by bus along the coast on the way down). He eventually needs to catch back up with his old travel buddies. Markus and I spent one day together in Hoi An before he had to jump on a plane and head back to Germany for work. Okay, Hoi An is a tourist trap for tailored clothes. The freaking city is canvassed with tailor shops like the mountains were canvassed in plantations and crops. Lonely Planet is right. You can pass up the first couple dozen, but you eventually get suckered in. One day and Markus and I got suckered in. That’s partially because it was still drizzly and rainy and there was not much else to do. Markus was flying out the next day… but oh! They can get it all done in a day! Tailors working overnight. It worked out well for Markus though. He had a business meeting in Bangkok on his way out to Germany and had no business attire. Now he had some new suits for a cheap price and hopefully good quality. Mine ended up working out somewhat too, but in a less preferable way. I’m a sucker for tailored coats. Why? Because every non-sporty coat I’ve purchased has meant I have to scrunch my shoulders to fit and deal with silly, too-short sleeves (I opt for the scrunched shoulders instead of the too big waist that adds unnecessary and nonexistant pounds). So, tailored coat… great! I got two and a Japanese silk robe with pajama pants. And yet, I wouldn’t give that “poor” kid a dollar. These coats and silk pjs cost more than a dollar. I’m not telling how much. I could feel the frenzy starting within me… I wanted to shop, shop, shop! I wanted these tailors to make me the clothes out of the supermodel, fashion runway catalog… and they could! Oh I bought all right… I bought my bus ticket out of there! Silk pjs???!! I was leaving the next day just after I picked up what I already bought. Oooooh, but I kept oogling the tailor shops wanting to buy more. I didn’t see one, NOT ONE, westerner who didn’t have a bag of tailored clothes. If I had known. You can’t resist. If I had known how bad it was, I would have never come. Sure the town is nice, European looking, but you don’t notice… BECAUSE YOU’RE OOGLING THE GOODS THAT TAUNT YOU EVERY WHICH WAY YOU LOOK. I’m not exaggerating here. There are rows upon rows of these shops. Thousands of them. Buying my bus ticket out of there was one of the best decisions of my life. I wanted to travel. Not blow all my cash on stupid material crap!! I mean, just after I was ranting and raving about who is poor right??!!! It turns out I fared pretty well. I went in expecting to buy nothing and came out with three things. Two Australian girls went in wanting to buy two things and bought 36, yes 36 articles of clothing… a piece!! I don’t know how they’re going to get it all home. Bahhh! Yet, another ploy to cheat Westerners of their money!!! So how did mine workout then? Well, on the bus trip from Hoi An to Hue’ I left my original coat that I had brought with me on the bus. If you leave anything on a bus in Vietnam, kiss it goodbye. You’ll never see it again. I’m a little sad I lost that coat. It was a good coat even if it did scrunch my shoulders. No, it’s not my nice long coat mom. I knew better than to take anything too nice to SE Asia. It’s a coat I got actually back in high school. No wonder it scrunches my shoulders. But, I still liked it. Anyway, losing that coat really helped justify my tailored coat purchase. It’s rainy, cold and wet where I’m in Vietnam right now. A coat is necessary. Fortunately, I just whipped out a tailored coat and I was good to go. No, losing the old one was not a subconscious way to justify my coat purchase!

So I failed to mention that I was now traveling with a Spanish guy, whom Markus, Pieter and I had all met en route to Dalat, then again in Dalat. Unfortunately, I got sick just when we started traveling together. When we arrived in Hue in the evening I was feeling funny and feeling fussy. I woke up the next day with a throbbing headache, horrible bodyaches and a strong fever. I’m not sure how high the fevers ever got. I spent the whole first full day in Hue’ in bed, either at the hospital or in the guesthouse. The hospital ruled out Malaria and Typhoid Fever. The Spanish guy, Victor, was taking good care of me, helping me with whatever I needed. He helped me get to and from the hospital. He was very thoughtful and I was grateful. A local was also extremely helpful. He wasn’t a typical moto taxi driver, but he and friend took Victor and I to the hospital for very reasonable prices and even stuck around for two hours helping me translate my symptoms to the doctors and translating what the doctors diagnosed to me. I was so grateful for his help and kindness while I was feeling so miserable. If there was any time to discover that some Vietnamese people are caring, generous people this was it. The local didn’t want any money for sticking around so long and helping, but I forced a 100,000 dong note in his hand as thanks. That was enough to pay for my lodging for the night, but it was also about the equivalent of $6 USD. A lot, but really, very little.

So yeah, the doctors said it was probably flu but if it didn’t pass in two days to come back. The doctors were students, btw because it was a Saturday. The prescribed me paracetol and multivitamins. The whole visit plus prescription cost about $25. The paracetol helped bring my temp down and thus my headache subsided. The body aches never really went away. As soon as the paracetol wore off though, my fever was back with the headache. Day one, I stayed in bed. Not too much of a loss as it was still drizzly and rainy. But, day 2, I got sick of wasting time and we explored the Purple Forbidden City - the reason we came to Hue’ – even though I wasn’t close to 100 percent yet. The Purple Forbidden City is crap. Not worth the stop in Hue’, nor is it worth the admission fee. I heard that biking around the city is nice. I didn’t feel up for that though.

The next day I still wasn’t feeling well, but I couldn’t spend another day lying around. Partially because I’m so used to being on the move that I can barely handle lying around doing nothing and partially because Victor seemed to think that his care for me while I was sick earned him the right for a little romance. Nothing major. I didn’t feel exactly threatened or anything. But, still battling headaches, fever and all of the above, I certainly didn’t have the energy to fend him off and I certainly didn’t appreciate a man who could try to come on to someone who was feverish. So, I decided to just cut and run… to a city with no other Westerners.

What was I thinking? Feeling ill and going somewhere where barely any locals spoke English? Well, I wasn’t thinking. I was feverish.