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From Vientiane in Laos we flew to Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. By this time Denise was not feeling too well and things got worse in Hanoi. We booked in to a pokey wee hotel next to the mist-shrouded Hoan Kiem lake, in the old quarter and attended the local speciality, a water puppet theatre show. Denise eventually had to see a doctor as she hadn't eaten much for about 4 days and certainly wasn't keeping any of it inside. The Doctor at the SOS International clinic said she should stay in as she was dehydrated and they needed to do tests to see what was wrong. I checked in to a guesthouse nearer the clinic and next to the mist-shrouded (everything was mist-shrouded in Hanoi in January, which is winter in Vietnam!) St Josephs Cathedral.

In the bed next to Denise (there were only two beds in the ward) was an Irish vet with pneumonia, who was on a two week holiday to visit his daughter. He had only been in the country a few days, and he was saying he hadn't wanted to come to Vietnam anyway! I remember one morning arriving to see Denise, and both of them were on the phone to their respective travel insurance companies. Denise was being quite diplomatic in her conversation but I won't tell you where the Irishman told his company to go to! One of life's little trials is attempting to get agreement from your insurance company that they will pay the bills. This particular clinic won't admit you until someone agrees to pay and won't let you leave until you have paid! Although I have to say the clinic staff couldn't have been nicer or more helpful.

After having lots of tests and x-rays the Doctor said she would have to be flown to a better hospital in Bangkok, Thailand where they would be able to do more sophisticated tests. And so there we were whirling through the streets of Hanoi in an ambulance in the dead of night off to our waiting aeroplane (our good friend Jean must have got a shock when he phoned our mobile while we were in the ambulance!). Several hours later we were met by another ambulance in Bangkok and whisked away to the 5 star private Bumrungrad Hospital.

After a day or so Denise was diagnosed as having a 'superbug' parasite, strongyloides and they started on anti-biotics. Unfortunately some days later she developed pneumonia and had to go on more anti-biotics. The whole affair took about 2 weeks before she was well enough to be discharged, just in time for our flight to Sydney, Australia. We cancelled the Chinese leg of our trip.



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