Blogs from Da Nang , South Central Coast, Vietnam, Asia - page 13

Hue was the first capital of Vietnam and is considered a very important nationalist symbol. As a result, it was a strategic target in many wars and was briefly taken over by the North during the '68 Tet Offensive and retaken again by the Americans who ended up bombing the Citadel and destroying major parts of the Forbidden Purple City. Before the Americans bombed it, the French did their part too when they destroyed other parts of the Citadel while trying to re-takeover "Indochina" following their glorious "cheese eating surrender monkey" ways in WW II. Sorry, for using a recent Americanism. But how soon an ally becomes a non-ally and then an ally again eh. During WW II, the Americans gave large material support to Ho Chi Minh because he was the only one fighting the ... read more

I got a sleeper on the night train to Da Nang. I found the carriage and the sleeper very easily. I had an upper bunk, as all the lower bunks were sold out. A little while after I was all settled in and had even managed to fit my backpack into the tiny crevice by the upper bunk (it helps that I'm intentionally travelling very light this time), 3 Vietnamese ladies and 2 young boys took over the lower two bunks. None spoke English, except for "Hello ... What is your name?" ... then an older gentleman came with his son to take the remaining upper bunk - and has a 24 pack of imported beer with him. He also had some kind of speech impediment, where he couldn't say much but grunt and gesture. umm ... read more

Magda und Pawel sind so lieb und nehmen mich im Auto mit nach Hoi An. Auf dem Weg dorthin halten wir noch für einen kurzen Aufstieg auf die Marmorberge, wo ein weißer Buddha auf uns wartet. Die fünf Marmorberge werden auch der Ort der fünf Elemente Wasser, Feuer, Erde, Holz und Metall genannt. Der Legende nach, handelt es sich bei den fünf Bergen um von Drachen zurückgelassene Eier. Was jetzt die Eier mit den Elementen zu tun haben, erschließt sich mir trotz Nachfrage nicht so ganz, Hauptsache ist jedoch, dass sie nicht schlüpfen. Aber bei dem kalten regnerischen Wetter... Während wir locker die vielen Stufen zu den Tempeln erklimmen, keucht es um uns herum auf jeder Treppenstufe. An den sommerlichen Temperaturen kann es nicht liegen, denn die sind nicht vorhanden. Eher liegt es daran, dass hier ... read more

So after our mucking round at the airport we walked outside grabbed a taxi and headed to Hoa's place. We hadn't been able to get hold of anyone there so we were winging it. Rocked on up to this gravel street and started asking where Hoa was and if anyone new him. With some nodding of the head and repeating of the name "Hoa Hoa Hoa" and a pretty obvious pointing down the street we found a little slice of heaven. This little Vietnmese man came bounding out the door "Hello Hello im Hoa come in for a feed sit down sit down" and that was our room booked, then we rested for a while and went and inspected the beach which was 60m from our room which was costing a reasonable $7 a night. ... read more

Hello fellow blog-followers! Margot and I had a very successful morning! After observing a total knee surgery yesterday. We were able to teach/commence acute PT on 2 patients after their total knees today - Margot really saved the day as she put her expertise to work in working with the patients and educating the therapists on acute orthopedic PT therapeutic techniques. This is the first (to our knowledge) that the PT department has seen or been exposed to acute PT care so soon and functional after a total knee replacement and the patients did really well. Then, we were smart enough to run up to the surgery floor and catch the ortho surgeon and the american ortho surgeons between surguries to give them updates and recommendations to clarify the orders that are generated for the PT ... read more