360 in 365 – Joachim voyage autour du monde

Good bye Vietnam!

Good-Bye Vietnam!

My analysis on Vietnam won’t be as detailed as the one I did on China. That’s because I stayed only three weeks and I was sick ten days. Of a tropical illness. That makes me an adventurer, I guess. Even if my adventures were confined to my hotel room in Hue or in Saigon.

I caught the dengue fever. And my twitter followers already know : I survived. And the others should know that, yeah, I didn’t die. That’s the scoop.

You can read about Dengue on Wikipedia, it’s a virus carried by mosquitoes. 40% of the world population is exposed to this virus, but nobody speaks about it.

I got bitten by a mosquito in Cat Ba, so that should be it. After a few days in Hanoi the fever began, I went to Hue, stayed in my hotel room for four days, took a little time to visit the temples and tombs and the citadel, destroyed by the war.

The War is still there, in Vietnam. But only for tourists. Vietnamese people can remember, the life of the family during the War. No need for them to visit museums where you can see an american parachute and an old rusting rifle.

After Hue, I went to Nha Trang. The beaches, fun, and things like that. Of course I stayed in my hotel room.

Then Saigon, a french hospital with a french doctor, and I’ll be reimbursed by the french social security. And then four days in the Mekong delta, taking crappy photos.

I don’t really know what to say about Vietnam. It’s a different mindset from China. Chinese people want to do buisness with you, but Vietnamese people want your money. The charge 5 to 10 times what they ask from the locals, and no negociation. A bit frustrating to say the least…

But well, Vietnamese people aren’t bad, they do what they can with what they have, like everybody else. And they won lots of medals in the SEA Games. Isn’t that great? Ok that was my analysis of Vietnam. I’m in Cambodia, Phnom Penh is really more relaxed than Saigon. And my illness is gone, so I’m back to my trip, seriously.

And this time, I’ll try not to take just crappy pictures.