February 20, 2018
D17: Hà Nội
I'm in Hanoi. Capital city of the country. Second largest population center. It's a big place. But it's an old city too and like any properly developed old city, it's got lots of tree lined streets and a surprisingly small number of buildings tall enough to need elevators. I'm sure they must be there somewhere but other than two or three large under construction apartment blocks when I was crossing the river, I haven't seen them.
I'm staying at the north end of the backpacker tourist ghetto. Nearly everything has English language signs in addition to or instead of Vietnamese. Stores and restaurants list prices in dollars. There are bits of Chinese cribbed by hand in the margins of older printed signs that say "we change money" or "Chinese speaking guides available." It is so weird. I think the closest I've ever come to anything like this was Khaosan Road in Bangkok.
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The closest hospital to my hotel is the Viet Duc Hospital or Vietnamese-German hospital which seems likely to me to be the sort of large place that ought to have English speaking doctors. I walk that way stopping along the way to have a bowl of something that vaguely resembled congee only much more delicious and, later on, a cup of coffee. Then, at the hospital, I sort of wander around aimlessly for a bit finding various not-busy looking people and showing them a pre-prepared statement I've made on Google Translate until I'm sent to the right place.
I say this specifically as someone who translates for a living but Google Translate is a wonderful amazing fabulous great thing. Sure it can't handle conditionals or complicated sentences and the grammar or phrasing may come out oddly at times, but I can only imagine how difficult this would be with 100 Useful Vietnamese Phrases for Foreigners or some other travel book like I might have carried with me in the not so distant past.
I've lived in Asia for 16 years so very definitely uncomfortable things like the total lack of privacy or having to individually pay for each test before it was done is something I'm regretfully used to. The buildings I was primarily in looked a bit tired around the edges with chipped plaster where someone had banged a cart into a wall but overall they were very clean. Other than the aforementioned total lack of privacy, the only particularly strange thing I noticed was that the handwash stations for the medical personnel had cloth towels and a "used towel" bucket instead of paper towels and a trash bin.
Unlike my previous two ultrasounds (which just involved pulling up my shirt and loosening my pants) this one was rather more, shall we say, invasive. And done after waiting in line behind 5 or 6 women getting the same type of exam while 3 or 4 more were still waiting in the same room. They mostly managed to keep the door to the hallway closed but there wasn't even a curtain or a drape. Everything was single-use from sterile packaging and the technician was very professional in the way that only someone who does something a dozen times or more an hour can be but that didn't make it any less awkward.
On the basis of the ultrasound combined with a blood draw to test my HCG levels, it was determined that I'm not 100% empty and I've been given a course of prophylactic antibiotics as there is a minimal risk—which is still a risk—that, between now and my next natural period, unexpelled material could lead to sepsis.
As with the first hospital in Vietnam, there was never any suggestion of any kind of surgical intervention and, upon further consideration of the whole situation with the hospital in Dongxing and their adamant refusal to let me take any of my test results when I left, I think that something fishy was going on.
Hanlon's razor says "never attribute to malice that which can accurately be explained by incompetence" and it's a truism that the hospitals in small Chinese cities are not known for their stellar quality of care. However, I didn't show any symptoms until about a week prior and I really really don't think I got miraculously pregnant a couple of weeks before I had the opportunity to have sex. Combine that with them refusing to follow World Health Organization protocol in favor of a strange combined procedure which cost twenty times more and malice (or at least avarice) becomes a very likely scenario.
The total cost including ultrasound, reading, blood test, and prescription was under $20. My general verdict is still try not to get ill while traveling but if you have to get ill while traveling, Vietnam is not a horrible place to be treated. I hear Thailand also has good medical services for foreigners though I've never personally needed them. As for China... ... ...well, there's a reason I try to never go anywhere other than the international clinic near my apartment.
Today's ride: 5 km (3 miles)
Total: 752 km (467 miles)
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