Alex Dalzell, who is in his final year at Otago Medical School, Wellington, has recently returned from a six week placement at a hospital in Qui Nhon, Vietnam. He shares some of his experiences with us.
By 4pm I was on a train, meandering slowly the 230km to Nha Trang. Nha Trang is a big beach town that is a bit of a tourist destination. Lots of backpackers, restaurants and dive operators. After 3 straight weekends in Qui Nhon I was more than happy to lap up being a tourist.
It’s Monday lunchtime and I have just arrived back in Qui Nhon after a cruisy trip through the rice paddies on the train. Last week was OK - my final week in orthopaedics. Some really short days which started late and finished early, but also some interesting theatre cases.
Christ, I am hyperaware on my bike on the roads here. There are just so many nasty things that motorbikes can do to you. Also I found out what a sword can do when used against a German speaking Vietnamese man while drunk and fighting.
I was going mental by the end of the week waiting for my VISA, getting daily updates that basically said, “We are still waiting for X, we might be able to issue the VISA by tomorrow”. Finally by Friday morning I still hadn’t got it and I had been planning to head down to Nha Trang that night.
I was starting to lose the plot a bit and become a rather dark and brooding young man. At 2.30 we got the call from the immigration office and it was all go. I was racing around, going to the bank and throwing stuff in a bag and catching a cab out the railway station.
By 4pm I was on a train, meandering slowly the 230km to Nha Trang. Nha Trang is a big beach town that is a bit of a tourist destination. Lots of backpackers, restaurants and dive operators. After 3 straight weekends in Qui Nhon I was more than happy to lap up being a tourist.
The dive store that I had e-mailed is open late at night and has a bar attached to it. Sounds like a good safe group to go with huh? Over a couple of beers on Friday night I sorted out my trip for the Saturday.
The rain meant the visibility wasn’t stunning - in fact it was about what I would expect on an average dive in the sounds. Enough to see some good coral formations and various tropical fish.
The rest of Saturday was spent sleeping and exploring the city a bit - I got caught in some serious tropical downpours and retreated into a few cafes for coffees on the way to escape the rain. One of the good things about Nha Trang was the different nationalities of food - basically in Qui Nhon I have been eating a lot of noodles and rice with occasional Western food at Barbara’s. I was craving some different flavours and I had some really good pizza one night and some amazing chicken enchiladas. I also had some big juicy prawns that lots of the restaurants have - you can also have them cooked in front of you by vendors on the street.
On Sunday I did a bit of exploring of some lonely planet recommended sights - a big 24 metre tall Buddha on a hill, some really old Cham towers from about 700ad. Cham being a bunch of folk lurking about Vietnam before the ethnic Vietnamese knocked them about a bit. Good to explore and click off a few photos anyway…………
Tags: health, internship, medicine, Vietnam