Finding Medicines While in Vietnam

The pharmacy next to the Baby Factory near my house.

Virtually anyone traveling abroad will face some kind of medical issue during their travels.

Whether you contract dengue fever, malaria, traveler's diarrhea, or just are dealing with a nasty hangover from too much bia hoi (fresh-made beer), eventually you're going to have to get something to help you recover. But finding what you need when you are in pain and not at your mental peak is a daunting prospect.

I've been fortunate enough to only have a few medical issues, and most times I can get what I want, when I need it... now. A year ago? Maybe not so much. I take a few daily medications, and, as I've documented in my post of medieval bodily horrors, suffer the occasional gout attack. Then there are all those times I went in unprepared, sick or in pain, and left with a product that didn't help at all (when I was able to get anything at all).

Saigon Survival: Regulating Your Body Temperature in the Tropics

Our family cabin in Northern Wisconsin, Winter 2013-14 - A DOOZY.

 You know it's hot here.

I pretty much can't shut up about how hot (or, alternately, how rainy/humid/flooded) it is, every single day - if there are two things Westerners like to talk about, it's politics and the weather... and you can't talk about either here.

I'm still not entirely sure how I got here, weather-wise.

I'm a generally warm person descended from people that originated in northern Europe (Norway, Sweden, Germany, etc), and I've lived all my formative years in places that usually received a pretty decent load of snow and freezing cold crap for several months a year - Wisconsin and Chicago can be very cold places.

So, naturally... Vietnam! ...Huh?? But it was new, different, the development pace was right, and the challenges they were facing as a people/city/country were fascinating... so here I am in the tropics, sweating my butt off and playing fast and loose with body odor.

I've had to find ways to survive the heat.

First Experience with the HCMC Public Buses

Recently I went to Monkey Island with a friend on Teacher's Day, and we ended up taking public buses to get the full experience.

This is the first time I've been on the bus system here (seriously - this long! It even took me months to try the buses when I first moved to Chicago! I don't even know) and it was a pretty good experience. Long, but very interesting, and I got some fun videos.

I thought I'd write a brief post about it, as some aspects are a bit... different... than bus rides I've had in the past.

Read on for a short primer on "how" to ride the city buses in Saigon! Complete with amusing videos!

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

I've been here in Ho Chi Minh City now for 4 months, and, while that's not a very long time, it's long enough for me to develop some favorite things and some not so favorite things. Usually, it takes me a couple times before I decide, definitively, NO THANK YOU. And, ranked, here they are.

Have you been to Saigon? What are some of your favorites/not at all favorites? I'm curious if these are typical culture shock things or if I'm just developing personal tastes. Leave me notes in the comments!

Read on for a listicle (ugh, hate that word... but it's applicable):

The World's Best Men's Underpants

Ok, real talk.

After getting into my primary school classrooms and discovering that they were a) NOT air conditioned, as promised, and b) the teacher does not get a rotating fan pointed at them where they lecture (there are usually 5-7 fans along the tops of the walls pointed at the students, and one pointed at the teachers desk, but none at the blackboard area), I was compelled to write this post.

Let me tell you about how sweaty I get when I'm teaching. People, I sweat through my TIES. They are SODDEN, SOAKED MESSES when I get home. I can sometimes hardly pull them off. My shirt is even more of a mess - it looks like someone has picked me up and dunked the top half of me in water. I'm literally dripping sweat from my chin and nose all over English textbooks and little wooden desks for 4 hours a day, and it sucks. It's uncomfortable and the only thing saving it for me is that I'm going to drink four bottles of water in a row every hour.

But you know what's totally comfortable? My belly button to my ankles. I attribute it to two things: a) my slacks are way too baggy (almost shamefully '90's, I admit, and they need tailoring), and b) I made a stunningly intelligent decision on July 26th, 2012. That was the date I bought two new pairs of boxer briefs.

Comfortable, reliable undergarments are a thing of beauty. Let me share with you the world's most amazing men's underpants... an even more essential product now that I'm in the tropics. Stop reading now if that's not your bag.

You've been warned. Click the jump for comfort and, yes, seriously real (though not explicit) talk...

Ms. Marple in Vietnam

Ms. Marple gets busy using her brain and her instincts to
sort out the mess around her. I feel she would handle
culture shock well.

I don't know if you know this, but I am a HUGE Agatha Christie fan. I've read every single one of her mysteries many, many times, ever since I discovered them in middle school (thanks, Mom!). I have almost the complete collection, some 80 odd slim volumes (again, thanks, Mom!!). I'll never get rid of them.

Why are they so enduring? What made her writing so vital and interesting to me? Well, they're undeniably clever, and I always like clever. Ms. Marple always succeeds at catching the murderer, even when (especially when) the police and their strategies have failed. She sums her approach up best (and I'm paraphrasing here) when she notes that, no matter where you go, human nature is basically the same.

This is how living in this strange new city is not new to me, even while it's shockingly, outrageously, vibrantly new.

The True All-Purpose Bathroom

This post about my
shower/bathroom is for Ally.

I haven't had a hot shower since I got here. That's almost four weeks, if you're counting. I had a lukewarm one around 5pm one day a week ago, but that was as close as I've gotten to hot.*

In a way, this is ok. If I get up in the middle of the night and turn the AC off, I'm sweaty enough by the time I get up at 5:30am that the shower feels pretty good. And in the afternoon? Oof, you want it as cold as it can get! But there's something undeniably nice about being ABLE to control the temperature. Or maybe it's undeniably First World. Either way... I long for an apartment with hot water. (p.s. It looks like I've found it, too!)

Not that it matters much - I don't spend much time in there, honestly. I get it and get out. One reason is that it's cold, sure, but another reason is that I don't like getting all my stuff wet, or moving it out and back in. The first time I took a shower I forgot to remove all the toilet paper and it was partially ruined. Oops!

Wait, what? Ruined TP? In the shower?

Essential Ho Chi Minh City Travel Tips, Part 1

There are just some things that are so small you don't think about the fact that they might be done differently in another culture. I'm not talking about driving on the other side of the road - even simpler than that... these are some that I've learned through trial and error!

Learn from my mistakes, and enjoy!