Vietnam - Day 4

Last night we ate out in a lovely little restaurant. Upstairs in a small room with no more than 8 tables, but lovely Vietnamese food. I had spring rolls and we all had their speciality, chicken 5 spices, I think it was called, with steamed rice. Anyway the whole thing was gorgeous and all for only 5.50€!!! Then off to the last night of the late market. Up early today, quick breakfast and we are taken to the hospital. This involves a 40 min drive from our hotel and it was a real experience driving through rush hour traffic I've never seen anything like it. We arrived at the combined blood bank and hospital, it is an impressive building, with very good laboratories, impatient facilities, dedicated staff but unfortunately they lack enough treatment to completely treat everybody. We are introduced to a large number of inpatients and outpatients and it is really heart breaking to see such young men who are severely crippled due to haemophilia. We are very fortunate in Ireland that no one suffers like this any more and it is a great pity to see such suffering when the knowledge and treatment is available in the world. We have a busy day with meetings and I cannot say much about these except it was great to see so many people, some who had travelled a great deal, to meet us. They were very enthusiastic and energetic which hopefully means that conditions will improve in the future.

Afterwards we were taken to another fantastic restaurant and I have to say Vietnamese food is gorgeous, well worth trying if you ever get the chance.

Vietnam - Day 3

Did I mention it was drizzling here, so much for the long range forecast which made me go out and buy sun cream, more likely to get rust than a sun burn! And now see what the forecast says!!

Silly boy I am last night I stayed awake until 2 am listening to the commentary of the Ireland rugby match on my iPhone. It wasn't even worth listening to! So this morning I slept on a little and the rest were half way through their breakfasts. It was a Sunday and our last free day before the work starts on the workshops. To be honest we didn't do too much just wandered around looking at the sights. Thankfully most of the museums closed early or Brian would have dragged us around a load more. Getting used to the streets and  being able to walk between the cars and motorbikes. Also it didn't drizzle all day, it didn't get sunny, but we didn't get wet at least.

Tonight we will have another look at the night market and then go for a meal. We are being collected at 8am in the morning to go to the hospital which I think is about 45 minutes away from our hotel. Looks like it will be a busy days.

As we sat having a cup of coffee we watch these balloon sellers who sold their balloons in the middle of the traffic with cars and motorbikes whizzing around them.  The funny thing is that people on motorbikes would stop to buy balloons and head off holding their purchases as they drove along!

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Vietnam - Day 2

The hotel is a lovely boutique hotel right in the middle of the old town. The rooms are well appointed with a laptop in each room with Internet as well as WiFi. Mind you you're not allowed access Facebook. After a few hours rest we head out in the afternoon for a stroll. The drizzle persists, and we start to get used to the manic traffic. Motorbikes and cars weave all over the street with horns constantly hooting and the pedestrians are also weaving in the traffic. It's next to impossible to walk on the pavements as there are either people sitting on them or else there are motorbikes parked on the sidewalk.

The streets in the Old Town are narrow and the smell of cooking abounds, it must be the ubiquitous Poh, a noodle soup. As well as standard cafes, there are people selling food from bikes or baskets. Every so often there are people cooking on the pavement and people sitting on little plastic seats eating and drinking. There are shops selling all types of nicknacks and small supermarkets.

We return at 6 pm to meet Dr Mai and her Assistant Ms Hang. We discuss the workshops for the following week before heading off to dinner. The schedule looks very good with visits to people's homes to see how they cope with their haemophilia. We are also invited to a nurses after wedding celebrations on Wednesday. Dr Mai and Ms Hang are very friendly and bring us to a specialist fish restaurant where we have a fantastic meal. Everything is cooked at the table, the sauces, vegetables and fish are lovely and I manage the chopsticks surprisingly well.  Afterwards we head to the market that runs every Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. The streets are thronged with people. To finish the night off, after we leave the girls back to the hotel, Brian and I go look for the Irish bar to get a drink for Paddy's day.

Tomorrow the plan was to go to Holung Bay, but today due to the bad mist the boats were not allowed out so we've decided not risk the 3.5 hour drive there and just do our own thing. In the mean time I listen to the Ireland England rugby match on my iPhone app, amazing what you can do!!

Vietnam - Day 1

Up early at 4am for the flight to Paris, a 4 hour stop over in Charles De Gaul airport, and then on to Hanoi with Vietnam Airlines. The flight is 10.5 hours so in fact the first day is gone on traveling as we arrive on Paddy's day, Saturday 17th at 5.40am. Not much to say about long flights except I think the plane we flew on had many, many, many hours clocked up on it!!! Anyway we arrive, and the sun isn't up yet. Next we have a two hour wait to get our visas, that eventually sorted the bags are waiting for us and so is our taxi driver from the hotel, this is great as you hear all sorts of problems with scams between taxi drivers and hotels.

So the first impressions? Typical Paddy's day it is raining and misty. The drive from the airport to the city brings us through some country side and we get our first sight of Paddy fields. As we get closer to the city we see a very industrial city with a mixture of typical communist type buildings with a mix of factories: Panasonic and Yamaha to name a couple, and more historic buildings that look Vietnamese with their beautifully ornate roofs. Although its 8 am the traffic is building up and the ubiquitous motor and push bikes become even more prominent. Some stacked high with wares for the market and others with two or three passengers. The traffic runs in all directions with no apparent control, and then the pedestrians trying to cross the road, what havoc!! I'm not looking forward to trying to cross the road.

Our hotel is nestled in the middle of the old town and it is very nice and well appointed. So we decide to get a bite of breakfast and go to bed for a few hours before exploring.

Trip to Vietnam

I am very excited and privileged to be going to Vietnam next week (March 16, 2012). It is a country I have wanted to visit to take in the atmosphere and hopefully to get some good photos. Some colleagues from the Irish Haemophilia Society (I.H.S.) are visiting the Vietnamese Haemophilia Society in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City and thankfully they have agreed I can join them and take some photographs for them as well. One of the strategic goals of the I.H.S. is to assist the World Federation of Haemophilia in their goal of improving Haemophilia care worldwide. To this end, the I.H.S. has embarked on a twining programme with the Vietnam Society.

The great news for Haemophilia is that in the last 40-50 years there has been huge strides in the treatment of the disorder. Prior to the 1960’s there was no treatment and people with Haemophilia had a very low life expectancy and what life they had was largely blighted with pain, deformity and of very low quality. But since then treatment has improved greatly with today’s young boys being treated prophylactically (2-3 times a week), meaning they can live virtually normal lives. Unfortunately, it is a hard fact of life, that of the estimated 400,000 people living with Haemophilia only 25% receive adequate treatment. Vietnam is a country that is trying to cope with a very low level of treatment and difficult hospital conditions. Although the doctors are very committed and do their very best without the proper treatment it is a great shame to see young people suffer so greatly. It is very reminiscent of the conditions and quality of life suffered by people with haemophilia in Ireland some 40-50 years ago.

The objective of the twining programme is to build the capabilities and skills of the local society. This is done mostly through workshops on organisation, governance and community building so that they can help each other, but also to build their advocacy skills to show the value of treatment to those in authority. Also through some direct advocacy to the health authorities and treatment providers and companies it is hoped that overall treatment can be improved over time, the sooner the better!