Shopping and Hospitals in Hoi An.

Hoi An is famous on the backpacker trail for the many tailors offering to make you a talor made suit in under 24 hours. The strrets are cluttered with these tailor shops. As you walk down the street the women out the front try to lure you into their shops. 'Hello. Where you from? Australia! G'day mate. Kangaroo. How long you stay? You want to look in my shop, Good quality. Very fast. Hello. Hey you. Just looking". Once you enter a shop you are flattered to unbearable limits. 'You have beautiful hair. You are so pretty. Yes, yes, I make it for you. You look very beautiful. Yes, very beautiful'.

At first all this attention is annoying and I tended to avoid the shops but after a while some evil inner shopping demon comes out and suddenly you are being fitted for this and that and ordering duplicates. Ahhh, get me out of this town. I can't carry anything else and I don't need another pretty skirt.

Shopping aside Hoi An is really quite beautiful and it is nice to wander the streets in the afternoon when the it cools down a bit. They also make and sell many chinese lanterns which look beautiful lighting up all the restaurants and bars at night.

Change of topic now. So far on my travels I have had the flu for nearly three weeks in Thailand, then I had gastro in Laos and now in Vietnam I have had ongoing problems with my ears. At first it was just an earache that thankfully went away after a few days, then after all the swimming and water actrivities it returned and blocked both my ears so badly I could barely hear. It was unbearable and I sounded like and old lady always saying 'huh?, say that again' or 'I didn't hear you, speak up' all the time.

Now, I am a bit of a pro miming to pharmacists what I want having had many months experience. BUt I always get nervous and hope I will get the right medicine. I managed to buy some ear drops but I had already been using some and knew they didn't work. I was recommended cotton buds but they just make it all worse. Eventually, desperate I ended up in hospital, a place I had so far avoided even when I was sick in Laos. Desperate to be able to hear I saw a nurse and then a doctor who prodded around in my ears, the only english words I heard were 'dirty, very dirty' followed by other astonished sounding mutterings in Vietnamese. My hearing wasn't very good and his english wasn't terribly good but eventually I understood he would clean my 'dirty' ears out. I was very excited and avoided looking around at the dirty walls and leaking taps and (Steve later told me) bloody tissues in bins and a blood covered step near the door. I wanted to hear and be non-sick. Please.

What followed was for me not enjoyable but the two nurses, the doctor and Steve all seemed to have a wonderful time as my ears were flushed out, every time some chunk of wax came out everyone would let out a disgusted cheer. Even the doctor. My humiliation continued for at least 20 minutes and that was just the first ear. Oh, and I have a picture of this going down too- will put it up when I can.

Sadly for the excited crowd my second ear had no exciting chunks and appeared to be clean. Still I could not hear. He told me through diagrams and broken english that i had an infection deeper in my ear. I am now barred form getting my ears wet, though all I have been doing is swimming and am on a number of ldifferent pills and potions for the next five days or so.

My goal is to not get sick at all in Cambodia.