The patient spent about 7 days in our clinic, awaiting her medical escort team to bring her back home to Australia. Due to the nature of booking a medical stretcher with oxygen availability on a commercial airplane, it took about 4 days to reserve the flight plans. Flight was from HCMC to Hong Kong; HK to Perth/Australia. The patient remained stable throughout the flight.
Perth itself is a very windy city. I stayed there for only 24 hours, and then got right back onto the plane to fly right back home. Return was a bit longer. From Perth to Sydney; Sydney to Hong Kong; HK to HCMC. Total travel time on the return trip = 22 hours on economy seating. Quite a long flight and little sleep. It's not fun sleeping upright in a chair. And then upon my return to HCMC, I was expected to return to work and see patients right away. I'm not compensated in any way for these evacuations--I get paid the same whether I carry out no evacuations or 10!
Use of yahoo messenger came in handy on this trip. I was able to keep in touch with people instantaneously wherever I found an internet connection while traveling; be it in the hotel or several of the airports.
While browsing in Hong Kong for international electric plug adapters, I couldn't purchase the item since I grabbed the wrong credit card before leaving, and had only my expired card on hand. So I tried to take a few snapshots of the items at the store in Hong Kong, and the store clerk gets all suspicious and tells me no pictures of his store items. Freaky salesperson. How do these people think taking pictures of items in their store will hurt their business? Afraid I will price compare and buy somewhere else? He wants to trick me into buying at his silly rip-off prices? Backward business ethics.
Interesting note; while shopping for souvenir gifts for the poor souls working in my clinic that have never left vietnam, the Sydney gift shop sold small leather pouches that were labeled as kangaroo scrotum. That's a good one!
The nurse I traveled with this time is quite an unschooled 'traveler.' He would walk with me through the airport, with his small carry on suitcase with the zipper partially busted open. His carry-on seemed so stuffed full of items. And then the guy finds out later that he can't find his old point and shoot film camera. He had taken a whole roll of pictures of his first trip outside of Vietnam, and then loses the camera at the end of the trip somewhere in the Hong Kong airport. What a riot.
Perth itself is a very windy city. I stayed there for only 24 hours, and then got right back onto the plane to fly right back home. Return was a bit longer. From Perth to Sydney; Sydney to Hong Kong; HK to HCMC. Total travel time on the return trip = 22 hours on economy seating. Quite a long flight and little sleep. It's not fun sleeping upright in a chair. And then upon my return to HCMC, I was expected to return to work and see patients right away. I'm not compensated in any way for these evacuations--I get paid the same whether I carry out no evacuations or 10!
Use of yahoo messenger came in handy on this trip. I was able to keep in touch with people instantaneously wherever I found an internet connection while traveling; be it in the hotel or several of the airports.
While browsing in Hong Kong for international electric plug adapters, I couldn't purchase the item since I grabbed the wrong credit card before leaving, and had only my expired card on hand. So I tried to take a few snapshots of the items at the store in Hong Kong, and the store clerk gets all suspicious and tells me no pictures of his store items. Freaky salesperson. How do these people think taking pictures of items in their store will hurt their business? Afraid I will price compare and buy somewhere else? He wants to trick me into buying at his silly rip-off prices? Backward business ethics.
Interesting note; while shopping for souvenir gifts for the poor souls working in my clinic that have never left vietnam, the Sydney gift shop sold small leather pouches that were labeled as kangaroo scrotum. That's a good one!
The nurse I traveled with this time is quite an unschooled 'traveler.' He would walk with me through the airport, with his small carry on suitcase with the zipper partially busted open. His carry-on seemed so stuffed full of items. And then the guy finds out later that he can't find his old point and shoot film camera. He had taken a whole roll of pictures of his first trip outside of Vietnam, and then loses the camera at the end of the trip somewhere in the Hong Kong airport. What a riot.
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