We thoroughly enjoyed our time in the Vietnam Central Coast, exploring the beautiful beaches of DaNang & culture and history of Hoi An. However, our time in Vietnam was coming to a close and we just had one last stop before we left – Hanoi & Cat Ba Island. We were flying to Hanoi to meet our friend, Michele and her sister Chrissy for 4 days of exploring before hopping on our flight to the Philippines. We were mentally bracing ourselves for the chaos that Hanoi would bring.
The flight was super quick & short, and we landed at the Hanoi airport and met up with Michele & Chrissy! It was such a happy reunion as we hadn’t seen Michele since she moved away from Taiwan last July. The 4 of us called a Grab to take us to our hotel, and it turned out to be the most comically tiny vehicle of all time. The doors could barely close with our luggage and 4 passengers. We got to our hotel, which was right by Hoan Kiem lake, but tucked away on a little side street so it was incredibly quiet! We dropped our bags & went out for a walk around the lake. The Hanoi traffic was just as chaotic as ever, and Michele & Chrissy quickly caught on that you just had to let Jesus take the wheel as you walked into oncoming traffic.
We spent the afternoon exploring Old Town Hanoi, and tried to go to train street but got shooed away by a very grumpy man who spoke no English. Eventually, somebody told us that nobody was allowed into train street until after 9 pm, because the train was coming by at 9:45 pm. We can’t seem to figure out the train street rules. We decided to go to Beer Street for dinner & a few drinks, and go back to Train Street in the evening.
Because we had a pretty negative experience being harassed by people trying to get us to go to their cafe last time we went to train street, we wanted to try a different strategy. We had heard from our friends Jules & Del that they had been to The Railway Cafe, the first cafe that opened up on train street nearly 7 years ago. I messaged them on Instagram and asked if they would invite us in this evening to see the train pass. They messaged me back and gave me their Whatsapp number to call when we arrived.
We pulled up to the entrance of train street shortly before 9 pm, and there was a police officer standing there. Groups of tourists were standing around outside, confused at what was happening. Apparently, allowing tourists into Train Street is still illegal, but it just depends on the mood of the cop that day, because they are willing to turn a blind eye. When we arrived, all the cafe owners were crowded around, encouraging the cop to leave his shift a few minutes early so that they could let us in. The cop hopped on his scooter and started driving away, but cafe owners starting letting us in while we were clearly within the cop’s line of sight. I called the Railway Cafe owner, waiting for him to come get us. Before long, a woman showed up ushering us in. We saw the sign for the Railway Cafe and sat down, but the woman started yelling at us in Vietnamese, trying to pull us into a different cafe. Apparently, she was a cafe owner from down the street and very salty about the fact that we had already been in communication with the Railway Cafe owners, and thought we were slighting her by rejecting her “invitation”. She even came back and yelled at the owners of the Railway Cafe for “stealing” her business.
We sat down at the Railway Cafe, ordered a few beers, and started chatting with the owners. It was a much more pleasant experience than the last time, as the two cafe owners are very amicable and friendly. They told us about how when they came up with the idea to start the cafe, everybody mocked them and told them it was dumb. But after seeing the success of the cafe, more and more people started setting up their own little spots on train street. Around 9:45 PM, we heard the guards yelling at that the train was about to come by! It was a pretty cool experience to see the train pass by literally inches away from where we were sitting. Definitely glad that we got to see it!
The next morning, Michele & Chrissy were able to try Egg Coffee for the first time, and we strolled through a bit more of the city before we packed up our bags to board our bus to Cat Ba Island. The bus ride was uneventful but comfortable. From Hanoi, it’s about 3 hours to the port, then another 10 minute ferry ride, then another 20-30 minute drive to Cat Ba town.
On the ferry ride over, I had started feeling a bit under the weather. I had a bad headache, muscle aches, stomachache, and generally just felt weak. I thought that I had maybe gotten food poisoning from something I ate. Michele graciously went out and picked up dinner for us and we posted up in their cute little bungalow with their cute little hostel dog to watch the Bachelor finale. I started to feel really cold during the Bachelor, and decided to walk back to our hostel down the street and call it a night.
That night was miserable. I had the worst chills and body aches. I woke up twice in the middle of the night uncontrollably shivering, despite being covered in sweat and wearing 3 layers. I had to take two burning hot showers to warm up. I tried taking Advil & Tylenol, but still felt terrible. I was hoping my fever would break by the morning and I could be active enough to enjoy Cat Ba with my friends. Unfortunately, by morning, I was feeling just as terrible, and still freezing cold. I had never had a fever last this long before, and I was getting concerned that something was really wrong. I was feeling progressively worse and worse, so I reached out to my travel insurance company, HeyMondo, to have them refer me to a clinic. We had just switched to HeyMondo as our travel insurance providers a few weeks before this whole incident, and I couldn’t have better things to say. HeyMondo does direct medical billing, meaning that they set up a guarantee of payment to the hospital directly, so that you don’t need to pay anything out of pocket (other than your deductible, which varies depending on your plan but mine was 200 euros). Direct medical billing is great because it means you don’t need to pay first and wait for the company to reimburse you/potentially deny your claim. HeyMondo referred me to the Cat Ba Hospital, so Saz rented a scooter and drove my sickly self up the road to the hospital.
Calling this place a “hospital” would be a bit generous. When we first arrived, it was a ghost town with all the desks in the main lobby deserted. A sign that we Google translated said that they were closed from 1-2 pm for lunch. I was in a lot of pain and Saz ran around the complex trying to find somebody. She heard voices coming from a different building so we walked over there. The hospital staff did not speak any English, so we painstakingly Google translated messaged back and forth. The staff directed me to a big room with 6 hospital beds, and instructed me to lay down. They inserted an IV and gave me some fluids & electrolyte drinks to rehydrate.
I spent the next several hours being poked and prodded by various staff members, none of which were really communicating to me what they were doing. At one point, I was wheel-chaired into a different building so that they could take some x-rays and ultrasounds of my stomach. Multiple different doctors and nurses kept coming in and running the same tests, asking me the same questions via Google translate, and then leaving never to be seen again. The whole hospital felt dirty and run down, and the staff wasn’t using gloves to insert my IV. I had an absolutely pounding headache and a 39.5 C fever, and I kept asking the doctors if I could have some Tylenol but they wouldn’t give it to me.
Eventually, a nice female doctor walked in and Google translated a message that read “we suspect you have appendicitis, and we need to evacuate you off the island as soon as possible we do not have the facilities to treat you here”. Up until this point, I was still thinking I had a bad bout of food poisoning that could be cured quickly with the right medication. Now, I started to panic. All of our stuff was still back in our hotel. We had plans to stay for another day on Cat Ba, and a flight booked out of Vietnam in 2 days. The thought of emergency surgery in a foreign country that we hadn’t had the best experiences in was petrifying!
While I was having a mental breakdown, Saz jumped into action mode and quickly drove back to our hostel to collect our luggage & return the scooter. While she was gone, a nurse came in told me an ambulance was on its way, about 20 minutes away, to take me to the mainland, but told me I had to settle the bill before the ambulance arrived. The total bill was around 4 million dong ($170 USD). I didn’t have enough cash, so I asked to pay with card. I was told that the hospital was cash only (of course it was, why wouldn’t it be?) The stress of the situation all hit me and I broke down by myself crying. I tried to ask the nurse where the closest ATM was, but she just kept misunderstanding my question and telling me to pay the bill. Finally, the nice female doctor came back in and told me that the nearest ATM was in the tourist area, about 10 minute drive away. She told me she would help to call me a cab to bring me to the ATM and back. Despite barely being able to walk, I was packed into the back of the cab, driven to the ATM, took out the cash I needed, and headed back to the hospital on my own. I settled the bill at the hospital just as the ambulance arrived. I looked around the corner and Saz, Michele & Chrissy were pulling into the hospital with all of our bags in tow. We said a quick and sad goodbye, and Saz & I were piled into the back of the ambulance.
By this point, I was still feeling terrible from my illness, but also had lots of added stress from the thought of emergency surgery. I received a Whatsapp message from an unknown number, and he introduced himself as Aap, my local contact from HeyMondo (my travel insurance). He told me that he had been in contact with my insurance provider, as well as the Cat Ba hospital to get my medical report, and was going to have me transported to a good hospital in Haiphong, about 2 hours away. This man turned out to be a freakin’ godsend during all this. Having a local Vietnamese contact who could speak the language and knew the area made a stressful situation so much easier.
The ambulance drive to the port was about 25 minutes, and then we drove onto a ferry. The ferry was painfully slow, and when we finally reached the other side, we were met with a different ambulance and had to unload and load into the new one. The 2nd ambulance driver said that we were going to Viet Tiep Hospital in Haiphong. However, Aap called me and said that my insurance company was actually partnered with VinMec Haiphong International Hospital, and asked if the ambulance could reroute to VinMec instead. After a bit of back and forth and getting Aap on speakerphone to chat with the ambulance driver, they agreed to take us to VinMec. When we were almost in Haiphong, the ambulance driver Google translated that they wanted 30 dollars to take us to VinMec. I was confused because I had already paid for the ambulance back in Cat Ba, and I was even more thrown off by the fact that he wasn’t asking for VND, he was asking for USD. I showed him my receipt for the ambulance, but he Google translated that “that was only for the first ambulance, this wasn’t included”. I called Aap and explained the situation, and after Aap talked to him, he mysteriously dropped it and admitted that I had already paid for the ride (great look, trying to scam an ambulance patient.)
Aap called me again and said that there had been a change of plans, and the insurance had actually approved for me to be transferred to Hanoi French Hospital, another 2 hour drive away from Haiphong. At this point, I was overwhelmed and confused, still in pain and thinking that I needed emergency surgery ASAP. Aap told me that he had organised a 3rd ambulance to meet me at VinMec Haiphong to transport me to Hanoi French Hospital, where I would get surgery. We arrived at VinMec, found the 3rd ambulance and unloaded and loaded up again. The driver pulled out of the parking lot, drove for about 3 minutes and pulled over. He told me he was waiting for final approval from the insurance company to begin the ride to Hanoi. 10, 20, 30 minutes passed and I was getting exceedingly more frustrated. We were 3 minutes away from a perfectly fine hospital, I didn’t understand why we needed to drive all the way to Hanoi to get treatment. I called Aap and asked if I could just go to VinMec because I was feeling really shitty and wanted some medical attention. Just as we were on the phone with Aap, the ambulance driver said he got approval to go to Hanoi and started to drive. We had only been driving for 3 minutes when suddenly the driver gets another call, saying that I wouldn’t make it to Hanoi and needed urgent medical attention ASAP. The ambulance u-turned in the middle of the road and started driving back to the hospital. At this point, it was full panic mode. I thought that someone had seen my ultrasounds from Cat Ba or blood test results and my appendix would rupture at any point. Knowing we were only about 3 minutes away from VinMec, it was weird after we had been driving for 10+ minutes and still hadn’t arrived yet. Saz Google translated asking the driver where he was going. Turns out, he had seen on my paperwork that my original hospital was Viet Tiep hospital, so he was taking me there instead of VinMec. The stress of the situation was too much, and both Saz and I frantically told the driver to turn around again and take us back to VinMec.
Finally, after a ferry ride, 3 different ambulances, and 3+ hours of driving, we pulled into the VinMec Emergency Room and I was admitted as a patient. VinMec was very nice and very clean, and made me feel much more comfortable than the Cat Ba Hospital had. The doctor that came in to assess me couldn’t speak any English, but had a translator on the phone who was very fluent and helpful with all of my questions. I was pulled in for more ultrasounds and x-rays, and the doctor told me that it wasn’t appendicitis after all. It was gastroenteritis and could be treated with antibiotics. I felt a wave of relief that I wasn’t going to need emergency surgery in Vietnam. However, he told me that the infection was quite severe and I would probably need to be hospitalised for 3 days for observation.
At this point, it was 10 pm and I had been in the hospital/ambulances since 1. I knew I was going to need to spend a night there at the very least, so we hunkered down in the ER and got ready for a long night. The nurses and hospital staff were very attentive, giving me IV’s and medicine, and the doctor prescribed me antibiotics. I was still in a lot of pain that first night, so didn’t sleep that well. We were just in a bed in the ER, so anytime another ER case would come in, all the lights would come on and there would be lots of noise/talking. Around 3 am, a family with a young baby came in who was screaming at the top of his lungs.
At 4 am, I asked the nurse to give me something to help me sleep, and she gave me an herbal sleeping medication that knocked me out. I was a zombie when the nurses came in to give me my antibiotics at 8 am. However, when I woke up around 9 am I was feeling much better. My fever had subsided, my muscles/head didn’t hurt as much, and my stomach was feeling more settled. The doctor and translator came to assess me around 11 am, and I told them that the drugs seemed to be working and I was looking way better. The doctor told me that it seemed like I was reacting really well to the antibiotics, and if I was feeling much better by the evening I could be discharged at 7 pm, instead of staying 3 days. I was so happy to hear this news. We still had our flights from Hanoi to the Philippines booked for the next day, and were hoping to get out of Vietnam ASAP.
The day was relatively uneventful, but at least I was feeling way better, still taking fluids from an IV and taking my medicine. We spent the day watching movies in our ER bed, took a few walks outside for some fresh air, and tried to make the best of the situation. Aap was in constant communication with me throughout the day, requesting the documents necessary to complete my insurances guarantee of payment to the hospital, and Saz worked with the hospital accountant to get an itemised list of services, my medical reports etc.
By the afternoon, I could walk with no pain, all my muscles felt back to normal, and I was really hopeful that I could get discharged early! We decided to organise a taxi to take us back to Hanoi from Haiphong, spend the night at an airport hotel in Hanoi so that we could catch our 8:30 am flight the next morning. I figured even if I needed additional medical attention, a doctor in the Philippines would speak better English and everything didn’t have to be through Google Translate. Around 4 pm, the doctor came back for his final assessment. He said I was in much better shape, safe to travel, and that he would get me my prescriptions/medical reports translated into English. He officially discharged me around 4:15 pm, handed me my antibiotics for the next 5 days, and we started to pack up our things.
We hit a tiny roadblock with the payment, because the hospital had forgotten to provide the to go medication on my list of services, so the guarantee of payment hadn’t covered my medicine. I could either pay out of pocket for the medication and get reimbursed later, or I could wait for the new GOP to come through before I left. I made a few calls to HeyMondo, who approved the medication payment verbally, but were waiting for final written approval from their medical staff. HeyMondo was amazing from start to finish, covered all my bills, gave me a Vietnamese speaking local contact, and were generally just so warm and helpful through a very scary situation. I highly recommend them as an affordable travel insurance provider if you’re looking for one!
We ended up waiting around 45 minutes to an hour, which felt like FOREVER. I wanted to get out of the hospital so bad. Finally, the hospital got the email that my medication was covered and I was FREE!!! I sprinted out of the hospital into our taxi, and we started the 2 hour drive to Hanoi.
The ER didn’t have a shower, so we were stinky, dirty, covered in hospital germs. We were so happy to check into our airport hotel and have a long, hot shower to wash off the terrible 30+ hours we just had. We got into our cozy PJs, watched a movie and went to bed, counting down the hours till our flight.
Overall, we had some really great memories in Vietnam, but there were a lot of parts of our time here that weren’t kind to us. The traffic, constant honking, general chaos of the country was starting to get old, and the last few days were extra stressful. We are very ready for a change of scenery and a more laid back vibe in the Philippines.
Wow! Scary. Glad you’re okay.