Today I visited a Vietnamese hospital. It looked just like a hospital depicted in a circa 1940's movie- only a bit dingier. The floor was a white and blue square checker pattern and the walls were painted blue on bottom and white on top. The whole place had a sort of permanent dust covering.

In the room I was in, there were two big old teachers desks with plastic chairs, a sink, a metal guerney with a mat on it and a cart with medical contraptions that had big glass bottles attached to clunky metal things. I'm sure they are in some medical museum somewhere.

So why, you may be wondering, did I go to a Vietnamese hospital?

The answer is because I couldn't swallow. And because my tonsils and little hangy thing (uvula?) were very swollen and bright red. My throat was also bright red with red bumps on it. My self diagnosed Internet researched diagnosis pointed to tonsilitis.

And, tonsilities it is. I don't know if you have ever had tonsilitis but it sucks. You are made painfully aware of yourself swallowing ever single time you do it which, as it happens, is quite frequently. So, you don't sleep much and eating and drinking are not very appealing.

Not ideal conditions for recovery.

I put off going to the doctor for two or three days because I didn't want to go to the doctor here and I feared being told that I had to interupt my trip to head off to Bangkok to have my tonsils removed.

Also, my Internet research indicated that there were two kinds of tonsilitis- viral which you have to wait out and bacterial which can be treated with antibiotics. I thought I would wait to see if it were viral but it kept getting worse. Perhaps I could self medicate with the cipro I had but was that the right antibiotic? I mean I am taking the antibiotic doxycyclin as an anti-malarial and that doesn't seem to be doing me much good.

The pain got to the point where I couldn't drink and I thought it would be best to go while I persumeably only needed medication instead of intravenous hydration.

And so I went.

I was greeted at the door soon after I entered the hospital complex and immediately ushered into the room I described. Apparently the sight of a westerner is not that common. Lucky for me, the one doctor on duty spoke English.

He came in and asked what was wrong. I told him. He asked if I was taking medication.

Um, don't people generally need a doctor's perscription to get medication?

Do you have a fever?

Ah, perhaps you should take my temperature and we'll find out.

A nurse came in promptly and did just that. When she arrived with the 1982 glass mercury thermometer I was a bit concerned about germs, but I am happy to report that she took my temp in my armpit. My temp was slightly high at 37.something Celcius which meant nothing to me. I had taken my temp and it had come up at 96.4. That was after a nap and in the evening and not after walking around in the hot weather.

The doctor looked in my mouth with a flashlight. He also had a plastic tongue depresser that he unwrapped from plastic but did not need in order to tell me I had tonsilitis.

He gave me a perscription for 100 mg of Cyadoxyl and 2 Alphachymotypsin Choay both 2x a day- morning and evening. The nurse walked me over to the on-site pharmacie which was a woman standing behind a counter surrounded by boxes seemingly haphazardly stacked on shelves.

The doctor's visit cost me $15 and the medicine cost me $27. Good service, cheap prices and a hospital I would never allow myself to be admitted into.

I felt better almost immediately after taking the meds. Now I am just uncomfortable and feel like I have a hairball with a marble in the middle in my throat.

Anyway, I am going to stay in Hoi An until I feel fully recovered. It is a lovely town. It even has a pedestrian walking area where I can escape the horn honking.

In some ways being forced to stay still is a good thing. I was feeling like I was going to finish my planned itinerary with two weeks to spare. I was considering going to Burma, Indonesia or China if I had extra time. After being here and hearing other people's travel itineraries, I have realized that I should've done SEA for 11 weeks and China for 5 weeks.

But I digress.

The bad thing about being stuck in Hoi An is that there are over 200 tailors asking to make you custom tailored clothing. Very dangerous. I've already spent too much.

More on that later.