Travel is all about new experiences and one that I had in Hoi An was purchasing what I think of as prescription drugs, over the counter at a pharmacy from a staff member who doesn’t seem to know a great deal about the products she’s selling.
I felt a bit hoarse on the morning I left Phitsanulok and had an increasingly sore throat on arrival into Hanoi later that day. For a couple of days I wasn’t sure whether the pain was from my throat or perhaps an ulcer on the underside of my tongue. Eventually shining the light from my cellphone into my mouth revealed a huge white infection site on one side of my throat. That didn’t worry me too much initially – I carry salt sachets in my travel medical/first aid kit so dissolved one in water and gargled a couple of times thinking that might nip it in the bud. I had also packed Strepsils, just in case, so they allowed me to see as much of Hanoi as I could on foot.
A couple of days later, when I arrived in Hoi An, I began to realise that this was a significant throat infection (I’ve had more of them than I can remember) and it wasn’t taking any notice of salt washes. Dammit I thought – a Dr might be required. A quick search on Trip Advisor provided me with some information that suggested an alternative – antibiotics could be bought from pharmacies. As there often is on Trip Advisor and other review sites, there were some contributors sharing the risks of self-diagnosis and self-prescribing, while others thought it was fine if you saw one of the few trained pharmacists. Given my history with throat infections I was confident with my diagnosis and knew that I wasn’t allergic to penicillin so found the location of one of the chemists in Hoi An that was supposed to be a good one. It was not far from where I walked earlier in the day to meet up for my lantern making course so I knew it was going to be a 10-15 minute walk. Feeling like death warmed up by this stage and confident in my Hoi An geography, I decided to walk a different way, of a similar length and see if the funny little pharmacy/kiosk in my street sold antibiotics. Success – the young lady said “yes” and handed me a packet of 1000mg Augmentin asking me “How many – 2?”. That was the first indicator that she didn’t know a great deal about antibiotics. The last time I had a throat infection, just a few months ago, my GP prescribed me a full 10-day course of 500mg Augmentin, three times a day – so 30 tablets. Being a pretty good internet searcher I reached for my phone and navigated to the Medsafe website, looking for the dosage information for Augmentin 1000mg. No luck – I could find information on the 500mg tablets and on 1.2g powder for injections. So I made a calculated on-the-spot decision and asked for 10 – thinking that if 2 tablets each day for 5 days didn’t knock the bug at least I knew where to go to buy a few more. I also checked that the tablets weren’t passed their expiry date – feeling quite street savvy that I knew what to look out for thanks to my fellow travellers sharing their stories and views. With the help of the Google Translate app on my phone (sign language and charades being failures) I also asked for a thermometer. For around NZ$18 I left the funny little kiosk for my 10 antibiotics and armpit thermometer.
From here I decided to continue walking around the block and see if anything took my fancy for dinner before I reached my accommodation, keeping in mind that while I didn’t feel like eating, the ‘pharmacist’ told me to take the pills before food. I happened upon Barley, a vegetarian restaurant I had read about the day before, so went in and sat down, doing as I always do, ordering a drink while I looked at the menu. This way I could also take the gigantic Augmentin while I scanned the pages and pages of food items. I must have been feeling sick because instead of going for stir fry, noodles, fried rice or spring rolls, I decided to try the Pho (pronounced like the FU in the 4-letter work that I won’t finish spelling here). Pho is a Vietnamese broth and it sounded soothing for a sore throat.
I was amused to be listening to the Red Hot Chilli Peppers playing further inside the restaurant as I waited for my Pho and watched people walking by. Little did I know that I would be even more surprised a short time later to discover another restaurant on my walk home called Mr Bean Bar. Yes, that Mr Bean. The things you see in South East Asia!
The big bowl of Pho arrived and it was just what the doctor (or self-diagnosing, self-prescribing patient) ordered – hot and comforting. I walked back to my accommodation after dinner feeling satisfied that I was going to be on the road to recovery in just a few days…thanks to my good research and self-care.