Lucky you, Pam. I'm on a self-imposed low protein diet since being wrongly diagnosed with CKD (chronic kidney disease) and reading all about the nasty stuff we eat with sodium, potassium, animal protein (including cow's milk) and phosphate. I realise my reaction in avoiding it all is over the top, but better safe than sorry - and it's much easier to get fresh fruit and veg in VN than most western countries, anyway. And I've gotta say I quite like the taste of soy or almond milk on my fruit and nuts breakfast these days! Haven't touched alcohol since before covid, and now I've been off red meat for at least six months. Would love to say I feel better for it but the only difference I've noticed so far is a small loss of weight! (but lots of mental comfort knowing I'm at least trying to do the right thing!). Got a mate arriving from Oz in a few weeks and he's a big drinker and definite "big English breakfast" fan so that's gonna be interesting!!! 

That's good news, Pam - let's hope a few more "oldies" get the same idea!

Dunno if there's any truth in the rumour, Terry, but word here is that Anfield is in such a shambles since the quest for 4 titles in one season fell apart so spectacularly in recent weeks that the Vietnamese LFC supporters club have decided to get over there to help them try and salvage something out of the season, even if it's only a bit of respect!   

Good move, Pam - but don't forget to let Lee and/or Poul know what you plan before you go ahead and do it because you might otherwise do something that conflicts with an action one or both of them are taking on your behalf! (hint hint). 

Vietnamese all get free medical care in Vietnam, as Australians do in Australia and Brits do in UK. But travellers don't necessarily - it depends on whether their country of origin has reciprocal arrangements with the country where they need treatment. Sunny gets free medical care in VN but if she ever gets sick on one of her holidays in Australia we'll have to pay for treatment, repatriation, etc - and the same thing in reverse applies to me and all other foreigners here in Vietnam. Which in my case could become a major problem because I can't get reasonable travel insurance since turning 80 - although I must admit that it won't matter if I get terminally ill because there's no point in my being repatriated to Australia when my only family is here in Vietnam! (sister and family are still in Sth Africa but sister's got dementia and can't remember that she's got a brother, so no point my going there anymore...).
Btw, you probably remember me getting sick in Chester on our 2012 holiday - I went to Chester hospital and they gave me some tests and medications and travel insurers told me to go back to Australia immediately or they wouldn't pay anything - I wasn't even able to visit my cousins near Norwich as planned. So we flew directly back to Australia and also didn't visit sister and family in Sth Africa as planned, then went to the local emergency ward in Sydney where they did some tests and told me that Chester had mis-diagnosed the infection and given me the wrong antibiotics, which had just made everything worse instead of better! So free medical treatment ain't always as good as it's cracked up to be!!! 

I guess there's a lot to be said for "Pipe and slippers", but we're working through the benefits of VN's lack of legal/political interference as we speak: a mate's in hospital recovering from a serious heart attack that left him in a coma for 10 days and he's now "psychotic" with complete loss of memory. His partner has been paying the hospital bills from her own savings because the bank won't give her access to his account as they're not married (but have lived together for 3 years in a house our mate bought for them both, because he considers her his de facto wife). I asked Linh if she could help so she's getting the situation sorted by talking to a couple of her friends from dancing class who are luckily in senior management at the bank! Such intervention could never even be considered in our "strictly legal" western world!

Thanks Lee - very illuminating! I'll supply beer on behalf of myself and Terry (Terry please note!) if we make it to Oz and SA on the planned June/July trip. But if it's too cold we'll head north (Brisbane and Cairns) and leave south for next Tet (early 2025).

I'd love to help Linh and Sunny in the kitchen but they won't hear of it - especially when it comes to Vietnamese meals! And now we're downunder for just a couple of weeks (Sunny's school holidays for Lunar New Year: "Tet"), we're just eating out most of the time because short of time to get things done without spending it in the kitchen! Happy days - and let's hope the world calms down a bit in 2024 as I'm not sure I can take too much more of the madness we've seen in the past 4 years since Covid emerged! We've just had our sixth vaxes but the "bomb proof" westerners in Oz make me nervous walking around without masks - it's an airborne disease but they reckon face masks are too uncomfortable!