It was September 18, 2009, the day before Pchum Ben Day, that I and my family went to Vietnam for pleasure. We started off our journey at 12:30 in the afternoon with a light rain and arrived at Neak Leoung Ferry, where we had to cross the Mekong River, at 2:00PM.
Unfortunately, there were two long rows (about 2km away from the dock) of big and small cars queuing for the crossing. We were stuck in that huge gridlock for nearly one and half hours. The long procession filed step-by-step.The weather was hot and our car's air conditioner had difficulties pushing out cool air. We were sweating profusely. However, our car crawled attentively towards and jammed for space into the ferry. At about 3:30PM we finally reached the other side of the river. 'It is not our day!' I talked to my parents, 'we should have reached Bavet, the transit between Vietnam and Cambodia, already.'
Unexpectedly, our car, Toyota Tiger 2003, had high temperature which was almost impossible to happen because my dad had just filled in the water before we journeyed. We stopped by the side of the road. Because the car's front part was filled with smoke, my dad stopped the car in no time. We then got out of the car and looked for water to cool the machine down. After thirty minutes of relentlessly pouring the water onto the machine, we were finally able to continue our journey. My mom and I started to feel uneasy about the car; thus, we keep our eyes closely on the temperature gauge to avoid the incident from happening again.
We finally reached the border at 5:00PM. My dad left the car at the Casino and walked with us to the checkpoint. The bad luck was still with us. While my mom was having our passports stamped, one lady officer accosted my brother and demanded temperature check. After she checked three times, she started to feel suspicious on my brother of having AH1N1 because the thermometer showed 37.8 centigrade. We were shocked and distraught because we were not aware of that.
The lady officer then asked me to fill in the form of my brother's latest health condition. After I completed the form, she sent us to a clinic nearby. Then she and her colleague quarantined my brother and suggested us that we should wear a mask and stay away from him. The quarantine lasted for 30 minutes.
While we were waiting, Pu Herng, the taxi driver whose taxi we rented, came in. We asked him to talk to the two officers in Vietnamese because they are not able to communicate effectively in English. Pu Herng then interpreted to us in Khmer. He said to my parents, 'Your son is suspicious of having AH1N1 and the officers want to quarantine him for 24 hours.'
My parents' faces went pale with fear. My mom then said, 'Well, if the quarantine lasts only for 24 hours, then I can let him stay but if not, we will go back home.' Pu Herng nodded showing his approval and told my mom that she should let my brother stay. My parents, in fact, didn't want my brother to stay there at all because they believed that my brother did not have that virus, but because our car was not in a good condition they finally let him stay.
However, after we let the doctor ejected his blood, the officers claimed that my brother had to stay in quarantine for at least three days. Then we disagreed with them. We demanded coming back home. Haplessly, we could not since we had agreed already. Under duress, we were sent to the hospital in an ambulance. It was Pu Herng who told us we will stay for 24 hours only.
It was even more disastrous when we were not allowed to stay near my brother. That night we left him in that hospital telling him not to be afraid.
I began to feel pity on my brother because he is weak and not bright. But there was nothing we could do.
Pu Herng had told us that there was a hotel near the hospital, but as we reached the hospital, there was none besides the one we slept that night which is 6 kilometers away. While we we were looking for taxi, we were almost cheated by the bad people along the street because we didn't speak the language.
[To be continued]
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