Getting sick

As flight BL771 moved to the runway and readied for takeoff late Saturday afternoon, a female passenger pressed the call button and asked to leave the aircraft, saying she was feeling sick. Then, after resting for a few minutes, she said she was feeling better and wanted to stay on the aircraft and go to Ho Chi Minh City. As the aircraft readied for takeoff once again, her arms and legs turned stiff, and the crew decided to return to the bay, or the apron, where the aircraft parks, after asking ground staff to prepare an ambulance for the passenger. The passenger, about whom no further information has been released, was taken to the Bac Thang Long Hospital near the airport for emergency treatment. After a thorough examination, the doctor is reported to have said that the passenger was suffering from fatigue due to lack of sleep and overdrinking coffee. She also had just undergone an unspecified surgery. She has recovered after being treated. Further information about this incident has … [Read more...] about Flight returns from Hanoi runway after passenger gets sick

Hai, 67, lives in a dingy rented room in Saigon’s Thu Duc District with a woman who used to be her husband. Trang Kim Sa, born Ngo Van Sang, had been married to her for a few years when he decided he would no longer fear social stigma and become the woman he had always wanted to be. This was in the early 1980s. Now 76, come rain or shine, limping, a cap on her head, Sa goes around town to sell lottery tickets, earning around VND100,000 ($4.3) a day, just enough for their day-to-day life. Without any savings or property, the couple have left things to fate, to an uncertain future. Hai (left) and Sa (right). Photo by VnExpress  Sang was the youngest son in his family. By the time he was 14 he realized he wanted to be a woman. He liked to wear pretty dresses, have his hair long and hang out with boys. However, he was afraid of the likely stigma and never revealed his secret to anyone. He then went to university, did military service and joined the air force in Saigon. Near … [Read more...] about Saigon woman gets back with gender bender husband

His poison is opium, a sap extracted from poppies grown illegally by the poor hill tribes in the Communist state's rugged, inaccessible uplands. "I smoke three times a day," the 60-year-old ethnic Hmong villager says in a barely audible rasp of his 30-year habit. "It has damaged my life. I have no income. But I get sick without it." The talk tails off as he loads up his first hit of the day. He burns a thumb-sized ball of black resin over the stub of a candle and carefully pokes it into his bamboo chillum. The flame rolls over the softened mush as Vo Pali takes four, five deep drags. Smoke squirts from his nose, he wheezes and the drug takes him. The Hmong have grown and smoked opium as a medicine -- and as recreation -- for generations. But no full drug addiction survey has ever been taken in Laos and there is virtually no rehab provision. Wedged between five countries, Laos has for decades played a starring role in the "Golden Triangle" drug trade. Its opium became a treasured export … [Read more...] about Getting high in Laos’ opium-riddled mountains