Well, we are finally in the last stages of shoring up our itinerary for the trip, thanks to everyone's help. Then, I receive this email from a friend who travels a lot and, in fact, recently went to Vietnam. http://www.travelerstoday.com/articl...obe-poison.htm
Comments?

Virginia a series of tourist deaths, unclear causes, has been well reported now for a number of years. There were two deaths at Koh PhiPhi and a couple in Chiang Mai a few years back. A google search will turn up more stories as well as details of how the deaths have been investigated, if you are interested.

I researched and found the articles. We are still going!

Good! I've been there several times since the first of these incidents.

I've been following these stories a lot, including the recent revelations of a "DEET cocktail". The main takeaway I get at this point is that if you're a woman under 30, don't accept drinks from strangers.

Did they ever get rid of all those rats on the busses? I heard dozens of people were bitten and had to go to the hospital!

The rats didn't bother me but the cockroaches were a pain!,

Over 17 million tourists visited Thailand last year, very few died! Motorcycle accidents seems to be the biggest killer, especially if the tourist is young. If you ran 17 million tourists through your own home area you would also have several deaths. Just the law of averages. Crap happens. There are some cities in the US where I would not even consider walking around late at night but in Bangkok there are streets, like Sukhumvit, that I am still out even after 2 a.m.

I came across this link on another forum today. This concerns two Canadian women who died in Thailand.
http://blogs.canoe.ca/outdoorsguy/st...soned-by-fugu/

thank you. we agree.