Hanoi

Hanoi is a big big place. We stayed mostly to the area by our hostel – Cocoon – which was in the old quarter of the city. Our plans over the 3days staying here involved Luke receiving some medical attention regarding his recent dog bite and arranging onward travel to Ha Giang. 

Luke had rang our travel insurance company – World Nomads – to inform them of the situation regarding the dog bite, as we were unsure of how to go about getting the additional rabies shots that are advised. They were very helpful and gave Luke contact numbers for a number of clinics based in Hanoi that he could attend for treatment. We ended up attending the Hanoi Family Medical Practice, after Luke had rang them and they offered him a walk-in appointment. After filling out some forms, Luke was seen by a nurse and a doctor who assessed his wound and administered the first of two extra doses of the rabies vaccine. These two vaccinations would ensure that if any rabies contamination had occurred then Luke would be safe and unaffected. The staff at the clinic spoke amazing English and were very friendly and caring. Luke attended 3days later for the follow up dose, completing the course of treatment. The doctor reassured us that we had done the right thing despite the wound looking benign. The post exposure treatment was much simpler for Luke due to the fact that he had received the 3 doses of the rabies vaccination prior to coming away travelling. This meant Luke did not have to have immunoglobulin vaccinations as well as shots, which are administered over several weeks and are said to be very painful as they are injected directly into the bite site.

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The weather deteriorated whilst staying in the city, meaning every outing involved a raincoat or else getting very wet very quickly. One day we wandered between cafes to shelter from the rain and leech off free WiFi. During a break between rainy showers we visited the “train street”. This is a narrow street, not much wider than an alleyway, that every few hours a train passes through. Whilst we waited for the spectacle that is a huge train squeezing down an impossibly small street, we had a drink and smiled blankly back at a lovely Vietnamese lady trying to sell us things. You can’t stay sitting when the train comes, instead you have to stand against the wall whilst the train passes by a mere 1-2ft in front of you. Of our nights spent in Hanoi we went out to a few nice bars and restaurants, one being a place called Black Jacks which did a mean burger, and another bar called Balcony which gave a great overview of the bustling streets below. As I mentioned we also arranged onward travel even further north to a place called Ha Giang. This is probably most well known to backpackers as being a fantastic sightseeing route on motorbike. As I had only ridden an automatic scooter once before, I was slightly nervous about the prospect of riding a motorbike for 4days. People we had met during our travels however said it was an absolute must do. Therefore after browsing a few travel agencies we booked a bus to Ha Giang for the day Luke finished his course of treatment. 

We got on the bus at around 11.30 after being picked up the hour beforehand near our hostel. The bus station is fairly out of the way and after too many passengers being jammed into our minivan, everyone was keen to get on a bigger bus. The only slight problem was when we arrived to our bus it was already pretty full of locals which made finding seats tricky. Luke and I squeezed into the back row of reclining style seats whilst Mark managed to snag a single seat up above. To say this journey was uncomfortable would be a massive understatement. Every time the bus driver erratically braked and screeched around corners every 2minutes, I would almost whizz off the bottom of my chair into the aisle. This was made even more problematic when people continued to board the bus and were “seated” along the aisles on the floor. Seven gruelling hours later we made it to Ha Giang, thank the lord!