Discovering the North

So to start on a negative, I've spent the last three days suffering from pink eye (Conjunctivitis); all jokes aside, it's a simple eye infection that is very contagious that I probably caught from my time in the water at the beach in Cat Ba Island. It's the first time I've ever had it, it's very annoying and was pretty painful. Luckily however, there was a doctor in the last hostel I stayed in (purely by coincidence) and he gave me something for it, so it has cleared up by now. I can tell you:
1) I will never make fun of somebody with pink eye again.
2) If you are ever in the vicinity of somebody with pink eye, STAY WELL AWAY (you will truly appreciate this advice)!

That said, it didn't completely ruin my trip for the last few days but I guess I'll start at the beginning.

After some initial reading, I started some actual contact time, interviewing three organisations on Monday and another three on Tuesday that are all engaged in victim assistance and rehabilitation work with regards to aiding victims of human trafficking. These interviews were particularly insightful and although my plan had been to approach the practitioners rather than the victims (recognising my own limitations), I found more and more often that those engaged in this type of work were actually former victims themselves and this work as part of their own recovery, something I had not completely expected.

I have become accustomed to using the motorcycle as my normal mode of transport when trying to navigate the city, aiming for a good enough helmet every time. Motorcycles seem to run this city, with the piercing sound of their horns best compared to the serenity of the sounds of the sirens that fill the streets of East London. The heat can be pretty dire with the humidity not much help either (quite the opposite to the drizzling summer of London that I left in June). It is this fact that means my desperation sometimes leads me to pay 50p for a 1.5l bottle of water, when I know it should only be costing me 30p (I guess it's all about sacrifices).

Probably one of my favourite moments of these first two days was being walked back to my hostel, quite late in the evening, after asking for directions from a lady old enough to be my grandmother. She went completely out of her way to get me back, acting as if she had done this all before; i.e. returned the lost child to his nest. She was testament to how much my sign language continues to improve and although our walk home was pretty silent, we did enjoy each others company for those 20 minutes.

After some work, I set off on Tuesday for a three day, two night, trip to Ha Long Bay, which is supposed to be one of the nicest parts of Northern Vietnam. By this stage I'd met another group of travellers at my hostel and we decided to undertake this trip together. Despite being warned, I booked myself on one of the cheapest trips down there, hoping to have the experience of a lifetime. As you can imagine, it was quite the contrary. My trip was gifted with the tour guide from hell, a Vietnamese man who hated his job and was sure to share this distaste with those on his tour. He took us to the "Amazing Cave" and where others received amazing tales and stories of the history behind this Natural Wonder, we were endowed with the knowledge of what the different rocks looked like; a "jellyfish" or "horse" for example. We spent that first night on a boat, cruising down the river and the beauty surrounding us was the only thing that made up for he poor attitude of our host.

Nonetheless, he was as glad to say goodbye to our group as we were to see the back of him when he handed us over to our next guide for the second part of our trip to Cat Ba Island. This next guide was ten times better and the island was a great place to spend the night. The beach was exhilarating and with all of the Vietnamese schoolkids off for the holidays, there was a mass of Vietnamese families out for the holidays. The beach was full and it appeared that I was quite a strange sight for most. My visit received a lot more attention than I had hoped, with families asking for photos and others even paying a third party (a photo company that took beach photos for families) for my picture. Those without the funds decided to sneak a picture on their phones when they thought I wasn't looking. It was quite an interesting experience overall.

Next day saw us take the bus back to Hanoi, arriving at 4:45pm, catching the 5pm (or so they say) sleeper bus to Sapa, where Dickens described the mountains as "awe-inspiring" (ok, he didn't say that at all, but I didn't know how else to reflect how phenomenal these mountains are). Sapa is an area frequented by travellers and a lot of people book tours out here. After my mixed experience with Ha Long Bay, I decided to just set off to Sapa and work the rest out when I got there. It was a ten hour "sleeper bus" (at least that's the idea), designed for individuals no taller than 5'6", so not much sleep was going on. I guess the whole sleep thing wasn't helped by the blaring Vietnamese music at the back of the bus where they shove all of the Westerners and the Antarctic style air-conditioning. This was also when my pink eye was at its worst, so it was never going to be the most pleasant journey.

We left two hours late and thus arrived much later than we hoped and were greeted to a storm (both heavy rain and a storm of Vietnamese hotel owners asking us to spend the night at their place). I stayed somewhere around the corner from the bus station and took another nap, waited for the rain to cool down and then met a travelling French Canadian who I decided to share the room with to save some money. He and I later took his motorcycle out to discover the beauty that is Sapa, a trip that was well worth it. We just rode around for a few hours, stopping at the mountains, a village and a waterfall. Sapa is filled with different ethnic-minority groups to Hanoi and so it was interesting to observe the difference. The second day was pretty similar, spent on a motorcycle exploring the mountains, devouring some good Vietnamese food and even managing to get some material for my research. It was then back on the sleeper bus to the city (just as uncomfortable as on the way there). The displeasure of this journey was made worse by England's poor performance that evening (something my American friends were quite happy to rub in). A draw to the USA, really England?

I arrived back in Hanoi this morning at 5am with most things closed, found somewhere to store my bag and grab a shower and am waiting for my next sleeper bus (25 hours) to Laos for the nest part of my journey (some research, some tubing, something different). I've heard some very good things from other travellers about the place. Northern Vietnam has been enjoyable and I have loved travelling here. The reality is, travelling alone, you're never really alone, as I have met some interesting people at every part of my journey. As always, some things have been frustrating, but all part of the learning experience. I hope I've got enough money for my visa to Laos and any hidden costs this may involve and look forward to some different challenges ahead.

I'm pretty hot and pretty tired so hope this has been a little bit understandable. It has definitely been a longer blog than I had expected. Well done for making it this far. I'll try and blog a little sooner next time.