Three Days Sick in Ninh Binh

After days on the back of a motorbike through the mountains of the Ha Giang Loop, I got on a bus toward Ninh Binh with a good feeling and a friend for company. That feeling didn't last. Somewhere in the dark, I got violently ill — the kind of sick you don't recover from just by closing your eyes and hoping.

We arrived at 3:30am, and I was in no condition to do anything but find a place to lie down. That didn't work either. Eventually a comrade and I gave up trying to sleep it off and found our way to the hospital, where I was treated in the ER of a Vietnamese hospital with the help of Google Translate held between me and the nurse like a lifeline.

I got discharged, made it to a homestay, and then did essentially nothing for three days. Sleep. Journal. Watch a movie. Repeat. My meals shrank to a quarter bowl of rice and electrolytes, brought to me each time by a local twelve-year-old who worked at the homestay and never once forgot to check in on me.

On the fourth morning I woke up and realized, almost without warning, that I was no longer ill. I rejoiced the only way that felt appropriate — I immediately rented a bicycle, rode through the national park, took a canoe tour through the mountain lakes and caves I'd been too sick to see, ate a solid meal next to the water, and climbed a mountain in time for sunset. I smiled more that one afternoon than I had in the three days before it combined.

I don't regret a single day of it, sickness included. Ninh Binh turned out to be exactly the kind of place you want to be stuck recovering in — quiet, scenic, and in no hurry to rush you back onto a bus. If you ever find yourself sick on the road in Vietnam, you could do a lot worse than being sick here.