From Guilin into Hanoi
We left in good time for the train station as we have now realised that platform numbers aren't always in letters we can understand and needed safety time. We weren't disappointed once we were back at the station, a station worker on a megaphone was shouting orders in Chinese and pointing up stairs. So we followed like sheep and sat and waited for our train.
People keep saying how we blog all the highlights of the trip, one of the low lights has been the bathrooms. The bathroom at Guilin station had to be the worst so far. It was a trench dug with partitions. I walked in and walked out - deciding to wait for the train. The train was late.
It finally arrived, we handed over our tickets to the conductor, she looked at our tickets, pulled a strange face and let us through. The train also said it was going to Nanning, we were hoping to get to Hanoi. I was starting to worry.
Our ticket said that we were in carriage 22. We rushed onto the platform, raced down 15 carriages to find carriage 22. There was no carriage 22. With final whistles being blown, I stopped at the second last carriage, number 17 and asked a conductor where our compartment was. She spoke no english and rattled off and waved us onto the train. We jumped on and found ourselves in a hard sleeper. A hard sleeper is a 6 berth compartment, no doors to the compartment and no lights. This hard sleeper was filled mainly with men who were clearly interested in the fact that there were two western woman in their compartment and kept walking past and staring at me. I had already decided that if we were to stay in that compartment, then I would not be sleeping that night.
The train left the platform and the conductor came and fetched us. We then walked the full length of the train back to carriage number 2. We both had our back packs on, and it is difficult to maneuver down the carriages normally, but add in that the sleepers were packed and there were many chinese people sitting on the seats near the windows, it was a mean feat and we were exhausted when we got to carriage number 2. But the saga didn't quite end, we were told to put down our luggage in the aisle while another conductor ran off with our tickets. Unfortunately for us, the snacks lady then came along, and we then had to juggle our luggage in the washroom, that is until some-one needed to use the washroom. Just before we burst into hysterics, we were shown to our compartment, now seats 13 and 14 on the ticket stubs became 35 and 36.
Our luck changed anyway because in our compartment was a westerner, travelling from Holland. Once he had confirmed we were indeed on the right train and that he had had the same problems with his tickets, we established that he had lived in SA for 6 months, as a student in Potchefstroom. A bond was formed and 10 days later, we are still travelling with Floor.
On a ticket check round, the guard mentioned to Floor that the train wasn't direct. He failed to mention at which stop we needed to change trains. By now, we assume Nanning. Anyway, 10 minutes before we arrived in Nanning, we get a slip of paper from the conductor saying that we would need to get off the train and leaving our luggage in the compartment, we would be shown to a waiting room until the train was ready to go again.
The waiting room was quite smart and was filled with gold armchairs. We waited out the hour and were shown back to the train which now consisted of two carriages. There weren't very many people doing this journey - apparently you need chinese police permission to be able to leave China over land - this explained why they needed our passports when we booked tickets.
We managed to get some sleep until the 3am border crossing. The chinese border crossing was quite smooth, though, there was a heart stopping moment when Lauren gave over her South African passport and the border officials couldn't see her vietnamese visa which was in her British passport. Then into Dong Dang and we were at the Vietnamese border.
The process is complex, first you collect and fill in an arrival card, then you hand it over to border control along with your passport. Off for a quick health check - costing 2YUAN - and all it consisted of was a temperature check. We then got our passports back with stamped visas and back to customs so that they can tear off half of the customs card.
Finally back on the train, we were quite disappointed. It really was one of the most run down and dirty trains that we have been on. Still, we fell asleep and were given a 5 minute wake up call before the train arrived in Hanoi, the train narrowly passing buildings on either side.
Floor was waiting for us once we left the train and was joining us at our hostel. We jumped in a taxi and after the driver tried to take us for a ride - figuratively speaking - he allowed the meter to run and we made our way to the Funky Monkey Hostel - yes, we chose it for the name.
The staff at the hostel were very friendly. They gave us breakfast once we arrived, while trying to sell us tours. However, we had heard that some hotels owners are very pushy and have been known to throw people out where they don't buy tours but this wasn't the case here. After changing the booking to a triple room, we headed upstairs for a shower and to get ready to hit the streets of Hanoi.
Hanoi is manic. There are scooters everywhere, narrow streets and horns blaring all the time. It is also quite a dirty city and garbage is collected in piles on the streets until street workers remove it later in the evening. Crossing the roads has been interesting. You really just have to walk and the scooters will avoid you - it gets interesting when you add a couple of cars into the equation.
We decided just to wander around the streets in the Old Quarter. You can buy anything and everything from the streets, and I wondered where the restaurants that we would be eating from buy their chicken, meat and fish.
Our first tourist stop was an old vietnamese traditional house and I think we were there for about 10 minutes. It was just a house..... we didn't feel too taken for a ride as it only cost us 3000 Dong each.
We headed out for lunch at a restaurant recommended by the Lonely Planet. It happened to be in a traditional house just as we had paid to seen - the food was good, even if we didn't pay any attention to the building.
We decided that the best way to see the Old Quarter was to follow the Lonely Planet suggested walk which took us along all the specific streets - silk, bathroom appliances, counterfeit cash, temple supplies, toys, sweets, herbs.... the list continues. After the embalmed tortoise on the island in the lake, our next stop was at a temple through a small door in an alley way.
There was some sort of ceremony taking place. We took off our shoes and tried to watch unnoticed from the back..... however, we caused great excitement being there and we were invited in to sit closer. It was a very small temple and there could only have been about 20 people there. Musicians played while a man dressed in white robes, danced around on a raised platform while smoking a pipe. Next minute, he started throwing cash into the crowd. We didn't realise it was fake at the time but it was very funny to see 20 woman scramble for cash. When they saw that we weren't joining in the fun.... they handed us some cash specifically. Dancing man changed his robes and after some praying and another dance, we were all given a pear. I think that we had as many photos taken of us as we took of them... and at one stage one of the ladies was so eager to show me the picture she had of me, that she saved it as the picture on her phone.
We decided we had had enough but were feeling it was rude to leave, however, we got scared off by the bags of salt that were being dished out - we had our pears to carry so we waved good bye. They were sorry to see us go but still gave us a plastic bag for our pears.
The walk lasted a few hours which we ended with a couple of drinks in the bar district. After a mediocre dinner we headed back towards the hostel, Lauren opted for an early night and Floor and I went back out to experience the night life of Hanoi.
We landed up at one of the local beer shops - which is literally on a street corner. Plastic chairs are dished out and as more and more people arrive, drinkers eventually spill into the street, while cars and scooters move to avoid them. It was also the cheapest beer we could find at 2000 Dong for a glass (1 pound in 33,000 Dong).
Next morning we headed off to watch the famous water puppets. The puppets are maneuvered by puppeteers behind a screen through a stage of water. It was good, but far more entertaining was watching the vietnamese children who were enthralled by the show.
Lauren wasn't feeling so great so she opted for a day at the hostel so Floor and I jumped onto the back of scooters (no helmets mom) and headed towards the Ho Chi Minh Complex.... which only opened at 2pm.
While wandering around, we bumped into Monica, from Vienna, also travelling on her own and wanting to see the HCM Complex. We invited her to join as at the Confuscious temple, and during lunch convinced her that she had to come to Halong Bay with us..... and she is still travelling with us now.
Nothing too spectacular at the temple or HCM Complex. They were filming a movie at the temple with some really old equipment - I have some good boy photos Ants.
We headed back to our hostel to get Monica on the tour with us, fetched Lauren and decided on an hour rickshaw ride around the Old Quarter for the experience. It was hair raising at times but good fun.
After another evening of drinking, we headed back to pack before we left for Halong Bay the next morning at 8am.
