Hi there, here I’m back, after a while.
I hope everyone had a nice start into the new year. Routine is back for most of you and so it is for me. Routine of a traveller đ .
The last report ended in Yangshuo, the nice town in the most spectacular settings of the Guilin province. So I’ll shortly finish the chinese part (1) of this trip. Before catching the train to Vietnam from Nanning, I did a day tour to the Detian waterfalls. I had to sign 4 times a complicated contract, which I could not read. I had to state, that I’ve sufficiently insurance and some more stuff. The falls were really nice, despite the fact I went there in the dry season. I guess, when they carry full water in wet season, they must be very spectacular.
Nanning itself is a quite busy city. Of course with a population of several millions like most cities in China.
In the evening I boarded once more a night train. For the first time it was a ’soft sleeper›, which means only 4 parties in one compartment. And a compartment with doors. I prefere open compartments, as they are not getting so sticky. But the trip to the border was only around 4 hours, so it was ok.
Leaving China was easy. Only one hour was needed until I had my exit stamp in the passport. Since a couple of years it’s possible to stay on the train, while before at this point a bus brought travellers to the vietnamese border. So after 20 minutes more train ride we arrived at the vietnamese immigration. There we had to take our stuff and get off the train and go into a nice building, which was built during french colonialization. From one counter to the next and to another one, then back to the second, eventually to the first again, all formalities were done in a couple of hours. This included a health check, where an officer measured the temperature with some hightech device in my ear. With the 2000 Dong (10 Cents) receit I finally could board the vietnamese train, which was brought to the station meanwhile. What a difference. If they would not use a different track width in Vietnam, I’d say, they use the old trains from China. The ’shaking express› was far less comfortable and clean, than it’s chinese counterpart. The train consisted of a slow diesel lok and two wagons. So we finally arrived in Hanoi the next morning. Still I prefere this way of travelling against bumpy and dusty bus rides.
This concludes my chinese experiences for the time being. If my plans remain the same, ‹China – part 2› will start in about 4 months.
Vietnam will be the subject of the next report you’ll get in a while.
Greetings, Thomas