Arrived in Hanoi

We left Hong Kong last friday at around 11.40. Took the bus to Sheung Shui and transferred to the train heading to Lo Wu. Passing the customs went very smooth, luckily there were not that many people crossing the customs so almost didn't have to que up :).

After passing the customs went to get the train tickets to Guanghzhou East Station, the train left shortly afterwards. When we arrived in Guanghzhou East we already saw Casey's relative (who helped us to get the train ticket to Nanning), besides helping us with the train tickets she also helped us getting some food and drinks for on the train! She probably will never read this but still big thanks to her! From Guanghzhou East we took the subway to the main train station.

We arrived at the main train station quite on time, had about 1.5 hours before the train would depart. We just spend the time in the waiting area people-watching and having some of the food.

The train departed at 16.52, we shared our soft sleeper cabin with a chinese couple and their 3,5 months old baby. After we departed did play with a chinese girl staying a few cabins away from us. But at around 8 most people went to take a nap. Think I also went to sleep quite early; around 9. The next morning we arrived at Nanning at 5.47.

When we got off the train we went to the ticket office, we expected it would still be closed but luckily it was open already. At the que for the ticketing we met up with some other foreigners who were on the same train. One of them was Brian (US) who later decided to take the bus to Hanoi. Another one was Mikael (Sweden but living in HK) who did get on the same train as we did to Hanoi. We decided to get the hard sleeper tickets; which turned out to be a pretty good choice as we would end up having the whole cabin for ourselves. (guess in total there were less then 20 passangers taking this train!).

The train would leave at 18.15 so we had quite some time to spend in Nanning. We started off by having a simple breakfast near the train station together with Brian. Soya milk + dumplings and egg pancake. The 3 of us sat down at the table and later a chinese woman shared the table with us. When Brain helped us by getting the pancakes I put 2RMB; the price for the pancakes under his plate. When he returned he asked us who put it there, I told him it was the chinese woman who was sitting next to him. He really believed it, and looked very thankful to the woman and asked us wheter he should accept the money from her or should say something to thank her. Later we found out he thought the woman payed the 2RMB for "table sharing cost", it was a pretty funny situation (probably won't come across that well thou when reading it here ;)

Anyway, after the breakfast he went his way going to the bus station and we went into Nanning to explore a bit of the city. We went to a big park which was really nice, there were loads and loads of elderly people in the park all doing some sort of exercise. Lots of Tai Chi, Dancing, Badminton etc. etc. After crossing this part of the park we entered some sort of "Nanning Disneyland" (even some attractions with Mickey Mouse logo) was quite nice to hang around in this park althou would not dare to go into any of the attractions (most of them created lots of noise which made it sound like they wouldn't be too reliable...). Afterwards we started heading back to train station while on the way we got some cup noodles for during the trip.

Departed on schedule at 18.15, chatted for a while with Mikael, and later did read a bit in the lonely planet guide book. At 21.42 we arrived at the chinese customs (a lot earlier as expected). We had to get off the train so quickly had to get my stuff together and get off. One of the custom officials checked my passport and found there was some problem. The chop I got when crossing the chinese customs the day before looked like it mentioned I entered China in 2008... then had to put my bag through the x-ray. Seems they saw something "strange" on it so had to open my luggage and get all my stuff out. Not sure what it was but seemed it were my sunglasses that had their interest... Then after waiting a while got back on the train and did get my passport back so seems everything turned out to be fine :).

About 2 hours later we had to pass the Vietnamese customs. Got off from the train again filled out some form payed 2.5RMB for health inspection" and could get back on the train again. Then went to sleep and woke up at around 5AM. About 30 minutes later the train arrived the destination!

Outside there were some taxis waiting, but they were asking 10US$ for a ride to the city centre while local buses would just charge 3000Dong per person (+/- 0.20US$). While deciding what to do we met up again with Mikael. We asked the staff in the train station but was quite hard to get a clear answer, as they didn't really speak anything besides Vietnamese. We got the impression that there would be a bus arriving there at 6.30 which would be able to take us to the city centre. Decided to wait for that bus, when it was passed 6.30 and still not bus had shown up we checked with another staff. It seemed that we would have to go to the busstation which was only a few blocks from there...so some time was wasted but finally we did find get on the correct bus.

We went to an area in Hanoi where many small guesthouses are located. In this area we split up with Mikael as he had to go to one specific place where he booked a tour. We checked around in several guesthouses/hotels and finally ended up in the bamboo hotel. There was only one room left (4th floor/top floor), and that room was not cleaned up yet. So while waiting for the room to be cleaned up have been sitting at the hotel lobby using their free internet to type this post. (room rate 15US$ a night)

Actually half way writing this post I already got the key, but thought it would be better to wrap this post up first althou really really looking forward to have a shower!!!! Outside the weather looks really nice, and seems to be not too hot (according to my watch 32*C now).