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Published: July 11th 2008
Up high
Top bunks are the cheapest27 hours to Nanning... the closest big city to Friendship Pass (the border crossing to Vietnam).
After shopping for food for our long journey, we hopped on board the semi-modern train in a hard sleeper car. Hard sleeper cars have about 20 rows of triple-decker bunk beds. We had to top bunks next to each other. The bottom bunk functions as a bench during the day. The squatter toilets empty out onto the tracks.
During our ride we hung out with locals - particularly, the four sleeping beneath us. One guy owned a childrens pet zoo in Shanghai (he claimed to have over 300 dogs), a lady we called Susan from Wenzhou, and two girls from Nanning who had traveled to the outskirts of Shanghai for a job training course in selling furniture. It was a good oppurtunity to socialize and converse with the locals. We played card games and ate TONS of guazi - sunflower seed boiled in tea, and oodles of noodles.
The view from our window was spectacular at times, especialy passing through Guilin (if you haven't heard of Guilin, look it up on google now). Beautiful countryside with small, rocky mountains jutting straight up
out of the ground.
Once in Nanning, we went for walks, making a nice layover before going to Vietnam. We saw some local women dancing and walked along the river. Otherwise, the city was pretty uneventful. That night, Marc got food poisoning - or China Gut - from some pig fatty, and we stayed in for the day.
In case you think you may have China Gut, use the following as a diagnosis:
1st: Stomach grumbling
2nd: Gas (both ends, sometimes simultaniously)
3rd: Naussea and fatigue and loose stool
4th: Bloating and cramps, appearing to be in your second trimester
5th: Consumption of massive amounts of Immodium AD (extra strength)
6th: After symptoms subside (12-24 hours), constipation from all the Immodium.
After China gut, we woke up 20 hours later and boarding the cattle car to the bordertown (Pingxiang). Four to a bench with ineffective fans (about 90 degrees outside). Luckily the ride was only 2.5 hours. Random local kids and their grandmother kept us entertained. The province, Guangxi, is 75% ethnic minorities, so most of the people we encountered at this point were not Chinese. About 50% of the population is Zhuang, while the rest consisted
of probably 20+ other ethnicities.
When we got off the train we hoped on a tricycle-motorcycle with a bench in the back and drove the remaining 15km to the border. About .5km from Friendship Pass we were dropped off and had to walk to Vietnam.
The Chinese army were "training" and shooting rifles into the nearby mountains (by nearby we mean that we were at the base of the mountain). The bullets seemed to say, "beware of trespassing".
We were stamped out and walked into an outdoor walkway to Nam, noticing a giant brown stickbug at our feet...
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