The road to Vietnam

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I've had an eventful trip since leaving Kunming on May 25th (sorry...no pics this time. Computer access is just not very good). I made my way south from Kunming, planning to stop at a bunch of little towns along the way and taking 6 days to get to the border. I did that and I'll just say that I'm happy to now be in Vietnam (Sapa to be exact, but I'll write about that when I can add photos).

The small problems with this plan started from the beginning because Lonely Planet doesn't have anything on this area of Yunnan province, so I had to steal some pages from another guide that was about 5 years old to have any knowledge of the area.

My plan was to spend a couple of days in 3 different towns which seemed to have at least a few things to do. I started in Tonghai, which was a 3 hour bus ride south of Kunming. I did stay there 2 nights, splurging on a nice hotel that cost $20/night. I hadn't had a room to myself in nearly a month, so I thought I deserved and needed it. However, there wasn't much more to see than a small "mountain" with a bunch of temples on it, which was nice, but only took half a day to see...so I spent a bunch of time in a internet cafe, passing the time relaxing (playing poker online), researching (playing poker online), and talking to Jackie (while playing poker online).

Now, part of the problem with my plans was the fact that the guide I stole mentioned that buses took much longer than they actually did, so instead of half-day bus journeys between towns, most lasted only a couple of hours. That's not so bad if you don't like buses (and I don't really), but it added time in the towns I was in that required something to do, and these towns didn't have much in the first place.

I next went to Jianshui, which had even less than I expected, so after one night, I took an unplanned side journey up into the Yunnan mountains to Yuanyang which is surrounded by terraced fields. It was beautiful, hot, humid, and followed by a drenching rain.

The next day, I went to Gejiu, the largest city in this area and which had a nice lake and a mountain to see. Unfortunately, the cough I had been nursing for the past month turned into something that sounded like I might be losing a lung, so I spent most of the second day in the hospital. I was quickly examined and I asked for antibiotics, which they agreed to give me. I was expecting pills, they brought injections. I was expecting 2 quick shots in the arm, maybe the butt, they put it into 2 seperate 250ml bottles of glucose and I spent nearly 4 hours with a needle in my hand as I got a sugar-high from the slow drip.

Needless to say (but I will anyway), I didn't see much in the city and I still have a bit of a cough, but it's much better now. On May 30th I caught a bus, expecting a 7-hour ride to the border city of Hekou so that I could cross the border the next day, however...this time the ride lasted nearly 12 hours because they closed the road while they worked on it. So, I spent 4 hours in some small town, without the knowledge that everyone else had that the road would open at 5 pm. So, I stood around, then sat around on a hot, humid day, wondering if I would ever get to the border. Plus, there was an internet room nearby that I could have been doing something at (playing online poker) and passing the time.

The bus finally got in about 7:30 in the evening and I found a hotel of questionable standing (could rent by the hour and buy condoms in the room), dropped my stuff off, got a good meal and by that time it was bedtime.

The next morning, I got up early, checked-out and walked to the border. I had absolutely no problems, didn't have to pay a cent to cross on either side (had been warned that it could cost a bit depending on the mood of the immigration people), and was on my way to Sapa by mid-morning.

So, that's it and I'm now in Sapa, passing a bit of time before heading down to Lao Cai for my train this evening. By tomorrow morning (5 in the morning to be exact), I'll be in Hanoi and on Monday, Jackie will be there too.

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