Good afternoon, Vietnam

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Yesterday we left China and hit Vietnam with a bang.. or at least our bus hit a Vietnamese dog with a bang about 20 minutes after crossing the border. The Vietnamese border crossing that we took is a study in controlled chaos like I have never seen before. It involved about 100 people pushing as hard as they could to throw their passports into a small window, and then milling around until their name was called and they were allowed to pass through. I watched as at least 20 people failed a temperature test and were let through. I put my bag through a conveyor belt with no attendent and no computer and no X-ray. Sometimes you have to learn to embrace the insanity.

Our last stop in China was Nanning, which I feel compelled to remark upon because of the utter lack of information about getting visas and getting to Vietnam. FOR TRAVELERS: The Vietnamese visa is easy to procur. We left ours with them on Monday morning and picked it up Wednesday at 3PM. This constitutes a 3-day waiting period, and cost 380RMB. You need one passport picture. Their is a bus from Nanning Langdong Station that leaves at various times from 8-10am and there is also a night train. The bus takes about 7-8 hours, while I hear the train takes 12 hours and is a night train. The bus trip includes water bottles, lunch, and transport in little golf carts across the border. It costs 148RMB. Good luck!

Instantly upon entering Vietnam I was struck by how different it is from China... just a mile away. Vietnam is poorer, with as far as I can tell, a much higher population of water buffalo, skinny cows and stray dogs. Vietnam is also more colorful than China. While Chinese peasants prefer "communist drab grey" housing, Vietnamese peasants seem to favor "French Carribean Revival" houses. We passed tall skinny little concrete houses painted in coral, turquoise, purple and pink.

Before arriving, I only heard the absolute worst things about Hanoi and Vietnam.. but being here all of one day, I would have to politely disagree. Vietnam is awesome. Maybe it just seems awesome in contrast to China, which is not very awesome. First of all, Hanoi has a beautiful old city filled with coffee shops, pho stands, and old ladies selling bagguete sandwiches. It is loud, with billions of motorbikes rocketing around, bright, filled with trees and vines and flowers, and lovely old French buildings. And stores with clothes I would actually buy! Every clothing store in China is like a museum to the ugliest clothing articles ever produced in the history of mankind.

Another surprising thing about Vietnam: propoganda. Everywhere. They still post up the posters with the healthy communist girls and boys smiling and harvesting vegetables and hugging Ho Chi Minh. Does Vietnam contain more communist elements than China? Info to come. And pictures, which will be added later, as I am on the hostel computer.

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