31 hours & 811 miles through China and in to Vietnam

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Our stay in China was short and sweet mainly because we were so keen to get to Vietnam as, for us, this is really where we hope our adventures will begin. It sounds sad to say that we saw China as a means to an end but that is how it was. Whereas in the past we have both flirted with the idea of visiting China, on this occasion, neither of us harboured any desire to explore this huge country or its enormous cities and we therefore made for the Vietnamese border as quickly as we could.

This journey was going to require us to take two trains, two metro trains, two buses and three taxis. Sounds exhausting? Actually it wasn't.

Day 1 began at Hung Hom station in Hong Kong. Checking in for an international train journey is pretty much the same as checking in to catch a flight - except you don't handover any of your luggage and there is pretty much no shopping after passport control. We had now departed Hong Kong (which retains a level of political control and is considered to be administratively separate to Chine) and would soon arrive in China.

The first leg of our trip was from Hong Kong to Guangzhou and took about 1 hour 45 minutes. From what we saw, the majority of the landscape between these two places is built up. That said, we both fell asleep for most of the journey and therefore may have missed some beautiful countryside...something tells me that we probably didn't.

On arrival in Guangzhou we had to go through passport control. They seem obsessed with body temperature here and monitor it at every border crossing, causing immediate panic that you might be ill but just not know it yet! Fortunately neither of us have attempted to cross a border with a raised temperature as yet and our entry in to China therefore passed without a hitch. We had arrived at Guangzhou East railway station and needed to get to the main Guangzhou station and we therefore set about finding the entrance to the Metro. It is not well signposted but eventually Lou noticed another Western couple who seemed to know where they were going so we decided to follow them. They were not, as it turned out, heading for the Metro but they passed close enough to the entrance for us to notice and take a swift detour of our own.

The Metro in Guangzhou was as impressively clean and organised as its counterpart in Hong Kong. The only slight crease in an otherwise smooth journey across Guangzhou was that we had to break our Yuan twice in order to have the correct amount of small notes to buy two tickets. Tickets is in fact something of a misnomer, for what we actually received for our 8 Yuan was two blue plastic coins. If we understood the signage correctly, these allowed us 180 minutes to get to our destination.

Guangzhou East station was extremely busy but the main station was off the scale. The reason for this is that it is one of the major stations in China. You have to queue and show your ticket simply to get in to the building. There were people waiting everywhere many of whom looked like they had been there for hours, if not days.We had decided to book ourselves soft sleeper beds for the trip to Nanning and this turned out to have been a very sensible decision. The main reason was that there is a separate waiting room at Guangzhou station for those booked on to a soft sleeper. This was an absolute haven away from the mania of the main station building with huge leather seats and aircon. An added bonus was the fact that we were called for our train so didn't have to try to interpret the departures board.

Train travel in China appears to be extremely well organised and effectively monitored. They are, by British standards, bordering on over-manned (or, more accurately, womanned) - the minimum number of staff we saw per carriage was two! At seat service for food seems to be the norm rather than the exception and we saw rubbish being removed from empty seats during the journey. The only thing that British train travel has over Chinese, so far as I could see, is the general cleanliness of those areas that we Brits (or certainly this one) are fastidious about. Think about how unhygenic British trains can be and you'll probably get my drift.

Before boarding the sleeper train, we had to exchange our paper tickets for plastic versions. These were then swapped back just before disembarking at Nanning. We couldn't quite work out the reason for this exchange but it did give the guards are certain air of importance. The cabins were four berth and we had chosen to book the two bottom bunks. On arrival we witnessed a heated debate between three Chinese people in the doorway to our room. Gregg's interpretation of the discussion was that they had booked three bunks and were expecting them to be in the same room. Unfortunately for them, they got the booby prize of two bunks in a room with two vary weary brits.

Again, the train set off a little late and into the sunset, or along side it - I'm not quite sure! Men and women shuttled up and down the corridor outside our compartment with all kinds of foods to purchase but there was also a 'restaurant car' and that is what we had our eyes on.

So we settled down to reading and relaxing and watching China go by. Lou was voluntered to go to check out the restaurant car and eventually did so. This was an experience. On rounding the corner to enter said car I was greeted by the sight of an open doored vat in the floor loo and a huge basket of chopped cabbage languishing next to the open door. Mmmmmm. The canteen carriage (far from restaurant) was extremely busy, smokey and noisy and it looked like there was no take away option. I returned to report to Gregg and we both decided that, actually, we weren't that hungry. Later on Gregg did the same little trip and returned similarly confused. Eventually we decided that we just needed to wade in and give it a try.

We arrived in a now much quieter canteen carriage and were transformed immediately into the carriage side show. Everyone was extremely friendly and the guard immediately came and gave us a menu. 10 items long, all handwritten and all in Chinese. We exchanged "we'll just have to eat what we get given" glances and waited for the arrival of the waitress.

"Noodles?" was greeted with some anguished looks across the car to a colleague who came over to assist and asked "want beef?" we nodded and also nodded to "want rice?". Then Gregg decided that he wanted a beer. At this point the guard's second (and probably more important) role became clear. He was the bar man. For bar, read cardboard box out of which came a bottle of warm chinese beer. The till was the table top hidden under the table cloth. This warm beer was extremely palatable as was the delightful beef stir fry that arrived shortly afterwards. Alll in all a successful, not to mention cheap, foray into the world of the canteen carriage.

We then returned to our berth and to a little more reading before sleep. There is no getting away from the fact that sleeping on a train is a noisy experience and certainly not the most comfortable night you will ever have but we both managed enough hours to awake the following morning refreshed sufficiently to face the day ahead. The awakening was something different however.

Day 2 began at about 5:20am when the door to our carriage was suddenly swung open and one of the guards began shouting at us all in Chinese. Presumably she was telling us that we were nearly at Nanning and that it was time to wake up and handover our plastic tickets in return for the paper ones. This we duly did - although in our sleepy states Gregg thought he had lost his (not unlike the keys that we usually have to search for twice-weekly at home) and began to panic. Fortunatley it turned up, the guard moved on and we started to gather our belongings together for the next stage of the trip.

We arrived in Nanning in the dark and to a comparatively deserted station. Now to get to the bus station.

The station may have been deserted but outside it most definitely was not. We worked our way through the barrage of motorcycle drivers touting for business and made for a huge clump of taxis. We eventually took a driver up on his offer and set about trying to explain that we wanted to get to the bus station. We started well with him confirming that he could take us to Lang Don but the trouble came with 'bus station'. We motioned something that we though might look like bus and he nodded. We agreed a price (5 Yuen which had turned in to 50 by the end of the journey but was still less than £5 for a 20 minute journey) and hopped in. Then the map came out and after a few minutes the driver turned around looking confused and said "bussh stassion???" We nodded and again did an odd motion which, for some strange reason, we thought equated to bus. The driver nodded and started to drive off. No sooner had we started but we stopped again as he shouted out of the window to a lady something followed by "Busssh Stassion". She motioned to us to wind down our window and, as the British abroad do, I repeated bus station very slowly and she seemed to understand. She spoke quickly to the driver and we were off, having absolutely no idea whether the driver had a clue where we wanted to go.

We had looked at some maps of Nanning from our room in HK and Gregg said that he was sure that we were going the right way and that we needed to cross a river, which we did. In the meantime I suggested that we should draw a picture of a bus in our notebook (and thanks go to Jean for that) in case we hadn't been understood. After 20 minutes or so of speeding through a deserted Nanning it became clear that our driver had been able to understand us as we drew in to the bus station. Much smiling and thanking followed and, having paid over the odds I am sure, we set off into the bus station.

We had read that Nanning bus station is very busy and that it would be more sensible to get the bus from a hotel nearby. It was busy but organised and easy to navigate. What was not so easy to navigate however was purchasing the bus ticket. We randomly picked a window and, when we reached the front of the queue, decided it was best to stick to one word - "Hanoi". Remarkably, this worked and with the help of pointing at the computer screen being used by the clerk we managed to book two tickets on the 08:40 bus from Nanning across the border to Hanoi.

We were somewhat concerned that we had not bought tickets to Hanoi and therefore asked the assistant at the gate numerous times if we should be getting on earlier buses. Each time she shook her head and pointed at the seats to tell Gregg to sit down! Remarkably, this continued harrassment resulted in a personal invitation to board the coach when our time came.

There were two unusal things about this coach. The first was that, not only did all of the seats recline but the aisle seats also moved towards the centre aisle for extra space. The second was that on a full coach there were only two other women, one of whom was Polish (as we were later to discover) and part of the only western couple that we had seen since HK. Seemingly, only the men travel across the border. Whether this is because the women are at home homemaking and caring for their child/children and the men go out to earn the money, I do not know but it was a peculiar feeling to be part of not one but two minorities on that bus.

The landscape between Nanning and the border was the first truly beautiful scenery that we had seen since our non-megabus journey along the M4. It is populated by numerous enormous densely vegetated peaks that seem to rise suddenly as if from nowhere and disappear just as quickly. The rock looks similar to that in pictures that I have seen of Halong Bay - and in a few days time we will be able to compare that for ourselves.

Shortly before the Chinese border, we arrived at our meal stop, included within the ticket price. This was an open fronted cafe type place with a kiosk at the rear. You queued (or, as seems to be the Chinese way, pushed yourself to the front) and collected a plate filled with the obligatory rice and a few other iteresting tastes including a tofu curry and chicken drumstick. Liking queues, and still being slightly green at this travelling thing we hung back but eventually chose to share a plate. Everything other than the tofu curry was delicious. The other purpose of this stop seemed to be to exchange Yuan for Dong. Given that the Vietnamese Dong is a closed currency, and we were still in China, I am sure that this was not a strictly legal transaction but we decided that as all the locals were doing it there probably wasn't any harm. Still, we separated it from our US$ (which the guidebook rightly suggested we might need) just incase we were searched by customs at the border crossing.

We then jumped back on the bus and proceeded for another short trip to the border whereupon we all had to collect our belongs and leave the bus behind totake an oversized golf buggy to passport control and customs. Again, this was a free for all and we and the other two Westerners on the bus were left to the last buggy. We got chatting to this couple (who were very impressed with my wheelie backpack) and awaited our buggy.

Once finally at passport control on the Chinese side, we experienced our last taste of Chinese organisation in a huge airy building and as we were processed, our bags scanned and Gregg's passport checked again. We stepped out of this building into no mans land, dragging our bags with us and on to a ramshackle walkway that felt as if it was going to give way beneath us...

Next post: The Vietnamese border to Hanoi.

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Photos

Sleeper Train
Gregg reading his book by the last of the day's sun.

Leaving China
Shortlhy before ariving at the Chinese side of the border

Comments

[Lynne Banks]

Am so Jealous!!
Hi Guys, Sounds like you are having an awesome time already. so many tales to tell even in just a week. My weeks are usually so dull! However, I've been cracking on with the wedding plans and have pretty much settled on a date! Hoping to go for 21st May. Just in case you extend your trip, I hope you are back for May!!!!!! Went trying on dresses with Jen today, so exciting! I'll keep you posted on events and will make sure I've sorted your accommodation out, so you don't have to worry about booking anything from afar! Just turn up if you are in the county! Loads of love lynne