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Published: January 14th 2008
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We had been told that the border crossing into Vietnam could be time consuming so we boarded our train in Guilin at 3pm expecting around 17 hours before we got to Hanoi. The train was running 30 minutes late but for the first time we were seated with western passengers which was nice as you get to have a little chit chat along the way. They were a middle aged married Italian couple and were very friendly and easy to get along with. None of us had any idea what would happen when we got to the Vietnam border, there is something comforting in knowing your not the only ones who could not find any information! The beginning of the journey was relatively smooth, we had a stop in Nanning at around 8pm where we had to get off the train but fortunately all our luggage could stay on. This was for around an hour and we were not allowed to leave the station, from what little the staff could tell us it seemed we would hit the chinese immigration stop at around 1am in the morning so we all got back on the train and settled down to get some
sleep.
I awoke to a tall chinese man in a green uniform stood at the door of our compartment looking in. The italians were already awake and Tim was still asleep. The man wondered off down the carriage (very disconcerting to wake like that may I just add!) and a lady came in looking rather stern and asked for our passports. She checked them and then proceeded to put them in her bag. After questioning her as to why she said she would return with them when they had finished. Nobody ever likes having their passport taken away but we really were not given a choice in the matter. They gave us no idea when they would return or even if we had to disembark the train. So we sat and sat and sat not wanting to go to sleep in case they came back and we had to get off....mind boggling boring I can tell you......Two and a half hours later the lady returned with our passports, shortly after that the train set off again - had we known that we would not have to get off at any point we could have just gone back to sleep!!!!!
Around 30 minutes later we hit the Vietnam immigration at Dong Dang. We were told to take all our belongings off the train and were escorted to a waiting room. Here we were given large information cards to fill in and then once again you had to hand over your passport with the cards with no indication of when you would get them back! Then a guy gestured to another booth which said 'medical check' on it. I shook my head and he once again gestured for me to go over there. As it turned out they just wanted to stick a themometer in you ear (which you paid them 2 yuan for) and then they gave you a slip of paper. Very bazaar!!
Finally one and a half hours later we boarded a much smaller and grubbier train for our final destination, Hanoi. Our Italian friends had been seated with us again and there were quite a few looks of general unhappiness from the lady. The train was dirtier and the bedding we were given was much less appealing than on the chinese train. I felt sorry for her remembering my first encounter with a train similar
to this in India. How things change we jumped on our beds, whipped the quilt over our heads (as the lights wouldnt turn off!!) and fell asleep. It's amazing how you just learn to shut off to things like this now and get on with it. I slept solidly and soundly until someone smacked my foot rather hard, I pulled the quilt down to find a vietnamese woman shouting Hanoi, Hanoi!!! It was quite a slap too, apparently Tim also got one just before me. Sadly I think our Italian friends had sat in the same position for the last 6 hours, their bedding was untouched and they both looked a little worse for wear.
We got off the train finally at around 8am. Luckily Tim had got some american dollars before we left China because the cash machine in the train station did not work which would have been a nightmare otherwise. Unfortunately our Italian friends had been relying on the machine and were looking rather concerned at the fact they had not got any local money. We did ask them if we could help but they were pretty well travelled and I am sure they sorted it out. The taxi took us straight to the hotel where we were told we could have our room in 30 minutes so we dumped the bags in the hold and went off for breakfast...........
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