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Published: April 30th 2010
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Spot the Nick
Nick's moment of 'tall' glory We had been promised our visas for China by Friday evening, and as our Vietnamese visas would expire the following day, we were cutting it fine to get out of Vietnam in time. However our hotel manager/travel agent tried very hard to assure us with constant cries of “okay, okay, okay, no problem, don't worry”. But it was not to prove as simple as that.
As soon as we got back from Mai Chau, the first question to our hotel manager was “do you have our visas to China organised?” The answer was no, they're not here but predictably we got a “okay, no problem, you no worry, go out for dinner and they'll be back when you get here”. After dinner we asked again, no visas but come back at midnight. By this stage we were getting mighty worried and we had a bus leaving at 8am the following morning. We explained that we were concerned and were told to go to bed and that they'd be there in the morning, which we gave a flat “no” to, and said we'd inquire again at midnight. At midnight, still no visas. Now, I must explain, that this also means that
My Happy Traveller
Chaotic Immigration doesn't phase Phoebe there is no passport, and being stuck in a foreign country without your passport when your visa is about to expire is obviously not a smart thing to do. Also, the whole thing was just not adding up...why would our visas not be with us at 12, but were guaranteed the following morning, only 6 hours later? We knew the embassy closed at 5pm, clearly they should either be processed or not processed by then. We'd tried hard to quell our fears and rationalise this all away but it didn't make sense. So we confronted him....first Nick who got the story that the visas were actually in the safe, but his 'friend' had the key to the safe and he had gone out partying, and would be back in the morning. At this point I appeared and lost my temper! I didn't know who this guy was, he was stuffing us around and I was not happy. The agreement was Friday, we'd been very patient and polite but enough was enough and I wanted to see our passports NOW! Perhaps being in Vietnam for four weeks had turned me a little cynical, but I started to think the whole thing
was very fishy indeed and told him so. When he made protestations about his friend I yelled back that his friend was probably a drunkard who would be too hungover to come back to the hotel tomorrow morning. By this point he was getting upset and pleaded “Why you no understand for me?”. It seems I have reverted to using pigeon English, as I responded with “WHY YOU NO UNDERSTAND FOR ME!”. I should probably mention that at this stage I was standing in my nighty yelling from the stairwell. Clearly we where getting no where, so we went back to bed and just had to chance it the following morning, and what do you know....the passports with visas were delivered to our breakfast table. I smiled at the Hotel Manager and we made our peace... I think so anyway. Nick, while playing 'good cop' afterwards to the managers, tells me that the hotel manager privately said to him, “Your wife....she crazy”. Haha!
The bus ride to China the following day was easy, and as a surprise offered fantastic scenery, much like Mai Chau and Halong Bay. We were given cans of 'rice congee' which suspiciously had a picture
In China
The big imposing building from afar of a baby on it, and guess what, it tasted like baby food. One little boy greedily devoured a whole can and then 10 minutes later threw it all up on himself. I couldn't tell the difference between the congee pre or post throw-up. Phoebe the big baby also devoured the congee.
We were expecting the Vietnam-China border crossing to be a challenge, as we'd heard numerous stories about it being “difficult”, foreigners being stranded, officials being officious and about Chinese customs being hairy. Lucky for us, Nick sat next to Emily, a Chinese girl from Nanning in China who was probably the only English speaker on the bus, and had done the crossing a few times and would help us through. The Vietnamese immigration office was, as expected, a shambles. A couple of bored looking officials stamping away randomly at passports while a mass of people the other side of the glass window all tried to shove their passports under the official's noses. No lines existed so he who shoves most wins. Luckily we'd saved our departure cards from when we entered Vietnam (as it was attached to the arrival card), so didn't have to try to locate them. Phoebe and I stood back with the bags finding the whole thing rather amusing, as Nick in the shoving melee stuck out like a sore thumb. For the first time he was taller than everyone else and easy to spot! Then Phoebe and I had our turn, as you have to show your face to collect your passport. I shielded her as we moved through the crowd, and once we were at the desk, showed our foreign faces and got our passport quickly processed. I think the officials just did it because our Australian passports were the easiest to spot in amongst the mess on their desks. Also we have found that having a cute, blonde kid tends to work in your favour.
At the other end we spotted some others with the lanyards around their necks from the same bus company as us so we hovered around looking useless. Then Emily turned up with her friends and a bus version of a golf buggy drove up so we chucked our bags in and zoomed through to China!
As we moved through the Chinese immigration building we were amazed....huge, imposing communist architecture and a very organised system in place. There were LINES! Officials SMILED! Especially when Phoebe whipped out a “Ni hao” that she'd learnt at school. When they were done stamping our passports we could even press a little button stating how satisfied we were with the service.....a total contradiction to Vietnam. We got none of the work over in Chinese immigration that we thought might be coming (having heard rumours of bags being searched and books being thrown out), indeed I think the officials barely even bothered looking at the x-ray of our bags. After that we were on another bus-golf buggy to meet our big bus. At the bus there was a uniformed stewardess! Little did we know but this introduction to China was not just for show... this would be what we would come to expect from this great and fascinating place.
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gramar janet/mum/janet
non-member comment
congratulations!
I think this is where it is clear that to travel, in the way you are, it helps to be young and it seems, have a bit of a temper! I would have melted under the pressure but you guys have finally crossed the boarder from chaos to order. I prefer the latter so I'm pleased you are now visitors in Australia's ?largest trading partner - as long as you don't get involved in mining company negotiations you should be in for a smooth ride. Phoebe looks toothless but very happy - can't wait to see you young lady! lots of love xxx