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Published: January 15th 2007
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Goodbye Communist China
After nearly 3,000 mile trouble-free cycling in China, we got arrested in Vietnams border-zone illegally free-camping on the beach...SHIT! Day 226, 12th January
Qinzhou - Jiangping - VIETNAM - Mong Cai - Tra Co
My guts weren’t much better this morning, but after a quick email check, we were up and on the road for 10am. The idea was to get as close to the Vietnamese border as possible somewhere along the coastal road, and then camp. As we sped along the empty roads though, the general consensus was to reach the border at Dongxing and cross it today.
At about 4.30pm, we reached the town and located the narrow muddy river that is the actual border. It looked fairly un-controlled and would be easy to walk across, but we had the right documents and didn’t. We found the border bridge which was for foot-passengers only. We were hassled to buy some sort of ticket for 10 yuan, but got out of paying that. Chinese customs and immigration were a breeze and we were soon standing in front of the bridge by the Chinese boundary marker with nothing to stop us from crossing it.
Half way across the bridge we entered The Socialist Republic of Vietnam. This was the part of the trip that Scott, the
End of the Peoples Republic...
The Jiangping border marker marks the territorial limits of China. Over the bridge was a new country to discover - Vietnam. only American in our group, had some trepidation about - how would the Vietnamese treat him?
Vietnamese immigration was quite easy-going too. Just one big form to fill in, and they didn’t even stamp the passport, only the loose-leaf visa we got in HK. We were now officiall in another communist country, the roads were empty apart from a few cycles and motor-bikes. We located a post office in the nearby town of Mong Cai where a woman changed our money into Dong - probably the most funniest named currency in the world apart from the Absurdistani Twat which is divided into 100 Gits! US$50 bought us 700 thousand Dong!
From the town of Mong Cai we headed off towards Tra Co beach which was listed on Rory’s map. The beach was massive, white sand with traditional looking fishing boats pulled up onto it like beached whales. The obligatory beer was consumed, a meal ate, then crowds of children appeared as we started pitching our tents on the promenade’s grassy area. The people were slightly different than the Chinese inasmuch as they seem very touchy-feely. The kids seem over-confident, maybe because propaganda has taught them that they are
Andy in Vietnam
Victorious pose at the Mong Cai border marker post just before going through the lengthy passport control. A first taste of the buracracy that awaits us... one of the only nations to have thrashed the United States in a war?
After the crowds had left and dusk arrived, an official looking guy arrived and looked at us in a bewildered fashion, shaking his head. Later on the local police turned up and we were marched off to the local police station for an interrogation - Stephane managed to persuade them that he had to stay and guard the bikes and tents. At the police station, a local English teacher was summoned to translate. The bottom-line was that we were illegally camping in the border-zone. China was a mere kilometer along the beach! It was illegal to do what we were doing, we had to stay in a hotel to be registered for every night of our stay in Vietnam - that was the law! After pleaing for a while and showing the police what we were doing, newspaper articles etc… they allowed us to camp out, but we had to leave in the morning, nobody had ever been allowed to do this before we were warned. As we went back to the tents, we thanked the teacher and arranged to see her and her colleagues
Propaganda Mosaic
At the border, something we didn't see in China - a classsic propaganda image of the socialist paradise that is Vietnam. at the school in the morning.
Total Miles: 10489.21 Todays Miles: 69.18 Average speed: 12.6 Time on bike: 5:27
Day 227, 13th January
Tra Co - Mong Cai - Tan Mai
After packing up our tents, we went off to the schoolteachers house within the school compound, she’d invited us for lunch. As it was a Sunday there were no kids so we played Frisbee in the playground, chatted a lot, and left after midday. Stephane wanted to stay a little longer cos he liked one of the teacher’s frieds, but when we cycled off, he reluctantly joined us after some cursing.
Our route took us through Mong Cai again and onto route number 18. The road narrowed to a width of less than 10 feet with a red dirt and pebble shoulder either side of it. We soon became aware the the drivers of the little buses that passed us were complete idiots on these narrow roads and had no intention of stopping or giving way. They came within inches of our bikes, it was a bit worrying.
As we cycled on, we noticed the hats - women wear the traditional
Tra Co beach
Well within the 5km border-zone, Tra Co beach with its idyllic off-the-beaten-track setting - irresistable! stereotype conical hats and have handkerchiefs over their mouths, and the men wear the khaki-green colonial-style hats. People seem genuinely happy to see us, big smiles and cries of “Hello” from all ages. Vietnam also seems much less developed than China, refreshingly so.
We ended up doing only about 20 miles before leaving the road to go up a track in order to find a free-camping spot. A mile up the track, a villager spotted us and invited us to camp next to his straw hut. We then sat with him and his wife drinking tea until the stars came out. For the first time I noticed that there’s a whole new set of stars here, in the early hours I’m sure that I saw the Southern Cross… We crashed out to the sound of the night’s insects in full orchestral mode…
Total Miles: 10509.40 Todays Miles: 20.18 Average speed: 10.4 Time on bike: 1:55
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