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Somehow I love the rainy season in S.E.Asia Finally, a well deserved 17-day vacation. On the 1st of June, after finishing work at 17:00, I flew to Beijing where I stayed for a day. My god it's big.....
On the 3rd I flew Shenzhen airlines to Nanning, in the far south of China, just accross the border with Vietnam. And that was also my destination. Nanning was nice enough and the room at the hotel for 90 Yuan was a bargain. The next morning at 08:00 I took the local train to Pinxiang which took only 3 1/2 hours. The border formalities went fairly quickly (I picked up my Vietnam visa at the embassy in Nanning)
and walked through the massive arch that marked the border.
On the other side a taxi took us to the town of Lang Son where a bus was ready and waiting.
I arrived in Hanoi at half past 2!
Nice enough Hanoi may be, but having only 17 days, I wanted to spend a large part of that bumming on the beach, so booked my very first sleeper bus to Danang for that same evening. Why does Thailand not have them, or did I miss something? They are absolutely great, although still
a bit small if you're taller than say...1m65. This bus in particular seemed pretty new to me. It had a large flat screen TV in two places, relaxing soft blue light along the ceilings and a clean western toilet including toilet paper!
That's what I call traveling in style!
To save some time AND to spend some extra money (...) I booked a flight on Lao airlines from Hanoi to Luang Prabang, which I am SOOO looking forward to. I truly hope to get a window seat because the view during landing in L.P., after having come over the surrounding mountains is supposed to be stunning.
I can't wait to return to L.P. either, I love that place. I hope that in the last two years it hasn't changed too much. There should be some nice new bars and cafe's though...
So yeah, Danang. On arrival, looking towards Vietnam's 3rd largest city, driving along Nam O beach I wondered if I had made the right choice. All I wantd was to stay in a simple bamboo hut, preferably ON the beach, like I have so many times in Thailand. Although this is not the case this time, I
hav to say I really like this place. Immediately I got a 4-gear motorbike for that much needed 2-wheel freedom and ith that it's actually nice to have to drive a bit to get to the beach. And that beach....WOW.
Coming from the barren north of China, I believe it's stunningly beautiful.
With a length of over 30 km's and carrying the name
China beach, it really is a long stretch of a beachbummers paradise.
Actually, China beach was used by the American army during the war to send their soldiers that needed to recouperate from either physical or mental distress.
At the north side it ends in the Son Tra peninsula, a.k.a. Monkey mountain. Just south of Danang, a bit inland are the Marble mountains, a set of rounded hills made of ....yeah....marble.
Until now I've mostly been soaking up the sun, but hope to visit some of the surrounding landscape and sights as well. That includes the historic city of Hoi an, 30 km's south of Danang.
Until then,
Tam biet!
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maarten
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keep on travelling))
hey Johan, it seems that you are back into what you like it most)) i am right?? keep on travelling and don't get locked up in jail like you're brother does;) have nice one this holiday - its short so take the most out of it)) maarten.