Nanning to Hanoi by train

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On the train I was the first in the cabin. I opened cookies I brought for the ride and just as I did so a Chinese man came in, I offered him a cookie and within minutes we each put all the snacks we had on the table so we had ourselves a picnic. Minutes later a middle ages man came in as well. I gestured to him to help himself, he was grateful for this and shortly after we were engrossed in conversation. The younger man was a 19 year old high school graduate who spoke some English and thankfully had a translator in his phone so he could show me a word and I could fill in the blanks. The elder man would ask a question which would then be relayed to me and so the trip passed quite quickly. An hour into the journey a European passed through the corridor and asked if he could join us as he hadn’t met an English speaker in days. He told us he was a Dutchman who left his law practice to travel and was coming to the end of his tour of Asia. We gladly obliged and when we did he ran back to his bunk and when he returned he produced a cake he’d brought. The party continued until we got to Pin Xiang On the border, the elder man relayed to us what would happen next and took a lot of the stress out of the process. Here the Chinese customs people came onboard to check passports. People say I’m regimented and they’re right, I know what I want, when and how I’m going to achieve it and if that a bad thing then the world is messed up but on that train I was so glad I had done my research. The Dutchman had not. He had not visa and so was forced to get off the train where he would have to spend the night after finding a hotel, return to Nanning, process his visa, pay for another train ticket and undertake the journey again. The rest of us were made to get off the train with our belongings and go through a metal detector before being allowed back on, 90 mins or so later the train rolled out the station bound for Hanoi.
At the train station in Hanoi the moto drivers were waiting for a fresh batch of tourists. I has hoped to fins an exchange bureau at one of the train stops but alas no such luck, I had no Vietnamese Dong only $120 dollars id taken out in China as emergency cash. There was no way I was handing over a $20 bill for a $2 dollar ride without knowing what the exchange rate was. I thought I could walk to the id booked. Thankfully the Chinese man came to my aid; the 19 year old heard me saying I had no local currency on me and that id need to walk to find a cash machine. Before I knew it I was on a Moto with the driver already paid. I shook the man’s hand, said thank you and he waved the Moto on.

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Comments

[Chris and Lisa]

Thanks
Cheers for this. I am researching my China trip and have been wondering aboout how to get to Vietnam and you've really helped so thanks.