China - Day 190

Bless me Father for I have sinned - it's been 50 days since my last Confession. (Okay, maybe that intro was a bit over the top...?) Though it's not like I haven't thought about writing another entry, it's just that, well, I'm inherently lazy. But I sit here in bed on my day off, relaxing and enjoying the feeling of having absolutely nothing to do today, and I decided that now would be a good time to give all my friends and family back home an update on my life here in China.

In point of fact I don't really have too much to write about stuff here in Guangzhou... Seems things are pretty much 老样老样 (lao yang lao yang/same old same old). That's not to say "bad" of course, because I'm still having an amazing time and I don't want to leave haha. What can I say? I love it here (even in the face of mild monotony - considering that seems to be the way life is no matter where you're living).

As luck may have it, last week we had a week-long vacation to celebrate the Chinese National Day. Go figure that to celebrate a Day we get a Week. (Hey, I'm not complaining). To avoid the anarchy and pandemonium that is the epitome of China during a holiday, myself, Amy, Jane and one of our students named Eva decided to (and I'd love to say "hop a plane" right now, but I can't...) board a train and head south towards Vietnam. Don't be fooled, there's no direct, non-stop train from here to Hanoi, no no that'd be crazy.

We took the train from Guangzhou to Nanning, and 13 hours (and an equal number of stops) later we were transferring to a bus to take us the rest of the way. To be fair, despite taking over 28 hours to complete the journey door-to-door, it wasn't entirely uncomfortable (the trip back is a whole other story!). On the train we managed to book tickets in the sleeper car so I just stretched out, read, slept, and listened to music to pass the time. Upon arriving to Nanning (around 6:00am) we waiting in line to buy our return tickets before grabbing a taxi to get to the bus station across town. On the bus that took us across the border and onwards to Hanoi we met a group of traveling students from Mexico. They livened up the trip by starting to drink beer before lunch and playing the music from their iPod on speakers. They also shared their whiskey with us so that was cool haha. (The whiskey came later in the afternoon, so don't worry).

After finally arriving in Hanoi and exiting the bus we were greeted/bombarded with taxi, moto, and tuk-tuk drivers all trying to land a fare. After agreeing to a price of 30,000 dong (a little over $2) we hired a taxi to take us to our hostel. The hostel we stayed in for the first two nights in Hanoi was pretty nice, and at the low price of $5.80 a night per person you can't really complain when you're welcomed by a mouse scampering across the floor when you walk into your room. It sounds bad, but in actuality the rooms were quite clean and they did the trick just fine.

Wednesday morning we were up bright and early. I say that, but don't mean it. As was the story with the prior two days, when we woke up on Wednesday it was raining. (It's okay though, the rain usually stopped by the time we finished breakfast). After breakfast on this particular day we boarded a "bus" to take us and 16 other lovely people to Halong Bay. A 3 hour ride that felt like double that in the cramped, little, glorified van. Once in Halong City we got on board the Hai Au 30, a junk boat that would be our home for the night. It was a small ship but it was built to house 16 people. This trip out it only had to make room for 5. In addition to our little group of 4 women, there was one more passenger, an Israeli man named Yaron. Although a little strange, he was a nice enough man who entertained us with magic trick after dinner.

Our tour of Halong Bay included a trip to the "Amazing Cave", yes, that's actually its name. A limestone cave high up in one of the 2000 karsts that make up the bay's beautiful and photogenic landscape. After walking through the cave and seeing a famous phallic-shaped "finger" formation (among others) we headed out on the water to do some kayaking. I haven't been kayaking since my summers at Camp Wabanaki in Huntsville, but lemme tell you, it was a lot of fun. Got to see things from another perspective. It was very peaceful out on the water - aside from all the women in rowboats stalking you and trying to sell you drinks and snacks... Later on, we went swimming as the sun set and then (literally) fell asleep under the stars...

Back ashore the next day we stopped for lunch in Halong City and then started the "bus" ride back to Hanoi. We made it about 20km out of the city before getting stuck in traffic. A lot of traffic. Turns out the cause of which was an overturned coal truck about a kilometer or so up the road. Our three hour trek turned out to be closer to 5 ½ in the end...

For the remaining three nights in Vietnam we decided to stay at a hostel recommended by our junk boat tour guide - Tom (aka "Amy's Husband". ...There was to be a private ceremony held on the boat but it got postponed indefinitely). The pictures of the hostel we looked at in a brochure/guide-type book seemed promising and at $11/night it sounded good. It wasn't. Right from the get-go this place was a bit of a disappointment.

We had hundreds and hundreds of ants crawling all around our room - the floor, the desk, and even the bed! We got them to spray the room several times but to no avail. Every time we tried to book a touristy thing to do - motorcycle ride around the city or a Vietnamese cooking class - the manager would replace what we requested with a service of the hotel's own... Always with an inferior result. Instead of getting a 5 hour motorbike tour out to the countryside, we got a 3-hour tour inside the city (even though we paid for 5 hours). Instead of a hands on cooking class that involved purchasing fresh ingredients from the local market, we essentially got to watch a chef (at a restaurant associated with our hostel) make some local dishes. As for the market, we didn't get to buy anything all we did was walk by everything at lightning speed. I guess it actually wasn't as bad as I'm making it out to be, it's just a little disappointing compared to what it could have been... The kicker though came at the end. When we were checking out, instead of being charged the quoted $11/night we were charged $14/night per person. Doesn't sound like a lot of money, but in Vietnam (and in China) and 3-dollar difference is actually a fairly moderate amount. So note to all: If you are in Hanoi do not, I repeat, do not stay at a hostel or guesthouse called APT. The only good aspect of their company is the junk boat tours in Halong Bay; everything else is a rip off.

All right, just starting to notice the length of this note, so it's time to wrap things up!

After checking out of our lavish abode things didn't start to look up. We walked in the rain to the main road where we hailed down two taxis (one isn't big enough for four people and luggage). The taxi driver that Amy and I were so lucky to have gotten tried swindling us into paying 3 or 4 times more than we knew we should pay. After bartering for 5 minutes we finally got him down to a "normal" price (even though it was probably way more than what the locals would pay). Then he didn't even drive us to where we requested. He drove for like 1 minute and then told us we were there. What a freak. Finally we got him driving again and we were dropped off at the hotel where the bus would pick us up to take us back over the border and back to Nanning. The bus ride was uneventful, but that's not exactly a bad thing. It took us almost 3 hours to get though customs and back into China. The hard part wasn't getting back into China but actually leaving Vietnam! There were so many people crowded in front of the Passport Control window - there was nothing controlled about it! Handing in our passports and getting them back was the part of the process that took the longest - over an hour and a half. After passing through the border we had to wait on the other side for our bus to fill up before it'd leave for Nanning. Nanning to Guangzhou was the longest and hardest stretch of the return journey. As I mentioned before were weren't able to buy sleeper car tickets. Instead we had to take hard seats that didn't recline in the slightest and sit upright for 13 hours. The discomfort was only exacerbated by the fact that the aisles were overflowing with people who were standing because even all the hard seats were sold out. Oh the joys of traveling within China during a national holiday.

When all is said and done the fact remain that Vietnam is a beautiful and unique country (though some may point out the Chinese influences - especially with the food). I really enjoyed my time there and the company I was with. One day I hope to go back and head south towards Ho Chi Minh, to see what else there is to find in Vietnam...

So this little note of mine has turned into a novel. I guess that makes up for the two months of silence before this haha.