You don't know China!

Right now I'm sitting here in our cute room at the Stars Hotel in Hanoi, Vietnam. The last couple of days to get here were indeed crazy. China is crazy. Joey and I never felt threatened in China or anything, but it truly is a world away from what we know. I'm warning you this blog is going to be a long one because we have seen a lot in the last few days! Here it goes:

Joey and I said our good byes to our friend Scotty in Hong Kong on Thursday and set off for our great adventure to Vietnam through China. We decided to skip out on Macau (a country right beside HK) because it is the Las Vegas of Asia, and we can't afford that! We feel pretty good about this decision as we hear if you're not a gambler, Macau is pretty boring!

Hong Kong is a relatively clean city for it's size and population. We were getting used to life in Hong Kong and really starting to like it. We first took the train to Guanghzou in the Guang Dong province of China. As we crossed the Hong Kong/China border it was night and day. The houses and condos were in shambles and garbage/junk was absolutely everywhere. Shanty towns littered the sides of the railway. China was already looking to be an entirely different world. What was worse was the pollution. You could barely see buildings 500m in the distance. A cloud of smog hung heavily on the towns and even the farms and forests in between. We were quite shocked!

When we got to Guanghzou is when things really got crazy. We stepped out of the subway station into what appeared to be a square. In this derelict square were tens of thousands of people, many of which were militia and police. Our instinct was to get back on the subway and high tail it out of there! We gathered our courage and ventured out. We needed to buy train tickets to Nanning in less than an hour. Joey finds the train station across the square. That means we have to cross this square? No way. We start to walk over there. We had heard rumours about "Mainland Chinese" who openly spit on the floor, but we hadn't heard that most children just have holes in their pants and go to the bathroom right there on the sidewalk!

The train station is huge and we're not sure where to get our tickets from, so we end up lining up in two different lines in hopes that one of them is where we can purchase Nanning tickets. With no such luck and very little help from tellers, we're feeling pretty helpless at this point. No one here speaks English and time is running out. Finally we find the place to buy tickets and the tickets come up to $358 Yuan for two sleeper beds on the train. Joey was worried that we wouldn't have enough YN, but he had EXACTLY $358YN in his wallet. Talk about lucky!

Joey tried every ATM in the train station to get money out and nothing worked. We tried every one of our cards. Our train leaves in less than 40 minutes and we've got to get cash before we get on. The wild goose chase for a ATM that works is on. We begin asking anyone we can. The only bank that we can use is across the square and up the street. We starting speed walking which is pretty hard to do when you have a big backpack strapped to your back. We dodged the people and spit and finally found the bank! We were getting used to the madness of the square so this time it wasn't as scary.

As we're sitting in the waiting room for our train there are a thousand eyes looking at us. Maybe it's because the Chinese in this area are not used to seeing Westerners. They weren't even discreet about it. You would catch someone staring at you and they would keep doing it. Sometimes they would even stop walking or what they were doing just to stare! I realized we hadn't seen a single white person since being on the train from Hong Kong. I scanned the waiting room, and manage to see another scared backpacker couple. When you're the only ones in the entire place who stand out, it's hard not to make a connection. Lindsey and Jamie are from Scotland and have been traveling through China for 3 weeks.

We stick together until our trains come. They had managed to get a Soft Sleeper bed on the train, and we did not. Joey and I got the hard sleeper. It was definitely hard! Pretty much one of the worst sleeps of my life! We survived though and made it to Nanning in the morning. We met up with Lindsey and Jamie in the morning. They were also making their way to Hanoi so we figured we could save on taxis and buses, and also there's always safety in numbers! Jamie is very good at haggling and got us some pretty sweet deals on taxi's and buses. He runs a hard bargain and I think I could learn a lot from him.

As we got closer to the Vietnamese border the scenery of China was so beautiful. Farms were everywhere and you could see the rural farmers working the fields with their water buffaloes. Big mountainous rocks randomly pierced the landscape and the forests were lush. This is the kind of China I really appreciate and would love to see more of!

We finally made it to Vietnam! We took a bus to Hanoi. Although it was an uncomfy ride, the scenery made up for it. French colonial houses were in clusters and fields of rice and corn were everywhere. People with pointy little hats work the fields and this truly look like what I imagined Vietnam to be.

As peaceful as it looks, Vietnam is very loud. Scooters are everywhere. You hear BEEEEEEEEP all day no matter where you are. People drive scooters everywhere. There will be dressed up Vietnamese women wearing 3 inch heels driving a scooter. It's truly a sight to see! The things that these people strap to the scooters is also amazing. TVs, counter tops, panes of glass, you name it and it's strapped to a scooter.

We made it to our hotel which is in the "Old Quarter" of the town. This means it's very French looking and the buildings are old. Our room is absolutely gorgeous. It's relatively small but the detailing is beautiful. Our patio is also quite a sight because we are on top of the building looking out at a lot of other buildings around us. There is also a buddhist shrine on our patio. It's quite beautiful. We've got A/C, a tv, a fridge, hot running water, our own bathroom and the patio. All for the price of $16 USD. We're very impressed. We also when out for dinner last night with our new found friends. Joey and I splurged because it was our first night in Hanoi and because the last 32 hours had been quite hectic and hellish. Our "splurge" involved an appetizer, main course, dessert and 3 beers each for $15USD. The best part was the food was AMAZING.

It's morning now and we're getting ready to start out day. We're going to do as the locals do and have Pho for breakfast. Pho is a chicken or beef brother with rice noodles, bean sprouts, chilis, green onion and sometimes lime. If you haven't tried it, I really suggest you do! Any good Vietnamese restaurant back home should have it!

Well there it is. We are safe and sound in Hanoi and loving life!