Guilty blog upon leaving China

I am sitting in Hanoi in a backpackers after being on THE most uncomfortable train journey on my travels thus far. Vietnam's rail system unfortunately doesn't exhibit the flair of China's but it was nonetheless filled with interesting people. People draped themselves across wooden slat seats 6 at a time while a baby slept on the floor next to me on newspaper with his/her grandmother (it was a most strange looking asexual baby). People randomly spitting and caressing their feet which seems to be a favourite pastime, and some possessing squatting abilities far exceeding the average Chinese person's.

I sat with my friends Bien, Twam and Phu, of which only shy Phu could speak english or chinese and so would somehow translate between those languages and Vietnamese for me what the others were saying. Bien had a strange desire to pat my head while I slept so he did that while I took a most uncomfortable nap. Anyhow 9 hours later and I arrrived in Hanoi at 4.30am. A bike driver at the train bargains with me in Vietnamese and I get on his bike, to be stopped by the police about 50m down the road. They check his license and bike and deem him fit to go, and he delivers me without issue to a street that I tell him. Anyhow so I'm now waiting for 8.30am to tick by so I can check in so taking this opportunity to write.

Vietnam is very different to China, and this was evident as soon as I came over the border yesterday, which consisted of a foot bridge across the mouth of the Mekong. Apparently people here try to rip you off more, which I should be more aware of as I found out on my first day. A Pham, a car driver with kind eyes who taught me how to count in Vietnamese charged me an extortionate rate to go from Lao Cai at the border to Sapa for the day. No matter though, it's still relatively little by my standards and I've learnt my lesson for later.

Sapa was beautiful, a misty village on top of paddy-carved hills where you can take a number of treks to surrounding villages and markets. I went for a 2 hour walk to Cat Cat village and met some friendly Adelaidians along the way. They instructed me on the correct prices of things in the country and we did a swift exchange of Lao-Vietnamese cash in front of a homeless boy who was following us making grunting noises disconcertingly. I then made my way back to Lao Cai and boarded the lovely train that brought me here to Hanoi today.

Ok I apologise for not having written in this blog which was supposed to be about China until now when I have left China but it is just that I was rarely in the mood for writing and when I was, I was more in the mood for reading so did that instead. I'll write a bit about my trip working backwards however and also referring to the present, because I think chronology is overrated.

So my last stop in China was Kunming a couple of days ago, and I stayed with Julie a lovely couchsurfer from Portland Oregon (a fantastic city!). Julie, Dan and their friends made me fall in love with the grunge and people of Kunming, and I think if I was to choose a place to live in China next it would be this city! In general the city is small, but there is a decidedly cool expat community and nice cafes, restaurants and parks to chill out in. It's got a layer of grunge about it that though less sanitary than Beijing, is a little cooler. My sleeper bus from Kunming - Hekou at the Vietnamese border was one of the more interesting transportation options I've taken. A sleeper bus has three rows of bunk beds in it, and a nice combined row of 5 beds side by side at the back of the bus. I think I was allocated the worst possible seat which was the second bed in of 5 in the back row on the top bunk, but I sneakily slid across to the window and let the lady who came after me take up the piggy in the middle spot.

We at the back were privileged with being next to a slightly obese man with smelly feet and a tendency to snore extremely loudly. To my delight the man in front of us turned round angrily partway through the journey and thrust a plastic bag at smelly's shoes, telling him to capture the smell in there so it wouldn't disturb the rest of the bus. For the 13 hour journey I nestled under the lady next to me's armpit and thought happy thoughts. Woke up in Hekou with huge amounts of condensation running off my face and smelling horrific (a smell that I am still yet to shake off).

I'll write about the rest of my journey on the next entry! a little in the future and a little in the past.