We had booked a boat trip to Ha Long City from Cat Ba Island, and this gave us a second opportunity to enjoy Ha Long Bay. This time we went further north through the entirety of it, before emerging into the straits and through the bay to the city. It was a much sunnier day as well, so we could really enjoy relaxing on the open top deck, stopping at one of the largest floating villages, and we even spotted the floating pub where the Top Gear team finished their Vietnamese journey. It was only slightly spoiled by the terrible hardcore house music that the crew insisted on playing. We managed to block it out in the end.
We had researched the journey that we would undertake from Ha Long City to Mong Cai, to cross the land border from Vietnam into China, and we had decided to take a boat rather than bus, as it apparently afforded the same spectacular views as Ha Long Bay and was much cheaper. Firstly though, we had to explain to our taxi driver where we wanted to go. We thought the boat would go from nearby to where we had disembarked from our voyage to Ha Long City. But he drove for ages, before we had to explain again, through the medium of picture drawing, that we wanted the boat to Mong Cai.
After calling his controller to get instructions, he drove for even longer, and we ended up at a very small quay, very far away from where we expected to be. There were no boats going that day. I’m still thoroughly of the opinion that he took us to the wrong place. We then asked him to take us to the bus terminal. He stopped on the corner of an intersection and then we waited. And waited. After about 10 minutes of trying to understand him, while he was trying to understand us, a small minivan pulled up, and we were hustled inside. It was possibly the longest most uncomfortable journey ever, but at least it got us there, and it was cheap.
We reached Mong Cai bus terminal late in the afternoon. It was already getting dark, and I, true to form, was starting to panic ever so slightly. We managed to find the border, and then we were overcharged for our ticket to enter border control (as if it was some kind of theme park). The reason I know that we were overcharged is because the price on the ticket was much less than what we were asked to pay. But similarly to our border crossing from Thailand to Cambodia, we figured that we didn’t really have much choice. We entered the building from pretty much a dirt gravel track, with dust blowing all over the place, and left Vietnam. We then walked across a one hundred metre bridge to the Chinese border control. This was both exciting and nerve racking. What if they don’t let us in? What if they detain the strange western people for questioning? Will they welcome us into their country, or do they see us all as propaganda machines? These were only three of the many questions running through my mind.
We need not have worried. We were directed to fill out a border pass. Then I, but only I, was asked to go into a little side room. Mark was waved through, as he clearly looks less suspicious than I. My interview did not start well. I’m still trying to get to grips with the dimensions of backpack plus ukulele. Basically, as I walked into the interview room, I hit a female guard in the face with it. Apologising profusely, which was graciously accepted, I sweated my way nervously into the room, avoiding causing anyone else grievous bodily harm. I was then asked to open my pack for a search, and when the guard saw the amount of smaller bags in the pack, she changed her mind about searching the whole thing. I may have to live on a shoestring, but dammit, I can still be organised!
After a number of questions about why we wanted to travel through China, which I must have answered satisfactorily with answers such as “Because I have always wanted to see your beautiful country”, I was allowed to join Mark, in China! Chinese culture has always had an influence in my life through my Dad, and it is such a huge country steeped in tradition, and a place of such legends, myths and realities that we all hear related through stories and film. But it also has a terrible history of violence, most recently through Chairman Mao. It has however been occurring to me more and more on our travels that you can say the same about many countries, whether they are hurting their own people or others.
We walked out of border control, and the difference between Vietnam and China was instantly recognisable. Everything just seemed cleaner, more efficient, and less in your face. Now we just had to get to the bus station and on to Nanning, where we had booked a hostel. We faced our biggest challenge yet with the language barrier, as we had read that less than 1% of the Chinese population speak English. But we managed to communicate where we were going to the taxi driver, and arrive at the bus station. The next challenge was not being able to read Chinese characters on the departure board. At this point I was tempted to take a photo and send it to my cousin Cheryl to translate, but thankfully a lady in the queue for the ticket counter took pity on us and was able to translate to the clerk where we were going. First challenges met and conquered!
That just left us with the slight problem that it was now 7pm and we were embarking on a four hour bus journey. Would our hostel still be open? We arrived to Nanning at 11pm, and Mark gave the address to a taxi tout on his kindle. We were surrounded by touts, and they were amused but also seemed to have respect for his ingenuity, and were again when he pulled out a calculator to haggle the price. He agreed a price eventually, and we walked to the, ahem, taxi. It was some bloke looking to make a bit of extra money in the evenings. Possibly not the safest option, but who were we to choose at that time of night? Anyway, he got us to the set of buildings where the hostel was and even looked around to make sure we were going in the right direction. What a good guy – I don’t know many cabbies in London that would do that. We found the hostel, and thankfully they were still open. We dumped our stuff, sat on the balcony of the shared quarters, and enjoyed a couple of well-earned beers. We had made it! We were in China!