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We have just arrived in Hanoi after having had a brilliant time in Hong Kong! Hong Kong is a spectacular city full of buzz and energy and we had a great time soaking it all in!
The highlight was undoubtably meeting up with Chris and Anna Gordon who took us out on Saturday Night (our first night there) for a drink, supper and to The Cavern and The Foreign Correspondants Club after dinner. We met them both in Soho (so called as it is south of Hollywood rd and not the slightly dodgy area of london), an area full of restaurants and the most amazing bar street I have ever seen in my life and probably one of the noisiest place i have been in my life! We had drinks at Stauntons Wine bar and then went for supper upstairs in the 'international' style restaurant which was fantastic and Ben and I made up for having not eaten proper food for so long!! The bar street (we cant remember what it was actually called) is on a steep hill where there are hundreds of bars which spill out on to the street which creates the most amazing atmosphere. They left for home at around 2.15am and we returned from the F C club back to the bar streets for more drinks!! It was a great evening and Anna and Cris if you get a chance to read this-- again thank you so very much!
We stayed at a Hostel in the Mong kok area of Hong kong which was very central and very practical and by the time we left we quite liked, however when we first arrived we were slightly shocked as it was well below the standard of the places we had stayed in China-- it was a tiny room with a bunk bed and just enough room to open the door, no windows and there was a showe above the loo in the shared bathroom (which was also tiny) so u pretty much had to sit on the loo while having a shower.
On the first day in Hong Kong we had to sort out our china visa which had gone abit t*** up as we had only had a single entry visa for China, not realising of course that Hong Kong was STILL technically some how not part of China and therefore by going to Hong KOng we were stuck there and could not return to China, which we neaded to do to get to Vietnam as the other option to fly was extortionately expensive! So on Saturday moring we got up early and headed to the China resources builling and floor 40 to apply for another visa which we were told would be ready on Monday and would cost 30 quid!
After that annoying little excursion we walked through the central district of Hong Hong along the river to the Bank of China building so that we could have a look out from the buildings 43rd floor viewing platform which allowed us to get a feel and our bearings for the city as well as some spectacular views!
Next we headed up to the hills behind Hong Kong on the Peak tram which takes you to the summit for more great views back down towards Hong Kong and accross that bay towards Kowloon and the surrounding islands. The tram goes up the very steep slope and drops you off at the top of the hills where there is a large viewing platform where we soaked in the views and had lunch. We then did the 3km walk around the top of the hill and then headed back down. That afternoon we did some essential shopping (and daresayit some washing/shaving) before heading out that evening to meet the Gordons as mentioned earlier.
The next morning we explored the Mong Kok area wandering though the shoping streets and markets, in which i bought a hoodie. We then headed off to Lanau Island (on the recommendation of the Gordons) to go up the gondola to the top of another big hill to see one of the worlds largest budda statues. Unfortunatley however, when we got to the island we decided against it as it was so cloundy/misty and you could not even see the 1/2 way station of the gondala. Instead we spent about half an hour transfixed by a fountain which came out of the floor and tended to soak/knock over the little kids who ran through it or when they were caught completely by surprise as happened to some! Sound rubbish-- it was amazing. We then got the MTR back to a MTR station a few away from our local (all deliberate) to have a gander back through the city which we had already decided we already liked. That evening we went off back to Soho and found some awesome little American burger place and had the best burgers ever. We then went back to the infamous bar street to go drinking again.
The next day we had a lie in and spent some time on t'internet sorting out Thailand. We then went shopping to buy some mozzi stuff for Vietnam and some cold stuff for our colds. Yes we have colds that-- is now disapointingly cold it has been.
We then went and collected our visa and began our trip from Hong Kong to Hanoi. What a trip. Can i just say now we are finally in Hanoi safely...
For the trip we were planning to follow seat 61's (ourtrain guide's) suggested/only route. In fact it didnt suggest it suggest against it but we had to do it anyway.
With our visa's we headed to Hong Kong station by bus to try and get a train first to Guangzhou and then on to Nanning. We were flatly told that there were no tickets. Thanks. So instead we brought a bus ticket to Nanning. The bus left that evening and so for the mean time we went to Mcadonalds and then to the games accade in which we spent hours and spent the grand total of about 2 pounds. (hong kong's games arcades are amazing as they are so cheap you can really get stuck in as we did without it being expensive like in the uk). That eveing at 7.30 we got on the 1st bus which took us to Guangzhou. This bus took us though both sets of border controls ok but arrived 30 mins late and therefore we thought we had missed the next bus. All was ok however, and we got on a half empty sleeper bus for the 12 hour journey to Nanning. We had a pretty comfy time and got to Nanning ontime at 6 in the morning. From Nanning bus station we got a taxi (about 20 mins) to nanning train station and bought tickets (standing class) for the 4 hour trip to Pinxiang. The train was quite an experience with thousands of chinese and us with our bags squashed into this old sleeper carriage. Luckily we got some seats on an old bed but it was half in the aisle so we had to move our legs every 30 seconds and generally was a real squash and the chinks insisted on smoking, spitting and sneezing where ever they cared inside the train/on you which made it pretty unpleasant. On the train we chatted to a chinese guy our age who could speak very limited english. He was amazed by our guide book despite not being able to read the contents (only the word china on the cover) because we were leaving china we ripped out the pages we needed and gave it to him which he was hugely grateful for. We thought it was better to get rid of it that way instead of throwing it away and it was our good dead for the day. When we arrived at nanning we got a taxi (three wheel motorbike thing with covered seats on the back-- it was very cold but wicked at the same time so hopefully we will be able to put thew videos up.) to the border. We then spent around 1 hour nervously crossing the border through a complex called the friendship pass which got us into Vietnam. We then got a taxi to Dong Dang train station with a driver who tried to drive us all the way to Hanoi (around 170kms) but we stopped him as we didn't trust him and it would have been expensive to go that far so got him to drop us at the station eventually. We then bought a ticket to Hanoi (40,000 dong each-- about 1.20 pounds.) We then went to get on the train and were pointed towards the front of the train by numerous people. We finally found someone who showed us to a carriage. Now, we had been warned by Seat 61 that the train was more of a parcel train so were quiet glad to be shown into a carriage which had some wooden benches and about 6/8 old vietnamese women who had bundles of something with them. We were in our seats waiting to go around 1 hour before the train departed and during this time we heard alot of arguing/ bartering going on between those on the train and those not on it. This got fiercer as time wore on and then suddenly with about 10 minutes to go tons of people and their goods piled onto the train. It was a raucous atmosphere with people and their goods chopping and changing constantly (like musical chairs). It became extremely cramped with people sitting on their boxes of stuff, kids all on laps and some sitting in the aisle.
Will is knackered from writing this section of the blog now. I (Ben) will takeover. We finally set off roughly 10 minutes late. The train slowly chugged towards Hanoi stopping off many times at rural towns and villages with large exchanges of passengers. At each stop both those on the train and those at the stations were constantly buying and sellking their goods; this was the theme for the whole journey as their was much inner ytrain business transactions completed. We sat either side of the asile, Will next to a woman who seemed to be in charge of selloing dinner to the whole carriage and gave us the impression that she was a seniour figure in the community that was the passengers of this train; a well repsected woman who knew everybody and often seemd to be bribing the train officials (although we only saw money change hands for a service invisible to us). The goods on the train varied far and wide. From 'game station' (a rip off of sony's better known model) to vegetabvle steemers, cake mixers, pro kareoke machines, underpants, dvd players, torches, dressing gowns. Presumably all knock offs or stolen. We reckon that the incumbents of the train made this journey a couple of times a week judging by the volume of 'merchandise' each had brought with them.
I have to say; the 6 hour journey was one of the most uncomftable of my life and seemed to last an eternity. The seats gave me near chronic back pain, my rear was practically asleep on both sides and we didn't want to bust out our i-Pods in front of people who were considerbaly poorer than us in order not to offend them or attract thieves. The views from the train were also pretty tame to make matters worse.
After 4 hours a elderly chap (by Vietnamese standards) of about 52 and his wife sat opposite me. He could barely speak most likely due to incessant smoking in past years. Somehow we communicated by a form of basic sign languare and hand signals, like chirades but sitting down. I established his age, that he was from Ho Chi Minh City, had a visa to got to the US and hated the food being prepared by the woman mwentioned above; branding it dirty and sickening. The lovely man pulled out a rather large bag of sweets and gave both of us a packet of German Wearthers originals which we eventually accepted, slightly embarrassed we had nothing to offer in return other than chewing gum which I don't think he would have particularly welcomed.
After they eventaully alighted and we had said goodbye. With an hour and a half to go some younger people boarded the train; from some sort of college/uni probably based on their age. A couple of them sat opposite me and Will and after a while one of the girls asked Will for his number despite the fact she could literally speak 2 words of English. Will attempted to fob her off by giving her his London house number; however she was not to be fooled and she promptly called it to check. It would have been seriously funny if Lucy Nelson had picked up at the other end we thought; but alas there was no answer. Eventaully Will did hand over his real number and explained was in his bag as indeed it was. I got out my pad and pen and got her to give Will her number to show Will was taking her offer of future contact serious to keep her entertained as we were bored and so wanted to have something to pass the time. The 19 year old girl later gave us each a fluorescent plastic bangle; of course they would not go round Will's hand as they were quite small despite the girls best efforts much to his discomfort. We got chatting to the girl and her friend somehow by writing eachother questions on their mobile phone as their pronounciation of English was poor at best, which is not a surprise, like me trying to pronounce Vietnamese if I could ever be bothered to learn the language. But I can't as English is the most superior language in the world and it is up to everyone else to learn it including the Chinese, not vice versa. Anyway they ended up asking us where we were staying and if they could visit us. Will was skeptical, but I thinking it would be very funny if they both pitched up where we were staying with no way to talk to us without a translator (which we had on the train to an extent thanks to another passenger) persuaded him to let them know where we were headed. As it turns out that place we told them was full and we stayed just round the corner. They got off the train about half an hour before we reached Hanoi. Satisfied that something had happened to pass the last hour and a half we were mentally preparing to get ourselves into a hostel ASAP. Out of no where another girl, unrelated in any way to the other two asked Will to be her pen friend. Will pretended not to understand what she was asking. After realising what was going on and literally wetting myself with laughter inside my head I promptly went in search of my pad and pen so Will could establish a new pen firend. Nightmare! I couldn't find my pen, but not worry she quicklty found one as we got off the train together and to be fair to Will he did give her his real address; she did only want to learn English better after all. I thought she was 16, but it turned out she was 23.
We got a taxi to a hotel we had reserached but it was full, they took us to another one near by and told us they would have space the next day. The taxi was relatively quite expensive but this is due to the fact that there are at least 200 mopeds/motorbikes to every car that drives the streets. The other hotel was fine, clean twin room with ensuite shower/wc. The next morning we swapped back to our original choice. Anyway we are here in Hanoi now and we shall update you with what we get up to soon.
Pictures again are proving difficult to upload but we shall try an internet cafe. We have at least put them and some vids on a dvd for safe storeage. We will probably put them on facebook for the younger readers of this.
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