Days 13 – 14: From Vietnam to China

I scheduled only one day in Hanoi since it was time to get to China – where I planned to stay at least two weeks or longer. The most convenient way to travel from Hanoi to China is to take a direct train to Nanning. I’ve already bought a ticket for this direct train when I arrived in Hanoi in the morning, so the only challenge was to spend the whole day in Hanoi and to organise a transfer to another train station which is a 15-20 minutes drive away from the main train station and city centre.

I took a taxi to the small train station which is located in a quite dodgy area, surrounded by dubious bars. After I bought some food and water for the trip I was waiting in the waiting room which had the charm of an ice cube. The train left on time and before boarding, the attendant checked my passport to avoid problems at the border upfront.

Boarding the train to China

The train was obviously chinese since the attendants looked chinese and the train as such was much nicer than the usual trains in South-East Asia. The room and the beds were comfy and a fair bit larger than on all the other trains I took before.

Cleaner, softer and more comfortable than all the other trains so far

The train arrived in Nanning on the next day and it was the first time I was confronted with chinese characters and ticket offices. My plan was to take the next train to Guilin in order to get to Yangshuo which is a fascinating region (a scenic, small town surrounded by impressive karst mountains and a beautiful scenery). Since I can’t read or speak Chinese, the only chance to buy a train ticket was to compare the chinese names of places in my guidebook with the names shown on the huge LCD-displays in the train stations.

Alright, try to find the train to Guilin

I don’t really know how – but apparently somehow – I managed to buy a ticket from Nanning to Guilin. The main challenge was to join one of the long queues in front of the 30-40 ticket offices. I bought a hard seat ticket which turned out to be slightly padded, though not comfy of course. It seemed the chinese passengers had heaps of fun with me… The girl vis-a-vis even tried to teach me some basic Chinese. But she failed… Look at this – she gave up:

Trying to teach me Chinese? Soooo hopeless!

After sitting almost the whole day in this train, I finally arrived in Guilin where the next challenge was to find the bus terminal. There is no train to Yangshuo, so I decided to take an express bus which leaves almost every half an hour or so. Although the bus terminal was only a 10 minutes walk away from the train station, I really struggled to find it – chinese characters all over the place didn’t make the task easier. The ride to Yangshuo only took one hour and 10 minutes which was ok, however the bus driver was driven by a permanent desire to overtake. At the arrival in Yangshuo I realised the first “limestone-monsters” which were illuminated in the dark.

Arriving in Yangshuo after a short bus ride from Guilin

Days: 13, 14
Date: 14.04.2011 – 15.04.2011

Impressions from the train ride from Vietnam to China

More photos of my trip: Picasa Web Album