Mainland China once again
Trip Start
Jul 11, 2005
1
14
62
Trip End
Apr 04, 2006
Guangshou,
China
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Half the fun of the travel is the esthetic of lostness
- Ray Bradbury
Deja Vous
After our quick tour of Macau we headed to mainland China proper. I had figured out the most cost effective method for getting from Macau to the boarder with mainland China last year so getting there this time around was no problem. And having arrived at the boarder I saw the Chinese had been busy for the last year building an impressive boarder control building. Nice, but it immediately struck me as being way bigger than it needs to be. Trying to impress, no doubt. And for what? And it still gets me that although I'll be crossing a boarder I'll still be in China having crossed. But I vented about that last time around so I won't do it here. At least I got another stamp in the passport and we were quickly on the next bus to Guangzhou in Southern China.
I'm Hanging around this time
It was good to get back to China. I've quite a bit of experience of travel in China, thanks to the 6 week loop of the country I did last year. Although I wouldn't class it as an easy place to travel it is strangely addictive. Cal and I hadn't planned on coming to Guangzhou, directly north of Macau, as we are on route to Vietnam, directly west of Macau. We were forced to come here as we wouldn't have been able to secure the necessary Vietnamese visa in Hong Kong in a reasonable time frame and as a result we said we'd try our chances at the nearest Vietnamese consulate, which happened to be in, surprise, surprise, Guangzhou. I had heard bad things about Guangzhou and basically just passed through last year on route to Guilin & Yangshuo further north. However forced to spend time here I found it to be no worse than any other Chinese city I had visited; yes, it's big, busy, overcrowded and polluted... but where isn't in China? We spent 2 nights in the city and had an enjoyable time, made all the better by the fact that we were able to get our Vietnamese visas in 4 hours, albeit at a price. Having been told in Hong Kong that it would take 4 working days we duly patted ourselves on the backs for a job well done in deciding to come to Guangzhou. I guess it looks like I will be able to make the September 4th rendezvous in Hanoi after all. It was touch and go for a while.
Hard Sleeper Cribbage Lessons
So with Guangzhou done and dusted we got the first of our Chinese train trips, a 12 hour trip west from Gungzhou to Nanning that would bring us that much nearer to the Vietnamese border, a further 170km west of Nanning. I was looking forward to the train trip, one of the highlights, for me, of travel in China. Cal was looking forward to it as well... he was on a mission to teach me cribbage.
Comments
Vietnam Visa in 4 hours?
Hi
I'm currently in Guangzhou to get a visa to Vietnam.
Can you tell me where and how you got to the embassy? Did you have to pay extra to get it in the same day?
I'm staying at the Binjiang Youth Hostel...not too far from Haizhu Square.
Thanks for any help you can provided.