China (A New Country!) and Communication Issues
Trip Start
Oct 24, 2005
1
55
150
Trip End
Ongoing
Nanning,
China
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
As I said, we had a run of bad luck before leaving Vietnam. First, Dan's last paycheck from our school was messed up, so we had to spend about an hour in the accounting department at school, trying to get it straightened out. This was, of course, valuable time we could have been using to accomplish something else before our trip. So it went. Then I got a bad haircut on NYE. I know, it doesn't sound like the worst thing in the world, but it was a bit traumatic -- I now nearly have bangs! Ai! But we moved on and had a splendid NYE, complete with a gourmet veggie dinner and good company at some of the bars around town. We stayed out late, but not terribly so, as the next day needed to be productive in order to get us ready for our trip.
On the first, we woke up... late. No matter, still lots of time to pack, etc. I gathered our sheets together and threw them in the wash. Little did I know that our cell phone was tucked away inside them.... So it went through the wash and, surprisingly, didn't work when it was full of water. We only have one phone for the two of us, so we weren't able to contact anyone we had made tentative plans with for dinner that night. We went to the restaurant, hoping they would be able to read our minds -- no such luck.
The next day was to be our last in Hanoi, and there was lots to be done. We ran around all day, and actually finished the many things we needed to get done. All in time to head to our favorite restaurant for dinner. I had been saving this restaurant up for our last night, eagerly anticipating the tasty tofu with tomato and onion, which is one of the best meals in the world. Of course, our string of luck continued, and they were out of tofu. So no favorite last meal. Alas. We went back to our apartment to get ready and say goodbye to our home of nine months and get some shut eye before our early wake up call the next morning.
Wednesday, January 3rd. Moving Day. We were up before 6:00 to wait for the arrival of the minibus which was to take us up to the Chinese border. We said goodbye to Mr. Sang, Luc, and "Mrs. Sang" and hopped in the bus, sad to leave, but ready to hit the road. Unfortunately, the bus made a myriad of detours before actually leaving Hanoi, nearly an hour later. Nonetheless, we still made it to Lang Son, the biggest town near the border, by about 10:30. At that point, we were herded into a taxi, which carried us the last few kilometers to the "Friendship Pass" border crossing. Friendship Pass proved to be one of the easiest and least stressful border crossings we've ever been to. There was no one else there, save the four other passengers from our minibus, so no lines to wait in, and a very speedy and efficient process made the whole thing relatively painless. Once on the Chinese side, we splurged for a taxi to the nearest big town, Pingxiang, where we bought incredibly cheap train tickets onwards to Nanning. The journey to Nanning took about four hours, a period during which we were treated to some beautiful scenery.
Stepping off the train and exiting the train station was amazing. After nearly twelve months in Vietnam, China was a huge shock to us. Nanning, a fairly big city of nearly three million people (about a million shy of Hanoi's four million), was a whole new world to us. Big, modern buildings; bicycle only lanes; flawlessly paved streets and sidewalks; big department stores; and, most notably, quiet. The constant din of motorbike horns was shockingly absent -- in fact, we didn't hear any horns at all! It was bliss! Apart from those differences, we also noticed that Chinese people are giants! Really! There are loads of tall Chinese men and women, people who dwarf both of us. The other major difference was temperature -- it was freezing! We knew China was going to be cold, but neither of us was really prepared for how chilly it has been here.
With the daylight fading, and no desire to sit outside in that weather, we quickly found a hotel. The nice thing about traveling at this cold time of year is that it's the off-season, so all the hotels we've been to so far have been heavily discounted.
We unpacked and discovered our final bad luck mishap -- we had somehow forgotten to pack our Mandarin phrasebook. Somewhere, in our empty apartment, that expensive little book was snuggled up, hiding from us before we left. That was a major downer, as we had been told traveling in China is very difficult because of the lack of English. A simple trip to the bathroom can turn into an exhausting affair which lasts thirty minutes if you don't know how to convey your intent. Fortunately, there are some words and phrases in the back of our travel book, so we were able to make some headway with the language. Also, we've had rather incredible luck when it comes to finding English speakers (more on that later).
Unfortunately, we didn't have any Mandarin outlining all the things we need to say to tell someone we're vegetarian. In Mandarin, there is no way to simply say "I'm vegetarian." You can say "I eat vegetables," but that doesn't mean that you don't also eat meat. And the Chinese put meat in everything. So it's a bit complicated, and we really missed our phrasebook for that reason especially. Nonetheless, we had to eat! We had packed some food, but hadn't really eaten much of anything all day, and nothing of any real substance, so sustenance was a big concern. We set out on a quest to find some meat-free, veggie friendly food. We finally happened upon a little corner open-air (brr!) restaurant, from which delightful smells were emanating, and where a man was pounding dough. We thought we'd give it a try, and somehow (with the help of another patron) conveyed our wishes to him. Fifteen minutes later, we were both presented with steaming bowls of noodle soup -- no meat, just noodles, broth, and cilantro. The dough the man had been working with was for fresh noodles! While a little on the flavorless side, it was hot and it was food, plus the family that ran the restaurant was incredibly friendly and amusing -- for 6 yuan (about 75 cents -- for both bowls), what more can you ask for?
With food in our bellies, and the fresh excitement of a new country under our belt, we returned to our hotel, ready to get some shut-eye before awaking early again the next morning....
