Talk about perfect timing! (Vietnam part 3)

It's Wednesday now and I had to stop typing yesterday because my new roommate arrived. Well actually, I'm his new roommate since he already lived here, and just came back from a month in Beijing, where he is from. His name is Neo and I have to share my room with. He seems like a fun guy who likes sleeping, since it's 1:40 pm now and he just got up. Well, anyway, I think I am going to finish the Vietnam retrospective today. I noticed it's becoming quite a big story, so not everyone will have the patience to read it all. Well, let's say it's just fun for my parents and myself in the future to read it back. Well anyway, here it goes again...

Before I proceed with the story, I uploaded a video from the motorbike 'adventure'. It was Jamie's first time on a motorbike and the road was a bit questionable... Well see it for yourself:



Ok, so we were at the floating village. When the boat stopped many small boats approached us to sell fruit or offer a short boat trip around some smaller Islands and through some caves. We bought some mandarins and went on one of the boats. It quite hard to call it a boat actually, since it just looked like a piece of wood with a motor. Well, at least it served its function. After we went back on the boat we went to a floating fish market. Fish markets in Asia are way different than the ones in the Netherlands. First of all; all fish lives. The fish market consisted of several holes in in the floor which served as a basin for the fish. When somebody wanted to buy a fish, one would be taken out and beaten to death. That's the big idea at least. However, the fish we saw being beaten didn't die. It was full of blood but still trying to get away. Not really a pretty sight...
After that we got back on the boat to head back to the shore. Arriving back on the land we had to wait for a little while before the bus came and took us to a restaurant where we had lunch. Unfortunately I couldn't eat much since my throat was still really thick and aching. When lunch was finished, we headed back to Hanoi. After a three hour drive we arrived back at our hotel. Before we left for Halong Bay we already bought train tickets to Sapa for wednesday the 21st; the day we came back from Halong. That wednesday afternoon we arrived back at around 3 pm and had to wait until that evening to get the train. We wandered around and had some dinner before heading for the train station. We bought soft seat tickets and we expected the same kind of seats that we had on the two previous train trips. This turned out to be a bit different. The seats were partly soft and in the back there was a strange construction with wood and a sort of basket that would support your back. However this was far from comfortable, so when I woke up the next day my back didn't feel as fresh as it did before. Ah well... I suppose we have to take that kind of things for granted.
The train didn't go to Sapa directly but to a border town called Lao Cai, all the way in the north of Vietnam, almost in China. From there we took a cab/van that brought us to Sapa.

Arriving in Sapa we had to find a hotel. Sapa has become more and more touristy over the years and this is well noticable. Most of the buildings in town are actually hotels or restaurants or both. The lonely planet guide suggested some hotels that were supposed to be cheap and offer and amazing view from the room. Of course, they were either full or non existent any more. We than went to a hotel that offer a lesser view but was recommendent by the lonely planet because of its good and knowledgeable personel. The room we got was 7 USD for one night and was the best value for our money we had so far. Both beds had mosquito nets, which can come in handy in this malaria region. That day we went to a nearby village which was a 3 kilometre walk. It was easy to walk since it was downhill. The name of the village was Cat Cat village and we actually had to pay to be able to enter it. The villagers where all part of a hill tribe called the Black Thai. Back in Sapa I bought a bracelet from them that is hand made. There were actually selling all kinds of stuff that they were making right there on the streets. They still wear traditional clothing and their main survival method is producing rise throughout the year. They are self-providing, so all products that are produce are meant for themselves. The Black Thai people look like this:


So that afternoon and early evening we walked through Cat Cat village and the surrounding mountain passes. We found a road that led straight trough the mountains. Not many people went there and the nature was absolutely beautiful. The night before in the train we didn't get much sleep, so when we finally were heading back we felt very tired, and we still had to climb the mountain back to Sapa. Since we ran out of money we could pay a motorbike guy that offered to bring us back to Sapa, so walking was the only way. When we finally got back to the hotel we were so tired both of us immediately fell a sleep. It was only 6 pm by that time. We got up at around eight again to get some food but after that we went straight to sleep again.

Cat Cat village and surroundings:


The next day was friday and was the last day before setting off back to China again. At 9 am we set off for a hiking tour that would last untill three o'clock in the afternoon. This trip was really amazing. We had one guide and a girl from the States joined us, so the group consisted of four persons. This was a tour that tourists normally don't do, which was true because we didn't see much tourists untill the last 1 or 2 hourse since we walked to a village called Ta Phin, which serves as a tourist attraction. Instead of hiking most tourists prefer going to the village by bus or taxi...
The tour itself was really amazing. The weather was great and the views were even better than on the first day. So many rise fields make this place one of the best spots I ever visited. Some impressions:


That same day we had to get back to Lao Cai to catch a train back to Hanoi. This would be an overnight train again. After some troubles we managed to get a hold of some soft seat tickets, where at first we could only get hard seat tickets. Luckily this time, the seats were actually the ones like we had the first two times so this night was a bit more comfortable than the previous train journey. We arrived back in Hanoi early at 4 am and took a cab to the bus station. We still had to wait a while for the bus going to Lang Son, on the way back to China. On the bus station we met three chinese people, two guys and woman, that were also heading back to China. They wanted to reach Nanning that day, the same as us. So we travelled with them. They were also the reason we found out that we could have had way cheaper ways of transportation on the way to Vietnam, since they way bargaining way better than we did. This is not really surprising since they didn't have the problem which is the language barrier, but still.
When we arrived in Pingxian we found out that all busses to Guangzhou and Zhuhai (Places near Macau) were all full. A bus to Nanning was 4 hours away so we decided to rent a taxi with the five of us for the three hour drive. The bus was in the worse condition and I wasn't to sure it would even make Nanning! Fortunately we got there, to only find out that we could get a bus ticket at 7 pm the next day to Zhuhai. We had to wait 27 hours! We now had to chose between either waiting on the bus station or search for a hotel with the chance of them all being full. Fortunately for us, the chinese woman knew a man who knew some other man with money. So we managed to get into a four star hotel for only 12 euros per person! This was really heaven after all the busses and trains we had to sleep in. Completely rested we spend the next day in Nanning and went to the bus station that evening.
In the bus to Zhuhai I could sleep and when we finally arrived I slept for about one hour in total. We still had to wait for the border crossing to Macao to be opened, which would be at 7 am. We arrived in Zhuhai at 4.45 am. I was home at about 8 am and had to be back on school at 11 am. Talk about perfect timing!

Well, this finishes my story about Vietnam. I must say that I had a very tiring but memorable and above all great time. I would recommend the country to anyone, since it holds so much beautiful places and the people are (or at least can be) really nice. Well, for now... Thank you, bye bye!

So much to see, so little time... (Vietnam part 2)

It's Tuesday now and I'm back at Macao. We arrived yesterday morning at 4.45 am at Zuhai where we could cross the border to Macao at 7 am. 'Normal' life was starting immediately since I had to go to school 3 hours after I came back from Vietnam, talk about perfect timing! Well anyway, since nothing really special happens in Macao currently I will try to finish the Vietnam story and perhaps show some pictures as well. So here it goes...

Picking up where the story ended, we were at Vietnam at 12 o'clock in the afternoon. As soon as we crossed the border lots of taxis and ran towards us to offer their services. We tried to do some bargaining and managed to get a fairly priced one that would get us to the nearest place where there is a bus station. We soon found out that taxi drivers have friends that offer the same kind of service, so he drove us to one of them that offered to bring us to Hanoi. A bit naive as were we just accepted the price, happy enough to go to Hanoi so quickly. Afterwards we found out that this probably wasn't the best price we could pay. Well at least we learned a lesson from it. After waiting for a while in Lang Son (the name of the place) we finally set of to Hanoi. The reason for waiting was that the van was not full. When we set of the van seemed full to us, but appearantly this wasn't the case for the Vietnamese themselves. Along the way, many people were picked up and stuffed in the van. At the end the van was so full that people were just sitting on each others laps or on little chairs that were placed at various spots in the van. I never saw a vehicle as full as this one, it really showed the true meaning of efficiency.
After a 2.5 hour drive, Hanoi was finally reached. The city turned out to be extremely busy and the streets were so packed that it took us another 45 minutes to go through most of it. By reading the lonely planet we saw that we had to be in the old quarter, so as soon as we thought we'd reached it, we got out of the van. It was really good to be able to feel your legs again at that time.
So there we were standing, in the middle of busy Hanoi were motorbikes form the image of the neighbourhood and where most shops and stores are out for display on the streets so that walking gets to be an adventure on its own. We found the street where we were standing in on the map in the Lonely planet guidebook and we picked a hotel we wanted to pay a visit to see if it would suite us. So we just started walking. At one point we entered a street where lots of hotels were situated and many people are shouting to convince tourists to stay in their oh so lovely and cheap hotel. It one point we were tired of walking and went with a guy that offered a double room for only 8 USD (U.S. Dollars, 1 dollar would make 16.000 Dong. One euro would make 20.000 Dong, which is the official Vietnamese currency. USD is also accepted and most products were double priced). We looked at the room and it was quite big. We were really surprised that it would only cost us 8 Dollars, so we took it. At that point we were quite tired and sick of carrying our bags through the busy and somewhat dirty streets of Hanoi. Well, at least we had a hotel, so we could explore Hanoi in a more relaxing way. Here are some pictures to give an impression on what's Hanoi like:



When we had taken a shower after checkin in for our room, we wanted to book a ticket to the south as soon as possible, knowing that Chinese new year was coming up and that all transportation would probably be full. In Hanoi there are no real travel agencies. Instead, most hotels offer booking services and are the place to book transportation as well. At least that is what we assumed at the time. We talked to a staff member of our hotel to see what's available. He recommended us to go to either Sapa or Halong Bay since that were the places where most tourists go to when visiting Hanoi. We didn't really know about those places and wanted to go more south, initially trying to reach Ho Chi Minh City. Soon enough we let go of this plan and wanted to reach Ninh Binh first. The hotel staff member arranged a bus for us, which would depart the next day, early in the morning. Happy with our tickets we went walking through Hanoi. We mainly walked trough the old quarter of Hanoi since this part was recommended by lonely planet. After a while we reached a lake which is situated in the old quarter. We started thinking that going to Ninh Binh would not be the best solution, since would be stuck there in the weekend since the Tet festival would be held and all trains and busses would stop going for at least two days. At least, this is what the lonely planet would make us believe. Next to the lake there were some hotels as well and we saw one which displayed a train schedule to different cities in Vietnam. At that point we were really convinced that the trains would all be full since this also was the case in China. We asked about this to the attendent and she said that she had some train tickets available for the next day in the evening to a city called Hue. We were really surprised to hear this and immediatly decided to buy these tickets, since we thought they would run out soon. Hue is a bigger city than Ninh Binh and we figured there would be a good city to celebrate Chinese new year. At least way better than Ninh Binh. The only problem was that we had to cancel the bus tickets. When we got back at the hotel, the guy who helped us get the ticket got really mad and demanded that we had to pay the ticket. Unfortunately there was no way to get out of this deal so we ended up paying it anyway. When then knew that we would think twice before making hasty decisions in the future...

The next day we had to wait for the train that would depart in the evening to Hue and would take all night. We than went to the Mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh. Upon arrival we found out that it is closed on Fridays and Mondays. This was kinda shitty for us, since the day being Friday. No Ho Chi Minh's body for us...bummer. Next to the Mausoleum the former house of Ho Chi Minh was open for public, so we visited it. It was quite a nice place, and the man had quite a big garden to spent his time in we saw. After that we went to see some temples and eat in the old quarter. By that time it was already evening and after dinner we went back to the hotel to pick up our bags and went to the train station. The train we took looked like this:


When we boarded and left we found out that the train was almost empty! It was the 16th of february and Chinese new year would be in the night of the 17th we assumed. We met some Italian ladies in the train and soon found out that it would be best to buy train tickets in the train stations since hotels would overcharge you if you don't look out. We haven't really looked out, thinking it was a great opportunity of getting a train ticket during these times. We were charged to much. Well, another lesson learned there I suppose. The journey was really relaxed and we had big seats since we could sit anywhere we wanted. Around 11 pm, all of the sudden we received a bag containing some goods from the train personel. Because of the Chinese new year they said. The bag containing a sausage, some candy, a can of beer, and a card which said happy new year. We were really surprised by this, still assuming that Chinese new year was one day away. At 12 o'clock however we saw fireworks from the windows and we realised that Chinese new year in Vietnam was one day earlier than in China. We were destined to celebrate in an emtpy train... how sad...

After a decent night of sleep we arrived in Hue at approximately 8.30 am. When departing from the train station we immediatly saw that Hue is a much quieter and cleaner town than Hanoi. Much to our relief, we saw that the streets are much broader and less people sell food and other stuff on the streets. We then proceeded to the place where all hotels were situated according to the lonely planet. We found a hotel that charged 10 USD for a double room. The room looked decent enough and had a nice bathroom and proper shower, so we took it quite quickly. After taking a shower and changing to some more convenient clothes (in Hue temperatures rise at well over 30 degrees in the afternoon) we went to see that old part of Hue. This old part is located across the 'perfume river' that divides the city between old and new. The old part is completely surrounded by old walls and houses some great buildings that normally could be visited. Unfortunately, due to saturday being new years day, all was closed. This is what the old part looks like when entering:

After the morning walk we went back to the hotel and decided to rent a motorbike! We were really sick of cities and touristy places so we decided to just set of and explore the country side on our own. We had 8 hours on the motorbike starting from 2pm in the afternoon. So off we went!... at least that was the big idea. I couldn't get the motorbike starting at first, so somebody from the hotel had to do it for me. I'm not sure if they still believed me when I said I had done it before. Well, in Vietnam they don't really care about that, they didn't even ask for my drivers license. In the beginning I had trouble driving the thing, and I didn't know how to switch gears. Soon enough I found out and little by little it started to get smoother. By then the tank was almost empty so I had to refill it. After searching for a gasoline station for a while I filled it up to the top, so we could have many hours of driving. So off we went to the countryside!

When we started driving we didn't really had a plan or direction we wanted to go to. We took the first road that would take us outside the city and ended up on small roads that would lead from little village to even smaller villages. The further we went, the more people were suprised seeing foreigners. everybody looked at as and shouted Hello! to us when passing. This was really cool, and we were happy to finally something that wasn't a standard tourist thing. We kept driving for about two hours and visited many villages. By that time the road conditions were very bad and the roads where basically made up by rocks and sand. Far from ideal. We than decided to head back for Hue. After about 20 minutes driving we felt that the motorbike started to behave weird and it became hard to control it. Some people started pointing at our tire. We jumped off the bike and found out that our tire went flat. The situation was that we were basically standing in the middle of nowhere and that nobody spoke any english what so ever.
Luckily for us, a gasoline station was reasonably nearby and after a little walk we reached it. We made clear with body language that the tire needed fixing and some man and woman started with the task. It took them about 45 minutes to fix it. We offered them some money for their help but they refused it. After trying a few more times they almost got mad for me offering them any money. I was quite amazed this kind of people still exist...
We then continued our journey. After five minutes the tire was flat again. We were standing in the middle of a village and more and more people started to surround us. Since nobody spoke english it was quite hard to make clear we needed help. When guy pointed that I needed to go to a house, so I walked up there, leaving Jamie with the bike. When I reached the house I saw that it had a device to pump up tires and other stuff with. There was nobody home though and I didn't know how to work that machine. I just went back to the motorbike seeing that Jamie was surrounded by almost the whole village. People were touching her arms (how can she be so pale!) and offering her a bottle of coke. The people from the gasoline station probably knew that the tire would have problems again because after a few minutes they appeared on their motorbike and took us on their backs. One of them would ride our bike and we had to sit on two others. They would then bring us to a place where appearantly some people would have to tools to fix the tire properly. We arrived at some sort of mansion in another village were apparently a family lived that was quite wealthy; at least to the standard of the region probably. Our bike was taken there and 4 people started getting the tire off. They failed to do so since the exhaust was in the way. They stopped working and started talking a lot. One of them then set off and returned 10 minutes later with someone else carrying a new tire. Our tire was then fixed properly and we paid for the tire. We gave them some extra for the help and finally they excepted it. We could then go back to Hue. It was around 6pm at that time...


In Hue we drove around for a little bit and decided to go and eat something. We there decided that we wanted to go to the Vietcong tunnels that they dug in the war and after that back to Hanoi. We went back to the hotel to book these trips. The tour to the tunnels would set off the next morning at 7 am and we would be back at the hotel by 2 pm, according to the schedule. We then went to the train station to book tickets to Hanoi again. The only problem was that I couldn't get money out of any ATM in the city at that time. They were either empty, not working or not accepting my card, which over time really became frustrating. We had to book the train in the hotel than because I could pay with my credit card there. At the train station we looked at the prices to make sure that we weren't overcharged. Back at the hotel the employee told us they only charge 10,000 Dong service costs, which is 50 eurocent. If we wouldn't have looked at the train rates I'm quite sure they would have charged us way more. The train would leave the next day at 3.30 pm.

The next day we were picked up by a bus that would bring us to the 'Vin Moc' tunnel complex. We arrived in the city of Dong Ha at around 10 am where we had lunch and proceeded to the tunnels. The tunnels are situated in the DMZ (Demilitarised Zone) which divided North and South Vietnam during the war. We went in the tunnels at around 10:30 am. Before we went in we saw a map of the complex. The map showed family rooms and conference rooms, which tooked quite big on the map. The guide told us that around 300 people lived in the tunnels for around 4 years. When we went in the family rooms were very tiny and I couldn't believe that whole families lived there. The conference room was also very tiny and narrow. It's really hard to believe that so many people actually survided in those tunnels for so many years. The tunnels were in the same state as the were in the war, only lightning was added, so we had a good image on what the conditions were for those people. It was really impressive to go through the tunnels.
After this we went back to Dong Ha where the group that would have a program for the whole day would stay and the other group who were on the half day program would go back. The half day ' group' eventually consisted of three persons. Jamie, me and a english guy we had to catch a bus at two. Instead of a propper coach we were again stuffed in a van which would stop on the way to pick up even more people. This looked like this:


We arrived back in Hue at approximately 1 pm again and we still had some time to have lunch and prepare for our journey back to Hanoi. Arriving at the station we saw that it was very busy with people getting back to their homes after celebrating Chinese new year with their families. We thought that we would have the same train as the one on the way to Hue but when entering the train we were unpleasantly surprised. Appearantly the hotel booked us a ticket for a local train that would stop at every small town and would take 17 hours to reach Hanoi. The train really looked messy and dirty. Food was laying everywhere and the train didn't have airconditioning. This was quite a shock and we jumped out of the train to call the hotel. Somebody of the hotel immediately came over on his motorbike and asked if we could switch tickets with the other train, but it was full. We had no choice but to take the local train.
Back in the train everybody was just starring at us and nobody said anything. We just staired back and after a while a started reading a book and listen to some music. After a few hours we got some dinner offered by the train staff, and people started to talk to us a little bit. Although the train was dirty, there was a way better atmosphere than in the empty train to Hue, two days earlier. At one point a man walked up to us with his little baby daughter and placed her on my lap. Jamie and me were really surprised by this and we could see that the girl was as well! She just stared at us and after some minutes started crying. In the meantime the father was standing next to us, proudly, because hey, his daughter was held by some foreigners! It was quite an amazing situation. After this the man returned to his seat with his daughter, while she just kept starring at us. I think this train journey was the biggest culture shock I had so far in Asia...

We arrived back in Hanoi on monday, the 19th of February at 8.15 am. This was a very bad time for us to be arriving in Hanoi, since the trains to Sapa already left and the tours to Halong bay were on their way already as well. We were doomed to stay in Hanoi for the day and night. We decided to have breakfast before searching for a hotel and to decide there what to do next. Initially we wanted to go to Sapa first and finish of in Halong bay, but the plans were changed since trains were full. We checked in into a hotel and started looking for the best deal for going to Halong bay the next day. We found a tour that would last for two days and would set of early the next moring. We would sleep on a boat. It costed us 31 euro, which is quite reasonable if you see how amazing Halong bay is and what you get for that amount of money.
That day we walked through Hanoi again and visited the temple of literature which was closed the last time we were in Hanoi. This temple is considered to be the first University of Vietnam and was established around 1100 A.D. The teachings back then were all based on the eight books that Confusius wrote. The tempel is quite sizeable and it is a very beautiful, but it was too full with tourists. It's hard to enjoy to place with so many people visiting it...
The next day we left at around 8 am to Halong Bay where we entered a boat with about 12 other people, all non-Vietnamese.

When we just set off everyone was quite dissapointed because of the weather. It wasn't too cold but it was very cloudy and the place would look way better if it would be sunny. The main attraction from Halong Bay are the mountains that rise up from the sea and form very small but inaccesible Islands that can only be viewed from boats. Some of the bigger Islands are accesible but are very steep to climb. One of the first things we did, after having lunch was entering an Island which holds a cave. The location of the cave was quite high in the mountain so first we had to climb some stairs. The cave itself was not too small but also not too big. I didn't find it too special but it was nice to visited. The views from the cave into the bay were very pretty, and very suitable to show the ambience of the place:

On this picture our boat is also shown. The boats that are attached to the shore on the left side all look the same and on of them situated in the middle was the one we were on. After the caves we went back to the boat and went to a different bay were we could kayak for about 40 minutes. It was a kayak that hold two people so me and Jamie went in one of them. In one of the mountains near our boat was an small opening that looked like a cave. It could only be entered by kayak or small boat. We went through this and entered a place that very much looked like a lake and was only connected by the sea by this little entrance we went through. It was only quiet since only three kayaks were there and no other (big) boats. This place was just surrounded by mountains. At this point we were thinking that this must be the most beautiful and peaceful place on earth. After ten minutes we left again, since motorised boats entered and carried many tourists and disturbed the peace. Thankfully we had those 10 minutes...
Back at the boat we had heard that we would spent the night at that place and we had time to go swimming around the boat. So this is what we did. The water was quite cold but after a while I got used to it. It was nice to be in the water again, certainly at such a stunning place. Back on the boat that evening we had dinner and after that we had time to relaxed. Most people were reading, making pictures or playing cards. We were playing cards with two people from New Zealand. Unfortunately at that time my throat was aching very much and I ran out of painkillers, so I went to bed early.
The next day we went on again and eventually back to the shore. At first we dropped of a group of people that would stay on an island for one day and then we visited a floathing village. It's quite amazing to see a complete village, a community of people, actually living on houses that float on the see. This is what this looks like:


Due to time difficulties, part two of the story will end here. I hope I can finish it tomorrow...

Chuc Mung Nam Moi! (Vietnam part 1)

Posting live from Vietnam now, and this is gonna be a big one. At the moment I am in Hue, somewhere in the middle of the country. I had the most incedible day today, incredible in many ways, but I'm going to save that story for last... just for the sake of chronology.

The story of this trip officially starts of a few weeks ago when we decided that we need to go somewhere during chinese new year, because we don't have so much time off, to see asia. The reserved the time after the final exams to visit China and maybe Nepal. The first Idea was to go to Thailand or Singapore. Malaysia or the Philipenes where also considered, but all of these options ended up being thrown away, since flights are very expensive during the time of the year. The Chinees new year, or ' Tet' festival, is the biggest celebration for the Asians, and eveybody is on the move to visit their family and friends. Next I sort of decided to go into China without any plans and just travel around and see what crosses my path. I would do this with Jamie and whoever wanted to join us. Some of the other exchange students at one point to go to Hainan, which is an Island south of Macau, and is called the Chinese Hawaii. Since I didn't want to stay at one place I decided not to go with them. Instead I joined the group that wanted to go travelling throughout Vietnam. This group consisted of Fanny (roommate), Jaimen (Spannish exchange student) and Ana (Jaimen's girlfriend). In the meantime the ' Hainan-group' couldn't find any transport for their trip so it was called off. Jamie then wanted to join us to Vietnam, which wasn't an issue of course. We started to look into the posibilities of reaching Vietnam. The conclusion was that we had to get a Visa in Guangzhou and from that point travel onward to Vietnam over land. The news at that point reported that all trains in China were fully booked untill and after new year, so we feared that this plan would also have no chance. There was a little chance that travelling by bus would still be available. Me and Jamie decided to just take to risk and start travelling a few days in advance to avoid the busy weekend. At that point Jaimen and Ana decided not to go because they didn't want to take the risk and Fanny couldn't mis any classes at school. Conclusion; the 'group' at that point consisted of Jamie and Me.

And so the journey began. We set of at Tuesday night to Zuhai in China, to be able to catch the first bus in the morning to Guangzhou. The first bus would leave somewhere around 6am we thought. The border to China opens at 8am so therefore we had to be in China on Tuesday night. The reason that we had to catch the first bus is because the only way to get a Vietnamese Visa in a day would be by applying for it before 11am.
The way we spent the night in Zuhai was quite extraordinary. We went to a massage place that offers a night sleep if you come in late and order a two hour massage. We were told that this would be the absolute cheapest way to spend the night in Zuhai since it only costed 70 Yuan (appr. 7 euro). The massage was absolutely horible and it seemed more like a torture round than a massage. Well, we spent the night there and got up at 5:30am to catch the first bus. We found out that the first bus would leave at 7:15am. So we still had to wait an hour. We finally got on the bus to Guangzhou and we arrived at 9:30am. We immediately took a cab to the Vietnamese consulate, only to find out that Jamie forget to bring a passport size photograph! By that time we only had an hour left to apply for the visa so we started looking for a shop that takes these kind of photographs. We couldn't find a single one of them and after 45 minutes and pretty much loosing hope of getting it in time, we returned to the consulate. We just decided to just ask if someone knew a place to take the picture and it turned out that the hotel located just next to it had one on the fourth flour. Please don't ask why we just didn't ask in the first place, it didn't seem very logical at the time... yeah, well...
The exact time that we applied for the visa was 10:55am, five minutes before the deadline! Call it good luck, we like to talk about perfect timing! At 3pm we could pick up the passports with the visas again.

In the meantime, we still have any tickets to any places in or nearby Vietnam, so we decided to try getting a train of bus ticket to Nanning, which is a city located reasonably near the Vietnamese border. Directly next to the consulate there was a big travel agency so we decided to walk in and ask if they could arrange something for us. While we feared that all people calling us insane for going would be right by saying eveything was fully booked, the travel agency still had tickets for the bus going to Nanning. We got tickets for the bus leaving at 6:15 pm at the Guangzhou bus station. At that time we finally started to believe that we would make it to Vietnam, and felt really satisfied with the gamble taken. At 3pm we picked up the passports and took a cab straight to the bus station, to make sure that we would make it on time. Arriving at the bus station we found out that the train station was in the same street. We can now tell that the Chinese news wasn't lying. The whole street was packed with people and the police had to block off some parts of the streets to control the crowd. We could be much happier with our pre-booked tickets at that point...
Finding the right gate quite easily on the bus station we had to wait for another 2.5 hours before the bus would depart. We were told by the travel agency that the trip would take a whole night.

After departing from Guangzhou I fell asleep quite quickly. at 9pm we made a stop at a station next to the highway. The problem for me was that I was wide awake afterwards in the bus again. I could sleep untill probably midnight. I woke up at 2am again since the bus was making another stop. At least that was what we were thinking. Everybody was suddenly grabbing their luggage and appearently we already reached Nanning! We didn't really know what to do with this situation so we just grabbed a cab to the train station to see if we could get a nighttrain to Hanoi. This was not the case and so we waited for a couple of hours at the station for the office for international connections would open. However, the box didn't open at 4.40am which was said. We started to lose hope again, untill we grabed the Lonely planet guide and read that there is a regular bus connection from Nanning to Pingxian which is almost on the Vietname border. From that place it was only 18 kilometres to Vietnam. We than rushed to the bus station and managed to get a ticket at 9:30am. It was only 5:30 at that time and we had to wait on the station for another four hours. I was so tired at that point that just couldn't keep my eyes open. I slept for 45 minutes by just sitting up straight. I wasn't the most comfortable sleep ever, but I managed to be a little more awake then. We reached Pingxiang after 2 hours and managed to cross the Chinese-Vietnamese border at exacly 12 o'clock in the morning by foot. We were finally there! We made it...

Part two of the story will follow as soon as possible since I have to leave the computer by now. I don't know when the next post is going to be but I'll try to post as soon as possible. For now Chuc Mung Nam Moi! A happy chinese new year to you all...

Napoleon lives!

Appearantly Chinese people can chose their own english name. At some point in their life they have to decide which english name they want to use because of the chinese names are not pronouncable for non chinese speakers. Most of them chose quite common names like natalie, stefanie or curtis. Some, however, really like to read history books or watch movies, and base their name on one of their 'heroes'. This causes some hilarious situations (for us, the foreigners)

What we have so far is:
- Windows
- Rain
- Ring
- Beyonce
- Cherry
- Amigo
- Apple
- Prudence
- Phoebe, and the best one;
- Napoleon

That's right, Napoleon lives! I'm sure that this list will grow in the future...

Thank you bye bye

Oh so tired!

Chinese people are always busy. Chinese people talk, walk and work fast. But sometimes they need a break, a well deserved break, and they take a nap. One might think they would go home to do so, but one would be surprised. Well, to make this story short, chinese sleep everywhere. I spotted chinese sleeping in the park, in a (full) restaurant, in a store and in a moving bus. Call me stupid, but I find this quite extraordinary.



What else happened during the last week except for sleeping chinese? Well, we had the so called ' introduction-week' that the IFT (university) organised. During the introduction week we got to know all the famous places in Macao. We visited old portugese buildings, squares and churches. We visited the Island part of macao that is called 'Taipa', and more to the south 'Coloane'. This part of Macao is way different than the part where I am located. 'Mainland' Macao is a very crowded place, with almost exclusively high buildings. Taipa also has the high buildings, but it's way more spacious and has more nature places. Coloane is being in a totally different place. the town centre feels like a south european village where time sort of stands still. It's really quiet. However, since mainland Macao is now 'full' it's likely that Taipa and Coloane will soon be full with hotels, casino's and what so. Besides sleeping, the chinese also like to expand...

Since the school didn't start yet, I still feel like I'm on holiday. I'm sure I'm not the only one, since all the other exchange students I've met take it really easy and behave like on a holiday. This includes taking lots of pictures and ofcourse partying a lot. Yesterday the whole group went to a karaoke bar. Karaoke bars are normally regarded as something that is typically eastern. I can now confirm this, since we were the only europeans in the place. It's amazing to see chinese completely feel the song and really go for it when they sing. Another thing that is normal to do when going to those kind of places is playing a dice game. I must say I enjoyed playing that game as well, so I understand that they would play it a lot. Still feels a bit odd to be doing this on a saturday night.
Today me and Jamie went to the biggest hill of Macao, to see how that looks like. We were quite amazed to see that the whole park is actually a public sport centre where people come to jog, play soccer or badminton, and use public fitness machines that are placed within the park. I really start to understand why the locals over here are so thin. The facilities are well used; the hill is a perfect place to work out, and get away from the busy streets at the same time. I think we found our new favorite work out place here in Macao.

Tomorrow school is really going to start. I must say that we start in style with a course called wine studies. Use some imagenation and you could figure out what we have to do in that class. The next two weeks we have to go to school every day, except for sundays. So this means even on saturdays. The 18th of february the chinese, and the whole of Asia, celebrates chinese new year. This means that schools are closed for a week, so we have a holiday again. The idea is to go travelling through China and see if it differs much from what I've seen in Macao so far. I think it does, and that the culture shock is now really about to happen. To be honoust, I really can't wait to see this, and see how far I get without speaking any chinese. With a bit of luck, we have a chinese girl coming with us. This would make things easier for us. I'm a bit worried about the food, since people told me that in the ' real China' people eat anything with four legs, except for tables and chairs. I don't really like the sound of that. I'll just wait and see what crosses my path...

Well, so far so good, I'm going to finish posting for today. I'll try to post something as soon as possible, or as soon as something remarkable happens. But for now,

thank you, bye bye