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Articles Tagged ‘BIG TRIP 2005-2006’

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EMAIL PROBLEMS

Wednesday, May 10th, 2006

Hello everyone, China has been an adventure so far. One of the problems we keep encountering is getting access to our Hotmail accounts. Sometimes, I can get in and read the mail, but then I can’t write back. Sometimes I can’t get in at all. If you write me and don’t get a response it isn’t because I don’t love you, it’s because of this problem.  If you want to get news to us quickly, post a comment on the blog.  We’ll be flying back to France on May 21st…I promise to write catch up emails then.

Welcome to China…

Wednesday, May 10th, 2006

From Sapa, we caught a taxi van to the border of China. We had reserved bus tickets from the border to Kunming (Yunnan Province) with our hotel in Sapa, but they weren’t very convincing, and we were wondering what kind of hassles we’d have on the other side of the border. The van delivered us right to the Vietnam immigration office where we’d get stamped out of Vietnam. It was an enormous building, completely disorganized…luckily a bored young travel agent directed us to the right post and helped us fill out our Chinese immigration forms. Successfully stamped out of Vietnam, we walked across the small bridge to Chinese immigration. Fabien went before me, and the man took an unusually long time examining his passport and visa…I started to get nervous that there was a problem, but then he waived him through and called me forward. Mine was much faster…and I advanced to customs. I could see Fabien with his backpack open, pulling things out of his pack. They didn’t want to make this easy on us. When I arrived, they had found what they were looking for…our Chinese Lonely Planet. They told us that the book was banned in China because it contained “inaccurate” information…at least, information the government didn’t appreciate. We begged and pleaded…it was our bible to the country, our only source of maps, hotel information, phrase book,etc. Finally, they let us rip 3 maps out of the book (4 pages of about 600) and sent us on our way.
Welcome to China…now what do we do? We had about 5 hours to kill before our night bus left for Kunming; first a break to eat the picnic we had packed and then a trip to the bank to exchange money. We found a bench near the river, where we ate our lunch and lamented over our lost book. Then we went to search for a bank or an exchange office, a 20 minute circle of the town which brought us back to immigration, and we hadn’t found anything. I had tried my card in an ATM, rendering it out of order. We found a post office, which also had an ATM, this time Fabien tried his card, once again, out of order. I went inside the post office to ask if there was a bank nearby, and a young woman, gave us directions (in very forced English) to the Bank of China. Then she wrote “Where is the Bank of China?” for us in Chinese in case we got lost. This piece of paper became a life saver. We found the banking area of town, put another ATM out of order, and on the 4th try successfully withdrew cash. Yes! Now… where was the bloody bus station? The travel agent who had helped us with our Chinese Immigration forms told is it was 50m from the Immigration office, but we had seen nothing in the area. After several tries at asking directions (using the “where is?” piece of paper and the bus tickets), a nice man took us to the bus station, which was hidden behind several big buildings. Now only 3 hours to wait; we went for a drink…actually a beer because we didn’t know how to ask for anything else and waited…
We were comforted when we found the bus station because it was full of new, comfortable looking buses. When we arrived to take our bus, after a bit of discussion between the drivers they pointed us to our bus, a virtual wreck, probably the oldest bus in the country. Great, and our driver was charming as well: no shirt, big belly and cigarette hanging out of his mouth the whole 12 hour trip. Fabien was cursing the country, I thought it might be a good idea to see if they would let us back into Vietnam. But earplugs and an eyecover blocked out the sputtering engine and the rattling windows (as well as the spitting of the guy overhead) and we managed to get a few winks of sleep after an exhausting and frustrating day. (Oh yeah, I also had my first experience with Chinese public toilets. Basically 3 stalls with walls that rose about waste high, no doors; no toilet just a trough shared by everyone that you squatted over..and oh god the smell.) This must have been Fabien’s idea!

Chine : une fausse bonne idee ?

Monday, May 8th, 2006
Notre voyage vers la Chine commenca de Sappa vers 12h. Un minivan, juste un peu en retard et enfume par le conducteur n'ayant que peu de scrupule par rapport a la sante de ses poumons, nous emmenait alors vers notre ... [Continue reading this entry]

Un peu de fraicheur pour notre derniere arret au VietNam : Sapa

Tuesday, May 2nd, 2006
Le voyage en train depuis Hanoi fut relativement long mais plutot comfortable, du moins par rapport aux precedents trajets de bus que nous avons effectue recemment. En oubliant, un matinal Vietnamien discuttant tres fort des 4 heures du matin, la nuit ... [Continue reading this entry]

Last Stop Vietnam, Sapa

Tuesday, May 2nd, 2006

Fast and furious is the best way to describe the end of our travels in Vietnam. Time is creeping up on us now; we are flying back to France from Hong Kong in just 3 weeks, and if you pull ... [Continue reading this entry]

The North- Hanoi and Halong Bay

Tuesday, May 2nd, 2006
After another night bus, they're frequent these days, we arrived in Hanoi. This time, there was more of a hastle getting rid of the tour operators who ran our bus.  They literally tried to trap us on the bus while ... [Continue reading this entry]

Hanoi et la baie d’Halong

Tuesday, May 2nd, 2006
La ville d'Hanoi est differente de sa lointaine voisine de Saigon au sud. Elle est moins peuple et plus ramasse. Surtout, elle semble beaucoup plus vieille et possede un vrai centre historique ou les choses ne semblent pas avoir change ... [Continue reading this entry]

Following the coast to Hue

Tuesday, May 2nd, 2006
After a wonderful but exhausting stay in Hoi An (Fabien's right, shopping is tiring) we finally left and made our way to Hue, a few hours north and home to a few beautiful sites. Our first impression was not of a ... [Continue reading this entry]

Hoi An, French colonial beauty with the clothes to match

Saturday, April 29th, 2006
We arrived in Hoi An after a short night on the bus. Short of sleep that is to say. The tour company we had booked our tickets through (Sinh Cafe, who has carried us throughout all of Vietnam) dropped us ... [Continue reading this entry]

Remontee vers le Nord : ville imperiale de Hue et la capitale Hanoi

Saturday, April 29th, 2006
L'arrivee a Hue ne fut pas exactement comme prevu : notre bus devait prendre une route par le col des nuages, l'un des plus beaux paysages du Viet Nam. Au final, nous sommes passes par un tunnel nouvellement construit. Pour ... [Continue reading this entry]