Yangshou
Sunday, March 2nd, 2008Due to not being able to access blog site and bad internet speeds have got behind with the blogs but am still alive.
After Haiphong returned to CatBa. The weather pretty awful, the freak weather from China also hit Vietnam. Given this and the Tet holidays continuing into a second week it was all very quiet on the island. However took up an invite of one of the staff from the hotel to go and visit her family for Tet. It involved a small boat, basically a motorised basket which they use for a taxi, thru’ the stunning scenery of the area. After about an hour probably, reached the other end where we got on motorbikes which took us to her village in the national park. Some wonderful scenery and a great little village. They put on a grand feast for us with a still wriggling huge fish, delightful stuff, the people incrdibly nice and after another boat trip around the karst peaks arrived back in CatBa town cold but an excellent day out.
Eventually left CatBa, took a boat to Haiphong and then after being given the type of run around the Vietnamese specialise in, got a bus to Langson near the Chinese border. Actually ended up past there at a small place called Dong Dung or something at the border, I think the bus driver thought I wanted to cross the border that evening so took me all the way – my Vietnamese on par with my Chinese !. A nice place anyway for overnight with friendly people who seemed surprised to see a foreigner, I guess most people take the direct train or bus from Hanoi.
Next morning in heavy rain crossed the border, took a taxi to the next town and then a bus to Nanning. Bus station there total chaos, even gave up trying to get to the toilet, then had to struggle across the city to another bus station. Eventually got a bus which went via Guilin and onward from here. No problem bar they forgot about me and we were out of Yangshou before they remembered. So after a long day and late at night had to make my own way back but eventually made it into a hotel.
petefurlepa