Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Ok so I back tracked from Jiuzhaigou to Cheng du, and then to Kunming. In Kunming I saw the stone forest, I promise I'll add pictures...within the next millenium... Got on a sleeper bus (yeah, remember those? If not pictures are back in the Hong Kong photo album) and headed to Hekou. Where I crossed the boarder to Vietnam!!!!!
Good Bye China!!!!! The crossing itself was relatively easy. Although the guards at the chinese boarder confiscated my Lonley Planet Guide book. I expected this to happen so I handed it over willingly. (really it's just one thing less to carry) But, apparently it doesn't show Taiwan as part of China and therefore the guard said "it hinders the unity of China", and is a forbidden book. Nevermind that I have seen said forbidden book sold in various cities IN China. Really, when I'm leaving China I just don't want to go through an argument with the government officials...it never goes well. Vietnam was a breeze to get into after this.
One confusing thing I'd like to note is the currency here. 1 US dollar is about 16 000 dong. Yeah, and if that's not bad enough, they use US currency and dong interchangably, so you are constantly exchanging it back and forth, throw in that all you have is yen, which is 1 yen to about 2300 dong, and you want to also translate all this into canadian dollars which is 15 000dong to a dollar. Plus anything over a couple dollars begins to be 100's of thousands....ACK!! TOO MANY ZEROS! And to add to the chaos, when bargining, they like to drop the last zero! Just to make it easier!
So, when just getting on a night long sleeper bus, and then crossing the boarder first thing in the morning...I was a might bit confused...It's day two now and I'm better now...I think....
They are also way more likely to scam you here...You constantly have to double check conversions, and expect to be riped off. That's just the way it is. The food is good though!!! Fresh backed bread and everything is no longer deep fried! mmm and I had mango pancakes covered in chocolate sauce for breakfast...mmmm it's going to be a good day! Although this is also the first place I have actually seen dog roasting in the market...hmmm
Next is Hanoi, so until then folks!
- comments