I am finally back in Tra Vinh after three weeks of traveling in Northern Vietnam and Yunnan Province in China. Changes have been happening here. We now have two more volunteers from Canada. We just met, but they seem nice. Inflation has also hit Tra Vinh. My café sua da (iced milk coffee) now costs 6,000 VND (about $0.33), up from 5,000 (about $0.27).

On to my trip. I started off by going back to Sapa in Northwest Vietnam. I took the night train on Christmas night, so that was essentially my Christmas. Sapa is only an hour from the Chinese border, so I figured I would visit again. My first day I went with some friends to a Hmong wedding. The bride and groom were 16. I missed any ceremony they may have had, but I did show up in time to drink shot after shot of rice wine. All the Hmong men wanted to drink with the foreigners (there were a few of us), so we had quite a bit by 2pm that afternoon. On another note, Hmong girls will also drink you under the table. They may be 90 pounds and not quite 5 feet tall, but they can drink their rice wine. I was told they start at about 10 years old. The next day I went with some friends on motorbikes for several hours over some terrible mountain roads to a remote market. A nice day driving around the Sapa area. On New Year's Eve, I decided to head to China.

I crossed the border with just minor issues. My bags were checked by the Chinese, which always makes me nervous. Of course I had nothing to be worried about, but it made me think if there was ever a chance that someone could have slipped something into my bag. I had just read a few days before that the Chinese had executed a British citizen for smuggling. Anyway, I caught the bus to the provincial capital, Kunming, and arrived just in time to celebrate New Years. My New Years was a little lame, but I did go out and celebrate. Kunming was a beautiful city, very clean, but there is not too much to actually see, so I soon headed to Dali.

In Dali, I met with some people from couchsurfing and went to the lake outside town and to a monastery. Both nice, but nothing too exciting. Dali was a really nice town, but there was not much to do but walk around and take in the atmosphere. After a night, I decided to keep heading north, so I went to Lijiang. Lijiang is a really nice town too, but like Dali, there is not much to do but walk around and take in the atmosphere. Lijiang is full of tourists, about 99.5% Chinese tourists though.

After Lijiang, I went to hike at Tiger Leaping Gorge, which is one of the deepest gorges in the world. I met a British guy who was also hiking, so I had someone to hike with which was nice. Tiger Leaping Gorge was really beautiful, and a great hike. The first day we hiked about 6 hours to a nice guesthouse where we got a hot meal and decent beds. The next day I hiked a little further and then headed to the bottom where I caught a ride back into the nearby town. From there, I headed to Zhongdian (now known as Shangri-La thanks to Chinese tourism officials).

Zhongdian is a Tibetan city at about 10,000 feet. The city itself is not that beautiful, but the surrounding area is nice. I went to a Tibetan Monastery the first night and the next day I rode a bike around a seasonal lake. It was a nice ride, where I saw yaks, horses, many birds and other animals in the lake. After Zhongdian, I decided to head back to Vietnam. China is a really difficult place to travel, so I was ready to get back to Vietnam. I had a few issues, but eventually I made it back to Sapa. I stayed there a few days and then in Hanoi a few days before finally returning to Tra Vinh.

Below is my love/hate list for China and a small comparison to Vietnam. It may seem a little harsh, so for the record, I met some really nice, friendly, and helpful people in China and I saw some really beautiful places.

Love China:

• Beautiful scenery
• Feels more like an adventure

Hate China:

• Almost no one speaks English, especially in the tourism industry, and there is almost no effort to help you understand anything if you do not speak Chinese. I got the impression they would rather push me away and deal with Chinese tourists than try to figure things out with me.
• Chinese tourists love to throw around money, which means (as mentioned above), no one seems to care about the foreign tourists.
• Security: Entering and leaving China I was taken to a separate room to be questioned/have my bags searched. When leaving China there were two checkpoints on the road to the border and three people at the border that checked my passport (I was leaving the country, why check so much???).
• Taxi drivers' rule: Screw the foreigner as much as possible.
• Everything is more expensive than Southeast Asia.

Vietnam vs. China:

• Farmers in Vietnam invite me to have a drink with them when I wander into their fields vs. Chinese farmers who scream at me and send their dogs after me
• Dogs in Vietnam mope around and try to eat scraps of food vs. dogs in China that try to eat me
• Hotel managers in Vietnam who throw big birthday parties for loyal guests vs. Chinese hotel managers who couldn't care less that you are staying (but they are usually nice)
• Vietnamese will quote you 2X the price and then have a friendly negotiation vs. Chinese who quote you 5X and then get furious when you actually try to negotiate