Day 35

25 May 2013

Sapa to Kunming,China

Although I have extensive travel experience my next step greets me with some apprehension and a degree of doubt as to how I am going to handle things on my own. At this time I miss a person with me who I can talk to and discuss my options, if any. The demons I am facing is like standing in front of a hill where you can see the top but to get there you need to go uphill with a heavy backpack. However I have learned that the way to handle this is to divide the obstacle in sections and tackle one at the time. At the time of putting this down I am just over half way there. The lady (Huang) who manages the hostel gave me some directions and even could sell me a ticket all the way to the city of Kunming,; a 12 hour bus ride on the other side of the Vietnamese border. Before agreeing to get the ticket I indicated that I wanted to check a few websites first. The website I refer to often is www.seat61.com . I remember what Eddie told me: everyone is on the take or commission and the more are involved in a chain of events the higher the price is going to be. Huang quoted me 36 dollars from the border to Kunming (440 km) The website told me $23 and it stated that the bus would leave at 19.10 from Hekou, the Chinese city on the other side of the border. Huang told me that there was 1 hour time difference and that I had an hour to spare. (clocks to go back one hour, this was wrong, it was going forward 1 hour instead) Knowing that nothing seems to run on time I ordered a bus for 1 pm for the 1 hour trip to the border, The border proceedings would take about two hours getting me into China by 4oclock. Change money and get a cab to go to the new bus station on at the edge of town. All nicely planned but how did it turn out?

The morning started with light rain. I told Hoang that I left my waterproof clothing under the seat of the scooter I hired yesterday and had to walk to the rental place about 2 km away. After leaving the hostel I walked down the road away from the entrance when Hoang called out to me, "wait" she said. She rushed inside and got umbrella which she opened up just before she was near me. She handed me the umbrella and said “use umbrella , you don't get wet”. “well, thank you” I said. She walked back and must have been soaked by the time she reached the front door again. After collecting my gear I walked back through the market observing some large fish being killed and cut to pieces, bought some bread rolls with undisclosed filling and went back to try to update some of my diary entries as I was running behind due to the other commitments. I had planned to take an early bus just to be sure. Small busses leave every hour from Sapa for Lao Cai. The price was set for 50.000 dong which the going rate ($2.50) I said to the driver to make it 60.000 dong and if he would drop me off right at the border post. “yes Ok” he said while I handed over an note of 200.000.Dong. He was on time at exactly 1 pm. Then drove 500 meters and stopped to try to get more passengers as I was the only one. At 1.30 I asked when we would actually leave. 2 o’clock was the answer. I was glad that I had decided for the extra time. At two we left and got to the border at 3 pm. The guy unloaded my pack and than just drove off. I had asked for the change and he had answered “yes” . But no he just drove off. Now I sort of had expected this. During the drive I had taken his picture, noted the stickers on the window and his number plate and will make mention of it on Hostel bookers when I do a report on the excellent treatment dished out at the hostel. And the treatment of the bus driver plus I will send a message and pictures back to the hostel as well When Vietnamese hear about the stories the way taxi and now also bus drivers rip-off tourist they are visibly embarrassed.

I recognized the gates and buildings I had seen 4 year earlier and took some pictures of the park across the road from I had witnessed all the goings on across the Vietnam-China bridge. The border proceedings on the Vietnamese side were easy and consisted mainly on checking my visa date and if I had a valid Chinese visa. I had been looking forward to the next stage, walking across the bridge into China. Taking pictures at borders is mostly a no-no but here it seemed ok. I took a picture of the centre line; stepped over it and walked into China.

Getting in was just a series of little steps. Filling out a landing card. A soldier next to me watched if I filled out the right words in the right spaces. The card was the same as the landing card you get when you land by plane or ship. In the box “flight number/ship name” I draw a picture of a stickman walking.

During checking he asked me what it was. “That’s a man walking !” I said and he laughed. (I am glad it didn’t look like a Chinese character which could mean ******** or something like that)

Now for checking the passport. Every page was carefully checked by hand and blue light. Three different times by three different persons. So convinced that I did not have a false passport I could enter but only after my bags were scanned. A soldier asked where I was going and showed me on a map where the nearest ATM’s were and the long distance bus station which also according to “seat 61 “had been moved further away. After I told him that I would walk he said –“ Ok walk to the bank about 1.5 km and then take taxi to bus station. Too far walking- maybe 1-2 hour walk”.

I proceeded down the street. Noticed any difference? Yes

The streets are made out of concrete instead of asphalt, the shop fronts look very modern, people are well dressed, the street are clean, only a few motorcycles around. Looks less oriental than Vietnam. I entered a bank and immediately a young girl walked up and asked where I was from and how long I had been in China. “Australia and in China 15 minutes” I answered. “Oh-Welcome to China”[i] she said, followed by “can I help you?” I said I wanted to get some money out of the ATM after which she said that if I had any problems I could asked her. The atm was as any other and was multi lingual so no issues there. 6 Yuan to the dollar so from now on conversion is easy again. It was obvious that she had looked at my watch because she said Ha-ha wrong time on you watch! It is then that I realized the local time was 1 hour ahead , lucky that I had decided to leave early today because by now I had two lost hours.

She said “bus station very close and pointed into the direction I had come from. I will take you on my scooter she added. I don’t think so I thought. A light girl on a small scooter with a heavy guy and 25 kg luggage is not a good combination Hmm I thought, now you confuse me, as she pointed me in an unexpected direction. I walked away 20 meters and hailed a cab and try to explain where I needed to go. Meanwhile the bank girl came running and said “of so sorry, so sorry, I did not know, the bus station has moved sometime ago. Well that is what I read I thought.

I asked her to tell the taxi exactly where to go.

The taxi trip took 15 minutes, well that would have been quite a walk I thought. 10 Yuan was the bill for the trip about $ 1.50 and for that the man even got out of his taxi and walked my into the large hall where the bus tickets are issued.

Next issue, where do I get a ticket? I looked around and as I had expected I saw signs everywhere with only one item ready for my brain to interpret: numbers. Best not to be intimidated by all that and just walk up to a booth . Before I opened my mouth the girl said “Kunming? ” She gabbed a bit of paper and wrote today’s date, 17.10 pm and 147 RBM (RBM is the unit for Yuan) I looked at it. Well that was easy, I hadn’t said anything yet already know what I need. Today’s bus at 10 past 7 pm costing 147 Yuan. ($24.50) for a 12 hour ride in a sleeper bus.

I handed over the money and that was it- easy. What about all these demons then? Step by step and you will overcome any obstacle. In the large hall was a small restaurant behind a glass wall. No one there so I just sat down and opened my lap top to write all this down. The girl in the shop next door came in, just looked at me typing away and then draggd over a fan, switched it on for some cool air. After a cool day in Sapa with temp around 23 I guess I am back in the 30 plus degree heat.

Thus far my first hours in China are surprisingly pleasant. The girl in the shop next door came in and said-bus leaving soon you go to toilet first. Yes good advise thank you. Minutes later I entered the most amazing bus I have been in.A sleeper bus (don’t know why we don’t have them in Australia or Europe) again three rows of beds all in beautifully polished stainless steel with comfortable mattresses, a bit narrow but just right. Obviously they gave me a seat planned for foreigners as right in the back just above floor level there are five beds as if it were a very wide king size bed. So I sit(lay) slightly higher than the rest overlooking the bus. I sit comfortably against the back wall while we are on our way. As there is no one sharing the back beds with me I can lay across when going to sleeper on. This is first class hands down.

I expect that my movements will be monitored as I was going along as we past a police checkpoint and all identity cards were checked. My passport was taken to an office while I just kept on typing. All was well and to bus left again soon after.

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