Well it was back through China we headed, when we eventually left Hong Kong (only about a week late) to go sit it out until our Vietnamese Visa's kicked in and we could pass over the border, it became fairly evident fairly quickly that times were a changing for the two surrey gals....
For our example, our last meal in Hong Kong consisted of a fabulous dinner in a restaurant owned by the father of one of Lib's uni friends, helping him to choose a menu for an upcoming Oxford Alumni event he was hosting. Unfortunately this meant trying all the best wines and dishes on, and off, the menu. At one point as we were all chatting a way I noticed the nightly light show had started across the harbour, at which point with all the sophistication we all know I don't posses I squealed out, er, politely, mid conversation, "Oooh ahhh look at the pretty lights"..before I knew it (and anyone could see the incredible shade of red I'd turned as I awaited the ground's swallowing me whole) all the lights had been turned out for, "The Lady's pleasure." I'm sorry who...? Our first meal back in China, however, consisted of...well...(don't read this bit Romeo) accidentally eating dog. We knew our days as Surrey Gals were numbered at this point.....
Our base in China was a place called Nanning, which I would love to describe to you now, but to be honest I cant remember it. Nanning's charm was not helped by the fact that it was "off season," so what little there was in the way of things to do and buses to catch were closed. The people of Nanning however were just amazing, as before still had the shovers, the smokers, the hockers and the slightly intimidating stares, but this time the people (ALL of them, not just those with which you were doing some form of business) were incredible and went out of there way to be friendly and helpful...though often with the appearance of being very angry and telling us off:
-Trying to find a room at 4am was proving difficult as the hotel (or hostel of death as Libby fondly refers to it) wanted payment upfront, though all our money had been spent getting to the joyous city. On or third attempt to speak to reception and or find a bank we ascertained there maybe one across the road....the uncrossable road (subway (which are actually mini shopping malls!?!) was closed and there is a big fence running along the mid section). So we had no choice but for me to watch our huge rucksacks we were STILL carting around and Libby to scale the fence...at which point a rather shouty truncheon wielding guard, spotting the apparently suicidal westerners came marching over. Rather afraid and rather sleepy we tried to explain to him we needed money as he seemed to be shouting at us to get back to the hotel. It wasn't until he frog marched us back there and started actually shouting, at the receptionist, we realised he was actually lovely and on our side. He even waited in the hotel, until he'd seen us safely enter the lift on the way to our room, having arranged for us to pay in the morning. Contrary to popular belief he expected nothing in return.
-Trying to find something to do (other than email) for the duration of our 2 days stop we decided to head out of town to visit Yiling Cave. This little expedition involved drawing a crowd at the local bus stop, attempting to converse in our English and their Mandarin, then one woman getting fed up of the farce and our inability to understand the little game of charades that was occurring and walking us, across the town to the bus station, putting us on the right bus and telling the driver to get us off at the right stop.
-Which turned out was a bus station. Back into headless chicken routine, we find a guard to engage in more charades with. Again in a rather shouty, and scary but incredibly helpful way, he lead us straight to the head of the ticket queue, ordered our tickets lead us to the waiting room then called us, again to the front of the queue, when our bus arrived. Again non of these people wanted or expected a thing, they were juts being lovely. How many of us, when confronted with a foreigner speaking gibberish would stop what we are doing and walk across a town to help?
The caves were awe inspiring, though we suspect were actually the secret layer of the Phantom of the Opera-complete with lakes. Fantastic. And we managed to get a free ride home...which was lucky, as, being off season it soon became evident that there may well have been no other way home- another day out executed with military precision!!!
Finally the 5th of December rolled round and we could board our 8 hour bus journey to Vietnam, crossing the boarder at Friendship Pass. An ironic name if every I heard one. Not only is it a chain of randomly arranged buildings (set in a mass expanse of...the middle of no where, fairly spread out, probably stretching about 1 or 2 km, all of which you have traverse through), it is a ghost town (adding nicely to the eerie effect) and it is the place where Libby got smacked in the face by a guard...probably because she seemed strangely deter mind to return to China. Actually we think it was her medical check. In only of the many buildings, whilst filling out one of the many forms, a guard thought an appropriate way of shooing her out of his way was to nudge her in the cheek. Then passing through one of the many windows we had to pay a 2yen medical fee...to the very same guard. That seemed to be the extent of the examination...perhaps he was confirming that she was in fact not a hologram?! I managed to slip through the net.
And onward into Vietnam!! We only had about two hours of light left for the portion of the trip that side of the boarder, but already I was falling for the country, with its lush green landscapes and amazingly colourful- and COMPLETE architecture. Despite the Lonely Planet writing reams and reams about all the deception, theft and treachery we are to come up against here (followed by a short sentence reminding us not to be paranoid) we have been greeted with nothing but smiles and had some amazing experiences here already. We were also very excited to hear that there have been many souvenir's left behind by the French such as baguettes and amazing cheese....so far we have found Laughing Cow...everywhere...on ward with the hunt then!
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