i'm in vietnam! getting here was kind of a pain. from yangshuo, i went back to guilin (and no one tried to rob me again, so i ran into a kid who said the exact same thing had happened to him). from there, i took a five hour train to nanning. i was a little scared of nanning, but this was entirely because they are famous for dog hotpot and have a dog district. oh also because my hotel looked like a mental hospital. it was all okay though. i tried to buy a straight bus ticket from nanning to hanoi, but found that i didn't have enough money because of the hotel deposit. i tried to get more from the bank, but it wouldn't let me take any, something i'm hoping is not repeated here.
so i bought a ticket for the border, the friendship pass, and hoped that i could figure out the rest. lonely planet recommends doing that, so i figured it'd be fine. i got there, and we tried to take the caddy to the border, when the driver was like, "what are you doing, you dont have the pass" that they gave the people with tickets all the way to hanoi. apparently you can't just walk over, as lonely planet made it sound.
luckily there were two vietnamese people who were doing the same thing as me, so i tagged along as they found a woman selling but tickets to hanoi. we crossed through the border with not much trouble, and then hit the four hour bus to hanoi. i was a little worried about my plans for hanoi, because i couldn't buy a guide book in china, so all i had was an address for an international youth hostel.
when i got off the bus, i was freaked because i had no idea where we were in the city, and i wasn't sure what methods people used to travel around. and i didn't know how much anything should cost. and it was getting dark. but luckily i had my new vietnamese friends to ask. they told a motorcycle taxi the address i was going to, and asked the price, and then i was off! it had been a while since i rode on the back of a motorcycle, and i was scared that i'd fall off of that someone would grab my stuff off me at a traffic light, but none of that happened, and i arrived at the international youth hostel safe and sound.
from there, i knew everything would be fine. especially because the guy who runs it is a white guy, something i've never gotten at a hostel before. and they've got maps, and i met an australian girl who lent me her lonely planet. so i'm gonna chill in hanoi for a bit to figure out what my next step should be. i'm in no hurry, and i'm enjoying being in a big tourist city.
so i bought a ticket for the border, the friendship pass, and hoped that i could figure out the rest. lonely planet recommends doing that, so i figured it'd be fine. i got there, and we tried to take the caddy to the border, when the driver was like, "what are you doing, you dont have the pass" that they gave the people with tickets all the way to hanoi. apparently you can't just walk over, as lonely planet made it sound.
luckily there were two vietnamese people who were doing the same thing as me, so i tagged along as they found a woman selling but tickets to hanoi. we crossed through the border with not much trouble, and then hit the four hour bus to hanoi. i was a little worried about my plans for hanoi, because i couldn't buy a guide book in china, so all i had was an address for an international youth hostel.
when i got off the bus, i was freaked because i had no idea where we were in the city, and i wasn't sure what methods people used to travel around. and i didn't know how much anything should cost. and it was getting dark. but luckily i had my new vietnamese friends to ask. they told a motorcycle taxi the address i was going to, and asked the price, and then i was off! it had been a while since i rode on the back of a motorcycle, and i was scared that i'd fall off of that someone would grab my stuff off me at a traffic light, but none of that happened, and i arrived at the international youth hostel safe and sound.
from there, i knew everything would be fine. especially because the guy who runs it is a white guy, something i've never gotten at a hostel before. and they've got maps, and i met an australian girl who lent me her lonely planet. so i'm gonna chill in hanoi for a bit to figure out what my next step should be. i'm in no hurry, and i'm enjoying being in a big tourist city.
posted by Amanda at 7:38 PM
1 Comments:
so there's a bulletin board in the english department office where they put up pictures of all the grad students. it's supposed to foster a sense of community or whatever. the dept secretary asked me to send a picture of myself and so i was looking through all my old ones and i was reminded of london. our trip was so cute. aw.
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