Nanning to Hanoi

This has to be one of the oddest train journeys I have ever taken.

Just before we got to Nanning, the attendant handed me this notice. 

Two female attendants escorted me to the waiting room, one in front and one behind to make sure that I did not escape. I was intrigued by the hair bun decoration.

They motioned for me to sit down in this area so I obeyed and commenced my five hour wait until the train would leave at 9:15 pm.

The departures board shortly after I arrived. My train T5 was not mentioned.

I was seated right next to this hot and cold water dispenser. There was a toilet around the corner but I did not investigate it. I had gone just before we reached Nanning.

For about an hour before each train departed the waiting room would fill to the brim. Eventually the gates would open and the horde would stream through to the train. There were always people running to catch the train at the last moment.

Eventually I noticed that my train had been re-numbered as T8705 instead of T5 with the departure time of 21:15.

After D8258 departed, most of the crowd had gone and soon I was the only one left.

At 20:45 a young lady attendant beckoned and led me back to the train which was now reduced to two carriages. 

I had to wait a couple of minutes to get into the carriage until they turned on the power in the carriage. The engine hooked up at 21:00 and we set off at 21:15.

Even though I was in the same carriage, it was quite different from the ride down from Beijing. the driver kept blowing the horn every eight to 10 seconds. The engine was right next to my carriage. Luckily I had some ear plugs so I was able to reduce the noise but it was definitely irritating. I was the only passenger.

I had set my alarm but woke anyhow about 1 am when we stopped at a station on the Chinese side of the border. I think it was Pingxiang. The station was almost in complete darkness but a Chinese immigration officer appeared and asked for my passport and departure slip at 1:15. He returned at 1;50 and gave me back my passport. At 2:30 another engine was hooked onto the carriages and we set off at 2:40. From my GPS I could tell we were only about 7 miles from the border of Vietnam. We continued quite lowly and stopped a few times. Again the horn blew every few seconds. 

Finally it appeared as if I was in Vietnam at Dong Dang. The attendant gave me back my ticket and I descended from the carriage and was led to the waiting room.

A Vietnamese Immigration official took my passport and visa paper. In the meantime, I looked around and I swear it was the land of the zombies. About twenty travelers were headed north and were waiting to get their passports back. They looked totally zonked. Eventually the official reappeared, called their names and gave them their passports and they moved off slowly to the train I had arrived on. This was about 3:25 Vietnamese time.

The officials left and I was left on my own in the waiting room. At least I was in Vietnam.

My train from China is on the left and the carriage for Hanoi can just be seen under the bright lights. At 3:55 an attendant appeared and took me to my carriage. He turned on a switch and a huge motor started up that made a dreadful din and caused a huge vibration. I think it ran the air-conditioning unit.

My vibrating compartment. I was much relieved to be on board. Eventually an engine hooked up and away we went. I put the ear plugs back in to help deal with the noise and of course the continual blasts on the horn. Somehow I managed to get some sleep. I could sense that the train was moving very slowly.

I woke next morning to bright clear sunshine and a totally different landscape. It was like getting off the plane in Brisbane after flying from Los Angeles.

Of course, I was the only passenger.

The countryside was much lusher than that of southern China.

A small town about 40 miles out of Hanoi. The train had now increased speed to about 20 to 25 mph.

The bridges over the river at Hanoi. I realized that these would have been the bridges that the US Airforce tried to destroy by bombing during the Vietnam War.

Eventually the train reached Hanoi on time at 8:10. I left the station, found an ATM just to the right as I exited and took a taxi to my hotel, the Hanoi Elegance Ruby.

And what a welcome. They were expecting me and took my bags. Since my room was not quite ready, I was invited to sit down on a comfortable couch. You can see a plate with a cold white towel was presented so that I could give my hands and face a clean. Along came a glass of delicious freshly squeezed mango juice which was followed very quickly by another.

I was invited to have breakfast. Normally it is included in the price of the room but since I had arrived early, I would have to pay $5. I assured then that the $5 would not be a problem and shortly after was tucking into multiple glasses of the mango juice, really strong black coffee, a plate of fresh pineapple, watermelon and some sort of sweet cucumber. An omelette appeared and was quickly demolished. I could have had a croissant.

Having taken care of the inner man, they led me up to my room which is really nice and comfortable and the air-conditioning works.

A long hot shower followed. I sent off a couple of emails to let Marianne, Robin, Anne and Clare know that I had arrived, and then had a good long nap.

I was starting to really enjoy Hanoi and Vietnam.

Beijing to Nanning

I've divided the trip from Beijing down to Hanoi into two blogs. When you read the blog about Nanning to Hanoi you will understand why.

I reached Beijing West station by subway well before my train was due to depart. Fortunately I found a seat in the enormous waiting room straight away because seating space was at a premium. And this was just one of several waiting rooms.

People would line up for an hour when the 'waiting' sign was illuminated for their train. I knew I had a reserved first class berth so I kept sitting until the 'check tickets' sign appeared about 40 minutes before departure.

I made it to the one first class carriage and was invited on by the attendant. This was my compartment and it appeared that I would have it to myself. 

Indeed it looked like I would have the carriage to myself. The attendant took my ticket and passport away and soon came back with my passport. He retained the ticket.

Gauze curtains. The attendants always pulled them back into place when I moved them to take a photo.

This is the symbol for Chinese rail. I am not sure what the tray was for but I used it to hold my pot of dinner two nights later.

The train departed on time and immediately I was seeing the new Beijing.

New construction.

A new freeway.

Taking photos was difficult with the double pane dirty windows. None of them opened.

The cultivation was endless.

Some hoon with his feet up again. Although I enjoyed John's company on the long trip from Moscow, there is something about having a whole compartment to yourself.

A meal cart came around so I ordered this and  it cost 20 yuan or about $3. It was ok, nothing wonderful. When I was finished, I took the remains to a bin at the end of the corridor so that it wouldn't stink up my compartment. I had plenty of water in a 2 litre bottle that I had bought at a supermarket. I stopped a trolley on the train that had drinks but none of them was cold. I finished up with a warm coke rather than attempting to down a Pabst Blue Ribbon beer of all things.

There was a working power socket in the corridor opposite my door. Shortly after I took this photo every socket was being used by Chinese recharging their cell phones. Initially I was the only passenger in the carriage but quite a few people must have got upgrades and so the other compartments were occupied. However I was still in my solitary splendor.

There was no toilet paper so I was glad I had brought my own.

Late afternoon passing over some enormous river.

I slept pretty well and the next day it was a succession of big cities and lots of countryside. You could tell that a big city was approaching by the increase in the haze of pollution.

The compartment got quite cold during the night and I needed the thick covering comforter.

I've decided that the reason China consumes so much energy is all the little air-conditioning units.

The night before I had noticed that many of the rooms in the high rise buildings did not have lights on. I wondered if some of them were empty as people have migrated to Beijing or Shanghai for better paying jobs.

I quite liked the countryside and was surprised by the number of houses like these. If I were Chinese and could afford it I would move out of the polluted big cities to some rural place like this. I suppose it will be a coming trend.

Plenty of paddy fields.

It was overcast for most of the day.

Bored food vendor at one of the stations.

This is where the Chinese Hogs gather.

Now somebody had to have decided that this was a 'good idea' that would really impress the neighbours.

A gigantic beer factory. I seem to remember having Yanjing beer somewhere. I quite liked Chinese lager beer and it was certainly inexpensive.

It is difficult taking photos from a speeding train. The opportunity is gone before you can react. In China, the same scene usually appears a minute later so you can be prepared for it.

Mountains like Australia's Glass House Mountains near Guilin. There were thousands of them and they are known as Karst Formations.

I think this refers to the local mountains.

The high speed network has extended down to Nanning.

I bought this from a platform vendor for a couple of dollars about 3 pm. It was delicious and later in the day I was very glad to have eaten.

Every now and then I would see a Chinese face that would remind me of somebody.

China seems to be planting a lot of trees.

I was wondering why the train was so far ahead of the schedule shown on the Seat61 website. The answer lies in this picture. China is building its new high speed network as viaducts raised well above the ground. They don't have to do the traditional ground  preparation and simply have tall pylons that go to the appropriate height and then put a reinforced concrete bridge between each pylon. Then lay the tracks.

You can see the traditional railway line below and the new raised track my train is running on.

Many of the workers down in this southern part of China were wearing their coolie hats.

The sun had come out about 4 pm and I had enjoyed a particularly long afternoon nap in preparation for the possible trials and tribulations of leaving China and entering Vietnam. We eventually arrived at Nanning at 18:00 instead of the expected 20:00.