6 months down!

I am officially more than halfway through my big adventure now. It's unbelievable how the past months have gone by fast, but also unbelievable all the amazing places I've been to and people I've met. Let's hope the next 6 months will be just as great!

I'm pretty much always 1 month behind on my blog nowadays. Just when I think I'll get it under control, I'm distracted or don't have easy Internet access for awhile and get even more behind. Because of this, I've decided to skip (for now) a post on my month spent in Vietnam. Not because it wasn't wonderful or I don't have that much to say about it, it's pretty much the opposite. My time in Vietnam includes some of my best times ever on my trip, thanks to a motorcycle tour I did for 11 days. I'd have a lot to say about it, so I'll just have to get back to it a bit later.

I've now been in China for almost 1 week, and it's been filled with ups and downs. You'd think that after 6 months of traveling I'd be somewhat more confident about coming to a new country, but honestly, China scared the crap out of me. It intimidated me for a number of reasons: 1) the language barrier 2) I'd heard from others that people could be unfriendly 3) I knew almost nothing about the country. Even now, I'd be hard pressed to name 5 cities in China 4) because of 3), I wasn't even sure why I wanted to go there. Are the Great Wall and the Terracotta warriors reasons enough to go through the hassles that awaited me? But in the end, after many weeks of going back and forth, I'd finally made my decision to come here. China, here I come!

My journey into China started painlessly enough, but I'd built up such a case of nerves beforehand that I was a complete wreck. I was in now in Sapa, in the north of Vietnam, and planned to make my way into China overland by crossing the border in nearby Lao Cai. But even before leaving Sapa, things were a bit more complicated than usual. So far, I've always booked my buses ahead of time and knew the exact departure time as well as little details such as how much the bus cost and where to catch it. Not so for my first bus in China. I basically had to make my way across the border on foot, and figure out the rest once in there, since no one in Sapa or Hanoi knew anything about my destination in China. Needless to say, this added to my stress. Plus, border crossings are always stressful to me. You never know what they are going to ask you, and I'd heard that the land crossing between Vietnam and China is a bit more challenging than flying into the country. I'd also read that they can confiscate your guidebooks for political reasons, so I made sure to pack mine far away in the bottom of my big backpack...

The bus from Sapa to Lao Cai was easy-peasy (organised by the hotel) and I met a couple also headed to China, albeit the major town of Kunming, not the same place I was going. The bus driver dropped us off at the border and we went through the Vietnam exit procedures, to then cross a bridge on foot to get to the China border. Once there, we filled in a few forms, waited a few minutes and were allowed entry to China. Our luggage went threw the x-ray machines and sure enough, the guard asked me if I had any books. I tried to play dumb and took out the books I had in my small backpack, but no, he was a smart cookie. He pointed to my big backpack and asked: "Any books in there?". I first took out a small paperback, then my East Africa Lonely Planet book, hoping he would be satisfied with that. No such luck. "More books?" he asked. I reluctantly took out my China guidebook and he quickly took it away. He explained in very basic English that he was taking the book away for political reasons, something having to do with the map showing Taiwan in a different color to mainland China (huh???). He was very apologetic and said he was just doing his job, but I was a bit devastated all the same. I even asked if I could tear out a few pages, but the answer was no. I was already having trouble dealing with the fact that China would be harder, and now I have to go about it without a guidebook???

We found the bus station a few minutes away from the border and I managed to convey to someone where I wanted to go. I was pointed to a claptrap bus and was told it would leave in 30 minutes and cost 55 yuan (about 8$). Excellent, with just a minor hiccup. I have no yuan (the currency exchange in Sapa would not change Vietnamese dong for Chinese yuan). Off to an ATM that a nice gentleman said was only 5 minutes away, "in that direction" (vaguely pointing to the right). I huffed and puffed down the street with all my bags and finally found a bank at the very edge of town. I was happy that the ATM worked its magic and spat out money at me, but disappointed that the bank would not exchange my dong for yuan. I am still a multi-millionaire (in dong) as we speak. The same guy who gave me directions to the ATM was the one to point me to the (hopefully) right bus. On board were 3 people besides me: the driver, the ticket seller and 1 Chinese girl. None of these people spoke any English, nor do I speak any mandarin. It was not a chatty bus ride :-)

5 hours later, I was dropped off in the middle of a town/village, without being sure of where I was. I had the name of a guesthouse in my little notebook, but alas, all the signs are in Chinese! I went up to the only hotel I could see, and even that was hard to do. I could see the hotel but could not find the entrance anywhere. It is unbelievably hard not to be able to understand any of the signs!!! After a few minutes of fumbling, I finally found the hotel entrance (up a set of stairs and behind another building...). The hotel looked fancy, and undoubtedly above my budget, but I was close to being past the point of caring. I was warmly greeted by the front desk and told that it was 180 yuan/night (about 25$/night). I told them thanks but no thanks, it's a bit too expensive, and they offered to bring me to their cheaper sister hotel. Pretty good service for supposedly unfriendly people!

The other hotel turned out to be a very new, clean and nice looking proper hotel. It even had an elevator, which impressed the hell out of me after spending the whole of Vietnam staying on the 4th or 5th floor of guesthouses with a gazillion stairs. And as a bonus, the room was even cheaper than they had told me (80 yuan, about 11$), and I got a fancy new hotel room all to myself for the same price I was paying for very ordinary places in Vietnam. Excellent start!

I was feeling a bit better when I was settled into my room, so I decided to go for a little walk around town and get the lay of the land. 1 hour later, I was back in my room, balling my eyes out. Seriously. I'd walked around for a bit, constantly stared at, as usual. I saw a few restaurants around the village, but honestly nothing that looked remotely appetizing or even clean. I'd tried to find out how to go about visiting the rice terraces the next day (they are all spread out over 40 km or so), without any success. Even in my nice hotel, the girls at the reception desk didn't speak any English. I was tired, hungry and overwhelmed and wanted my mommy!!! After 20 minutes of my pity party, I knew I had to go down and face the world again. I hadn't eaten or drunk a thing all day (bad planning + the inconvenience of being on a bus all day), so I at least needed a bottle of water or something.

And as it so often happens, things changed in an instant. I headed to the lobby armed with a map of the terraces I picked up during my walk, ready to play charades with the girls at the reception desk. Once in the lobby, I pounced on a Swedish couple who looked friendly and competent, and started asking all sorts of questions. Within minutes, I had a clear idea of what I was going to do the next day and how to do it. I was also invited to dinner with them and other tourists they'd met earlier in the day. We had a great time and my mood was now very upbeat.

I laughed at myself a few hours later as I was going to bed. I'd survived my first day in China, which was true to form for me. I've mentioned before how I've learned to realise that the first 24 hours in a new environment is usually hard for me. I know this about myself, but I sometimes forget...

The next day was my visit of the rice terraces, which are Yuanyang's claim to fame. I lucked out weather-wise, since it was an absolutely beautiful day, without much clouds, fog or mist. The rice terraces are worthy of being a wonder of the world in my opinion. It's an amazing sight to see, and quite hard to describe. I got a few nice pictures of them, but you'd probably find some nicer ones on the Internet. But I was extremely happy I'd decided to make this detour and change my itinerary to include Yuanyang.

Since then, I've moved from Yuanyang to Kunming (the capital of Yunnan province) and Kunming to Dali (a mountain resorty type place). During this time, little events like buying a bus ticket or getting from the bus station to a hostel, have felt like the biggest accomplishments. It's hard to convey how difficult it feels for me not to be able to communicate with most people, and not to understand what's going on around you! But you do manage, even if you feel sometimes clueless.

My first impressions of China? It really feels like a different world. Yuanyang is very rural, is inhabited by mostly ethnic minorities and feels quite poor, while Kunming is a very large city that looks somewhat like any western city. Construction is in full swing almost everywhere you go, and places look like they are booming. And the Chinese are also very different from us, in many ways. The way they stare at you so intently when you walk passed looks unfriendly, but is actually not so bad. If you smile, they usually smile and laugh back, and if you don't, they just look at you until they get bored with it. Some things in China will take getting used to: - the spitting, which is very noisy, constant and done everywhere, by both men AND women - it really is quite dirty. They don't seem to care about cleanliness all that much, and the toilets are absolutely revolting. I thought I was getting used to squat toilets after being in South East Asia for a while, but they were nothing compared to China. In most places, the toilets are just holes in the cement, separated by a short wall, if you're lucky. So as you are squatting there doing your business, someone can just walk by and see everything. And since they like to stare at Westerners, it makes for a very interesting experience...