i'm alive

The trip to Viet Nam turned out to be quite an adventure! I left Dali Monday morning at 10AM and planned to get to Sapa in northern Vietnam by about the same time the next morning. I had already figured out that I would have to take five buses to get there, and in the end, that's what happened, though I never quite expected it to be such a crazy adventure. The first two buses were simply local buses to get me to the main bus station in Dali. Those two rides went off without a hitch and left me feeling like I could get anywhere in China if I wanted to. The next ride was a four-hour bus trip back to Kunming. Again, everything went relatively smoothly minus the traffic in Kunming and the fat guy next to me that snored the whole time. With a few hours to kill in Kunming, I went to Pizza Hut. Now I know you're all wondering if I've lost my mind. And maybe I have. But I also had a 12 hour bus ride to the Vietnamese border awaiting me and wanted to play it safe with my choice of dinner.

So while reading about the virtues of CSA's and community farms, I scarfed down my pizza and pepsi and then made my way back to the bus station. I was still feeling quite good since I'd also managed to figure out the left-luggage situation at the bus station and was now ready to embark on my next bus trip. Now overnight buses in China are often "sleeper-buses" with 3 rows of beds instead of seats. The rows are also two levels high, and so there are maybe 30 beds in total on the bus. The "beds" are approximately 5'-9" (175cm) long by 1'-6" (45cm) wide. I know this because my head, feet and both arms were pressed agains the metal bars and window next to me. Needless to say, this was not promising, nor comfortable. I popped two Dramamine pills just to be safe, hoping they'd also put me to sleep in the process and turned on the ipod as the bus pulled away. 12-hours in this bus did not seem like a good time, but I thought I could manage. Little did I know what awaited me once we left the highway an hour later.

Now there's a highway that goes all the way to the border - I think, however, since using said highway would reduce the trip length to about six hours, thus getting us to the Vietnamese border in the middle of the night, we used the local "roads" instead. Oh I forgot to mention, at this point the bus already smelled of cigarette smoke and smelly feet. Not the best combination - but again, I thought I could deal, since I was next to the window. The final straw however was the fact that these local roads were NOT PAVED. That's right... I had a 12 hour ride on what amounted to a muddy, rutted dirt path directly underneat the smooth highway. I was bouncing all over the bus the entire night - only resting when the driver would take a 10 minute break. Words alone can't do this insanity! To top it off, I was certain that I would die at some point during this journey. I had seen a mashed up "sleeper-bus" just a couple days earlier near Lijiang and also continuously worried that the whole thing would tip over into what seemed like a river as it swayed from rut to rut. Now I'm not the type to worry about being safe in a vehicle... but I really thought that was the end.

So we finally -and safely - arrived at Hekou (the chinese border tow) at 7AM, which conveniently was about an hour before the border crossing opened. Crossing was uneventful, though after the previous nights ordeal, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't happy to be leaving China. Once through imigration and into Viet Nam I hopped onto a scooter and was driven to the local bus station. Taking a ride on a motorcycle never seemed so safe. A few hours later, I made it to Sapa - though I haven't really had a chance to enjoy it since I was pretty much a zombie all day.

Anyways, that's my story. Not something I would wish onto anyone. And here's a picture from the internet of what these buses are like inside (i did not have the energy to take my own picture...)