I signed up for the all-famous (if you're in Vietnam) Ha Long Bay Tour, which takes you to a bay on the NE corner of Vietnam with limestone peaks and phosphofluorescent water. A little geography lesson: Ha Long Bay is home to around 2000 limestone karsts, many of which have taken over 500 million years to form. It is also one of the finalists for the 7 Natural Wonders of the World. It was a 2 day, 1 night trip on a sleeping cabin, but it turned out to be more like a booze cruise. During the day, the 36 of us from the hostel swam in the bay, kayaked through the limestone peaks, and explored a cave. After 2 months of traveling in SE Asia, I thought this was the most beautiful place that I had seen, and I think that's saying something. But by 9 o'clock, we hit up the boat bar and played a massive game of Ring of Fire, Vietnam style. By the next morning, most of us just wanted to get back to the hostel and pass out. Work hard, play hard, I guess.
The next few nights, I had met up with some of the guys I met in Cambodia, some of the girls I met in Ho Chi Minh City, and we all hit up the city, which tends to die out around 1 am, unfortunately. EXCEPT, this one shady place on the top of a hotel, which has successfully drawn the foreigner crowd by staying open until the wee hours in the morning. By August 1st, I was ready to move on to...CHINA!
I'm not gonna lie. I was petrified about going to China. Such a huge country. Nobody speaks English. Don't really know where I should go. So little time. With a backpack and Lonely Planet in hand, I got on the bus and headed to Nanning, the closest city in China from Vietnam. And WOW. I had imagined a small quaint town, but to my amazement, it turned out to be a metropolis of millions, with McDonalds and Walmart in the city square. I didn't stay there for a long time, but it was a nice introduction to China - maybe it wouldn't be too bad after all.
The first real stop in China was Yongshuo in the Guanxi Province. Although massively touristy, the bustling town had kept its rustic charm and the backdrop of the limestone karsts in the countryside was absolutely magnificent. My oh my. This place was like Ha Long Bay, only on land. I had never seen any scenery quite like this. I only stayed there for 3 days due to time constraints, but I managed to go on a solo biking tour through a 25 km stretch of the countryside, an absolutely wonderful experience. On top of it all, the town had a great nightlife, a strange juxtaposition of nightclubs and the countryside, but for a traveler, it's got it all.
Since the train to Xi'an was booked up for the next 8 days, I chose to go to a city that was in between the two cities - Chengdu in the Sichuan Province, known for pandas and spicy hotpots. Another bustling city like Nanning, with a population of 4 million, Chengdu has a reputation to be one of the livable cities in China although I disagree. On the first full day, I went to the Giant Panda Breeding Research Base, one of the few places in the world where you can see giant pandas and red pandas in "captivity." They say that it's for breeding purposes, but it seemed more like a zoo. But nonetheless, it was something I had to do in Chengdu.
Then, 2 Dutch guys from the hostel and I went out to eat at a Sichuan hotpot restaurant, which is like Shabu-Shabu, only the broth is boiling red with all kinds of spices and herbs. I'm not sure how the Dutch guys handled the spice, but I thought it was fantastic.
Tomorrow, I'm heading out to Xi'an on a 15 hour train ride, the only problem being the fact that I was only able to get a seating train, instead of a sleeper train. Cheap, at the cost of comfort. But these days, comfort is a luxury I can't really afford (or really care about). 10 more days until Japan!
- Ryoji
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