Into the boiler

The sweat was already dripping down my back when I arrived at the bus-station. And since I arrived so early, they hadn't turned on the aircon. I looked at the ticket lady. Inside her office, the aircon was running. Envy. I tried to think about something else. Tried to loosen my t-shirt to let the mosture evaporate and bring some of the heat from my body to the surroundings. It didn't work. I dried off my forehead and dried it on my shirt. It was already wet, so it didn't matter. 

Another whitey came in. We exchanged glances. He went over to the ticket counter and spoke fluent chinese. Got a ticket and sat his bags down before leaving the station. He got back and his face showed the obvious. He wanted to talk to me, but wanted me to start the conversation. How do I know? Take a guess...

"You live here?" I asked. I could see the relief in his face. "Yeah!". He sat down and told me his story. He lived in Nanning and worked as a teacher. Have met a few of those. He had a girlfriend in Vietnam. They met at the school he is working at, and he was on his way to meet her. We talked about china, anout how we both perceived it. And to my surprise, we actually agreed. My observations from last year was his excact feelings too. 

7.30. We got on the bus. 8 hours to Hanoi. The cool breeze from the aircon cooled my back. I was almost freezing. Not knowing what was expecting in Ha Noi. I sat in the bus and enjoyed the scenery. Lime-stone rocks and mountains rose up from everywhere. Making a spectacle. 

We arrived at the border. Dan, as he was called, warned me of the vietnamese side of the border. "It is total chaos!" he said. The chinese side was relatively calm, efficient and streamlined. It took less than a minute before I had the appropriate stamps showing I left in an orderly fashion. The vietnamese side of the border was, as Dan had warned, a complete chaos. I felt my blood pressure rising. There was screeming, yelling, shoving and sweatin. A lot of sweat. Dan showed me the ropes. I got hold of the right forms and sat down to write the usual stuff. Drops of sweat was dripping down on the forms. I gave up to dry my forehead. The ink spread and made the info unclear. I didn't care. Just wanted to get out. Dan told me to just shove my passport and papers at the officers. It worked. Five minutes later, I was allowed to enter Vietnam. The land of the smiles. I wasn't smiling. Just relieved to get out of the boiler room.

A new bus took us the last bit from the border to Ha Noi. Me and Dan sat and talked about his travels in Vietnam. He gave me a bunch of advices. At a rest stop, he introduced me to some true vietnamese food. Your regular noodle soup, and some interesting things wrapped in leaves. It was like a noodle wrapping of meat. With sweet chili it was mouthwatering. Still is. I enjoyed the meal so much that we both forgot the time. The bus was honking. When we finally got on the bus, we were the last. They had been waiting for us. 

A few hours later we entered Ha Noi. Dan had gotten off at the airport. There were two things I noticed. First, a sign saying the temperature was a scorching 40 degrees. The second was an ad for Jotun, a norwegian paint manufacturer... 40 degrees. I was already sweating just by the thought. When we arrived at the bus-station, a woman came onboard and announced she was from a hotel in the old city. I had nothing arranged, so I aggreed to check outher hotel. Especially since she offered to pay for the motorbike ride to the old town. The hotel looked ok, so I checked in. Double room wih aircon. $20 night, including breakfast wasn't too bad. Not the cheapest, but my head was telling me not to venture out in town in search for something else. 

I had arrived. Ha Noi. Viet Nam. The land of the smiles was smiling at me. The chaos of the city. Millions of motorbikes engulfed every street with noise and exhaust and chaotic traffic. Dan had told me that whenever I wanted to cross the street, I should just walk into the stream of traffic, and the traffic would just magically stream around me. It was scary at first, but after a few crossings, I became used to it. (Click on the image to see a larger version)

The old city was just as I expected it to be. Full of backpackers, and shopowners catering to them. All over the town, they were selling t-shirts, caps and piratecopied cds, dvds and even bluerays.  And cool youths on the trip of their lives. Like everywhere else in Asia. 

But that's a story for another entry.

Ragnar

Licensed to be in the boiler.