The southern Chinese city of Kunming is often celebrated as the city of everlasting spring. During its peak weather conditions the city boasts a comfortably warm climate, rampant flora (that is, of course, whats left of it) and surrounding areas of magnificent views. It has been and remains pretty much the best part of China. It also happened to be the first step in my journey south to Vietnam with a small group of friends- myself, my girlfriend Katie D., and another couple named Katie A. and Richie.
Before leaving Yibin we had all sat together hoping our arrival in Kunming was soon to come. At that time, our hands had been frozen and our spirits low. I myself had been anxious as hell start experiencing a climate that didnt require long underwear, so traveling as far south as we could had sounded like a great idea. The plan was this: travel down through southern China by land, cross the border, and slowly make our way down to Ho Chi Minh city (Saigon), where we would catch a plane back to our placement sites in China. After long planning and a rough idea of the hostels and transportation methods to use, we were ready to strap up and head out.
As it turned out, Kunming was a blowout. We stepped off an overnight train groggy as hell, and annoyed at the constant bumps and shifts during our sleep. Overhead we glimpsed Kunmings first snow shower in 50 years. After all of our naive hopes and anticipations the spring city had turned out to be even colder than the place we had just left.
We tried to remain optimistic and handled our plans as usual. Before we knew it we were heading off again to a new city where we might have better luck.
The next stop was Lao Cai, the Chinese border town that allows access to Vietnam. It was not a particularly exciting city and anyway we did not stay long enough to find out much about it. After exchanging our Chinese money to Vietnamese Dong we passed through customs and found the border to be a small bridge arching over the Red river.
Overtop the bridge we found many Chinese and Vietnamese peasant hauling loads of produce back and forth between borders. My first impression was that there appearance was strikingly similar, especially while donning their well known conical hats. But soonafter our arrival small differences in behavior and appearance amongst the Vietnamese became apparent.
While still on the bridge we were ushered us along by a Vietnamese man in a sports suit. He used as much friendliness as he could muster, but we knew he wanted compensation for his help, or perhaps for transportation later on. After crossing the border we politely left him behind and made our own way. We enjoyed that, and for much of the trip we used our legs to explore the cities. In this way we discovered a great deal of nooks and crannies throughout Vietnam we might not have otherwise.
Upon arrival Vietnam was both exciting and frightening. None of us had experience with the language and we were not in possession of any phrasebooks. We were equipped only with a travel guide and a map of the country's major cities.
From the border we walked several miles before a friendly Vietnamese farmer pointed us towards the city train station (we pointed at it on the map). From there we departed for Hanoi.
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