Goodbye China, Hello Hanoi!

I'm missing a few photos from my last days in China due to some unfortunate circumstances, but once Guillermo gets around to posting his pictures from our last few adventures in China (a trip north to the Deqin area near the ominous -- if gorgeous -- snow-capped mountains in Fa La Si and a short jaunt through Kunming), I'll add some here.

We arrived in Hanoi safe and sound, if a bit exhausted. Our journey from Kunming, China to Hanoi, Vietnam took over 24 hours and included an overnight sleeper bus from Kunming to the border of Vietnam, a 3+ km walk across the border and to the train station, and then another 8 hour train ride to Hanoi.

The train ride to Hanoi was a bit of an adventure on its own since we didn't get regular seats, but rather were smuggled onto the staff car. Hard-core travelers might purposefully seek out this option in order to save a bit of cash and meet some locals, but I can assure you -- we are not that hard-core. I would assume that if one wanted this sort of arrangement, you would discretely ask the porter, or some other official, while simultaneously waving a bit of cash around. Surely, if you walk up to the official ticket counter at the train station and ask to buy a ticket you can be assured that you won't be stuffed into the last dingy car on the train (luggage and all) with 4 to 5 curious and giggling staff members and then escorted like contraband through the back gates of the train station in Hanoi (with nods and winks from the complicit guards). Or maybe, inexplicably, you will.

The train ride ended up being a lot of fun -- after we got over an initial bout of grumpiness and stopped mooning over the posh sleeper cars ahead of us. The staff brought us noodles, showed us pictures of their kids, and taught us how to count to 10 in Vietnamese. We also managed to have a very basic conversation using the small language section in the back of our guidebook.

The photo above is from the streets of Hanoi's old quarter, and I think it does a good job of capturing the motion of the city. Motorbikes, bikes and cyclos are everywhere here and there are very few traffic lights to actually stop the flow of traffic. They move forward like water -- finding the path of least resistance (yes, even if that means the sidewalk), avoiding stationary objects (i.e. tourists frozen in the middle of the street), and slowing down to negotiate cross traffic. It is an improbable ballet of chaos.