Vietnam.

I wonder how I got so lucky. A few nights ago I was dancing to Naxi music with the locals and tonight we watched the water puppets performing here in Hanoi. I can't imagine how I ever went day after day to school and followed the same routine....or how i'm going to adjust to it again. Here it's a new experience everyday and an unbelievable freedom. I am constantly amazed by the sights I see and the people I meet. Who would have ever thought that I would discover in China that the swiss are such gentleman and that I would end up walking into Vietnam from China. Sometimes I think I need a pinch because it's so hard to believe that this is my life at the moment. The last week in China was amazing. The southern province of Yunnan is absolutely stunning and the people I met along the way made it even more special.
And then we took the night sleeper bus to the border town of Hekou. The conductor was a little shit and as soon as he saw us with our backpacks, it was his chance to make a bit more money. He said we had to pay extra for the extra petrol that would be used up by carrying our luggage and tried to get lots of money out of us. He abused the Japanese guy travelling with us just because a long time ago the 'Japanese and chinese had a revolution' but we soon put him in his place and even managed to strangle an apology out of him. For a while this left a bad taste in our mouth and it felt like we were leaving China on a negative but the memories of the last few days soon erased all the bad experiences and we left China, feeling it's definitely a place to return to.
Our first night on a sleeper bus and actually it wasn't so bad. I had a bed next to the window and I think that helped a lot. Also being short and small is a huge advantage in China, the boys had their legs hanging out and i think not a very comfortable night. The sleeper buses have beds on eitherside, bunk beds, one on top of another and then another row of bunk beds in the middle. The beds are quite narrow and short so not as comfortable for the tall. Anyhow, we arrived in the border town of Hekou at 8:30 the next morning and once we walked out of the bus station we could see vietnamese hats and faces. Bicycles with huge woven baskets carrying goods across the border. We went through the chinese immigration, walked across the bridge into Vietnam, went through the Vietnamese immigration and we were in Vietnam! in a little town called Lao Cai. It was just amazing. One morning I wake up in a nice big bed in the hostel in Kunming and the next morning on a little narrow bed in a sleeper bus. That morning I am in Hekou in China and then within a matter of minutes, I am in Lao Cai in Vietnam and then that same evening I am in Hanoi. And here I am greeted with amazing sights, smells and sounds. Literally hundreds of motorbikes zooming all over the place, people gathered on small plastic stools on pavements gathered together to share a strong vietnamese coffee and some gossip, and then in another corner, a fire with the locals burning fake $100 bills and insence in prayer, holding beautifully decorated trays with flowers and candles. The sound of the motorbikes, the locals carrying fruits in baskets balanced on their shoulders, the smells of all different kinds of street food, a million different things being balanced and transported in these motorbikes...immediately Vietnam has left an amazing impression on me and the people here are just so warm and friendly and always smiling. It's a really nice place to be and once again there is just somuch to take in. Luzma, I see all these mopeds here and the vietnamese women dressed beautifully riding around and I think of how you would love Vietnam. It's a perfect place for you... a world fullof mopeds. Tomorrow we rent one and see if we can join in or do we disrupt the flow completely?