Glenn and Denh in Asia

We enjoyed our last breakfast in Sapa at the Mountain View Hotel without any mountain views, as it was very foggy. Our transfer to Lau Cai (small town on the border of Vietnam and China), which we had gone to great lengths to organise, was waiting in the lobby.

It was a small mini-van and another Vietnamese girl hopped in with us. Thinking nothing of this, we threw in our luggage and took a seat. Soon we stopped at some little place and picked up some Choco (a vegetable that is a bit like a cucumber). Fair enough we thought, the driver and his mate might want to bring some back to Lau Cai. Then we stopped at someone's house and waited for a while for something. Soon enough, some other bloke jumps into our car. This is a bit strange we began to think.

Along the way we pick up several other people, including some minority tribe people, all of them locals, and it dawns on us that we are actually financing the local bus from Sapa to Lau Cai. By this stage we are running 30 minutes late and have 15 people in the mini-van! We pass by some police and the driver suddenly pulls down the sign that says 'Lau Cai', obviously because he doesn't want the cops to know about their little scam.

After we drop off everybody else, most of them at the Lau Cai train station, the driver finally drops us off at the restaurant where we are to pick up our bus tickets which will take us from Hekou (the Chinese border town) to Kunming, where we will start our Geckos tour of China.
Again, much organisation had gone into arranging the bus tickets.

Sure enough, when we get into the restaurant and ask the girl for our tickets her response is almost 'what tickets'. She goes to the back to check something and comes back and tells us that the tickets have not arrived and that we will probably have to get the later bus, which just happens to be 6 hours later!

After much furore she goes around the corner and we think that she must be contacting someone to discuss the situation. Sure enough she is sitting around the corner having a nice old chat to her friend. Denh politely tells her to get off her ass and call someone about these tickets!
Frustration was building and considering the transfer fiasco, I got on the phone to find out about the tickets. Eventually I got through to the girl who had organised the tickets for us. I tried to explain the situation but decided that the best course of action was to get the two girls talking.

After a bit of that I again got on the phone and the girl apologised saying that all we can do is wait and hope that the tickets arrive in time for us to catch the correct bus. Fortunately, shortly after a young guy on a motorike pulls up to the restaurant with the tickets in his hand. This calms me down a bit and we both jump on a motorbike and head for the border.

After exchanging some money we painlessley go through the checkpoint. Of course, the lady on the Chinese side thinks Denh is Chinese so starts talking to her in Mandarin, which of course she doesn't understand. Once we're across the border we hop on a small transport (a bit like one of those kids trains you see in shopping centres) and pay 2 Yuan (about 40c Australian) for a trip around the corner to the bus station.

We line up at what we think is the counter when a skinny man in some shabby clothes (but nice shoes) walks up to us and starts to talk to us in English. He explains that he is the manager of the station and invites us into his office, which is just a partioned off little room full of crap.
He asks us to sit down, which I decline to do. He explains that we should leave our baggage in his office and walk around, another offer which we decline. He says he has one question for us, and asks what we are going to do for food and water for the 10 hour trip to Kunming, and then states that we should buy lots of snacks and water from his shop. We thank him for his advice and walk out of his office and sit down to wait for the bus. Since we have no water, I buy one bottle from the shop outside the manager's office. I give the girl 5 Yuan, and she gives me a look of disgust, then tells me in Mandarin that it is 10 Yuan. Another little rip-off!

Later, when it is getting close to our departure time, the 'manager' asks us to load our large baggage into the back of the bus. He tells us that we now have to pay 50 Yuan for each bag. I impolitely tell him that this is BS, and then he directs me to 'the boss' a middle aged Chinese woman. After arguing very poorly, I reulctantly pay the 100 Yuan (about $20 Australian) for our bags. I walk to the toilet before boarding but some old codger sticks up three fingers telling me that it will cost 3 Yuan to use the dunny. Stuff that I think, and decide to hold on.
We board the bus, which soon becomes very full, and get to enjoy a bus full of Chinese men constantly clearing their throats then spitting it out of the window, along with most of them chain smoking, for the next ten hours. Welcome to China I thought....