VIETNAM

ok so this post might not make total sense cause im just rapid-fire typing away but that's cause we've finally arrived in Hanoi, Vietnam and i'm about to go roam around the old quarter for a bit! i apologize for the lack of pictures in this post but hopefully my expert usage of the english knowledge will evoke such powerful imagery that you will not even notice the lack of actual photos.

so from hong kong we went into guangzhou and we proceeded to go directly from the metro to this island called shamian and it was so fabulous because our "hostel" was super pimp and more like a hotel and what was super fab was it had a tv with english tv channels including MTV. that means i got to see music videos again and i was seriously overcome with joy. i had an intense mtv/animal documentaries/countdown of movie songs marathon that nite. we also had dinner at a super cute outdoor restaurant that was strung up with lights in the trees and everything.

we only left our little island when we left the city but what was most noteworthy about shamian is that it's where all the white americans go to adopt chinese babies so everywhere you go you just see whities toting around their new babies. it made for quite an interesting sight. god i loved our little island, cut off from the real guangzhou.

from guangzhou, we took a 14 hour train into nanning. i hate nanning. this is the city that's famous for eating DOGS. john made a fuss over how he thinks people that bitch and moan about their travels on their blogs are retarded but i dont care, i hate nanning. we arrived maybe 6 am and the city itself is quite boring and just very urban and crowded. but the real thing that put me off was our 'hotel'. i use that word loosely cause it was seriously the sickest and dodgiest place we've stayed at so far. it was right next to the train station and the bathroom was like 1 metre x 0.5 metre and it had a shower OVER the squat toilet. note 2 things about that sentence: shower OVER the toilet, + SQUAT toilet. you had to stand straddling the toilet during your shower.

i wanted to cry just a little. actually a lot.

also, this 'hotel' had hourly rates, so you know what that means! even standing NEAR my bed, i felt like id catch at least 3 different types of STDs. also hookers kept calling our room. this was the first nite where i was like, "yup, im sure glad i brought along that sleeping sheet!" i didn't even sleep with my little moo cow because i didnt want to subject him to that kinda environment.

anyway today we got up nice and early, left our hellish hotel and hopped a train into a town right near the vietnam border. we got a ride in a little tarp-covered metal cart attached to a motorcycle to the border and from there we got in a car, then picked up a cute swedish couple on the side of the road (i instantly developed a craving for ikea meatballs and told them so)and hitched a ride in a van into hanoi. and now the four of us are staying at a fabulous aussie-run hostel in the old quarter and i had the best shower of my entire life. well more like compared to nanning, it was the best shower in the universe. right now im staying with the swedish girl in the all girl dorm called the 'nunnery' but tomorrow nite i'll get put into the mixed dorm which i actually prefer. but anyway, im very impressed with my speed typing cause ive managed to type all this in an incredibly short time span! well im off, until i have tales from vietnam to tell.