Disclaimer: This post was originally posted on Oct. 30th, but I never got any pictures of the experience. I need a freaking camera recharger before the end of our program, or I won't have any more pictures of my own for the ending day of banqueting, partying...nonetheless, this pic I just found on Don's blog. I'll have to remember to ask him if in his comp he has any of the group, or me, sneaking into China. Original post: So, after we hiked out of the village (which was named Ban Ho...I just looked the name up in my journal), we got back to Sapa.. Oh, I lied right below, it wasn't later that day...we got back and stayed a night in Sapa...Okay, so the next morning we get up, have breakfest in "Pink Floyd Cafe" where they play only Pink Floyd (can you believe there is a place like this in the minority highlands of North Vietnam??) and then we get on a bus to go to a city named Muong Khuong.
Okay, so Muong Khuong...we had like 4 or 5 hours there, and there was not much to do at all. I got really homesick when I slipped in the mud in my stupid flip flops, and all the Chinese people laughed at me. Oh yeah, there are a lot of Chinese people there, that come over the border every day to sell at the market in Muong Khuong, cause it is right on the border. It was so strange, the market was completely segregated. I could totally tell which part of the market was ethnic Kinh (the top of the food chain), which was Hmong or other ethnic minority and which was Chinese (the bottom of the food chain).
Anyways, everyone was a little bored. I had some very peppery pho. I cried cause the homesickness (yes home home) hit me. and then we were just sitting in a cafe, bored, waiting for 2:00 to come. Well at 12:45 I get this idea. Steff: "Hey guys, lets walk to the Chinese border!!" and then my idea gets better... "Hey guys, lets take xe om to the Chinese border!!!" Hahah it was a good thing that I said xe om, because we found out the border was actually 8 kilometers away, and up a VERY windy mountain. So Alex negotiates that for each of us it would be 30 thousand a person round trip, to the border.
It was definitely a highlight of our trip. 9 people, including me were around when I had the idea, so the 9 of us jumped on the back of locals' motorbikes, and cruised up the gorgeous mountains to China.
The xe om drivers would not take us all the way to the border. They stopped short, and we walked up. Hopefully I'll get pictures from someone who didn't have a broken camera (! Arg!) and post them up later. The border was so funny. There was like a guy in a room kinda far away just staring at us. The fence was this bar that looks like the bar that moves up for you after you pay the parking fee at an airport. In the distance we saw fully uniformed communist gaurds roaming around. They just looked at us. It was kinda scary, but it was soooooo fun!!! We all took pictures with one foot in China. We had a group picture with all of us pretending to border hop. So I technically have set foot in China. Man it was so fun. I can't explain how fun it was. I'm so glad I thought of "going to China".
:) No use trying to tell you how cool it was, because its just unexplainable. :)
posted by Steffanie @ 5:08 PM
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