I’m now on the train leaving Vietnam on my way to China.

The last time I was in China was in 2006-2007 during a 1 year study abroad program at Beijing Normal University and left right before the Olympics, so I got to witness Beijing’s rapid change that included factory shutdown days, designated driving days for those with cars, getting all of Beijing’s taxi drivers to have a basic command of the English language, and my personal favorite: teaching subway passengers how to stand in line.

Unlike the nonstop sightseeing that I have been doing in Taiwan and Vietnam, my plan while in China is to see some old friends (maybe make a few new ones), work on preexisting apps and some new ones, and of course if time permits do a little sightseeing.

In 10 hours I’ll be in China.
This is what I have been waiting for
7 years ago when I returned to the US from that 1 year study abroad program and became the place I must revisit either for travel or work.

Work. That’s what a friend told me to do after returning to the US. Find a job, beef up your skill set, then have your company send you. Well somewhere between my first job out of college, learning how to develop iPhone apps, joining a startup and later abandoning it due to the realization that it wasn’t going anywhere, and finally getting a contracting gig at Yahoo which seemed like the company that would send me provided I converted to full-time, but I didn’t. I declined. It was hard because I liked the people I worked with, liked the project I was working on, and most of all, loved the free food and coffee.

But how long would I have had to wait to be sent over? 1 month? 1 year? 5 years!? Sure I could use my vacation days and spend, what..like a week? What would I do with a week in China? Even if they sent me for work, I’d only be thinking about work and not have time to revisit old friends, revisit the restaurants I ate at, bars I got drunk at (seldom), and the classrooms I learned in.

To me China is that old high school friend you were so close with and over time lost touch with. And after many years have gone by you decide to meet for coffee. Will one forcefully try to relive the memories like trying to enjoy a movie that had been watched over a dozen times, while the other just comes off estranged? Or will both be able to pick up where they left off as if time had come to a halt and started up again.

Today was the day I got to visit the beautiful Ha Long Bay, but not without yet another 3.5 hour bus ride which included multiple pickup points and a bathroom break/tourist trap stop.  Fortunately the bus was comfortable and I was sitting next to my friend Angela whom I have been traveling with and another traveler from Germany named Matthias.  Matthias and I were determined to see the iconic boat that can be seen on almost every postcard and travel book for Vietnam which is generally colored brown and has 2 or 3 large sails with the title of the tour company written on it.  Sadly, we never saw the brown boat with 2 or 3 large sails but we did see a white boat with one sail.  Oh well.

So just when I thought the Vietnamese were only crazy drivers, I learned today that they’re also crazy boat drivers!  You see, leaving the port turned into a bumper boat game where each boat showed no respect for nearby boats and just pushed their way out from the port.  At first I thought the captain of our boat was drunk but seeing other boats exit in the same fashion confirmed that “this is just standard protocol”.  Never a dull moment here.

The boat made two stops, one to a cave that had rock formations and another to a place where people could go kayaking around the bay.  I decided to stay on the boat and enjoy the view which you can see for yourself form the pictures below.

After a 14 hour train ride (shorter than the last one) I’m finally in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam located in the north.

After an almost 20 hour train ride I’m finally in Hue which is located in the center of Vietnam.

Although the trip was long, the scenery along the way was quite beautiful.