Maybe it’s our blasé attitude towards planning, or our lust for adventure, but every now and then, we have real trouble leaving a place…. And it then seems like the universe is conspiring to keep us there, or force us in a different direction. So it was written, that there shall be no available trains for us to get to China from Hong Kong in order to make our journey to Vietnam. Flying was not an option, because we are on a budget and, and, and…

Staying in Hong Kong would be eating into our volunteering time and risking TJ’s return to Cape Town…  

So I guess the only response to, “there is no tickets to Nanning”, would be how far can I get then? So we buy tickets to Guangzhou. It gets us half way to Nanning and 936kms from Hanoi, Vietnam. We are hopeful to get the bullet train from Guangzhou south, but that just cost us a wasted metro ride with a possibility of leaving early morning. Nope, not good enough for these adventurers. We want out of China. Vietnam tomorrow, not the next day! So in search of a bus it is. And search we did. Up and down the street to find the elusive bus station. Let’s just say, I had a good workout with my 15kg backpack.

Our bus leaves eight thirty at night and is a cool sleeper, specially ordered for TJ’s experience of real budget travel. It’s a long journey, but it saves us five hundred dollars with the added bonus of some new experiences. And gets us to Nanning in time for the ten am bus to Hanoi…

  
Bless…we are well shot of that brightly lit, money ridden, Sodom and Gomorrah!!