With my arrival at the railway station for the train to Nanning I first go to the wrong waiting room!! I’m politely directed to the correct waiting room and sit and wait for the staff to open the doors onto the platform. So far, so good.
Eventually the doors are opened and tickets and passports are checked before being told I’m in carriage 2 and where to board. Wrong door so walk back the length of the carriage and queue to board. No hassle.
I have a lower berth again and find the other lower berth occupied by a young Chinese lady. We both wait for other people to enter the compartment and realise it is just the two of us for the overnight journey to Nanning. Namfon, or as She preferred to be called DF, is a student studying communication and film in a university in Singapore. Her English is brilliant and we chat for about an hour before going to sleep.
At 01:00 we are woken by the steward to say all off the train for the Vietnamese immigration. All bags to be taken with us and we quickly and easily get stamped out of Vietnam. Back on the train at 01:30 and waiting to leave for the Chinese border. At this point I realise I need a wee, off to the toilet to find the doors are all locked and a notice stating ‘No use while stabling’!! Stabling?? Hung like a horse? Not me. Ask where to have a wee told to wait until the train moves. At 02:40 it moves about 300 metres but enough to get into the toilet!!!
Twenty minutes later we roll up to Chinese immigration and get off the train with all belongings to pass through their customs and immigration. There were three travellers from the West on the train and we all had to wait for the immigration people to make phone calls to verify our visas. This after going through an interrogation that was worse and more detailed than the interrogation at the Chinese visa office in Bangkok. Don’t they want tourists in their country?? We are the last people through after being close to the front of the queue when we entered. DF was really miffed that immigration seemed to pick out westerners for extra scrutiny.
Back on the train and stay at the platform with all doors locked until 04:00 when the train must be scheduled to depart for Nanning. I’m in China. Within minutes I have no wifi or phone with any service, no problem I’ll get a SIM card in Nanning.
We arrive in Nanning at 10:15 and proceed to leave the station. This is where DF and I say our good byes as she is travelling through to a city near Hong Kong and needs to go to the other Nanning train station quickly to make her connection.
While in Nanning I decide to get all my train tickets for my China travel.