Vietnam Story Last Part

Hey Laowinners!

The border crossing across the bridge into Vietnam was fairly painless, although the guards had never seen a passport other than Chinese/Vietnamese. The Vietnamese guards on the other side made fun of our noses, and tried to use French with us, which only Prozzie picked up on.

As we walked into Vietnam, we were met with massive propaganda posters, and... nothing.

There was a massive 4 lane highway, with no cars and an old man in tattered rags walking around with a shiv. He may have been a product of the Vietnam war, and he hobbled in our direction. He walked at a snail's pace, so he wasn't a threat, but as we walked through the town, we noticed two glaring things.

This town in Vietnam was MUCH wealthier than the Chinese town. People drove big Japanese or American SUVS, vs. the cheap e-bikes and Chinese bread vans on the other side. People were better dressed, and the town was much cleaner than the Chinese cousin across the river.

It turns out, this area of Vietnam was richer than the rest of the country. Surprisingly, everything was really cheap, and we had a hard time spending over 100 dollars for the whole few day trip. 

The other thing we noticed was how empty everything felt... You don't realize this, but in really capitalist countries like China or the USA, billboards, lights, noise, music, all of these things make the place feel vibrant and lively. China especially.

Vietnam, in this area, felt sad, quiet, and lifeless. There were people, there were shops, but everything was silent. There were no ads anywhere, no music, nothing. The height of nightlife was going to a coffee shop. No one drank alcohol, and everything felt like a distant memory from the 1970s.

We were so bored that we ended up going to a flower shop and buying roses, and handing them to people as they walked by. This created quite a sensation, as it was actually Valentine's day. People lined up to take photos with us, and the ladies would leave their boyfriends behind and grab our arms to pose for selfies. We ended up chatting with some kids that could speak a little Chinese, and ended up eating street food.

Unfortunately this let Beard to get severe food poisoning, and he threw up all night. While Beard puked his guts up, Prozzie and I snuck out for a few beers, and ended up seeing the border guards from earlier. We chatted with them, and got to know a bit about the situation in the town due to one of them being able to translate in Chinese.

Vietnam pushed out over 250,000 Chinese in the 70s back into China, and Dongxing, the town we were previously in in China, was the main base of refugees. Mong Cai, the town in Vietnam became a huge hub of international trade, and profited from Chinese border trade. 

Either way, Beard was going to die if we didn't get him to a hospital, so we ended up driving to Nanning in Guangxi after begging the Chinese border guards to let him back in. We would have gotten him treatment in Vietnam, but we couldn't really communicate to anyone. 

It was a weird trip, and one of many.

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Thanks for your support!