10/6/25
It poured with rain all morning. Our stomachs felt sick with anxiety. We had no idea why. It seemed illogical. We ate as much of our food as possible while watching a show called Motherland. A funny comedy about a woman with children. It was a bit old but it was good. Two episodes later we figured we should leave. At 11am we packed up our bags.
We weren’t sure what to do with our opinel knife. We’d heard reports of them being confiscated. Our plan to stash it in the seat tube was dashed by the fact it didn’t fit. The China whatsapp group suggested keeping it with our cooking stuff. Jonathan put it in his top tube. This tended to be an overlooked place in all the hubbub over our many panniers.
It perfectly stopped raining as we left. It was only a mile to the border buildings. We’d overlooked them for three days. It was a struggle to find the entrance. The only building we could see was marked ‘exit’. Eventually we realised it meant that we exited Vietnam here. Silly us. The Vietnamese official asked if we intended to return. Leaving on the last possible day probably made him think we were on a visa run.
The Vietnamese building wasn’t anywhere near as grand or stylish as the Chinese. We walked across the bridge, accompanied by many tradespeople with suitcases. They go backwards and forwards taking the limit of their personal allowances. Shoes and coffee as far as we could gather.
We walked inside and started making our way through the ‘health quarantine’ zone. Walking slowly, without a hat, so they could check our temperatures. As we passed the customs zone we decided to go back outside and eat our nuts and lychees. As many as we could anyway. Some of them had to be binned sadly. When we made our way to the customs desk a lady approached us speaking very good English. She helped us fill out our arrival cards, which were very light on specifics. Hopefully not a problem.
It took a while to get past the immigration desk. The young official asked us a few questions. We were vague and gestured towards the bicycles. We couldn’t say when exactly we’d be leaving or where we’d be going. We hadn’t a clue. After flipping through the pages repeatedly, we were finally through. Our visa, that we’d carried around for months, was accepted.
Only now did we have to take all the panniers off the bicycles and run them through the X-ray machine. The woman manning the device was extremely friendly and very interested in our travels. She queried us on money and where we would go. It was hard not to wonder if she was reporting back to someone else. That’s how much we’d been taught to be suspicious of China.
Eventually we were out. We’d lost an hour immediately. ‘China time’ took us forward an hour. We paused momentarily to soak in our surroundings. A man approached us. He was young and wearing a smart black shirt. ‘Bruce’ was fascinated to see us with bicycles and took us on a walk to get a Chinese sim card. Jonathan had a esim already. The internet ‘breaks out’ in Hong Kong, so it gets past the great firewall. Bruce immediately asked us for our whatsapp. It was too quick for us to say no. Afterwards Jonathan wished he’d said he didn’t use it. It was a bit suspicious.
We wanted a local sim for calls and app authentications. As we walked Bruce greeted another white tourist. Apparently he was here to see local life. Our suspicions rose once again. We went for China Telecom to give us two different coverage spheres. It took a while in the shop. More thorough identification procedures. Bruce left us after we went into the shop. He didn’t know the small local ones.
We couldn’t get Alipay to work. It’s the way everything is paid for here in China. Universally accepted QR code payment. Nationwide had unfortunately blocked our credit card in the morning when we’d tried to purchase our VPN: LetsVPN. Our Mastercard debit by Chase Bank didn’t work either. So Jonathan got some cash from across the road. It was easy, and importantly free, to withdraw from China Agricultural Bank.
It was already 3pm. Starting a day of cycling now seemed silly. So we went a further 4km to the nearest foreigner friendly hotel and got a room. Still cheap, though not as nice as our room for the last few days. The bikes were allowed in the lobby. It took an hour to discover the Tesco international calling app allowed us to call Nationwide at home so we could get our card unblocked. Since Skype shut down it’s hard to find a reliable voip app.
The entire town was apparently dedicated to Vietnam. A huge complex of stores all selling the exact same assortment of nuts, coffees and UPF. We found a restaurant that had a menu of meat. Weird delights were on the menu. A quick translate conversation and they showed us their tofu and vegetables. We paid 46 Yuan for our meal. Thats £4.74. We walked around for a bit. Nearby we found some odd snacks. Scouring the packets with out translator to find something vegan friendly. Sweet potato congee. Some puff pastry circles. Quite a few locals were making fires outside. Ripping up meat with their hands. Paws sticking out of plastic bags.
Craving some fresh food we asked at the hotel. They pointed us to a supermarket a kilometre away. Pavements exist in China. Wide and clear. Other people use them too. It was heavenly. A relaxing evening walk. The shop had an insane array of options. A Thai 7-eleven on steroids. A good selection of fruit. Apples were back on the menu. For 20p we bought 5 reduced, crispy apples. We walked back as evening fell.
We watched the penultimate episode of Survivors, then another episode of Motherland. Munching on the sweet potato congee and pastries. We were on the 6th floor. We had finally arrived in China.
Surly They Won't Make It 