T-5 train departed from Guilin with one hour delay. In Nanning they took all of us off the train… (for cleaning?) an hour later we boarded our international express again… Only two passenger carriages in the train! Bad news: the chineese carriage will go only to the Vietnameese border town of DangDong. Then, in the middle of the night all passengers are changing the carriage to the Vietnameese one! Even Lonely Planet did not mention that…
At 1 am we reched the chineese border town of Pingxiang. Immigrations collected the passports. They came back with them an hour later. No exit stamp in my passport! -You must disembark the train! – somebody translated because the immigration officers know only english: Hallo!
Why me? -In your vietnameese visa you have written date of entry to Vietnam 18th Jan, it is 16th today! -You have to wait two days!
But… there is no disscussion in the middle of the night with the officer who do not speak any European language…
I dissembarked the train…
It is VERY difficult planing four-months RTW voyage to precise the entry date – I did not know T5 timetable… Now you will know what to expect on this outback border crossing…
Good night from China!
