AlexBrown84
INFP - 23 years old - Been to 30+ countries
- Jul 31, 2022
- 7,935
- 11,847
i decided to take a train from bangkok to china to begin my trip but i’ll ignore the thai section since it wasn’t really special. just a 200 baht seat with no ac and being crammed between a german trans (atleast i think, i couldn’t really tell what she was) and an old thai lady.
vientiane to kunming - 1600km (1000miles) with a journey time of 9 hours. crazy
the chinese train number is d88 which means it’s the second best type of train and travels up to 250km/h. i bought a first class $120 ticket for my 9 hour trip. first class in china just means it’s bigger seats and a bit more quiet since its more expensive however throughout the journey, old chink guys talked loudly as is typical. the only time it’s been completely quiet on a chinese train was in business class
when arriving at the station in vientiane, i had to print my ticket since im going cross border. surprisingly they didn’t ask for my chinese visa but i guess cuz its not a border point yet, however they would later come by on the train and ask for my visa and to fill out customs etc. when going thru security, i had no problems despite carrying about 100 shaving blades and a couple liquids over 100ml. i bought a coffee and some snacks since i had a lot of leftover laos money and you can’t really exchange it outside the country from what i’ve heard
my seat number being 1A made me think i would get a good view but i only had half a window lol. when we departed, the only other people in first class were white skinned chinks, no laos people or other westerners
from the point of vientiane to luang prabang, the scenery is pretty decent. i would recommend sitting on the left side of the train if you can. from the point after luang prabang, it’s mostly being in tunnels with no cell services.
when we stopped at luang prabang, more chinks got on and a girl chink sat next to me. luckily not a fat pot belly guy. she was traveling with her dad but didn’t get seats next to each other so told her to sit next to me. (don’t make fun of the girls looks as it’s a candid photo and bad at that. she looks a bit better when having normal posture lol)
after arriving at the border, we hop off the train and go through laos exit border, hop back on train, then go to china side of border. in between this, some chink guy sitting across from me started a conversation asking me about my plans for china etc etc. he told me he lives in malaysia now for 15 years (prob the chinese version of geomaxxer) and that he owns tourist related business throughout laos and thailand. anyways, after letting him talk to me as if i was a noob needing advice, he asked me how many times i’d been to china and i said half a dozen. conversation thankfully tapered off after this.
when going thru chinese customs, i get pulled to the side. not sure if it’s because i was the first foreigner (there’s a few oldcel european couples back in 2nd class that i’ve seen a few times) from my train going through or that i was american. anyways, it took a bit longer than normally going thru chinese customs, could be because my visa is in my old passport or that it’s an odd border for westerners to cross. they asked me typical questions that pertains to any foreigners going to china such as how long you’re gonna stay, where you’re going, how much money you have. i told them im gonna leave to hong kong cuz can’t be arsed to explain my autistic journey west. one question they asked pertaining to americans specifically is whether or not we served in the army. i said no and was on my way. bag check was smooth despite having literally hundreds of single razor blades lol. hopped back on the train heading north. chinks staring like always when i was walking around but i don’t even look at them. helps that im on lyrica also (if non nt/autistic, id recommend taking lyrica when crossing borders)
a tip for anyone taking this route : the cell service is shit in laos (barely working even in the capital) however within a minute of crossing the chinese border, you get a noticeable improvement in the connection, even in the tunnels
after stopping at Xishuangbanna, the train (atleast in first class) empties up quite a lot so you can move to other seats. a small selection of warm food is offered throughout the trip on the chinese side. the rest of the journey after this is nothing to write about. i arrive to kunming after a 9 hour train journey traveling 1600km by land. pretty sure this is my longest single train journey unless im forgetting some other one.
ask any questions if you have
vientiane to kunming - 1600km (1000miles) with a journey time of 9 hours. crazy
the chinese train number is d88 which means it’s the second best type of train and travels up to 250km/h. i bought a first class $120 ticket for my 9 hour trip. first class in china just means it’s bigger seats and a bit more quiet since its more expensive however throughout the journey, old chink guys talked loudly as is typical. the only time it’s been completely quiet on a chinese train was in business class
when arriving at the station in vientiane, i had to print my ticket since im going cross border. surprisingly they didn’t ask for my chinese visa but i guess cuz its not a border point yet, however they would later come by on the train and ask for my visa and to fill out customs etc. when going thru security, i had no problems despite carrying about 100 shaving blades and a couple liquids over 100ml. i bought a coffee and some snacks since i had a lot of leftover laos money and you can’t really exchange it outside the country from what i’ve heard
my seat number being 1A made me think i would get a good view but i only had half a window lol. when we departed, the only other people in first class were white skinned chinks, no laos people or other westerners
from the point of vientiane to luang prabang, the scenery is pretty decent. i would recommend sitting on the left side of the train if you can. from the point after luang prabang, it’s mostly being in tunnels with no cell services.
when we stopped at luang prabang, more chinks got on and a girl chink sat next to me. luckily not a fat pot belly guy. she was traveling with her dad but didn’t get seats next to each other so told her to sit next to me. (don’t make fun of the girls looks as it’s a candid photo and bad at that. she looks a bit better when having normal posture lol)
after arriving at the border, we hop off the train and go through laos exit border, hop back on train, then go to china side of border. in between this, some chink guy sitting across from me started a conversation asking me about my plans for china etc etc. he told me he lives in malaysia now for 15 years (prob the chinese version of geomaxxer) and that he owns tourist related business throughout laos and thailand. anyways, after letting him talk to me as if i was a noob needing advice, he asked me how many times i’d been to china and i said half a dozen. conversation thankfully tapered off after this.
when going thru chinese customs, i get pulled to the side. not sure if it’s because i was the first foreigner (there’s a few oldcel european couples back in 2nd class that i’ve seen a few times) from my train going through or that i was american. anyways, it took a bit longer than normally going thru chinese customs, could be because my visa is in my old passport or that it’s an odd border for westerners to cross. they asked me typical questions that pertains to any foreigners going to china such as how long you’re gonna stay, where you’re going, how much money you have. i told them im gonna leave to hong kong cuz can’t be arsed to explain my autistic journey west. one question they asked pertaining to americans specifically is whether or not we served in the army. i said no and was on my way. bag check was smooth despite having literally hundreds of single razor blades lol. hopped back on the train heading north. chinks staring like always when i was walking around but i don’t even look at them. helps that im on lyrica also (if non nt/autistic, id recommend taking lyrica when crossing borders)
a tip for anyone taking this route : the cell service is shit in laos (barely working even in the capital) however within a minute of crossing the chinese border, you get a noticeable improvement in the connection, even in the tunnels
after stopping at Xishuangbanna, the train (atleast in first class) empties up quite a lot so you can move to other seats. a small selection of warm food is offered throughout the trip on the chinese side. the rest of the journey after this is nothing to write about. i arrive to kunming after a 9 hour train journey traveling 1600km by land. pretty sure this is my longest single train journey unless im forgetting some other one.
ask any questions if you have
