Hanoi via Guilin and Nanning

I am curious to know of my options of travel from Guilin, China through
Nanning to Hanoi, Vietnam. I see various posts about trains or buses from
Guilin to Nanning and then train from Nanning to Hanoi, departing Nanning
two days a week. Has anyone made this trip? Would an air-conditioned
sleeper bus from Guilin be preferable over train to Nanning? All general
comments about this trip would be greatly appreciated. My wife and I would
be traveling with several bags (2 large) for an extended stay in Vietnam if
this is a major consideration for travel for either train or bus. Thanks in
advance.

rg

In article b%%Cj.4777$rR1.2645@trndny09, Sharkbait says...
I am curious to know of my options of travel from Guilin, China through
Nanning to Hanoi, Vietnam. I see various posts about trains or buses from
Guilin to Nanning and then train from Nanning to Hanoi, departing Nanning
two days a week. Has anyone made this trip? Would an air-conditioned
sleeper bus from Guilin be preferable over train to Nanning? All general
comments about this trip would be greatly appreciated. My wife and I would
be traveling with several bags (2 large) for an extended stay in Vietnam if
this is a major consideration for travel for either train or bus. Thanks in
advance.

If you get no reply here, ask in the LP Thorntree China forum:
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntre...9&keywordid=84
--

Alfred Molon
http://www.molon.de - Photos of Asia, Africa and Europe

Sharkbait wrote:

Has anyone made this trip? Would an air-conditioned
sleeper bus from Guilin be preferable over train to Nanning? All general
comments about this trip would be greatly appreciated. My wife and I would
be traveling with several bags (2 large) for an extended stay in Vietnam if
this is a major consideration for travel for either train or bus. Thanks in
advance.

I've taken the train all the way from Beijing to Hanoi, which is the
twice-a-week service that passes through Guilin. While buses are ever
more comfortable on long-distance journeys in China, it seems to me the
train is always preferable simply for the improved space and legroom,
and the ability to move around (and that's assuming you're already
inured to Chinese driving). Large bags aren't an issue if the bus is the
modern kind with proper stowage beneath the seating though hatches in
the side of the bus. Otherwise there's more room on a train.

The arrangements may have changed since I took the train, but you're
allowed 1.5 hours in Nanning while the two carriages that are going on
to Hanoi are uncoupled and everything sorted out. That's time to find a
decent hot meal in the otherwise avoidable city. Chinese customs and
emigration formalities take place on the train around midnight, and in
the early hours of the morning the Vietnamese ones take place on the
station just over the border, where you wait some time for a train with
rather nice colonial era French rolling stock. When it starts the train
goes at times so slowly that at one point we were overtaken by a
cyclist.

I have heard suggestions that the Chinese carriages now continue to
Hanoi--the line is tracked both at the French narrow gauge and at
standard gauge as far as Hanoi. Nevertheless it may well be better to
spend a night in Nanning, and use a bus from there.

Peter N-H
http://www.datasinica.com