G- Look, I see buildings in the distance.
P- I guess we're almost there.
G- I don't know, we're not supposed to arrive for 45 minutes.
P- Maybe we're just early.
G- Gawd, it looks bigger than I expected.
P- Me too. Wow! Do you think those are all apartment buildings?
G- I think so. This sure doesn't look like a border town. At least not like any other border town we've seen so far.
G- But without the sprawling, single family dwellings of suburbia.
P- I wonder how many people live in this city.
G- A hell of a lot more than we had thought. Let's not forget to look that up.
We later learned the population of Nanning is approximately 8 million while the population of Chicago is around 4 million. As we drove we saw more and more skyscraper type apartment buildings, tall office buildings, and large malls, and our mouths hung further and further open.
G- Look at the highway worker in the water proof, red conical hat.
P- That is hysterical! I want a conical hat! Whah!
G- There goes Walmart.
P- I didn't know Walmart was in China.
P- Look! McDonald's.
G- OMG! As pathetic as this sounds, I cannot wait to eat a Big Mac, fries and a large coke with ice. I'm starving.
P- Me too. How are we gonna find a place to stay in this huge city?
G- I guess we'll do what we did in every other city. The guide book said that there were many hotels around the bus station, so we'll just walk around until we find one.
P- The roadway signs were written in Chinese and English, but since we got to Nanning I have not seen a single sign written in English. That makes me a little nervous.
G- Let's not get nervous just yet. This is the entrance point from Vietnam so they must be use to tourists.
After driving through this enormous "border town" for 45 minutes we finally reached the bus station. We retrieved our backpacks as a light drizzle fell, and wandered to the street. It was about 5:30 and getting dark.
 |
| our hotel/never knew the name |
G- I have no idea. Both of these streets look like huge thoroughfares and since every sign is in Chinese, I can't tell which one says hotel.
P- That place looks like it could possibly be a hotel.
G- Go ask that woman at the desk.
P- Why me?
G- Because I asked about the wieners.
Phyl went inside and I watched her point to her backpack, point upstairs, and put her hands together and lay them aside her face as she tilted her head to indicate sleeping. The woman shook her head NO and said something in Chinese. Phyl came back outside.
G- I gather it's not a hotel.
P- No, now I think it's a doctor's office.
G- I spotted an ATM a little bit up the street. Maybe we should get some money so we can pay for the hotel if and when we find one.
I tried both credit cards in the ATM but it refused to give me money.
G- Ugh! I hope the bank has done whatever they need to do to fix our account so we can use the ATMs in China.
P- Didn't you send them the email?
G- I did, but I never got a confirmation before we left.
P- What the hell will we do if we can't get money?
G- Then we'll be in deep shit, Gladys.
We walked another 2 blocks looking at all of the store fronts in search of a hotel, but without success.
P- Are you worried?
G- I have to tell you that I am getting a little concerned that we'll be sleeping on the street tonight. Since I'm already wet from this steady drizzle, it'll be a long, cold night.
G- Sorry, Gladys. I'm cold, wet, hungry, and my back is starting to hurt. Oh, and my feet are freezing and feel wet.
P- What should we do?
G- We have to keep walking until we find a place to stay. I wish we could get to the guidebook so we could find the word for hotel.
P- We'd have to take everything out of your backpack to reach it.
G- I know. It'll have to be a last resort.
We walked across a large street and stopped in another storefront with a girl behind a desk. Yay!!! It was a hotel, the young girl spoke a little English, and they had a room.
It was a huge relief for both of us. We explained to the girl that we had just arrived and had no money. She directed us to 3 ATMs up the block and let us put our big backpacks in the room while we went to find money. The first ATM, really the second one at this point, rejected us. Our elation at finding a hotel was fading quickly. Fortunately, the next ATM gave us money.
P- Thank ya, Jesus!
G- I feel much better now. Let's pay for the room and go find something to eat.
We dug our umbrellas out of our bags and walked up the street. We couldn't really find a 'restaurant', but passed several places with a few tables and chairs and a steam table displaying pans of food.
P- I don't care which one. You pick. They all look the same and I'm tired of walking around in the rain.
We stepped up to the steam table and pointed, through the glass, at a pan of vegetables. Everyone was looking at us as though we had just stepped out of a space ship we left double parked in the street. The lady behind the counter shook her head no, and pointed to a man sitting at a table, in the opening, in front of the tables.
G- I guess we have to pay before we select our food.
We walked over to the man who ignored us and continued to serve other people around us. Finally I stepped in front of the next person who had just walked up and pointed to the steamer table. I put money down on his table. He just looked at me, pointed to a small sign on his table, and said something in Chinese. Then he reached around me and took the money of the person behind me.
P- He's very friendly. (Speaking, with impunity, in our normal speaking voices.)
G- No, he's an asshole who clearly does not want to help us.
P- You want to go to the other place.
G- Oh no. He's going to serve us and we are going to eat here even if we have to stand here all night.
P- Yeah, he's just being a dick because he could do some pantomiming so we can communicate, but clearly he is not interested in helping us.
G- Well, I'm not moving. Let's just watch what the other people do and figure it out.
After standing there, ignored, for several more minutes, we determined that we could pay for 1, 2 or 3 dishes. Phyl grabbed 2 cold teas from a small cooler, I pointed to the section on the sign with a 3 beside it, held up 2 fingers and held out my money. Cold and unfriendly, he took my money and gave me 2 receipts. We amused the women behind the steam counter as we had a discussion while we tried to determine the plant or animal origins of our options. Finally we were each handed a tray holding a small cup of warm, clear soup, our 3 selections, piled on top of each other, on a plate, and wooden chopsticks.
We sat at a table near the back to avoid being stared at by every passerby and began to eat.
G- It's cold in here.
P- Um, ya think it's because they have the big garage type door open?
G- Yes, but WHY do they have the big door open?
P- Because apparently that's how it is. How's the soup?
G- I can't figure out what it is. It doesn't taste like chicken or fish stock, but it's just clear.
P- Is it hot? Heat hot, not spicy.
G- Not really.
P- How is that possible? There was just steam coming off of it.
G- Maybe because it's 50 degrees in here. What do you think it is?
P- It doesn't really have a flavor. It looks like old dish water.
G- Just drink it. At least it's a little warm.
P- Ya think this stuff is cabbage?
G- Bok Choy. It tastes pretty good.
P- There's no gravy for the rice. I hate dry, rice.
G- Put the rice in the soup and solve 2 problems.
P- I'm not drinking that soup. It's cold and has no taste.
G- Then you'll be eating dry rice. Watch the guys at the table next to us. They take a little food from one of their selections, put it on the rice pile, then scoop up rice and the veggies. That's what they do for every bite.
P- Wouldn't it have made sense to put the dish on top of rice?
G- Just eat the shit! What is this meat? Is it duck?
P- It's hard to tell because they're in random parts. I can't tell if it's chicken or duck.
G- It's brownish like duck meat. Ugh! You know how much I hate picking meat off of little bones. This looks like a little duck spine. It's grossing me out.
G- How did they cut this? It's not possible to decifer a leg from a breast from a thigh.
P- It's like they put the whole thing on a chopping block and just whacked it up in little random pieces.
G- OMG! I just want a Big Mac.
P- Don't whine. I want a Big Mac too.
G- The green beans are good. You done?
P- I've eaten all I can stand. This looked good in the pans on the steam counter.
G- I know. It's very disappointing.
P- And you know I don't eat cold food. Everything looked hot and steamy when it was put on our plates. Why is it cold?
G- Because it's cold and rainy and the huge door is open. We're eating in our coats. How can you expect your food to be warm?
G- The girl at the hotel said we'd have internet if I plug in. Let's tell my mom we've arrived safely.
P- I'm still hungry.
G- Me too, but I'm tired of walking in the rain and I'm just ready to go to bed. Tomorrow, if we do nothing else, we are finding a McDonald's.
P- I saw several of them on the bus ride in.
G- Me too. I sure hope we can find one.
P - We will, but for tonight we are going to find out what it's like to go to bed hungry. :(
G- Today we've experienced the Asia diet on steriods!!!
