Stopover in Nanning

Went from Hanoi at 8am on a big bus to the border of Friendly Pass.  Customs was a breeze and as we waited for the indecisive Chinese to finally get through we ate instant 2 minute noodles you can buy there for 5 yuan (85c).  Met a Vietnamese boy Dam, who goes to uni in Nanning to study Chinese.  He gave me coffee flavoured coconut milk covered peanuts - very nice.  He seemed to be very proud of Vietnamese coffee, though I know for a fact it is disgusting bitter mud.  Spent the whole afternoon/evening trying to book a bus for the next day to Guilin, us speaking English, them not understanding.  Charades really helps in these situations.  So did our limited written Chinese vocabulary in the back of our Lonely Planet.  Couldn't face the prospect of going through it again to order dinner, so ended up in KFC.  There is a KFC or McDonalds every hundred metres in Nanning.  No kidding, they're everywhere.  All we had to do was point at the pictures.  They had fireworks all night, lighting up our room.  We found at later it was the Spring Festival.

Next morning we got a cab to the Bus Station which is bigger than Hobart and Perth Airport put together. It's also run like an airport and each bus has a stewardess.  Once we were on the bus, our stewardess came up, gave us a bottle of water and some sugar buns, and said something.  I said "I'm sorry, we don't speak Chinese".  She spoke again and we were confused.  Then the third time she spoke we realised she was asking us in English to put our seatbelts on!  Her pronounciation was so bad, we didn't realise! 

There is a KFC or McDonalds every hundred metres in Nanning.

Watched a Chinese comedy about Mah Jong that even without subtitles was pretty funny.  Arrived in Guilin and phoned Bucklands who said they would meet us there.  They said wait 15 minutes.  And then we were in Owen Bucklands snazzy car on the way to Yangshuo to start our training!