In a taxi, just leaving the Vietnam border. Already, the landscape looks different.
Chinese Coke tasted normal while Vietnamese Coke tasted weird.
And I thought Nanning was going to be a sleepy town.
We made our trip to China by land, first taking a bus from Vietnam to the border, crossing the border on foot, then getting into a taxi to the Chinese border town of Pingxian. The Vietnam side was unorganized and half-assed (we had to pay a 10,000 dong bribe which is roughly 80 cents) and the Chinese side was disciplined and gleaming with new construction. Their border looked like a stainless steel and glass airport lobby. Vietnam's was just sad and not worth describing. The lady taxi driver spoke a little Vietnamese so we were able to communicate, but once we got to Pingxian, all familiarity ended. First of all, we couldn't even being to guess what all the signs said. Communication through speaking was impossible because we knew zero Mandarin and they knew zero English. It was all hand signals and pointing to the guidebook. I expected this tiny town to look like Vietnam, but it was drastically more modern and developed. They're both Communist countries, but what a difference money makes, huh? Somehow, we make it to the bus station and purchase tickets to Nanning--neither party spoke the other's language. The bus was a very pleasant surprise (luxurious comfy seats, a movie, a uniformed attendant wearing a beauty pageant sash). The roads were brand new as were the rest stop service stations. OK, so the toilets were squatting ones, but they were clean. When we arrived in Nanning, it was a brand-new Vegas-like business town. Neon and shopping everywhere. What a fantastic introduction to China (but you know I'm speaking too soon here, you can just feel it).
Our hotel was great, efficient and cheap. At the reception lobby, the hotel listed two price columns: Regular for 185 yuan or Bargain for 118 yuan. Which did we want? Before we could answer, they said they'll give it to us for 100 yuan. We'll take it. And that, ladies and gentleman, is bargaining in China. We went for a walk on the wide, expansive concrete sidewalks and dropped in and out of super cheap cool stores that stayed open until midnight. It was like buying Japanese stuff at Vietnamese prices. Later after midnight, the hotel room phone rang. Mick answered, then he unplugged the phone. "Who was that?" I asked. "A hooker," he said. Dammit! Hookers again. He knew because our Lonely Planet guidebook warned about it. While I was annoyed at their nerve, I was a little impressed that they cold-called to generate leads.
Impromptu ballroom dancing in the park. Cute.
A giant mall.
A passerby in racy stockings. Even though girls don't cover up, pale skin is still in demand, evident by whitening formulas in every lotion, soap and deodorant on the market.
Another giant mall, bigger than the one before.
Me practicing my pose for Japan. What the heck is Jalice?
First of all, I don't want placenta of any sort touching me. Second, do you think it's Obya instead of Olay because of difficulty pronouncing the "L"?
Mick says that with my similar colored t-shirt and hair, he couldn't find me in the store. I said nonsense so he took a picture to prove it. You can find me, can't you?
Me getting a massage from a blind man. That whole corner was blind massage central.
At McDonald's with pineapple and taro pies. KFC and McDonald's are everywhere in China. We found them to be useful places to sit and gather our bearings in new cities. They also have clean and reliable toilets that are way better than public ones.
This strange machine is a room deodorizer, we figured out. Instead of just lighting incense the old-fashioned way, the Chinese have come up with an electric way to do it.
We're on a train to Guilin. There was a big sign with a symbol for "No Spitting." Who would spit on a train? I'm afraid I would soon find out.
We stayed in Nanning an extra day because we liked it so much. We made our way to the next destination by train. We had a nice and helpful conversation with a young student on his way back to school. He kept getting called away to speak to the conductor. We found out that he lost his ticket stub and had to pay the whole fare again. It costs 65 yuan, but he had only 41 yuan on him, so made him pay that. We felt so bad because he still had a bus ride left, so we gave him 30 yuan just in case. He was really bashful about it.
Guilin is also huge and modern, but prices remained reasonable. In contrast to Nanning, there were more foreigners (most travelers pass through on their way to Yangshou). On our first night, we took a walk to find a restaurant. We passed a bunch of fancy-looking ones but didn't go in because of the cages of various animals displayed outside. There were these things that resembled hedgehogs with orange teeth (bamboo rats), turtles, eels, frogs, catfish, etc. all jumping around trying to escape. When I saw a woman vigorously beating a large, wriggling fish to death on sidewalk, I lost my appetite. We ate some vegetables at a buffet and I still got sick--from the grease. Damn, Guilinese like their oil!
So for all modern conveniences and development, I find China strangely backwards and vulgar and it was becoming more and more apparent. People hock loogies all day and night, indoors and out. Spat out loogies covered the ground everywhere we went. That's why the train had to put a sign up--people actually spit right onto the carpet. I'm told that government is trying to clean up for the 2008 Olympics. They've outlawed horn-honking too. The bathroom situation was getting worse. China basically took an old, old idea of a squatting into a hole in the ground and updated it with porcelain and stainless steel. The trick is you have to put water in it and make it flush. Is it absurd to suggest this? At the train station, the toilets consist of one long stainless steel trough with stall doors to separate them. There is no water or any method for flushing. I'm not even sure if there was a drain. Can you imagine the smell? That's why we relied on KFC and western fast food joints for bathrooms. At least they flush and got cleaned every once in a while. There's nothing that can ruin your day more like seeing a fresh pile of poo in a water-less toilet. GROSS.
Guilin late at night. There seems to be hundreds still out.
We stayed a funny hotel with funny paintings of 80's popstars in the hallway.
Our first and probably only cool hotel. It had free, but censored in-room internet access. I couldn't look at Google News or Myspace profiles. Pfft!
A window at the train station for extra special people.
Some kids torturing another kid. If you're at all familiar with any of the asian communities in L.A., then you will notice that those kids are in front of a Lollicup, the familiar boba drink chain.
A pretty temple in Guilin.
Rats and dogs on the menu. This should've tipped us off because while we were eating, a giant rat scurried by, as if on cue.
06:50 PM // Thursday November 16, 2006 // permalink
