January 10 - Nanning

For the first time we actually got up when the alarmclock started screaming at us, and we made it to the bus station as planned - 8:45. After 1.5 hours we had our first stop and were handed meal tickets for what appeared to be jail food served on metal trays inside. Constipated that I am, I really didn't eat much. Takes time for Scandinavian stomachs to get used to Asian food. The rest of the journey consisted in sleeping, stopping, reading up on Vietnam, but mostly trying to wrap my mind around the fact that we're in China travelling on a bus through the countryside.
When we finally got to Nanning, I had an epifany - namely that I'm really not as internationally wellrounded as I like to think that I am. We were standing outside the station looking like huge ? and when we approached taxi drivers with our hostel address no one knew where it was. We were spoiled in HK with the English everywhere. We like to think that sign language and drawings can get us by and hope someone can understand a few words in English, but here we are in no such luck.So much for intercultural communication on our part. After a while a man came over to us - didn't speak English - but took a look at the address and pointed to his van and waved us to follow. The next thing we knew we were on our way - hopefully to our hostel. Amazingly enough though he found it and the place was awsome - very backpackerish. People from all over - hoping to meet some new people - a whole week stuck with Oddbjørn really takes its toll. ;))
After getting settled into our first dorm room, we went out to find some food. Oddbjørn ordered duck something rather, and when digging around in his bowl we found a whole duck foot with nails and everything - litterally a chopped off duck foot. We quickly ate my food and were outta there!!!
A shower, Guitar hero, snacks and hopefully new people took our minds off our dinner for the rest of the evening....

January 11 - Attack of the monkeys

This morning we slept in to 11:30. Guess we woke up around 10, but we were in each of our bunks reading and surfing the net - oh what would Oddbjørn do without OUR computer?!?!? When we finally got our butts in gear, we walked to the bus station to get tickets for Vietnam, and then took a local bus to the Ylling Caves 30 km north of Nanning. Waiting for the bus we ate breakfast consisting of an apple due to some serious constipation issues - one week on Tuesday since my last #2 - not good. :(
The bus up to the caves was full of Chinese (obviously). The girl sitting beside me stared at me the whole entire time - stared and giggled. Then she tapped me on the shoulder and apprently asked if I could speak any Chinese since she later showed me on her phone can you speak Chinese? (in English).
Once we got off at our stop we were on our way to meet Oddbjørn's family - little nasty monkeys that steal your belongings. The place seemed to be some sort of folk museum as there was a trail to follow and several attractions to see. Getting closer to the cave, the monkeys appeared. Knowing how tame they can get, I kept my distance, but Oddbjørn didn't really believe me. He walked up some stairs to get a closer look, but quickly came running when a big one started chasing him...hehehe told ya so!!!! But he got his nerve up again when he bought peanuts from an old woman and started feeding them. I think he was a little nervous since a girl had just got attacked when a monkey wanted her plastic bag... The cave was neat. Different colored lights played on the shadows created by the rock formations. Apparently the different formations told differnt stories...had a hard time understanding since I'm not that fluent in Chinese...:p
Back in hostel area later in the evening we were dying for something more familiar to eat - so thank god for McDonalds (which has been stalking us everywhere since we arrived in HK).
The rest of the evening was lazy - laundry, talking with an Irish couple as well as people at home, and eating snickers. OH and my highlight was I was able to relieve myself of my 7 day constipation - HEAVEN!!!!
Vietnam tomorrow!!!!