I woke up a few times and Katie was up for the longest. In
the middle bunk it’s perfect to look straight outside into the country, which
she spent a good while doing before I finally agreed to get up around 8 or so.
We were supposed to arrive at the Nanning station about 7, but since it was
late, we wouldn’t get there until 11 or so, which was a bit ridiculous but
there was nothing we could do. Even though our train from Nanning to Beihai was
to leave at 1:40.
We ended up getting a good bit stalled, too, until after 1.
But we tried to keep ourselves busy and Nicole taught us how to play the
Chinese version of Poker. It’s translation literally is ‘Beat Your Boss.’ It’s
only for three people, someone is the Boss, and the other two try to get rid of
their cards first. I don’t get the team thing because then one of them becomes
the boss, you know? Later on, I kind of went rogue and did what I wanted and
then I was the boss for a good while! Huge blast!
Oh and shortly after beginning, the guy sitting on a seat on
my other side started telling me what cards to play, that was pretty funny.
It’s how I started better understanding the game- which definitely took a few
rounds because the rules are kind of funny. You have to put down at least three
doubles, and they all have to be in a row! Two’s are higher than aces, the
Jokers are great but the red one beats the black one, and four of a kind beats
absolutely everything! And you can put down a triple, but you also need to put
down another card with that to make it four. See? Random. And the way you put
out cards is odd, too. First five to each person, then three and three and
three until you’re done handing out all the cards. And the boss gets three
extra, which the two other players get to see.
Very random. Eventually Nicole and Katie got tired of me
with beginner’s luck so Nicole invited the guy to play for her, and then he
started taking us down. That was about noon, until we finally teamed up a bit
more and crushed his butt. I think he started getting a little upset, and kept
making himself the boss. And we took him
down! It was pretty funny, especially since he didn’t understand English which
made it even funnier, and we could discuss our card options without a hitch…
Okay so we finally got off the train, yay! It was two, boo!
So we hurried across to the Information desk, to find our next train had been
delayed a few hours. Yay! We were still good! So we began wandering about,
looking for food. There wasn’t a lot of street food lying around for some
reason so we just ate at Dico’s, which wasn’t too bad. Katie and I had wraps
and cumin flavored chicken fries…? It wasn’t too bad, actually! Very filling
which is what we wanted!
Then we got our tickets and went into the station. There
weren’t really any available seats so we stood around for a while before
shoving our way through, up and down the stairs and getting to our train. We
were in car 1, which means the very end. We got hard seats. Or soft ones? I
don’t really know. They were very erect and not too comfortable but looked kind
of nice?
I dozed for the first forty minutes or so, along with Nicole
and Katie. Finally we were up and watched the misty trees and hills fly past
through our large window. It was so beautiful, and there was just a little bit
of rain… spectacular! We really enjoyed that.
Also we were sitting across from a woman with her friend who
had her baby girl with her. Super cute baby! We had a lot of fun watching her,
trying to make faces and stuff. The only real reaction we were able to get was
when I pulled out our large water bottle to take a sip, and her eyes went wide
and her mouth dropped open! It was so funny! And cute! So that was a fun few
hours.
Though our butts were definitely sore by the time we were
done on that train. Seriously.
It was dark when we arrived. We were supposed to get there
about 3 the first time but since it was delayed, it was closer to 6. And already
dark, which was a bit of a bummer. We couldn’t find the bus station around so
we ended up taking one of the pestering pedicabs for 12 over to Old Street. It
was dark but still super awesome to wander around! We loved it, so adorable!
Then we walked back a few blocks over to the square, which
was a lot of fun. Lots of activities and women dancing. We met a guy from
Australia there, here to take pictures. He had brought his board but the
Chinese airlines had totally demolished it. Like us, he was pretty excited to
see white people, haha! But we had a fun few minutes talking before wandering
off. We walked around for a while and finally crossed a large intersection to
get to bus 3, and then took it to the end to get to our hotel for the night!
An older gentleman on a little wheeled cart bike led us into
a dark alley which I thought was very suspicious but as it turns out, he was
the owner of the hotel leading us to the place! It was through an open gate to
the back of a few buildings by a little courtyard. We climbed to the second
floor and received our own room with our own bathroom and three large beds!
We put things down and then went back outside across the
street to a little place for dinner. The hotel owner, was super sweet and gave
us shampoo and body lotion and suggested this place. We all ordered chow mein
and Nicole got a few oysters. It was so much food! Katie and I usually share
dishes to save money and because they always give us so freaking much! I tried
so hard to eat more, but there’s always a limit. It wasn’t too badly priced,
and then we headed back inside to let our stomachs digest.
We got ready for bed and Nicole showed us a few popular TV
shows still playing at that hour, it was a bit after nine. There was one cute
show where Chinese stars that are dads bring their little kids and have to go
live in a little village kind of thing, it’s cute and teaches the kids some
valuable skills and such. One of the good looking stars was 42, when we were
sure he couldn’t be over 30. Crazy!
And finally we passed out!
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