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| A Wu with Leilei and A Da in the morning at the hotel |
We went to some nice-looking eatery that was rather central and ordered some nice stuff including plenty of vege options, which is not hard here. We didn't think we'd want beer but it being so weak and all it seemed like the default drink. And within half an hour we were a tad tipsy. I discovered that the camera I had bought in Japan a couple of years ago took nice sepia pictures, and Venky found out that the two AA batteries that ran his ran out after about 10 snaps.
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| Sepia photo of A Ni and A Wu |
Venky and I got the chance to check out Nanning after that without the "protection" of our Chinese friends. It was quite welcoming and we happened upon some markets where they bade us smoke some tobacco. As a non-smoker I was nonplussed but in the interests of science I tried a bit.
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| Venky trying smoking from bamboo in Nanning - it's still smoking mate... |
I think the rest of the afternoon was spent trying to get to the Vietnam embassy to get a visa for Venky. I remember jumping over parts of the road you shouldn't be jumping over in order to get a taxi to the embassy. It must have worked as we got there, then afterwards we found the closest place to grab a naughty beer and a bit of grub, and had our one and only drink/eat without our friendly Chinese chaperones. It was rather blissful.
The evening began with meeting some friends, one of whom had a cool, long, Audi that took some of us to Zhong Shan Lu (Middle Mountain Road), which is a famous street for street food and bbq. After a few minutes we found a place and sat down with the ladies and started ordering food. Except for Venky, who went on a mission to find...something.... Anyway Venky got back a bit later proudly showing the fruits of his labour as two tiny bottles of er gou tuo, i.e. the least drinkable substance known to western man.
He tried his best to get me to drink some over the next half an hour or so, reminding me of how we'd bought a bottle each in March 2003 when we first set foot upon China. We'd both brought a bottle of the undrinkable alcohol back to our rooms that night, together with a can of fizzy apple juice, as you do. And somehow we had both managed to finish the undrinkable stuff with the help of the said apple juice independently, as we found out the next morning. But, we promised each other, never again.
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| Me, A Wu, Venky, and friend in Zhong Shan Lu |
Yeah well I wasn't married then so it was a bit different. I manfully took one small swig from one of the bottles and immediately regretted it and remembered our Beijing promise. Yuck. Even the locals wouldn't indulge with us except for the Audi driver who seemed to think he ought to do so.
Somehow, Venky managed more than a sip. And then another, and another. I took him to the loo a couple of times as he was downing the beer too. But on the third occasion he went by himself. A few minutes later he wasn't back, and as I knew no western (he pretty much is) man would be able to poo in such a public toilet I went looking for him with Audi man. Well we found him after 15 seconds, sitting outside the loo with a spray of corn-coloured vomit the radius of a small car around him. We sat with him for a few minutes but he was ok. Something told me this was not the first time (ok, it was experience). After a bit of cajoling we got him back, paid for the meal (at least someone did), and slowly got him back to the hotel as he would not get into any car.
Luckily the hotel was fairly central, and the walk seemed to have sobered him up. We made sure he got into his room ok and he gave A Wu a man-hug before leaving to sleep what I imagine will be his best ever sleep in Guangxi.
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| Venky giving A Wu a man-hug |
I probably got told off when I got home late again....
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