Need to leave China to fulfil visa obligations

A lot of work in the morning, then I took the bus to Nanning in the early evening as I have to go to Vietnam tomorrow. Xixi has gone with Waipo and Tan's brother's wife to Bangxu (their hometown) so wasn't there to see me, unfortunately. Leilei was though and despite having a whale of a time there always runs to me with a big hug. Tan and the others have been telling me I have to get the bus to Ping Xiang, the Chinese town near the Vietnamese border where her eldest sister lives, as the train takes 5 hours and the bus takes 2. I prefer the train so I looked up on the Internet and apparently the train takes under 3 and a half hours and the bus takes over 3. So stick that in your pipe and smoke it. At 9pm I took a taxi to the train station and bought my ticket for tomorrow morning for 1 pound 70p (my US keyboard doesn't have the pound sign, well it does but in American that means the hash sign...). It actually takes 3h20 mins and the bus (subject to traffic jams) is just about the same time and costs six quid. This is why I never take Chinese advice at face value.

In fact Tan was originally going to come with me to her big sister's town, but then she was invited by her 2nd sister to go to Guangzhou shopping (a one hour flight away which her sister is paying for). So unbeknown to me she arranged for A Wu to accompany me to Ping Xiang. Something I only found out yesterday. I told him it was unnecessary and I didn't want to put him out. He said he had no work for the rest of the week as he hadn't been paid so it wasn't a problem. Also he said it was very dangerous going to Ping Xiang as robbers could get on the bus and steal from you. Of course he assumed I was taking the bus, but he also assumed I would be in Vietnam for 5 minutes and he would wait for me. When I explained I might want to spend a night or two in a country I'd never been to before he then realised it might not be so convenient to wait for me there, or even go there.

I really hate being mollycuddled. Thankfully I have managed to get out of it this time and will travel unaccompanied to Vietnam. Although having read about it I'm not so keen as I was before. I don't speak a word, I don't have a map and I don't know the name of the nearest town. Oh well, we'll see.