Trip to Baise

I nearly got up when I woke up at 7am but thought better of it and dozed till 9am when I realised it would be a good idea to get up if we were going to Baise soon. Tan pinged me to say Chuan Chuan couldn't get tickets for us due to ID issues again. I really don't understand the issue and neither do they if they are honest. But Tan did show me a picture of Leilei's passport showing that he was born in 2004! What? He's had the passport for like three years and it's never been an issue? Well I suppose he's not been to China since he's had this passport, or even abroad at all I think. But still, the Chinese visa place surely would have caught this. And could this have implications for going back? Apparently Tan had sent that picture to Chuan Chuan which may explain the ID problems for booking the ticket....

As silly as it is fake

So I looked at booking tickets myself as I'd done for us getting here from Guangzhou. I double-checked Leilei's passport and to my relief it did say 2005 as the year of birth. I checked with Tan and found out he'd been showing off that he could alter the picture of his passport to make him look older. Stupider more like as he could have caused us not to be able to go, not to mention doing something like that is probably illegal. Having thought that would I definitely not have done something similar had I had the tools at that age?

Tan told me not to book too early as it would be too hot. As Nezha was up I asked what time he'd like to go and he said someone was picking them up at 11am. What? I knocked on Leilei's door and he said something to the affinitive even though 11am was only 45 minutes away and he was still in bed unpacked. Tan knew nothing about this and neither did Chuan Chuan so I said I'd book a train for around 5ish if I could. Then Tan asked why I was so preoccupied with the time. I said I didn't really care what time but you told me to book for the evening as it would be too hot before, and anyway I had to choose a time before I could book and find out if it would work anyway. I mean how could Chuan Chuan say there was a problem with the booking if she hadn't chosen a time. I might be wrong but what else was I supposed to do? So we finally settled on 3.13pm as it would give us time to eat, and I was still accused of being anal about the time...sometimes I have to bite my lip so hard it really hurts.

Five minutes later I had safely booked the tickets with no issue at all except I had to pay a £6 booking fee on trip.com but at least it was done. It was getting on for midday so I thought I'd pick up some jiaozi for the kids and some toilet bleach Tan had been asking me to get for days now (er I'm not the only one with legs here...). Then I thought I may get an hour's shuteye before we left. I came back with the requisite toilet bleach (洁厕灵 - another word that will no doubt be very useful in the future) and the jiaozi, and a six pack of 3.3% beers for 9.90 kuai - bargain! I had a couple of the beers with some baozi as they only had two portions of jiaozi, then waited in vain for sleep to come. So much for that idea. Tan had a dentist's appointment at 3pm so said she could order us a didi che before hers, and indeed it was ready one minute after it was ordered. Chuan Chuan had told us to bring a change of clothes for after the rafting which meant we each needed two changes for the overnight stay, and I just managed to get my stuff (including my laptop) into my laptop bag. I should be good at travelling light by now but when it's going to be 36 degrees you can never really have enough tops.

Blimey it was only 6 kuai to take the didi che all the way to the station. No wonder san lun ches are becoming extinct. We were there half an hour early which was about right as my luggage got stopped as I had a glass bottle in it plus a battery pack, as did the boys'. I can hardly describe the journey through the lush countryside as nondescript but for everyone else it was. Living within mountains here is a bit like living in London with all the aeroplanes - you just get used to them and they're nothing special. Anyway Chuan Chuan called us to tell us to wait outside the station for one minute as she and her boyfriend Xiao He were just a minute away. Indeed she just needed to tell us the colour of the car and part of the numberplate and a couple of minutes later we were in. She said we were going to "play", which can mean anything, so I asked where and she said "some place". So I expected a 5-10 minute ride but 20 minutes later I noticed we were outside of Baise heading north. In fact it transpired we were to drive for an hour to some scenic place where we could take a boat on the lake.

Well the lake was there ok, and it started really lashing it down by the time we got there. We went for a walk and found some shelter and Nezha said he wanted to swim, but apparently that was not allowed, so we said we could take the boats out but then he said he was starving and needed to eat first. We thought we could just get him a snack but he really wanted a hot meal so we found a place that served egg fried rice and that did the trick as we ate some watermelon they gave us and drank the complimentary tea. The boss asked if she could take a few photos with us and some kids and of course we complied, and I guess justified the watermelon. Then as we left Chuan Chuan announce in a matter-of-fact way that the boating place had closed at 4.30pm, an hour or so before we'd even arrived, so that was out of the question.

Leilei and Nezha with a moody backdrop after the rain

One of the very few western style public toilets I'll see here

So after walking about for a bit now that the rain had subsided, we were to drive back to Baise to eat a proper meal. At least Xiao He is a pretty safe driver as I had no Dutch courage for such a drive, and we arrived safely before 8pm before going to our hotel to check in. I didn't quite understand what the problem was but apparently there was one which meant that our rooms got upgraded. The boys had a huge room with a pull-out second bed, and I had a more than substantial one that I would never have chosen myself as we'd only be using it for sleeping. I don't really get why people choose such posh rooms if they're only going to be used for sleeping and washing. If you're with a lover sure, get something special for a special night, but as with travelling for work all I require is something comfortable, safe, and quiet (and with wifi).

Chuan Chuan and Xiao He went back to their place and we said we'd meet in 20 minutes downstairs. So I had a sneaky medicine alcohol while I waited for her message and it was a good half an hour later, during which time the boys had gone out and found a cat cafe as you do. Oh I do miss Ami, especially since Anzhe sent a short video of her yesterday. Apparently the place Chuan Chuan had ordered from was already running out of food as it was getting on for 9pm, so we went to another "bbq" place instead, which ended up being fantastic. We had a hotplate in the middle of the table, and used tongs to place various slices of meat and vegetables on and wait for it to cook before either eating it just like that or putting it, plus some other stuff, into a lettuce leaf and stuffing it in our mouths. It was another fantastic meal and Nezha asked for two extra portions of beef and nothing was wasted. I also ordered a couple of cans of beer but Xiao He wouldn't join me as he needed to move the car a bit later - very sensible. Unfortunately the beer wasn't cold so they remedied this by adding a load of ice cubes to the large glass. Very Chinese and very practical actually.

Then we were to move on to bar Swag 2.0, so Xiao He took the car back and a few minutes later we actually walked the whole 15 minutes to the bar. It was pretty small, and being a Saturday night pretty busy with youths, but we had a table booked and pretty soon it would be full of "Budweiser". I didn't massively want the boys to get pissed so Chuan Chuan booked a 3 litre keg-like thing of fairly sweet orange-flavoured drink that I was told was 2% alcohol and could believe it. Luckily, Leilei preferred that to the beer and Nezha mixed them.

We're too cool for Swag 2.0

Xiao He came out of his shell a bit after a few beers and then I decided I wanted to play the dice game. So we started a game and I learnt a new variant which meant the one was a wildcard and really changed the tactics. I also learnt if you had four of the same that counted as five, and five of the same counted as seven. I guess it was a regional variant, but we had some pretty fun games, including having 10 threes due to having lots of ones. But even the boys got a bit bored soon after midnight and went for a walk, so we finished the last four beers and made our way back soon after.

It was a refreshing walk and the boys had made their way back to the hotel so we parted at 1amish and agreed to meet up at 11.30am tomorrow. I nearly got to the hotel but decided to go for a quick walk and ended up finding only one place open that sold me a couple of beers and medicine alcohol just in case I'd need it tomorrow. But I ended up drinking three beers in the hotel while chatting to western friends. I also managed to book three tickets for the last train to Pingguo tomorrow at 7.42pm.