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Other entries in Nanning

This place is horrid....

Unfortunately, the train ride took much less time than expected and we arrived in Nanning at 4.30am after precisely 2 hours sleep.  First impressions of Nanning - this place is hideous, but we are only here to get our visas for Vietnam and then get the hell outta here.

We checked into the Railway Hotel as suggested by our guide book, and got a triple room for a fiver a night.  We would get to see a lot more of this room in the coming days.  After getting a further 6 hours of much needed sleep, we ventured out to the Vietnam Embassy, whcih was conveniently located the far end of town.  As we walked through town, every single person gawps at you as if you have a pair of tits growing out of your head, which caused Alex to declare he hates Chinese people and get worked up.  We decided it would be best to get a taxi.

When we arrived at the embassy, it was closed for lunch, even though it was opening time and the member of staff was sleeping in the office...lazy bastard...but then, if you can get away with it, why the hell not.  Due to this minor hitch, we went off in search of lunch and in the process saw some really small street kids which was a bit upsetting.  We chose a Cafe to eat in that was cheap enough, and were treated like royalty which was good.  The owner of the place came and sat at our table talking to us, and as the conversation got onto football, Alex told him he was an Arsenal fan.  At this news, the guy ran out of the restaurant to ring his brother who also happens to be an Arsenal fan, and he got him to leave work right away to come by the shop.  Turns out this guys English wasnt too hot and he thought Alex played for Arsenal, which we of course played along with (we got free coffee, drinks, and fruit), but then when the place started filling up with people staring at us, we decided it would be a good time to leave.  The owner acutally said "it is not very often we get English footballer in our cafe", what a moron, did he see Alex's chins?

After lunch, the Vietnamese Embassy had thankfully opened at last and we got our visa's sorted for about 25 quid.  They would be ready in 2 days.  We would have left Nanning for these two days because it is disgusting, but we were prevented by the fact you need your passport to check into every single hotel and hostel in China.  At least we had the football to look forward to tonight...

When we got back to our end of town, we went off in search of the invisible internet cafe, which was actaually nowhere to be seen even though several people directed us there, and a bookshop where they just pointed me to the section with English dictionaries and learn English books, which was really helpful.  To follow this up, we went to a hotel restaurant for some food, only to be served rubber noodles, spam sandwiches and chicken bones, mmmm.  After this, we couldnt take any more, so we went back to the hotel and chilled out for a few hours, waiting for the football to begin...

The woman at reception kindly wrote down the address of a bar that would be showing the football for us, so yet again we headed off in a taxi for this place, getting revved up for the footy, only to be driven to a closed down seafood restaurant in the middle of what can only be described as a shanty town.  We motioned to the taxi driver that we wanted beer, and he took us along to a place called the Color Club.  Upon arrival, about ten members of staff in the lobby proceeded to get extremely excited that we had chosen their bar (even though it is the only bar in Nanning) and then showed us to our own karaoke room (do we look like poofs?), and then upon our refusal to the main bar, where we were swamped by Chinese women, and what was on the TV??  The Germany game!!!  How rude.....though Beckham not playing may have been the main reason.  Twenty minutes into the game, one of the bar staff found another chanel showing England, so we settled back down in our seats for the duration.  About a million beers later, and much shite chatted to the Chinese women, Alex came back from the toilet and actually missed his stool when trying to sit down, much to everyones amusement.....he was pointed and laughed at by all!!!  We won the game 2-1 and once again went home happy lads...at 5am 

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