Last Day in Beijing - or Going Out with a Bang

Imagine hearing cannon fire directly outside your hotel. Intermittent cannon fire. We would hear it and then stare out the window looking for the source, but there was no destruction associated with said boom. Our hotel room was on the 15th floor, so we had a pretty good view. After about half an hour of this, I noticed a firecracker being launched about 50 yards outside our window. It was exploding at our eye level. Not the big pluming things, but bigger than an m50. Boom! There it was again. Not something you see everyday-fireworks in the city limits-but I guess if you are in the land that invented fireworks it isn't such a big deal.




You can see the smoke plume in the top portion of the middle of the photograph.

It turned out later that there was a wedding going on downstairs and not a street fight. Got packed up, foolishly skipped breakfast and were off to the airport. (Big mistake as you will find out more about this later.)

We were a little sad saying goodbye to Beijing. What an incredible experience.





Nanning at last, after an uneventful, but smelly flight. I was getting the worst of it. I can only describe the air in the plane as "recycled ass".

Trinity thought the 3 plus hour flight was short. It is amazing how a preceding 16 hour trip puts things in perspective.

Our guide seems a little apathetic which is making us a little concerned. (We were very spoiled by Angela.) Nanning is much larger and more modern than expected. It actually reminds me of New York mixed with Vegas. There are enormous skyscrapers and modern neon displays on the buildings, or should I say that the buildings are the displays. Even the freeway has neon on it. Looks pretty incredible at night. Whole buildings strobing and pulsating with color.




Our hotel has thus far exceeded our expectations. It is very plush and brand new. We are experiencing more of a language barrier here than in Beijing. It's pretty frustrating.

We went to dinner at a restaurant that serves Taiwanese style food in the shopping area attached to our hotel. The food was ok, but the ordering process was unnerving because the girls that worked there seemed to be so confused by the whole ordering of dinner thing that waitresses do. We had our "guide" to translate for us in the beginning, but then she left. Yes, she left. Welcome to Nanning-smell ya later.

We aren't sure what that was about...it was a restaurant and we were ordering food...hmmm. A very kind sympathetic gentleman seated at the table behind us took mercy on us and came over and translated once our guide left..err bailed. I think it was so he could eat in peace as it literally took 4 of the waitstaff to order a Coke. At one point we made the gesture of drinking and pointed to Trinity because they didn't bring one out for her and they left and came back with a Heineken!!!! I mean, come on, she only drinks Mexican beer. 9^) Now keep in mind that it is ill advised to drink the water, so when you order drinks they do not come with ice and you are not served water with your meal. So, she literally had nothing to drink.

I equate the situation to talking with the teacher from the Charlie Brown cartoons, or ordering through a drive thru and the speaker is blown and you can't understand a word yet they keep talking.

After dinner we walked around the mall area, Trinity and Shana were getting lots of obvious stares. In Beijing it was a polite kind of curiosity smile, here it is a kind of circus freak gawk. We stand out, but the good news is we are easy to spot when separated.

The countdown has begun. We get Wren tomorrow afternoon about 4pm our time. They call what we are going through a "paper pregnancy", it has all of the same thoughts and feelings only no medical procedure. Very nerve racking. We are so close now.