Hey Hey and a Big G'Day to you,

I have just returned from a weekend in Nanning where a few of us headed for the South East Asian food Festival...HHHhhhhmmmm, more on that later! The fun part was actually getting to Pingguo on Friday night to stay with Leeanne (another teacher from Australia). I got to the Tianyang bus station to find there wasn't a bus for another 2 hours. Usually I just catch a local bus from the side of the road near the market to Tiandong and then another bus to Pingguo from there. This time I thought I'd try taking only one bus the entire way. No, as there was no bus for some time, I reverted back to my usual ways and caught a road side local bus which took me HALF way to Taindong. I waved down another bus and made it to Taindong to find there were NO more buses to Pingguo from the bus station. So I waved a few buses down and I guessed at the time they were trying to tell me they were turning off before Pingguo to go the Nanning on the new freeway. Finally I got a ride which once again only got me HALF way. I waved down and ended up on a sleeper bus to Pingguo. Of course it was turning off BEFORE Pingguo, I then had to catch a mini van with a few others. So 4 buses and a mini van later I made it to Pingguo.

Leeanne came to collect me and we headed to Pingguo Lu, which is about 10 minutes in a mini van away. It's part of Pingguo but like a suburb type thing. I have been there once with Mandy for the day. It's where we found the school with the Einstein Head out front. Leeanne and I over a period of time had been trying to figure out where there was another school in Pingguo-lu as she swore there was no massive Einstein Head out the front of her school. Anyhow, after dropping my bag off we headed out for BBQ and beer. We met up with Wong her friend and on the way we came across the school I knew had the Einstein Head. I said, hey, that's the school. She said that's my school. I said hey, there's the BIG Einstein Head, right across from the main gate. The HUGE, CAN'T MISS IT HUGE head. She had never noticed it. It was so funny! It is directly across from where you walk out of the main gate and it's not a small arty farty statue type thing, this is a HUGE massive head on a huge block! We sat for beer, BBQ and chat and then moved on to another out door beer and BBQ place. I think we got home around 2:30am or so.

I had the worst sleep ever. Her neighbours are so freaking noisy. They are real Chinese neighbours I can tell you. The neighbours from hell! I'm glad I live at my school as she lives in a normal apartment building not at the school. I think I fell to sleep around 3:30-4:00am during a quiet period. I heard her alarm go off around 5:45am. In between I was woken a million times. I stumbled out of bed, showered and we met Wong and caught the bus to Nanning at 7:00am. Oh so tired!

We arrived at Nanning and began the place to stay search. We found a Guesthouse on the way to a little hotel I know. Most of the accommodation was full due to the festival and luckily Wong was with us as this guesthouse was NOT for foreigners. Wong insisted and they had to ring for permission from the PSB. Permission granted and off we went to the South East Asian Food Festival. Oh, wasn't I was looking forward to Vietnamese spring rolls with lettuce, mint leaves and the lemon grass dipping sauce. I must say, it is one of the only foods I truly miss, besides Korean from the restaurant in South Port Queensland.

South East Asian Food Festival my BBQ'd butt. All there was was Chinese BBQ and beer! Talk about let down. Oh how I could have cried. I could have went to BBQ street in Tianyang and found more freaky things than here. They did have scorpion and other bug type things but I amused my taste buds with BBQ'd Emu. Oh yummy! Huge chunks of meat and I'm sure the stick was nearing a half a metre long. OOOHHHH so full! Here we met up with a couple of friends, two teachers from Guigang and a Chinese guy named Clement. One Aussie gal from Adelaide and a Canadian lady who is here teaching with her husband.

Anyhow, needless to say, we didn't stay for too long at the festival. We then headed back into the heart of the city to walk around the shops looking for cameras, phones and of course clothes for the girls etc. Around 7pm we jumped on a bus and headed to Clements parents place. His mother had invited us all home for dinner. His father is Chinese and his mother is Indonesian. They cooked us an amazing indo-Chinese meal. They were so cute and happy we were there. Five foreigners in their home at once, they couldn't stop smiling. They, like us had the best time. We stayed there for many hours and then bussed it back into the city and found a bar and sat there chatting for hours. When that closed we grabbed some more beer and Joutsa and headed home and continued chatting until around 3am.

Woke around 8:30am Sunday morning and headed to Maccas for breaky and spent the day walking around shops. We headed to a place called 'The Pantry' which is a little western food shop. The girls made HUGE purchases. I've never seen anything like it, they just SHOP like someone is going to steal the actual shops. I walked out empty handed and decided I'm more than happy with my little town's food. My god, the stuff they walked out with. I only wish I had of purchased the Grants Scotch bottle and or the cheaparsed 'Johnsons' Gin bottle. I didn't as I thought I'd grab one in Wall Mart when we finally made it there. Hey, I was with a group of shopping mad girls, we HAD to end up at Wall Mart! When it was time for Wall Mart I was sadly running out of time (NOT!) so I cut it short and headed to the train station to catch the 3:30 train.

Whilst waiting in the maaaassssiiivvvveeee waiting room/area I met up with Leeanne who had had enough of shopping (my gawd!). When we found a seat she told me an amusing story. I couldn't stop laughing. She had gone to the toilet which of course was a squat toilet and her mobile phone fell out of her pocket and slid straight down into the toilet hole. I have lost countless bars of soap the same way. You shower right next to the hole in the ground and during a shower, you have to drop the soap at least once, but here, you lose it and you DON'T go after it, you leave it right were it is just as Leeanne left her phone.
As the train was so full we only got 'standing' tickets. Goody, four and a bit hours of standing. In the end the four hours ended up being 5 minutes as some kind people moved across and allowed us both seats. You say, no it's ok and they try even harder to sit you down. In the end, you sit down and feel a bad for everyone else who wasn't offered a seat. Well, I do anyhow. Made it home around 7:30pm or so and met my friends for dinner and a beer at the market place.


_____________________________________________