Fumandi Business Hotel Nanning

... to see and do everything there. So we decided to arrive in the South then make our way up to Beijing and back down the coast in one big loop.<br><br>So we arrived at the end of September into a city in Southern China called Kunming, we got one of those tiny little planes in from Vientiane, on the world renowned Laos Airlines! Actually the flight was fine, though unfortunately the night before in Laos wasn't the best! Our flight wasn't until 6am, checking in at 4am ...

... set my own travel arrangements, thus, it felt quite weird having everything ready without any heavy effort)<br><br>new country..<br>new adventure...<br>new travel friends...<br><br>We flew directly from Jakarta to Nanning, and arrived there midnight...<br>Checked into the hotel which is located rather outskirts of the city centre...<br>

... The village has two drum towers, three wind and rain bridges.Of the three bridges, the Batuan Bridge is very unique in architectural style. Built in 1910,it is 50 meters in length and divided into two aisles. One aisle is for people, the other is for livestock. This wooden bridge has two stages, three kiosks and two porches. When I was taking pics on the bridge, I was drawn by a long party who was going on the way to ...

... or laugh but we can tell she is already comfortable with Ruth and Mikaela.  She looks at me with uncertainty quite often - I have tried to pick her up once and was not received well...this is normal at this stage and I understand.  She has had a very tiring day as she had to endure a three and a half hour car ride to get to the government building where we picked her up here in Nanning.  There were many other couples there picking up babies, it was the first time we saw ...

... the distance we have without leaving the earths surface, I now feel somewhat lame because the two Finnish lads in my dorm are half way through cycling from Guillin to Hanoi!! Having researched the border crossing to Vietnam for at least a few hours &amp; discovered it to be somewhat a nightmare, I'm pleased to say I've just found out there's a direct bus from here to Hanoi- next stop....... sunshine &amp; beaches!!

... into another small-size street market - there seemed to be more of them than at first I had imagined - and then we entered one of eateries where we decided to have some refreshments. Relatively sparsly furnished and obviously never seriously having foreigners in view, it was one of those places I would've probably never gone in if I had been all by myself. Consequently, of course, I didn't have a clue as to what to order as there was not a single letter in English on ...

... we wanted a couple of teacups that come with lids and ceramic strainers for loose tea. We'd seen cheap examples everywhere and hoped Nanning would be the same. It wasn't, either we were looking in the wrong places (entirely possible without a map) or they're wasn't much call for them in Guanxi Province. We trawled the streets, getting more and more hungry, and in the end had to settle for two cups from Walmart! Not quite the laid back souvenir shopping we were thinking ...

... hillside dropped to the flat farmland that was well up from the river but then had steep, sudden drops down to the river. No fences to stop people falling off the edges. There are no fences really. I don't know how people know where their field ends and the next person begins except for a change in the colour of crops. There were plenty of horses at work and people working by hand for the harvest. We stopped and the train nearly empted out meaning we were 2 to a seat not 3 ...

I started the new week with what seemed like a monumental task to achieve - getting to Hong Kong via Nanning from Hanoi overland, within 36 hours. Usually I wouldn't bother with an entry for this type of thing, especially since I only stayed in Nanning for about 2 hours, but a number of aspects of the mission are definitely worth noting. There was no way of researching my options with any great ...

... painfully driven home to me, for not only is there nothing- ABSOLUTELY NOTHING- in English, but there&#8217;s nothing even in Pinyin, the Chinese system of Romanised transliteration developed during Mao&#8217;s era. Except for street signs, it&#8217;s Chinese characters only, and more than a few of those. Fortunately I brought a borrowed Lonely ...