Nanning - Its a dog eat dog world, allegedly...
Trip Start
Mar 03, 2005
1
4
235
Trip End
Ongoing
Nanning,
China
Friday, March 25, 2005
After another transfer night back to the hotbed of phlegm that is downtown Guangzhou, I have flown to the capital of Guangxi province, Nanning. Faced with the choice of a 10 hour busride with the remnants of the flu, versus a one hour trip on Lottery Airlines, I chose to invest $85 in the flight on a China Southern plane. Even at Guangzhou's majestic brand-spanking new airport, the local males will cough up a lung and let it fly. At least they'll go and spit it straight into a rubbish bin though.
Mental Note #2: I must ask a local Chinese Woman as to if she finds the spitting thing offensive. And if not, does she have any views on public farting then?
Thankfully Nanning has a much smaller population that Guangzhou, but the Nannas are sure as hell in a hurry to catch up. Everything appears new here, except for the airport which was semi-third world. My theory on spending 12 months following the sun has pretty much been ruined in the fourth week though - its a drizzling 13 degrees here, with a permanent fog hanging over the city.
I spent a good 90 minutes walking round a supermarket in Nanning. Yes I know I'm weird. I love going to supermarkets when I'm travelling. Trying to decipher what the hell it is I'm looking at when there are no English words on the packaging, is a strange joy. (hmmm, pickled penguin balls?) It helps when they've got a bloody huge selection of fresh fruit to buy (400 grams of strawberries for $1.20). Perhaps its better to gorge on fruit than the local cuisine here, as I understand that Nanning is the home of 'Dog Hotpot' here in southern China.
The Chinese do certain 'everyday' things differently to the rest of the world. Sometimes you don't notice them immediately, but then all of a sudden it'll dawn on you that something ain't quite right. I was crossing the road with dozens of other people, on dusk. Actually it was a little later than dusk, more the point where its more dark than light. Sounds innocent enough, but I must add it was about eight lanes wide, and in addition to cars there are motorbikes and bicycles going in every direction, including the wrong way, all around you. Halfway across the road I realised what was wrong - none of the cars had headlights on, and none of the streetlights were on. For some reason, the Chinese wait until it is actually fully dark before they put any lights on. Its completely crazy. They can't see you, you can't see them. But if it ain't dark then you ain't needing any lights....
I wandered away from the major streets along a narrow road and found myself in a night food market. The first area was all fruit - actually it was all watermelon and durian really. The wafty smell of the durian is really something, especially en masse. It actually smells like a cross between a soiled baby's nappy, and, well, another soiled baby's nappy. Further on and it was live food in tanks (seafood, turtles, and snakes) right next to barbeques. Then before I knew it, I'd wandered into dog territory. Thankfully the dogs aren't in tanks or anything of the like. I'd realised I'd walked into a meat area, but I only realised it was dog-town when there were cooked dogs heads on display, a la your barbequed pig's head. Teeth and all.
And no, I didn't eat dinner there.
Murray's Law Of Travel #3: When eating out in southern China - never, ever, ask for a doggy bag.
