I had noticed a guy on the train that was staying in my hostel in Nanning, I've spoken to him and we have decided to get a taxi from the station to the centre of town. He has nowhere booked so I tell him he can stay at the same place I am. When we get off at the station, not that you can call it a station, just a gate you walk through. Once we get out we are completely swamped with people trying to offer us a taxi, $30 is what we are quoted! Pure ridiculous! After a lot of heckling, I tell him to do one, and we walk on. John (Jiang) tells me it is only 4km to the centre of town, he fancies walking it, I'm not so sure. Taxis are pulling up to us all the time asking I we need a lift, some with highly inflated prices! It should only really cost $1 in to town, but because it is night time I am expecting to pay a little more, but not $30. Another couple of Chinese backpackers come up to us and ask where we are going, we are going to try and get a taxi, the 4 of us. Eventually after many taxis we get one that will take the 4 of us for $6 so we jump in. It's about a 10min trip in to town and the girls get out first, and us shortly after. John pays and gets a mixture of Dong and Dollar change, but we were here we had arrived. I was pleased.
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We get to the hostel and it is closed. So we sit down to wait for a bit. Then the taxi driver pulls up again and come out trying to check the money he had been given. A local man gets involved and after a conversation of broken English we eventually agree than the money was correct. No need for all this additional stress! We notice a bell at the hostel and so we ring it, shutters go up and we go inside, give over passports and get shown to our room. Only people there, nice. Get the air con on pretty quick and after cooling down I decide to jump in the shower. There was no hot water. Just cold. Quite refreshing, but seriously! After I recover from the shock it's back to the bad to rest for a few hours.
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I ask John his plan and he tells me he is getting an open bus ticket, $45 and it travels from north to south stopping in 4 places before arriving in Ho Chi Min City, you can spend as long as you like at each stop, your ticket is valid for a month, so it really is the best way to travel. Much cheaper than the train option. We decide to go out and get some breakfast and see what the city has to offer. First thing I can tell you is that it is hot, very hot! I've been getting used to the cooler temperatures, but no more, back in the oven! There are significantly more bikes here than in China, and less cars. Of course the horns are still beeping, though here we have many different types of horns. Some quite tuneful. They are like a swarm of bees, as you look down the street, so many. The only way to successfully cross the road is not to look, the bikes will avoid you. If you try and avoid them, you will die! After a short walk we get to the lake, pick a cafe and in we go. Just a coffee and some bacon and eggs, nice. A woman comes up to us, carrying 2 baskets of bananas, connected with wood, across her shoulders. She offers for us to take a free photo. We get involved, but afterwards she pushes the bananas on us as a hard sell. John ends up buying, 140,000 VND, they are worth about 15,000 VND. He is not pleased when he finds out, ha. Won't be letting that happen again.
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We go back to the hostel and get a map to maybe take a look at the sights. So we dander back to the lake and beyond. I'm struggling a wee bit with the heat, sweat city. I plod on. The sights we went to were closed, pretty disappointing after such a long walk. We stop off the get a drink, I need something refreshing. John has this app called wechat, I have dubbed it Shakey Shakey, you shake your phone and if someone else is shaking theirs you can see and chat to them. John is shaking away, chatting to people as we sit in the cafe, which has free wifi, bonus! We chill here for a couple of hours in the shade before heading back to the hostel. I was going to get a shower but I'm just going to be sweating again when I go out for dinner so I decide not to bother.
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We go out for dinner, got a good portion, for a good price. Have a few beers and check out a few of the bars. Basically all the eating places, and bars are in the street, with these tiny tables and chairs. Probably due to the premises being so small. The issue is that after about 20mins my ass is numb from these small plastic chairs. After a few beers we head home, pretty tired now due to my sun standard sleep in the train the night before.