Day 26 - Drive from Kaiyuan to Nanning

Monday, August 20

The temperature was a comfortable 22 C ( 72 F ) when we left Kaiyuan to drive to Nanning, which is the capital of the province of Quangxi. When we arrived in Nanning the temperature was up to 33 C ( 91 F ). The drive was mostly uneventful, with some sceninc views along the way.

After checking into the hotel, we contacted Nicole's father so that we could meet him for supper. He is a very interesting, thin man, sporting a wispy long beard and thinning hair. He is a naturopathic doctor who reads people's health by feeling their wrists and then perscribes natural medications for them. He gave me a bottle of fish oil that has been processed so that it doesn't smell like fish and he told me to drink a little bit before every meal.

The only unusual part of the meal was the plate of frogs that I selected...and yes, it tasted like chicken and it was very good.

Typically they do not remove the bones when they prepare their meals in China. All they do is take the meat and chop it up with a cleaver...bones and all, so that almost every piece that you pick up with your chopsticks has one or more pieces of bone in it. The bones are placed on the table next to your plate, hence, you do not eat anything that falls on the table.

After supper we bought some " milk tea " for dessert and then we walked back to the hotel to visit with Nicole's father a little more.

Tomorrow we will be heading north, back towards Beijing. Their is less than a week left in my 5-week stay in China and we need to start heading back towards the airport.