Signed up for my same-day visa and headed out onto the town... alone (Shiloh was grading papers and JoJo went back to her family home outside Nanning). Literally spent about 2 hours roaming around and hitting up different cafes. Around 4 PM I was in the center of town ABOUT to head back to the Visa office when I heard loud speakers coming from around the corner. When i came around, I saw a huge stage set up, bright lights, and some fake looking chinese people on stage dancing with microphones. Turns out its one of the most popular game shows in Southern China and I happen to be the ONLY white person in the crowd... 3 Guesses who they picked to be on the show?! So I go up there, try to speak as much chinese as possible (I am Michael, I live in Shanghai, I like shanghai but love nanning, I am not gay, I am handsome right?) pretty much everything I know and I had those little people rolling (another note -- chinese outside of shanghai are more the size I EXPECTED THEM TO BE!). So I had to pull some table cloths out from under glasses and failed horribly as you can see from my pictures. Well at least I was on TV in all of Guanxi Province right?
Actually had to rush to the Visa office after my 5 minutes of fame and barely got there in time to get my Visa. While I was waiting saw a BF sit down and his Vietnamese GF was standing next to he and I. Naturally, as momma taught me, I insisted on giving up my seat - turned out being one of the best seat give-ups ever. These two were Phillipe and Mei li and they were also leaving in the morning for Hanoi -- but since she's a local she knew a lesser traveled path that involved 2 small buses and less red tape. They helped me get a ticket and I actually have spent every moment in vietnam with them since - and met all of her local friends ; )
That night I FINALLY got to hang out with Shiloh - and it was awesome. We had some beer and some eats and in his typically chill mode he said, "So you gotta get up early, trying to go out or you wanna just lay low?" I said lets do it. So, we tooled around on his motor bike, hit a few local bars early on, challenged the Fuyen (waitors) to foosball and absolutely rapped them and then got down to business. And in Nanning when you get down to business you go to SOHO (Shanghaiers... probably closest to a mix of Mint and 88).
At SOHO we played the typical "Loa-Why" game of seeing if you can be at a chinese club all night without paying for a drink -- and honestly, with my dance moves and shiloh's long golden locks it wasn't even fair. We were being pulled from table to table by wasted chinese business men trying to show off their "Guanxi" and build their rep by having the ONLY 2 white people in the bar at their tables. It was hilarious, fun, and best of all FREE. Shiloh spotted two ladies literally ACROSS the bar grilling us and he informed me it was time to make a move... we started our celebraty-esk waltz across the club when we were literally GRABBED by a Fuyen who looked like he was either ridiculously scared or really constipated. He said, in decent english, "Sirs - you join big table in back please. Boss really want." Shiloh and I don't even really have a choice as we are being pushed into that direction and we decide the babes will have to wait. We get back there behind a glass window looking out on the club and there are literally like 10 guys around a table with loads and loads of top end wiskey, a few scantily clad womenz running around here and there, and a big ass dude with a scar in the middle of the table. This little guy named ben starts talking a mile a minute about how his boss wants us to drink with him and enjoy his company etc, etc, etc. Sooner or later a few drinks in we notice a Dice mug (shanghaiers know what im talking about) going around with straws in it. Everyone is snorty torty out of this thing and when Shiloh sees it he tells me that he knew it! These are Triads and thats the boss in Nanning (the guy with scar that didn't say one word). I asked him how he knew... "Cause only the gangs are powerful enough to do drugs in public" I said what drugs and he explained that the stuff in the Dice mug was Party Dust and it is a huge Triad drug in the clubs and only the gangsters do it. He said he was forced to try it last year and he will never do it again -- said it was literally the craziest he's felt in his entire life. Well... Shiloh went to the bathroom and I was being pressured -- BUT OF COURSE I DIDN'T DO IT! RIGHT?!
Anyway, Point is the rest of that night went hazy for all kinds of reasons, I danced with a Chinese pop star, and barely made it home in time to sleep for 2 hours before the bus.
Phillipe and Mei Li - Met them at the bus station and we started our trek to the boarder. 1 bus to XingPing, 1 taxi to the border, 1 bus to the northern vietnamese town of Lu Cao, 1 hired car to hanoi, and 8 hours later - we landed in Hanoi.
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