Nanu Nanu from Nanning

We arrived in Nanning late last night after a delayed train journey and thought we would fill you in on yesterday. I mentioned on my previous post that it was typical monsoon weather in Guilin, well when we got back from the Li River Cruise it started hammering it down about 5pm and this did not let up all night until it turned into a drizzle about 11am the next day. I have never seen anything like it, the lovely river view we had from our room became fascinating to watch as the river rose approx 8ft flooding the steps, pavements and almost reaching the bridge which was our access into the rest of Guilin.

So our sightseeing was going to be limited yesterday however we made up our own adventure with a trip to the local hospital. I know what you are all thinking, kris's gammy shoulder?? or Kris's paperbag for a stomach?? no no this was for me. I have been suffering with my ear since we flew 10 days ago but I put it down to air pressure and catching Nans cold which I had the first few days. Now the cold cleared up but my ear still felt like it was in a bubble and I woke up yesterday morning where it had got worse and I could hardly hear a thing. So after trying to explain ear blockage to the receptionist in our hostel, she wrote down on a bit of paper in Chinese what was wrong with me so I could show someone.

She obviously felt sorry for us and proceeded to leave the hostel reception unmanned and take us down the street to a couple of pharmacies in search of a doctor. After running around in the rain for a while and no luck finding a doctor I think she realised that she may get in trouble for leaving the hostel completely unmanned and legged it back with us in tow. She then pointed us in the direction of the hospital where she said they would have english speaking staff.

So off we set to the hospital (very dramatic), when we arrived we showed our bit of paper to the reception and was told to pay a whopping 30p and sit. The clock said 11.25am and we wondered if this was going to be similar to the NHS waiting times. We were surprised within 2 mins we got ushered into another waiting room and then into a doctor with a nurse who spoke only a couple of words of English. The hospital certainly didn't look as clean as UK hospitals but I was glad to see someone who looked like a doctor. We then spent a good 10mins trying to explain I didn't have something physically blocked in my ear as she kept asking was it a fly in there? Finally with an audience now of 6 nurses she looked in my ear, she then (much to Kris's amusement) got some nose pliers out and proceeded to stick it up each nostril asking if I had a cold.

Finally the diagnosis was an ear infection and she wrote out a prescription and the nurse took me to the pharmacy, £12 this time got me 3 different medicines, a scary looking drink and 2 different lots of tablets and at 11.45am we walked out of the hospital, not bad!!!

Kris was desperate to take a photo of her examining me but I gave him the death stare so we got a photo in reception for you all to see. I am still doubtful it is an ear infection, I think it is ear wax but time will tell, 24 hours in on the medication no sign of it improving, I hope if it is ear wax I can hold on until Australia next time.

In the afternoon we checked out and walked back to the train station, we had a 5 hour journey on a hard seat to look forward to. It ended up leaving 1/2 hour late but somehow we got into Nanning 1 1/2hours late, not sure how?

Our plan was to get up early this morning, check out and get an overnight train to Vietnam today, however we got to our hostel last night and it is in a pent house apartment run by an American (not bad for £10 each per night) so lots of home touches including Xbox 360 to play, a big bath tub (unheard of in Asia), big bed so after a quick debate (and feeling exhausted) we decided to stay an extra night tonight, chill out today and then we are getting the bus to Hanoi in the morning which the hostel sorted the ticket out for us.