Farewell Nanchang!

Getting ready to head out to the airport, we've had to make sure our bags were under 20 kilos, or 44 pounds.  That's the weight limit for intra-China travel.  Ours made the cutoff easily, as we pack relatively light and only picked up some clothes for Clare.  I wonder, though, how some other families are faring.  The suitcases from one family in particular were bulging and held together against their will by thick straps.  I picked one up, and boy, did it weigh a ton.  Must be carrying lead bricks.   We ate for one last time at our favorite restaurant in Nanchang, this joint across the street from the hotel.  Terrific food and insanely low prices.  Both last night's dinner and today's late lunch came to about $8 per meal.  That's everything included, for both Christy and myself.  The one caveat is that, like most other real Chinese restaurants, the dishes don't have much meat at all, but are loaded with other fillers.  Here I made sure we got fillers like cabbage and mushrooms instead of the usual noodles.  I'm getting sick of noodles.  And like elsewhere there was a lot of oil in the food, so hopefully that'll keep us going until Guongzhou.   The waitresses at the restaurant were fantastic and really loved Clare.  Every time we went, they were all hovering over her, and even picked her up and carried her around.  They were really good about keeping Clare in our sight as they took turns with her, tickling her and such.  Makes me feel good to know we have such a popular little baby.   One of the male waiters was facing us from a little ways away, with one foot on a chair striking a Captain Morgan pose, apparently trying to show off a little for Christy.  He had his black silk shirt unbuttoned most of the way down, "showing off" his chest.  I've never seen such an utterly featureless chest before on a grown man.  Not even a suggestion that there might be any muscles there, much less hair.  A word of advice, Enrique—if you want to really impress an American woman, you've got to have some pecs.  Sixpack is optional, but pecs are mandatory.   Farewell, Nanchang!  We'll always have warm thoughts about you since you're where we finally met our daughter.  (Just don't hold your collective breath waiting for us to come back.)