5 Days in Guanzhou

After staying a night in the hostel at Hong Kong, I woke early that morning, and, with a great deal of yawning and regret (damn Poms and Canadians, and their Johhny walker) i packed my things and made my way to the train station which was only a couple of blocks away from where i stayed.

Bought a snack and a drink, and sat and waited for the 8:20 Train to Guanzhou... eager as i was not to miss my flight i arrived way to early and had to sit, twidling my thumbs and reading for a good half hour. Boarded the train, bade farewell to Hong Kong, and i was on my way. The train ride was pleasant enough, mainly city all the way, Guanzhou and Hong Kong are so big that instead of bering two clearly definable cities, they sort of merge into one big Urban sprawl. There were some nice sights, terraced farms, little cottages and lovely winding rivers (though the majority were highly polluted by the look of them).

I have amazed myself with the amount of reading i've got done here, absolutely powered through the chronicles of narnia (well worth a read, the movies however, i thought were rubbish, and yes, helen, i did steal your copy!!! Sorry) and once again embarked on the epic Lord of the rings trilogy. Again, well worth a read if you have the time, which, travelling a lot on planes and trains and buses, i found i am in excess of.

Arrived in Guanzhou at around 9:40, tired and dazed as all hell, (the hangover from the night before had only been triggered by the train's motion i think) and found myself a cab. I'm embarressed to say i fell asleep and got ripped off bad. What i paid 300RMB for, i later learned should have cost me only around 150RMB. Nice little loss there of about $30. Damn sneaky chinese.

Got to the airport, where i found not one person who spoke english. The time was slipping away, and i still hadn't found anywhere that would change Australian notes. Panicking now, i got so frustrated ewith the language barrier i simply stood amongst ther throng and yelled 'Does anyone speak english!!!?' at which point a little chinese man came up and said 'Hello!' very enthusiasticly, but that was about the extent of his vocabulary. After a bit more running around i found two guys in suits who said they would change my money, but for a shit of an exchange rate. With no other option, i agreed. It was only after i'de done this i realised, with the exchange rate they had given me, and the taxi scam, i now didn't have enough for the plane ticket. Very intelligent Tom.

So now, without any hope of boarding the plane, i found an internet cafe and told my woes to Mum and lucas, and we decided the best thing to do would be to find a place to sleep until lucas arrived with some money mum was to lend me (thanks again mum) and we would fly together. By now i was thoroughly aware of the sneakiness, and began to stand my ground with the chinese. I booked a hotel, and demanded a cheaper price (you can barter with almost anything here). Found a bus and caught that to my hotel, where i booked in and at last had a chance to relax.

I slept very contently that night, and the next morning set out on some damage control, organising new flights, liasing with mandy the agent. I also got a chance to see a bit of the city, bought a little disposable camera, still got some film left so you wont be seeing the pics for a while, but as soon as i can ill scan and upload.

After the first two days i wrote the posting 'A beauty and a beast', after seeing a lot of the povery and also a lot of the nice things in the city.

Staying in a room by yourself for three nights in a strange country does tend to get a touch lonely, especially withouty even TV's chatter to keep you company. The only English TV was 'Pearl", which had a couple of good shows, but the really good ones were all dubbed in Chinese, the OC for example. I did make friends with the reception girls though, all very nice and very helpful, and they showed me a nice cheap bar a couple of blocks away, where we shared a few brewski's.

On the last day, when everything had been organised ( i wont bore you with the details, for they were indeed very boring) i sighed with releif, and after talking to Jim (Lucas's dad, who is also teaching over here) he suggested i stay with a friend of his named Cherylynne who lives across town in Guanzhou. Shes a great lady who has been so much help, going as far as to come and pick me up on the metro and take me to her house. After dropping my bag at her house ( a cosy little apartment, where i felt very much at home) we went for lunch at her favourite restaurant, which was only 200m away.
Pic's of that too, really nice food and the beer, oh the beer in china is tantalising. MMM Australian beer just doesn't compare to the golden dewy amber liquid that pours like rain in this Country. (ok, point made). Lunch for two with plenty of left overs, along with two 700ml bottles of beer, cost a whopping $4 Australian each.

Went with Cherylynne to her school, and got involved with some lessons, the kids here are so unbeleiveably cute and very willing to learn. Got some first hand experience, which was invaluble... as the tesol course isn't nearly the training a language teacher really needs.

Came back from school, at about 9pm to have dinner with Cherylynne, Her Teachers aide, and her roommate, a canadian called Ryan who has been here for three years. Went to the same restuarant we had lunch at earlier that day. Banana's dunked in toffee, so so good. Strange that we had sweets before savoury, but all the same very good. Had chicken steamed dumplings and bean shoots in a creamy soup. MMM and of course several bottles of chinese beer. Gam bei, (chinese for empty glasses) the chinese custom for downing a whole glass of beer in one go. Last empty glass to hit the tables is shamed!

Got home, passed out cold. Woke up to a call from lucas, who had got into Guanzhou the night before but stayed in a hotel. He's standing here now, and soon we will have lunch and go to the airport to fly to Harbin, at 3:30 on China southern Airways (Cherylynne was tutoring some of the staff last night, with me looking on!)

Well, it was a hell of a long blog, congratulations on coming to the end of it... your a braver one than I. And if you skipped to the bottom, shame shame shame.

Much love, take care and holla back at me.

Love you all. Tom xxx