China - Day 68

Okay okay I’ll be the first to admit it - I haven’t exactly been keeping on top of things this time around. I guess some might say that two months could be regarded as a considerable gap between postings. I promise I’ll try to be more diligent from now on. (…Oh and I’m pretty sure I’ve never used the word “diligent” before in my life prior to coming to China) But anyway, what can I say? …I’ve been busy haha. But I do apologize to all those who have been waiting. (Mom).

So let’s see… Where to begin? Outside of the obvious unusual food-related incidents, of which there have been several - including a trip to the wet market and seeing buckets of live snakes, scorpions, and chickens in the process of being de-feathered (only the chickens, not the snakes and scorpions LOL) - there have been lots of interesting events during the past two months that I’ve been in Guangzhou... Three or four weeks ago Amy and I threw a pseudo-housewarming potluck party in our apartment. Seeing as how we work in separate schools there ended up being a lot of people crammed into our apartment; 50 or so at the peak. All-in-all it was a pretty good night full of drinks, food, dice games, and dancing. Well, almost dancing. The last of the stragglers didn’t leave until 6:00am to catch the first train home… Luckily the next day I didn’t have to work!

I have also taken a couple of noteworthy trips outside of the city. I guess about a month ago now Amy and I, along with Linda, one of Amy’s students, took a trip to Yangshuo. It’s a small, yet touristy town in Guangxi, the next province over, which takes around 10 hours or so by bus. I say “or so” because sometimes, if you’re fortunate enough you can gain the pleasure of having that bus trip extended to over 12 hours. Of course, we were just lucky enough to have this good fortune. Bus aside, the trip was a lot of fun! After stumbling off the over-night bus at 8:00 in the morning we checked into our hotel and then went to a nearby restaurant to have some breakfast. Breakfast was followed by a quick look around some of the shops and then an attempt to plan out the rest of our trip. Easy in theory, not so much in practice. We ended up going on a tour through some limestone caves in the afternoon followed by a lake show in the evening. The show was pretty cool, although a little difficult to describe. Imagine a Preston Ice Show but on water… and using boats… with traditional Chinese music... If it weren’t for the millions of mosquitoes attacking us the entire time it might have been more enjoyable. After a “10 minute” (translate: 45 minute) walk back to the main street of town we capped off the night by having a few drinks and playing some drinking games. The second day in Yangshuo we met up with Tracy, another EF teacher who works at Amy’s branch. The four of us hired a bamboo raft and took a tour down the river. It was pretty fun, even though we had to disembark half way through to take a 20 minute trek over land to avoid the police. (The people who operate the boats aren’t exactly known for paying taxes on what they earn…) After finding the “big tree” and our boat driver again, our rafting expedition continued. Later that day we met up with Cesar, Tracy’s roommate in Yangshuo, and indulged in a couple more drinks. After stumbling back to the hotel around 4:30 we awakened a few hours later to catch the oh so comfy bus back to Guangzhou.

This past week my good friend Alex made her way to Guangzhou for a visit via India, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam… It was really nice to have her here but unfortunate that I had to work almost the entire length of her visit! We managed to get out a few nights, but it’s a good thing she was content with just relaxing around the apartment during the day. I guess 5 months of traveling can do that to a person haha. After a 10 day stint of work (about a week of that being while Alex was here) I had a few days off! This is where the second noteworthy trip out of the city comes in…

This past weekend was the Dragon Boat Festival and Alex, Amy and I decided to head to Hong Kong for the holiday. We found a cheap hostel in the Mong Kok area of Kowloon which is actually just outside of Hong Kong (kind of akin to a Mississauga) and settled in for three days. Aside from being insanely tiny, our room was very clean and seemed pretty safe. The location was also actually pretty convenient - it was right across the street from a large market known as the Ladies’ Market. If you look you can easily find really cheap clothing and cosmetics. The first day we did some wandering through the market and then headed into Central Hong Kong to find a hair salon. While Amy and Alex were getting their hair highlighted I elected to go wander around a bit. (I had wanted to get my hair straightened again, but it would’ve taken too long). I found my way to the Soho area and went up the “world’s largest escalator”. A misnomer if you ask me, I was expecting a single escalator, but it’s actually just a series of short ones going up the hill/mountain. Regardless it was pretty neat and I saw a lot of cool restaurants and bars. When I got to the top I realized that there was no escalator going down the mountain so I had to actually walk back down (horrible I know). It took about 20 minutes, but it was a good way to kill some time while I waited for the other two girls to finish up. Later that night we met up with Rob, a fellow traveler Alex met on one of her journeys across South East Asia, and Christine, a nice German girl that Rob had also met while traveling. The next day Amy, Alex, Christine and I decided to go see Po Lin Monastery and a large Buddha statute (actually “the world’s tallest, outdoor, seated bronze Buddha” to be exact) on Lantau Island. Unfortunately due to the excessive amount of rain that had fallen a few days earlier there had been a landslide and the cable car and bus up the mountain were shut down. Slightly discouraged we elected to take a bus around the coast so we could pass through a small fishing village, however it turned out this section of the road was also shut down. In the end we went and saw the new Sex in the City movie and did some shopping at the outlet mall that was outside the metro station. On our third and final day of the holiday we chose to hop aboard a ferry and visit Macau which is about an hour away. We got there in the evening (after a lazy morning of sleeping in, eating lunch at TGI Fridays, and shopping around for an external hard drive), and then tried to figure out what exactly we should do there. Macau is known for its gambling so after visiting a female Buddha statue we made our way to a casino. I lost about $20 but Alex and Amy both came out ahead - Alex by about $2.50, but Amy won about $150 - not too shabby! Later we had dinner in another casino, where, from our vantage point, were able to look down upon a lovely pole dancing show. Well to be fair, it wasn’t only pole dancers, there were also some mimes from time to time as well as some other dancers who performed. None of them were actually any good. After our meals we opted for dessert at another casino and then made the journey back to Hong Kong. The next morning Amy and I were up at 5:45 to catch the train back to Guangzhou so we could return to work, while Alex stayed behind in Hong Kong for a few more days before her return flight to Canada this coming Sunday.

Alright well that’s all for now, I could keep writing but I feel this is sufficient enough until the next time around. Don’t want to bore you all too much with my ramblings haha.