Tempest7: Blogger

GuangZhou Day 3 - Last Day

I don't know what it is about the bed I have, both the bed and the pillow is quite stiff, but I don't feel as if I have rested well. I always feel like falling back to sleep in that room. I woke up again when Lou Yan dropped by. She waited for me to wake up a bit more and shower than I packed my things and I checked out. Her mother promised to make me dumplings for breakfast/lunch, because she found out I love dumplings. I really do love dumplings but I didn't expect 21 dumplings. We took bus 52 back out to the train station (about an hour's ride) then transfered again to bus 33. I'm really starting to hate the buses in GuangZhou. There's not much of a choice though, GuangZhou is just too big a city. Lou Yan is not much of a traveller so she's not aware how to plan accordingly. She has helped me with a few things but I think I have given her an opportunity to improve on many things.

The good thing about my travels is that I'm getting better at unfamilar settings. GuangZhou still uses Cantonese and my Cantonese has been able to get me by. Once on the GZ MTR I'm fine, I was teaching Lou Yan how to use it. The transfer point between line 1 and line 2 is a bit strange compared to Hong Kong, more like Toronto where you need to walk up or down another level. But I think it is considerably faster than the bus since the streets are really chaotic in GuangZhou. I remember a story about a Chinese family trying to cross Hwy 401 in Toronto. I believe they were pushing a shopping cart home full of groceries. I couldn't believe people would try that back then, but I totally understand now; they must have been from GuangZhou. People risk their babies crossing the road, Bikers are all over the place, anywhere a pedestrian can walk a motorcycle can ride. Actually I've been fighting a kind of superiority complex, but it really is hard for me in GuangZhou. In such a chaotic city with no apparent values, I need to cling strongly to my own. On the bus I was offering my seat to women and the elderly. I have seen others do it (which impressed me, since it is rare for me to see it in Hong Kong or even in Toronto these days on the bus) and Lou Yan mentioned how different it made me. When I finished a meal I thanked her parents. When I left in the morning, knowing I would return to Hong Kong, I made a point to say good bye to both of her parents and to thank them for their hospitality. These are simple values that don't seem strange to me, but drew comments.

I have a major disappointment though, GuangZhou does not have a city mug for Starbucks. They had some cheap city cup which is more like a standard plastic cup with some paper insert. I was a bit frustrated spending most of my days shut away in my room, or sitting on the bus. I didn't get to see the city at all except for the last 2 hours that I was there. There is a huge shopping mall though, but no time to find presents for my friends. In the last hour I needed to make a decision, where to eat. We ended up at KFC and it was suppose to be a quick meal but it ended up taking longer than I thought because we had an adorable child sitting beside us.

I was late, to catch the bus home. Lou Yan insisted to see me off, except she was wearing high heels. I told her she did not need to since I could run; but she insisted. It was very kind of her, but I was late and I missed the bus. The lady at the station said I could wait around for the next bus to see if there was space, so I did just that. Luckily there was space and I'm writing this entry in a text file on my trip back into Hong Kong. The border crossing went smooth and my Hong Kong duration has been extended another 90 days. My phone is out of money so I'll need to top it off, aand I have quite a bit of work to prepare for tomorrow but even without seeing all the sights that I wanted I still enjoyed me trip. There are things to learn everywhere I go. I came back in one piece and I'm thankful for that.

Labels: China

posted by Tempest7 @ 23:28