Weekend Getaway...GuangZhou

I finally got out of Zhuhai for 3 nights! It was great. I left with Charlene on Saturday afternoon to go meet up with Martin in his second home, GuangZhou. Of course it was raining, but the fact of being on a bus and heading somewhere new was oh so good! How quickly you forget that feeling when sitting around not doing much in a small town. Anyway, we then tried to find me a place to stay (hotel) in one of the downtown areas (this city is huge). Finally found something that was affordable in a great area (near Starbucks, pubs, restaurants and MALLS! LOL). As soon as I walked into the room I was sold. To most of you the standards of this room were ok, but for me it was like being in a 5 star hotel!!! Crisp WHITE sheets, duvet cover, carpet, DOUBLE BED!!!, TV, AC, WINDOWS!!, nice clean bathroom, shower (with HOT water!), TOWELS!!!, TOILET PAPER!!!, they even gave me shampoo, conditionner, soap, toothbrush AND shower cap.. WOW!!! Ain't life grand??? LOL, I know sounds pretty pathetic but seriously THIS was a treat. Luxury for the backpacker baby! Woohoo! Doesn't take much to please me anymore.
Ok, so I got set up in my room adn then we headed out for some grub at a restaurant called Banana Leaf, big chain, but actually pretty good. Miscture of Thai, Indonesian, Malaysian & Chinese with entertainment... Then we headed to an Irish pub, where the manager, who is Chinese, lived in Ireland for quite sometime, and had a very strong Iriah accent. It was a really nice place, very "Irishy" feel to it. There was some private party going on there, so it was VERY lively. Tones of expats, so that was a nice break from it all. We were all very tired so decided to head out to get some more grub, but on the side of the street of course. We found this kid from northern China I believe it is, or is it eastern? Not sure. anyway, there are many Muslims that live in that area, anyway all he sold were skewers of lamb which he cook on the back of his bicycle over some coals. OMG!!! The best meat I've ever tasted in my life!! They shower it with cumin adn that's it. After eating like 10 each, we grabbed a few beers from the 7 Eleven, of course and started walking back to my hotel. When we got there Martin & Charlene headed off back to his place. I had an amazing nights sleep in one of the most comfortable beds in a long time.

I guess Charlene had a wee bit too much to drink so the next day her & Martin met up with me at around 7pm... LOL

But when I finally woke up that morning, I got ready and hit the streets of GuangZhou to see what it had to offer. Well all I can say is that it really reminded me of Taipei City, A LOT. It's huge, much bigger than Taipei of course. So I walked and walked and walked.. 'til of course... it started to rain. Well before the rain started I decided I needed a coffee. So head out to Starbucks. I sat outside on the steps drinking my coffee... let me tell it was like Twilight Zone or something. So many weird things happened. Well odd anyway. I sat there for maybe an hour or so, just relaxing and people watching while messaging Martin, trying to figure out what we were gonna do for dinner and where to meet. So for some reason, almost every person who walked past me just stared, not only the Chinese, but even the foreigners.. I guess it's a "faux pas" to sit on the steps of a Starbucks in this city... So all of a sudden I see this man (not Chinese, in his late 40's or so, maybe 50's) walk by and just stare at me. Now he's standing not too far away and still staring.. Ok whatever I tell myself. Maybe I just look lost or something... Anyway, now these 2 foreign guys walk by and one just looks at me and then stops, still staring (and at this point I'm like what the hell is going on here? Do I have a booger hanging out or something??? keep in mind I'm wearing my old cargo pants, old flip flops, and a very faded old tank top..???? Hey man! I've been backpacking ok?! I'm very low on nice clothes.. ;o) Anyhoo he then starts walking towards me (I'm like "oh crap") So he crouches down in front of me and says hi. "Hi" I say back, he asks me if I need help with anything, I say no, he asks me if I'm waiting for someone, I say yeah my friend's meeting up with me here. He then introduces himself shakes my hand and then grabs it and kisses it, telling me it was a pleasure to kiss my hand... I say: "Uuh.. Ok..? thanks?" He gets up and walks away. Now if that didn't help my situation.. what else would have??? NOW people are staring at me and that's for sure. I look up and who's still there? The older guy still staring at me, but from another spot... Two other people walk by, say hi to me in French and ask me if I'm French.. I'm French Canadian I say... and they chit chat away with me for a bit (this is in 2 different occasions). Do I look French?? What does a French person look like?? LOL So I look up and who do I see? That guy again but now on ANOTHER corner, still staring. Ok, now I'm getting annoyed with this guy, so I start giving him dirty looks from away. I'm sorry but he's just annoying ok. So an hour goes by, I got up at some point to go to the corner store and came back and as I was walking back who was following me???? Yup, that's it, HIM again. Now I pass by him look at him start in the eyes and give him the "what the hell is problem?" look. He smirks and keeps walking as he's pretending to be on his phone.. Well I assumed he was pretending.. I go back sit down and talk to another person who introduces themselves to me...??? Weird day man.
So the guy is still standing over there, far enough but I can still see him and he definetely can still see me.. Now I'm fed up, I'm like ok, what in the world is going on here.. do I have some kind of stalker??? Well that's what I'll call him now.. LOL 5 mins go by I look up and I can't see him anymore. I'm like "no way, there's no way he's gone, i just know it, I feel his eyes on me, I know it" I'm looking everywhere to find this SOB. Determined to find him somewhere in the proximity of where I'm sitting, I look up at the pedestrian overpass adn who's leaning over staring??? Yeah, you guessed it, my stalker. Keep in mind I'm not frightened in any way as there are tones of people around and it's still in broad daylight. I look at him shake my head in disapproval and he smirks, I can still see his expression from where he is.. he's pretty far away, but I can still see. At this point he just over did it for me, I'm now boiling. SO I grab my bag, get up and start walking towards the overpass, get to the street look both ways and march over to the stairs.. while I'm doing this I'm staring at him. I stomp up the winding staircase and when I get up there he's not there.. I'm like "OH NO YOU DON'T!! I'm NOT done with you" so I look around and see that he's walking down the other staircase pretending to be on his phone. So I walk up right behind him and start following him (give him a little taste of his own medicine so-to-speak) He kinda looks back a bit and I guess he can feel that I'm walking 3 feet behind him. He then stops and truns around still on his phone. I look at him straight in the eye adn he hangs up. He has this look of terror in his eyes but still has this little smirk. (I'm gonna keep this version clean since it is on the net and I'm not sure who exactly is reading this.. ;o) I say: "WHAT??! Is there a problem here?! Man: "I'm sorry" Me: " You're really ticking me off here" " It's bleeping annoying having someone stare at you and follow you for 90 mins!" " what kind of freak are you?!" Man:"I'm sorry" Me:" Are you a stalker?? You sure seem like one to me?!" "Don't 'bleep' with me! I'll get the cops right now if I have to" Man:"I'm sorry 'mam" Me:" I'm leaving now, and so are you. If I happen to see you again, you're in 'big' trouble! DON'T mess with me". I then walk away and so does he and pretty quickly. Phew.. that's done and over with, I feel much better now after this confrontation. (sorry for the babbling, just havent' had much happening lately, and now all this stuff..!!) LOL

I then walk around killing time (in the rain) while waiting for Martin & Charlene to show up. And who do I see walking towards me?? Oh no, you're kidding me right?! But this time the guy I think was just going somwhere... but I tell ya, when he saw me and the look I gave him, the fear in his eyes.. Oh my! we literally walked around me and had his head down staring at the ground as he passed me. There ya go, job well done... never saw the man again.. LOL I kinda felt bad snapping like that, but sometimes there are limits to what a person can take. And as most of you who know me... I don't take that kinda stuff too well, I can deal with stares and stuff or whatnot.. but stalker-like people.. umm.. no.

Wow, this entry's long man.

Anyway, met up with the 2 and Charlene had to head back to Zhuhai so we brought her to the bus station. And then Martin & I went for dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant (we weren't too impressed, but were starving). After dinner, hit a pub, played some pool, then decided to see if the bars (clubs) were alive on a Sunday night.. checked 2 of 'em out aaannd they.. weren't. At about 2 or 3 am, decided to go chack out 'Bar Street' but that was dead also, so we found our little boy that had the lamb skewers, got some beers and chowed down on 15 EACH!!! (THE LAMB!! not the BEER!!!) C'mon now! I'm not THAT much of a lush! LOL

The next day was a very lazy day. I didn't do much, but relaxed a whole lot and got to bed early. Woke up this A.M. and packed and grabbed a bus back to Zhuhai.

It felt great to get away for a few days. I really really needed it.
Ok well I babbled away for too long now, so I guess I'll leave you at that.

A plus tard!

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