Going from A to B and getting lost in the middle... twice.

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So today I travelled from Hong Kong to Guangzhou. The train journey was nice, and quite scenic, getting to the train station was almost more stressful than when Tom and I did it in Thailand. But at least in Thailand I had someone else with me! The morning started well. I got off to an early start (well early for me) with the intention of being at the train station at around 11-11:30 for my 1:11 train. With my bags packed neatly I set out for the Sheung Wan MTR station... in the wrong direction. Walked for 20 minutes the wrong way before I realised and turned around. That would be a 40 minute detour, in the heat, carrying two suitcases with a total of more than 30kg between them. Once I got back to the hotel I was off in the right direction and got to the train station. Took a train to the Kowloon MTR station (which I had googled the night before) and begun to look for the Intercity Through Train. Turns out I needed to be at Hung Hom train station in the district of Kowloon. I had to take a train from Kowloon to Nam Cheong, change lines, wait for the next train to Hung Hom and take it to the end of the line. I got on the train at Nam Cheong at 12:20. The train took a little over 20 minutes. So I had about half an hour to find the Intercity Through Train, buy a ticket, go through immigration and board the train. When I got to the ticket office, it was 12:50 and my train left in 21 minutes. I still had to buy the ticket and go through immigration/security/customs and board the train. I notice a sign that says Immigration closes 10 minutes before departure. Oh Crap, or in Chinese 糟糕！ I got through customs with exactly 5 minutes til I had to board. Stood there for about 30 seconds and the line started moving to get on the platform. I took my seat in Premium class and sat feeling very proud of myself (for an extra ten minutes because the train was delayed anyway). Well not about the getting lost part, but about the persevering and eventually finding my way. Without crying!

Part two of my day! When I got off the train my buddy Yaoyao (Wei JiaYou) and her friend Wayde (Wang Wei) met me and helped carry my suitcase all through the train station and into the area near my hotel. We also got lost and went the wrong way but it was only 2 minutes. We found the hotel that I had booked, but more problems ensued. The U Hotel South Pearl SOHO Appartment was so dodgy... They claimed to have not received any money from booking.com yet, that I had to also pay another deposit of 1500 yuan (230AUD) and that they had no wifi. So after much confusion, after me telling them that I could understand what they were saying they just needed to speak a little slower, we finally came to the conclusion that I would pay one night's accommodation (approx 40AUD) and I'd cancel the booking. We found the Rosedale hotel which is much nicer by far and I booked that and am now comfortably settled in. Yaoyao took me out for dinner and we had some fantastic dim sum - and they ordered far too much so I was stuffed like a Christmas turkey! She helped me get a chinese sim card and we said goodnight. What a catastrophe of a day, but all's well that ends well I guess. Now to look forward to meeting my room mates and registering on Monday!

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