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Published: January 20th 2009
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Shamian
The multiple "you are here" people on this map perplexed us. While amusing, it was not helpful when we were tired and hungry. Erin and I left Kunming almost two weeks ago to meet up with Hong Ngoc and Chantal. I'm going to work my way backwards through our travels.
The Return Home
Although there were plenty of awesome things to see and do in Hong Kong, Erin and I do not have the money to stay there for more than two days. Once again, Erin and her bank card have parted ways so we are surviving solely on my account. It makes me nervous to see my bank account getting drained so quickly. After two weeks of travel on little sleep, we are also fairly exhausted. Traveling back to China this close to the Lunar New Year is an adventure. We couldn't get any train tickets to anywhere in the vague direction we are headed for the next three days, which is as far ahead as you can buy tickets. In the end, we opted for a plane ticket back. Those hordes of people lucky enough to secure a ticket stampeded into the train stations with giant boxes and bags filled with all sorts of things for their relatives. As I was getting shoved into a corner on the Metro today,
Fat woman statue
As if there weren't enough foreigners around, Shamian also had many statues depicting foreigners doing various touristy activities. I noticed a woman carrying fancy boxes of leafy, green vegetables. They weren't any particularly rare or specially prepared vegetables either, as far as I could tell. Interesting...
The cheapest hostel (that did not seem sketchy) we could find in the Lonely Planet for Guangzhou is the Guangdong Youth Hostel (广东鹅潭). It's on the SW end of the city on a small, colonial-style island called Shamian (沙面). Dorm beds are 60RMB each. The whole establishment is very clean and comfortable.
Hong Kong aside, this island has the highest concentration of Westerners I have seen since coming to China. The best part: all of them have Chinese babies! With only one exception, every Western couple we've passed has had at least one Chinese baby.
China is the world's largest exporter of Chinese people.
The Onion, anyone? Once we saw a Chinese woman that had a Chinese baby. That was new and different. Intrigued and highly amused by the high concentration of couples adopting babies around, we commented to a Chinese saleswoman. Apparently this is where the babies have their health examination before being allowed to leave the country. I have to say, those babies are ridiculously adorable. It's very tempting to adopt one if you walk around
Tour guide Chantal
With her trusty LP, Chantal fearlessly led us up mountains, across rivers and through the thick crowds of HK. here.
Unfortunately, I'm too tired and dehydrated from my travels to explore the island or Guangzhou further. My general impressions: Shamian is a nice respite from the noise and insanity of Chinese cities. However, the price is that things are more expensive. Or maybe that's just Guangzhou compared to Kunming. Guangzhou seems like it could be interesting. I like the Metro. More cities should have them.
Hong Kong, a whirlwind tour of Kowloon
We arrived in Hong Kong on the afternoon of the 18th. Our plane was delayed so we took the option of going on an earlier flight with another airline. The only catch was that we had to run to our boarding gate because it was leaving... immediately. As soon as we got through security, we sprinted for the gate. We had to take a break halfway through since our gate was in a different terminal. Luckily, there were those nice conveyor belt walkway things that helped us go even faster.
After arriving, we took a bus to Kowloon to avoid the Hong Kong Island prices. Our hostel came highly recommended by Hong Ngoc's friend, Gaelle. It was in a building with many other
Taj Mahal Club
We finally made it to a restaurant. Hong Ngoc and Erin are excited at the prospect of food. hostels, and called something like Dragon Hostel. Half the hostels in that building also had Dragon in their names though. For the four of us, it was 880HKD for two nights. Perhaps the cheapest place that was still respectable and clean.
Traveling with Chantal is really nice because she is so motivated to keep moving when I would otherwise just sit around. That evening we got a lot accomplished. First, we made our way over to the Avenue of the Stars and watched the Symphony of Lights. Every night, a bunch of skyscrapers put on this lights and laser display that accompanies loud music blasting on the Avenue of Stars, with narration. After being sufficiently awed by this new extreme of tourist attractions, we made our way to the infamous Chungking Mansions. While a bit dodgy at night, this place is impressively multicultural. There are also hundreds of curry places and cheap housing options here. However, there are also many prostitutes and drug dealers.
My favorite experience here was when we naively stopped to grab a flyer for the Taj Mahal Club, also recommended by Gaelle. Within half a second, we were swarmed by men plying us with flyers for their Indian restaurants. I was afraid we'd be buried under the piles of flyers and VIP cards they were handing out. Also, every man there was trying to pull us towards the restaurant he worked for and pushing the other men away. I had to grab Hong Ngoc and shove our way through the crowd really fast to escape. Somehow she had managed to avoid taking any flyers. I'm thoroughly impressed. The last man we fought off was a guy from the Taj Mahal, who we shook off by walking quickly and saying something about coming back later. When we did come back, he asked us about the light show we told him we were hurrying to and guided us through the maze of Chungking Mansions to the restaurant.
There seem to be many people waiting for this computer. Or maybe they just want to watch TV. Either way, I'm tired so this will have to continue some other time.
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Sarah
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hi
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