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I stayed at Riverside YHA, from the place where the bus dropped us off in Guangzou I asked around where the metro was, no one can understand me a bit frustrating, welcome to China, hardly anyone speaks English not their fault i am the stranger here, I found it finally and took the train to the hostel it took me awhile to figure out the directions and after 20 minutes walking in busy street near the river i found the hostel, they put me in a nice room overlooking the river cause the dorms are full, I share with a Chinese dude who hardly spoke to me as he can't speak English. I found street food at 10pm, the streets are alive with food stalls and grilled stuff in the middle of the streets, i picked one place and oh the grilled stuff were so good if a tad bit salty, amazing Chinese food this is what I missed! I love China! After having my full I went back to the hostel and slept. Next morning i spent time trying to book a flight to Chengdu to meet up with Rusell I overslept and missed the 9am train! I was so
frustrated I can't find the small hotel that books flights, the nice receptionist at the hostel, Janet told me where to go but she can't describe the place and i went up and down the long street 5 times before i found it asking every establishment if they can book me a flight to Chengdu, with a flying motion charade needless to say i got laughed at but did not care, found it but it's $159 US and the nice lady booking a flight as well spoke English she lived 25 years in new York now retired living in her homeland. I decided then to train it, the lady told me take the middle bed on the hard sleeper and so i did when I booked it with Janet in the hostel. Met the Israeli dude from Hongkong hostel chatted a bit and then i went for the grilled meal again in the streets, then went to bed.
next morning i went to the train station I have to take the metro, no problem then at the train station it was so confusing! I dont know where to go, so many people eventually I managed to find the waiting
frog hot pot
Boris loving the frogs area asking around and following where people go, i got lost a lot and queues are all over i dont know which to follow! I finally asked someone who pointed me in the right direction, the train was nice and the people next to me are so friendly, they laugh at me at every thing i do, put my flip flops on, the way i use the chopstick etc. 27 hours the trip takes the bed is not so wide and long i struggled to get comfy and I have aches and pains, muscle stiffness because i have to contort myself to fit. one time after waking up i want to go to the toilet, this woman selling food stood there watch me get down the ladder and constantly pitching the food she sells, i made it down the bottom and told her look I dont speak Chinese I told you i said no what else do you want from me, she stared ate me for 10 seconds shocked and left, i was giggling on my way to the loo. she cant believe i spoke engilsh to her!
I got picked up at the train station by Wang a
guy who works for Dragon Town GH we took a taxi which he paid and right at the front desk Russ was waiting for me with Boris the Belgian fellow we will travel with to Tibet. These fellows sorted out and arranged everything for us we are going 2 days from now! I was unprepared but it's ok i only want to see the pandas before we leave anyway. I am rooming with Russ with a funny old woman from Australia of Iranian heritage the sweetest grandma and travels on her own, amazing! Anyway we grabbed lunch at a small eatery good dumplings and for cheap! Then we searched for ATM to draw money to pay for the Tibet trip, they have a max of 2,500 yen in every ATM here and so we have to go back tomorrow to draw the rest of the money, Boris has had problems with his card so we will sort out payment tomorrow. Roughly 13,000 yuan for the 3 of us 9 days in Tibet, before according to LP you can go there and do it yourself now it's impossible for foreigners, you have to be in a group and with a guide
to visit places nowadays, we have no choice.
We decided to visit some markets and we walked a lot and took buses, Chengdu is huge and tall buildings are sprouting allover the place, very modern and hip place. We accidentally found a fish market and they have all kinds of stuff for sale, tons of crawfish, alligators, rabbits, different varieties of tortoises and turtles, cats! among other things, when we saw the skinned cats in the butcher shop we felt sick! From there we went to a few malls and back to the hostel, we stopped by Lofts, the sister hostel of Dragon Town and watched football in the big screen and had some beers, then Boris on the way home decided to have a massage, so we left him at the place and we went back to sleep.
Next day is to see the pandas for me, we got picked up at 7am and drove to the Rehab center about 30 minutes from the city, the giant pandas are so cool, cute and cuddly but extremely strong animals, they thrive in bamboo forests but their habitat is being taken away by development so they are endangered, we
were there for 3 hours and went to different sites, all the pandas are eating bamboos and I enjoyed taking photos of them. Then bak to the hostel, I had shower and a meal and packed my stuff, we checked out and while doing so Boris flirted with girls at the reception desks, past 3pm we are off took a taxi to Suzy's Cosy inn where they booked our Tibet trip. Joy the very friendly and helpful travel agent sorted out things for us, we paid but Boris still have problems with his finance so me and Russ lent him some money to pay for the trip while he calls Belgium to fix his card so he can get money. We were taken to the train station ,included in the package. it was packed as usual, we queued up early and even though we did when we got to our hard seats there is no space to put our backpacks all the top shelfs are full of boxes and stuff so we struggled to put them away under the seats, it worked but more people came and they have big suitcases, the guy from the train had to rearrange all
the luggages again and this took forever but surprisingly enough the train left on time. Tibet here we come...
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gyo
gyo
i live in guangzhou. you can find all kinds of chinese food in guangzhou. haha.