Wahtong Cheng Hotel Dongguan

i knew it would happen, but only four days in and sarah has chinitis, all the smells, tastes and intruguing aspects of CHina have resulted in symptoms including vomiting in front of a chinese family in Qingping markets. we walked through a really really fascinating marketplace full of kittens, puppies, tortoitses, so many fish, salamanders, chip munks, every manner of claw, dried lizards, mushrooms, fungi and bunny ...

... place that had no english menu, and we got what we wanted, dumplings! we are going to a black market today, were we could buy puppies and monkeys if we wanted! and we do! tonight we are catching a sleeper bus to guilin.

ohh and simon got in trouble from the police for taking bananas across the border, and got a special stamp in his passport for disobeying the law!

zai jian!
good bye

Enjoyed our meetings and colleagues. Went to dinner at a typical Guangdong/Canton restaurant. Menu was very creative. Plenty of exotics - baby pigeon, sting ray, fish guts, beetles, snakes, chicken feet. Was a bit naseous, but likely because of jet lag.

... doesn't speak English nor does the lead of the sim-card mafia, but he jumps in the front seat after I negotiate 200 yuan for the ride into the city using the hotel's chinese character address. Guess he just made commission on me. 30 minutes to GZ city center

... As you can imagine I nearly had heart failure worrying! I had visions of him being turned back from China (this might have been a blessing in disguise!) and just when I thought he was gone forever a load of chinese people in white suits from head to toe (think astronaut) appeared from the room he was in......thankfully Ollie appeared a few minutes later looking unharmed but with a white mask clamped to his mouth...hilarious sight!

... driving in the wrong direction on the highway towards us. We assumed something was wrong up ahead and we turned around too when we saw the massive amount of traffic. Cars were going the wrong way on the exit ramps and everyone was quite confused. We were in Shekou for about 4 hours and when we were driving home cars were still stopped in traffic. We had dinner at a Thai restaurant and then came back to our hotel for an early night ...

... I got through it with the help of the free champagne and shots. Brett kindly tried to set me up with his mate and fellow Aussie pilot Slado, as he thought it would be neat as our names rhymed (Slado meet Jado). Sadly, Slado was too trashed to communicate in anything other than grunts and hand signals so the relationship never took off (get it)! I really fell for Hong Kong and think it would be an amazing city to work in for a year or two, and find a husband. Just joking. Sort of.

... s 4 major bus stations or the cavernous railway station today, but I can't figure out how to avoid it until I sleepily remember that you don't need to follow the advice in the guide books to have fun. If truly authentic travel is trusting to fate then the travel gods dealt me a lovely hand when I got to Dongguan's huge bus station. I rolled over to the large information desk and asked a bemused looking lady which long distance buses were leaving today. She ...

... Japanese influences, but thatīs a whole other argument! Families will effectively sell their daughters when they decide itīs time for them to marry. It wonīt be described as such, but the daughter doesnīt get a choice when the instruction is given and the family gets the cash. I have spoken to some teenagers who speak of "my years of freedom before my mum tells me to change my life". I could go on, but it makes me pretty uncomfortable. Suffice to ...

Saturday

Awoke in the morning to a great view of Hong Kong from my bedroom window. Ate an early breakfast then took a local bus to Kowloon Station. Kowloon is the stepping off point for China and you do all the formalities before boarding the train. Lots of people in the crowded train station and took a while to find the immigration and departure areas. Went through passport control, checked my bags in and hung around for the train to leave. Once the train ...