Kidneys Intact

Guang Zhou by the Pearl River.

I am baccccckkkkkkkk!! I know NO ONE missed me because I didn't get any 'take care' or 'stay safe' or 'I don't want you to die yet' messages on my phone. Heck, all my mum did was to ask me to text her when I arrived, and that was after I called her from the train station saying I was leaving.

Guang Zhou was an eye-opening experience. I had taken the Kowloon-Canton Railway through train and it only took 105 minutes from Hung Hom to Guang Zhou East, pretty fast for the distance it covered. Anyways, some Lonely Planet random facts:

1. Guang Zhou city has a population of 3 million people legally.

2. It is also known as the City of Sheep. I don't know why.

3. There was a high French and British presence in the city living on Shamian Island.

Don't ask me anything else, I didn't finish reading it. :)

The cyclist and some local Malaysians met me at the train station. I didn't realise that there were other Malaysians out and about China. I thought I was the only one. No lah, I just have a limited social circle. Guang Zhou is huge, and full of tall buildings, crazy drivers and rude people. It was raining and cold (5 degrees celcius) and raining and my shoes were wet, my feet were cold and I felt absolutely miserable as my donuts have to be shared. =( I was a whine the whole weekend all because of Seasonal Affective Disorder, really! Haha...

Supper with Keyboard, Gary and Peter. Tzuo Hann was holding the camera.

On Saturday we went to an internet cafe that blasted communist songs on the loudspeakers and did the mandatory tour of bits of the city. It was very quiet and very very very cold. I was walking around complaining my head was cold and my ears were going to fall off and that I was hungry and wanted to eat all kinds of food then changed my mind on what food I wanted every 3 minutes (I thank God that the cyclist was very very patient and didn't kill me). This cycle continued all day until the evening when we went to meet the Malaysian community in Guang Zhou. We went to this Bah Gu Teh restaurant and were treated to lovely Malaysian food! Yum! I met a whole host of people and am now the proud owner of many phone numbers of people who promised to dig me out when they come to Hong Kong. My appeal to mothers with 16-year-old daughters has not waned apparently. We went for a foot massage after dinner. The place was decorated like a fruit orchard with huge ass jackfruits hanging above our heads and pears draped over the potted plants around us. The girls were pretty flirty with the guys and the service was awesome. And I got a 70 minute foot and body massage for the measy sum of 35 yuan! How about that? None-the-less, the boys went back for more the next night after I left *rolls eyes*.

Sacred Heart Cathedral. Note the welcoming committee outside. It is universal.

I went to the local catholic cathedral on Sunday. The place was packed with Nigerians. Now, the Catholic church in China is state-regulated and not appointed by the Vatican. I was wondering what kind of communist ideology is preached in the system. I was dissappointed as the priest not only didn't preach the sermon but his English was so bad, I could not understand a word he was saying. I only figured out he was giving the reading by following syllable by syllable and reading the paper in my hand of what he was saying. I am not joking:

" My name is Peter, I have a brother and am a fisherman." came out as " Mai naai-mee iss-i Pei-teh-rr, I har-vee ah brou-theh-eer ah-nd ah fei-shi-ee-er-ma-an."

I almost gave up at the first instance but managed to survive the whole thing. The sermon was done by some preacher from somewhere that I didn't understand. I double checked to see if I was actually attending some Tagalog mass but apparently it was really and English mass.

Durians! I was being the decoy so that we could steal take a photo of durian.

World's biggest windmill complete with lucky gods on the sails.

By the time I had survived mass and finish a bout of shopping, I was tired enough to go back to Hong Kong. Guang Zhou is full of quaint streets/sqaures packed to the brim with all kinds of wares. There were whole streets and squares dedicated to dried fish, chinese new year decorations, shoes, clothes, chinese herbs, dried fruits even grinding machines, lion dancing drums, musical instruments and whole buildings dedicated to soft toys and bags. It really was a sight for the gawking tourist. The streets were dirty and there were peddlers everywhere. If I was not with the cyclist I would not have dared to venture out and about alone, besides it was too cold and I would have stayed in some noodle shop all day.

The train station was chaotic. I had expected the Chinese New Year rush at the main train station but didn't imagine the satalite train station would be just as bad. The lines were frozen in the North due to the abnormally cold weather this winter, thus many people were stranded and could not get their trains. I was pushed and shoved and just carried away with the tide of people that were trying to get towards the various parts of the station. Police were trying to crowd control and they were marching up and down in lines dressed in their big green communist jackets shouting at people to get off the floor. They were just sleeping and basically camping out there until their train times. I followed behind them and managed to get to the HK-Guang Zhou train area where it was much calmer. Anyways, I got my ticket and had dinner before I left for the safety of Hong Kong on Sunday night with an insight to the desperation China has for it's future. I can see how cities like Beijing and Shanghai will grow by leaps and bounds. Even Guang Zhou is set to follow suit. However, the people in the city leave much to be desired. There is extreme chaos and rudeness. I had a store assistant telling me he didn't want to sell me something eventhough I spoke to him in Putonghua because I was interupting him when he was looking the other way. The cyclist had police shouting at him because he asked directions to the Subway station. We had all kinds of indifferent people who would not help others out of the kindness of their hearts. If you didn't buy their wares, then you are nothing to them. One guy took back his 'offer leaflet' for this store he was trying to get me to go to when I told him I was just waiting for someone, saying that he wanted it back as I was not going to the store anyway! The lack of basic courtesy paints China is such unfavourable light that there is little wonder why people don't like to visit it.

I do hope that deep down inside, there is a sense of morality and would like to believe that the Chinese are not just here to screw people up. Because if they are, I have pretty lousy genes.