Guilin city

26/02/2005

The acrobatic show the evening before was very impressive, it lasted about 2h, and I would have paid more than 50 E for something like that, but it costed me only 10 E here. It was recommended by Sovel and her husband, indeed i am glad that i had the chance to see that. Everything from the costumes, the artists (many of them are talented young kids), the show in general, it was so well made!! Unfortunately, they did not allow to take any pictures during the show :-(, understandable..; After the show, the artists with their costumes standing at the entrance, and the audience tried to take or have pictures with them. One of which a very pretty girl in her beautiful costume, she was an ballet artist, and during the show didn't do much like others, but she is pretty and have a gorgeous costumes, so many people ended up shooting pictures of her/with her among whom there was a Vnese tourist :-)

David's friend, Robert took me to visit around Guilin. He asked me whether I am from the South or North of VN (typical question!!), and said all the girls from Ho Chi Minh are very pretty ;-), apparently the girls from the North look a bit like Chinese girls, and in the South of VN, RObert said the figure of the girls are softer, especially the cheeks (??). We went to the Elephant Hill, and he was asking me what did I think about the VN-China War in 1998 ;-). I told him that I wouldn't like to discuss about that, plus both governments have established a friendship pass since then..etc. I do not want to comment which one was right or the island that we were fighting for belongs to whom ;-), and many VNese or Chinese were died...Robert is going to move to Australia this year, apparently many Chinese go there. It is not difficult if you have money or if you invest into a business in Australia, you can easily obtain a permanent address there. In Robert's case, he has a brother over there, so the brother is taking care for his moving.

The Elephant Hill does look like an Elephant that is drinking water, nice. After we went to the art university of Guilin, acc to Robert, this university receives a lot of VNese students who come here to study either art or Chinese. He explained briefly the proceed of examination, of how to become a servant of the King in the old time, how the result will be posted on the golden board, how the examination process is...Nowaways, it is so easy when we talk about going to school, examination and all. In the old times, exams take at least a week, and over night...We are lucky!!

I also went with Robert to the jade's museum, it's good to know how the value of jade is determined...soft or hard, white or green, or a mix of green/purple, which region? Tibet/Taiwan or Birmanie?? I bought three small pieces of old jades that costed me around 600E or so for my
grandma, mom and aunty... When I took a piece of jade to look under the light, on a black fabric as if it is good quality, it should be transparent, shining...Although it looked very beautiful, but I turned to Robert and said "I don't think it's transparent" :-), Robert said "well, Thao, it's transparent, but it doesn't mean that it should be like your glasses" LOL

After that, David joined us, and Robert left as he had some tourists that he had to pick up from the airport, I said good bye and asked him if he could buy the osmanthus tea for me (apparently it's very good tea). We went to have lunch me and David, he ordered the mapo tofu, the tofu was so fresh there in China, and milky as well, the mapo tofu was cooked with a lot of red chilly, it's so hot. Actually, "mapo" means an old woman/grandma, and David explained it doesn't mean that this recipe was cooked by an old woman but this is like a sort of tofu brand, every tofu with this label is very good one ;-). He ordered quite a few of them, and said they were all Sichuan specialities...God, food was very good, but so hot!! There came as well a food lessons...There are three main tastes in China cuisine: hot (Sichuan-they use different sort of chilly in their cuisine), Sweet and sour (Guangzhou), I can't remember the other one but he said that region use only the red chilly or something..hmmm. I had an amazing lunch, and was on David's treat ;-) (man should pay acc to David's girlfriend, Li).

We agreed to meet in the evening to have a beer somewhere as the next day I would be going to Yangshuo and would stay there.

On the way back to the hotel, I tried the Chinese bubble tea, I chose the cold one, it's abit black this tean, love it. It was quite funny when David and I were buying the tea, I asked David how much, and all the girls behind the counter were looking at us like "hey, you are both Chinese, why are you speaking English to each other" ;-). BTW, noodle in Guilin costs only 2 yuen, and they are amazingly good, I ate that every morning

In the evening, David came to the reception, and we went to pick his girlfriend up, she was in the shop doing shopping ;-), everytime I saw her, she was shopping...We walked around the night market, Li was buying those little things that they hung on their mobile phones like bells, shoes that made from ox's bones, she gave me two: one shoe (kick away bad luck) and one bell (bring happiness) ;-). After that, we went to have a drink in the European type of bar...There was a Chinese band playing, and of course, if we wished you could have sung on the stage as well. I took a Chinese beer, David ordered a sort of Chinese distilled liquor that was made with Chinese herb, so strong!!, and Li ordered a kind of baileys drink, and snack was something like dried beef, DELICIOUS ;-).

I miss them

Saigon, Vietnam

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Hk island viewed from Kowloon at nite 

Chinese ballet and acrobatic show 

trekking, Dao woman 

Guilin 

Guilin 

Peaceful market 

Guangzhou park 

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Guilin-Li River Cruise_Longsheng Rice terrace and Dao Minority group

24/02/2005

On the same morning I arrived, I booked and took the river Cruise tour to Yangshuo. The weather was so really bad, we could hardly see anything. I met a gentleman from Wales, and a Spanish-Dutch couple from another tour, which was nice. We went to the upper part of the cruise, the view was impressive, the water was so pure that it reflected the images of the limestone-mountains/hills through it, it looked like the area of Halong bay in VN...there were a lot of bamboo trees along the river, and some small huts, I noticed the smoke from those little houses, some children, ox...The whole scenery was very peaceful, cold weather, dead tree, smoke coming out from houses, little boats...gorgeous. I meant any poet could easily come up with a poem...

There were several some small commercial boats which two Chinese guys on them, they tried to connect to the cruise with a rope, and then go along, trying to sell Chinese antiques (??) to us. Bob went from one place to another, I guess he travelled to many places and owned a house in the Philipines that these things were just normal for him. But the Sovel (the Spanish younglady) laughed alot, she told me that her Dutch husband was in HK for business, so she joined him for the trip, but the weather was so bad, it was also her first time in China. The tourguide on the cruise was explaining every part as the cruise went by, "this hill looked like a woman carries her baby, but pls use your imagination" ;-), Sovel did not understand any word from the tour girl for her accent, so I just repeated what the girl said to her...I noticed Sovel's husband owned a Sony T1 camera, and most of the people in the Italian group owned a Sony camera ;-)) funny

Time for lunch, we had lunch on board, very good food otherwise, I like it although Sovel complained that the fishes have so many bones ;-). I exchanged my e-mail address to her, think I have to write to her soon.

The tour ended around 1pm when we arrived Yangshuo, I just walked a bit there, then took the bus together with the Chinese tour on the cruise back to Guilin, Sovel and her husband continued the tour with their tour guide although she was a bit worried to leave me alone since I didn't have any tour guide with me ;-)

The bus took about 1h or so, I went back to my hotel, called David, I booked my ferry ticket for Guangzhou-HK (yes, I wanted to try the ferry as well since I already took the train when I came), and asked for the Longsheng rice terrace tour, it would be for the day after. David came, and I asked if he knew any good place to try local foods in Guilin (there were quite a few good ones listed in the travel book but I would anyway ask for a local opinion). He said he would pass by to pick me up for dinner, so I just walked around the city, it's rather small but very green and clean. Although David told me to be careful at night, if I went out in the evening, it would be better that I brought no bags or else.

Around 7.30pm, I met David at the hotel reception for dinner. We went to a very nice restaurant, and David's girlfriend, Li joined us. She is very nice, and they also like me very much. She worked for the ticket office in Guilin train station, and is also a shopaholic ;-), she doesn't speak any English, but I learnt some Chinese words from David, so I just teased her with David ;-), she is also very shy. David is 37 years old, and Li is 33 or something but they both look so young!! We ordered alot of foods, especially noodles!! Gosh, there were many kinds, and they made from rice...I learnt how to say Boyfriend or girlfriend in Chinese-Nan pong dau/Nu pong dau, maidan-bill, xiao jue-young sister, Shaomei-lady, Meili/piaoliang-beautiful, chauba-let's go, hou sheng mi-peanut, bu tung-don't understand, bu tru tao-don't know...etc. I had a lot of fun with them that evening. After dinner, we went to a massage place, I had foot massage and David and Li had a back-shoulder massage or something...A young guy was doing a foot massage for me, he was very good, although also laughed a lot when I couldn't stand the pain...

We walked back to the hotel, talked. David said he just bought a new mobile phone, it costed him 800 yuen (80E), a Nokia...and he was happy because the price was dropped when he bought it. I noticed that David and Li didn't show their affection in public, I don't think it is forbidden but it's just the culture. They didn't hold hands, I would just say they were friends rather than dating, but David was asking me if on the female point of views, I could see Li loves him. Of course, she does, I told him, and teased "so when are you gonna marry her then? maybe when I am back next year, you guys have your own tour operation"He said, "only if she wants me" ;-))) That was very sweet!!

25/02/2005

Weather was very nice, sunny and warm

In the morning, David came together with another girl, she would be our guide the whole day. So, I left with her to the bus station, there was a minivan with full of tourists waiting for us there. Her name was also Li (??), she was also very shy, and was all the time apologying for her English. There were two Brits guys who happened to come from VN, an American-Portuguese lady, a Chinese girl with her father (I think), a French guy (from La Rochelle, Sebatien;-)), another Asian looking girl, but she is French, and her African-American boyfriend, apparently, Sebastien travelled with them...

The trip took about 3h or something, and then we climbed up. The field was amazing, and from time to time, the Dao people came to us to ask if we wanted to have a picture with them (the women are famous for their long hair, I think 190cm long). They are very short, but I think they are hard workers. David later told me that Chinese government are in favour of having educational improvement for minority groups. The thing is-if you want to enter to a university in China, you have to pass an exam first, this exam will determine whether you are able to enter the university of your choice, and also is to limit the amount of students entering. So, if there are more students who apply into a specific university, the grade that determine the entry will be high...But for the minority case, the government will tolerate with a lower grade to pass than a city student for example.

Anyway, I had a sort of homemade Tibetan Cheese sandwich at a cafe on Longsheng at the break, which was not bad at all. I talked to Amanda abit (American-Portuguese), she is a cool lady, traveled in most of places, and speak quite good Chinese. She was in Hanoi during the NEw Year, she told me, and of course the traffic in Hanoi almost gave her a heart attack although she was brave enough to rent a motorbike to ride there on her own!!

We continueed to climb up, it was nice when again I met Sovel and her husband on the way, she was so happy to see me, was really hugging me and said "oh, you are alive" ;-), and then turned to her husband "look, she is alive" ;-)). She was on the way down while I was climbing up, she said "it's nice today, non?", I agreed, after we said good bye as she was flying back to HK that evening otherwise we could have a beer, so I said I would write her when I was back to Belgium..and maybe she would come for a beer in Brussels instead ;-).

We finally arrived at the top of the field, me and Sebatien were trying get a picture of a Dao's kid, the kid was very cute, his cheeks were a bit red because of the cold, and with his winter clothes, he looked cute...Sebatien was quite excited when he succeeded to get the child's picture that he said to the kid "Oh, I love you" ;-) and showed me the picture. Picture was very good! "So, you spoke French", Sebastien asked, I said "not good, but I understand, so where in France you're from", " West, La Rochelle, do you know?" he said, "have been there last year with my uncle, I love that place, especially the old port", "oh, whenever, you go there again, let me know" ;-)), and I got his e-mail address, cool!!!

We took a break on the hill, and I breath in the fresh air, and enjoyed the view, the field looked as if there was no end, likes large steps of a stair. I supposed the harvest ended, so now people were working on the field with the buffalos, and the wheat or rice field was in yellow colour...The two Brits were ready to move back, so we started going down.

On the way back, the Chinese girl that travelled with her father (??) asked me where I was from, I told her Yue Nan, she said "nice country, also beautiful", she suddenly made her voice sounded like a rooster's crow, and then her body language showed like she was going to sleep. I didn't get what she meant at all, so Amanda joined in, I laughed so much after Amanda turned to the girl to ask her some Chinese words, and turned to me " is there any special chicken died in VN?"...I figured out the girl meant the bird flu that was happening in VN. Me and Amanda laughed a lot, and I have to admit that the girl was using very good body languages, amazing!!

On the way back, the tour girl, Li gave me a dried plum to try, tasted so good, and she told me it's help when someone has carsick or feeling dizzy on the bus...Amanda also said that...good to know, tasted good anyway ;-)

We arrived Guilin, I went back to my hotel while others were either on the way back to Yangshou for a nite bus to Sengzhen, or to Kumming like Sebastien. I bought a ticket for an evening Chinese ballet and acrobatic show...

On the train-Arriving in Guilin

23/02/2005

Once I settled, there were two more girls got in the same compartment. One looked younger than the other, they spoke some English, I thought we were sisters but the older one was from Macau, and the younger was Japanese. They both told me that they were from Hangzhou, it was only later on, the Japanese girl showed me her passport, she is from Japan ;-). So, I asked what was she doing in Hangzhou, she told me that she was learning Chinese. Her name is Yo, very nice girl. I helped them to put their baggages inside the closet on the upper bed, Yo turned to me said "Oh, you are very Sstrong" ;-) LOL

Yo told me she wished her English would have been better, she learnt it but because she was learning Chinese, so she forgot most of it. I told her my English was not that better, and I was glad that they were the first ones who spoke in English to me in Guangzhou ;-)

I didn't buy anything to eat on the train, so I ordered food, which was not so bad, plus Yo and the Macau girl was asking me all the time whether I wanted their boiled chestnut or bananas...In my deep thought, I had been very lucky so far, meeting nice and intersting people, and been able to get my train ticket ;-))

The train stopped several times at nite, probably to charge more petrol and the train control to get some rest...Yo and her Macau friend weren't sleeping, I noticed they were practicing their Chinese with traditional ink, after a while I fell asleep.

24/02/2005

We arrived in Guilin at 7am in the morning, and I said good-bye to Yo and the other girl (I couldn't remember what her name was), and walked out. I was thinking of calling Steven to see if he could book a hotel for me, but I saw a tourism info stand just outside the station, so I went there. This was how I met David Liao, and it turned my journey in Guilin and Yangshou to a complete pleasure. David asked me where I was from, which hotel I would stay...I told him that one of my friends would book the hotel for me, then he asked which nationality my friend was, I said Chinese, then he asked how did I know my friend...At first I thought these were very curious questions, but then I enjoyed talking to him, he proposed a couple of hotels, I made a phone call from David's mobile to Steven, who was still sleeping (oops), and asked if he had already booked the hotel. Steven said he booked it the day before (??), so I decided to pick up one of those average hotel that David showed me, near bus and train station. And also booked tours to Longi rice terrace, the Li River Cruise with him. I was quite amused trying to bargain the hotel price and all with David, when I told him to give me a 20% discount, he used his calculator, then told me "20%, no money", then I said "how about 15%, then", again with his calculator, then he said "15%, also no money". I told him "so you really gave me no discount at all?" ;-) I am terrible, I know, but it's just fun to bargain. And I got my discount, btw, not a lot, but he did give me discount.

Peaceful Market and West train station in Guangzhou

23/02/2005

The next day, I was supposed to check out at 12am, but I woke up late, so I quickly took a shower, then went to the reception to get my deposit back.

After that I took the bus to Yuexiu Gongyuan, the biggest park in Guangzhou that covers about 93 hectares. There is the symbol of Guangzhou city there, the statue of the five rams, and the Zenhai towers. The legend behind this five rams statue is quite nice...

The park was quite big, so I spent the whole afternoon there watching big groups of Chinese tourists taking pictures of each other infront of the five rams statue, then I walked downward, enjoyed the fresh clean air..My backpack was so heavy that I didn't feel like buy anything eventhough I was very tempted in buying some stuffs ;-)

I left the park around 3.30pm, went to the Peaceful market, just curious to see what kind of exotic insects I could find...The thing was that I imagined that market differently in my head, I thought the snake/scorpion would be alive or the mushroom would be fresh ;-), but they were sold dried, and the murshrooms were in different shapes, different sizes (I do not know whether the smaller or bigger they are-can be gigantic, the more expensive they are), the market has plenty of ginseng in different sizes, different kind and sometimes, they were sliced thinly, ready for ginseng tea drink (the reason I mentioned this is because I remember my grandmom used to try to cut the ginseng root with a butch knife because it was so hard to cut them in small pieces for a tea)...I was a bit disappointed that I didn't see much thing here but I met a French couples who were also wandering around there, so I just chated to them a bit, then took a cap to the West Station to buy train ticket to Guilin.

When I was in front of the train station, I was abit overwhelmed...There were a lot of people in the front with their bags, luggages, children, old people, middle-age..etc. Later David told me those people came from the North area of China to look for job opporatunity in Guangzhou, however, they couldn't find anything yet, so the station was like where they were staying...Before it was worse, but since now opportunities also represents in Shanghai, many people are going there. When I went inside the station where all the ticket booths were, I got a bit panic...There were abit board which to my understanding for train schedule, and it's in Chinese ;-), everything except the "ticket office"

I went into one of those ticket booths to buy a ticket to Guilin, I said once, the very serious girl behind the booth just open her eyes very big, and replied to me in a very long sentence in Chinese ;-), obviously she didn't understand. I wrote "Guangzhou--->Guilin" on a piece of paper but she also didn't get it. So, I just took out the Lonely Planet guide, showed her the Guangzhou in Chinese character, then Guilin, she didn't smile yet though, still very serious, and seemed to get a bit annoyed ;-), she got it after all, but since I wanted to soft sleeper seat, I said "bed", she got it! Yippi

Ok, got the ticket but still panic since I didn't know which gates to get in (Chinese characters look good though), so I went to "?" section to ask, the woman told me "number 2" but there were no number on the gates!!! I asked a police, who looked very tough ;-), he said "three", and then didn't willing to say anything more, so I said "xie xie-thank you in mandarin although in Guangzhou they speak Cantonese, but ok, I supposed he understood " to him-left..OK...I just got in one of the door and figured out "3" means where I should be waiting to get boarding...

When I was waiting, there was a lady belong to the Chinese railway org going around with a big speaker in her hand, trying to sell a paper that looked like a map to me, and many Chinese bought it ;-). So, I also waved at her, she came, I asked her what that was, she did not understand of course, so she gave up in explaining on me, but looking at the paper, it looked like a train schedule connection or something...

There were ALOT of people waiting in the waiting room, lots og gabbage and very dirty, but the people were very friendly and helpful...

The train arrived, they opened the gate, and people just rushed in with their bags, I was squeezed and taken by them. I asked again for the correct train, correct compartment. When I was infront of the compartment, the girl changed my ticket to a plastic thingy, which also in Chinese...I got on the train, and one group of Chinese asked me if I would like to change my plastic ticket with one of the guy because they were travelling together, so they would like to stay together, so I changed it...On the plastic ticket, it actually said where I would sleep (upper or lower, right or left..)

Guangzhou

22/02/2005

Li and another Chinese guy took me a a small van, a 12 places tourist vehicle, and we went to the hotel.

The hotel is quite big, but most of the customers were either Chineses from other citiess or Taiwaneses. Li pointed at the hotel rate board and told me that she even gave me a cheaper price then what I should be paid (which is true), so thumb up for Li!. Nobody spoke English at the hotel, but I had a lot of fun at the end. The weather was very bad, grey sky, raining and cold, it was about 5 or 6 celcius degree (I didn't expect this at all). My plans were not to have a lot of sightseeing but having a relaxing day...It was only 11am, and it was raining quite hard, so I decided that I would find an internet place to check and write e-mails to you guys, also post some stuffs on the blog. I went downstairs, to the reception, there were several Chinese girls there, they were giggling when they saw me, probably because they had fun seeing me with such a big backpack, and did not speak any Chinese. I asked them in English, where can I find internet, e-mails, nobody understood, eyes just opened, looked at me but kept on giggling, then they brought a girl, who I thought was a manager and would speak some English, but no!! I brought my China lonely Planet guide book and read the sentence in Chinese which meant where can I get online? They were just looking at me again-nice try, Thao!!, so I just showed them the sentence in Chinese...A big satisfied "aah", the manager girl understood, she said it's very near, 2 min walk..So, I went to the direction she showed me, and didn't see any internet shop, went back to the hotel, she asked a young guy to bring me there, it was quite close but it was in a building on the second floor...Ok, I went in, one woman said 10 yuen for 3hours (of course, she was using her body language and calculator to make sure I understood what she meant). So I paid 10 yuen, got a ticket of my machine, sat down, and hehehehe, on the screen, everything was in Chinese!!!! I looked for the Internet Explorer, went to hotmail, internet connection was really slow, and while I was waiting, I noticed around me there were only guys who were either chatting or playing games. The keyboard was rather dirty, and most of the keys were faded, I could hardly see which one was "A" or else, but ok, if we are used to typing, that shouldn't be a problem.

I finally got into my inbox, read messages from Sofia, Cristine, and Patricia. I decided to write a big e-mail to everyone about HK because I couldn't get on my blog to do that. When I had about a page long, the mail suddenly disappeared. What the heck!!!!! I was so pissed, disappointed and so gave up. So, I went to the woman's place, gave her the ticket, then got some money she gave me back since I didn't finish my 3h, walked back to the hotel...

I went to my room, called Xuan to say hi, but some Chinese guy was talking on the phone, and then hang up. The girl who cleaned the hotel rooms helped me in speaking Chinese with that guy but apparently, nobody knew Xuan! (well, the phone number was correct, and the other day when I e-mailed Xuan about this, he told me sometimes the phone didn't work!), So I tried to reach Steven in Guilin to let him know that I would be arriving in 2 days. Then I went downstairs, asking for my way to Shamian Diao where most of the attractions I wanted to visit, I took a bus to the subway station...Public transportation in Guangzhou is old but very efficient, and the people were very helpful even not a lot of people speak English on the street.

When I told one of my friends that I would be Guangzhou, he told me that Guangzhou is big and there weren't a lot to see, I didn't believe him. But really, the city is quite industrialized, there wasn't much to see, and VERY big. I think it is about haft size of VN, but the the population is about the same, so it is rather packed. And btw, people spitted on the street alot here, there were some areas, where was a sign "No spitting", and the rate of how much the fine would be if someone was caught spitting. Traffics was just the same as it is in VN, cars, bicycles, plenty of taxi (rate is 7 yuen, less than 1E), motorcycles...people just go as they want. Vehicles just run over us, here in South East Asia, you have to watch the cars drivers and not they watch you, pedestrians. Hey, I am from VN, this is no big deal! ;-0)

I went to visit a place called "The Temple of the Six banyan trees", it wasn't impressive for a me, but one thing I enjoyed was just follow a group of Italian tourists to listen to the history of the place, about Buddhism from the guide ;-). There was a big copper/bronze vase where everyone was trying to throw coins or money into, it is supposed to give you luck (yeah, we are also very superstitious, theVietnamese), and the temple also has a statue of a famous poet who I happened to know his poems when I was student, so that was nice...

The guide took her group into the temple and explained about the position of the 3 big Buddha, that represented The Past, The Present, and the Future...She was explaining why they were called like that by their postures, hands..etc. I left the temple around 3pm, and felt a bit hungry, so I walked the area, went to a small place that sold different dishes: noodles, rices, fried duck, dumplings...etc.

After I finished a big bowl of noodles-with green vegetable, chinese mushrooms.., and local rice that was cooked in a pot that made out from earth, tasty tasty ;-), I headed to the Yue Tomb museum. BTW, I wished you guys could smell the smell of fresh, hot rice earthenware pot, and the taste of roasted pork together with vegetables is just undescribed, not so sweet, so salty, the meat is just juicy and tender, the colour was a bit pinky hmmm, gorgeous!! It looks so simple, yet the taste is refined.

It is the tomb of the emperor Wen, the second ruler of the southern Yue kingdom (Western Han dynasty AD 206-220). The tomb was discovered in 1983, quite recent, on the Elephant Hill, it's about 20m under and there were 15 bodies including 4 concubines. We do not how much a Chinese King is rich until we see the object he owns. They were shown in the museums, pieces of jades, refined Chinese furnitures, Chinese ceramic or porcelain vases, cups, bowls, very thin, well-made in high quality, also objects that were made from ivory incisors of mammals. ..

I walked around the museum small shop, and bought a necklace with a piece of low quality white jade, horse is my Chinese sign, so I chose it...The girl was a good commercial, she was showing me many stuffs, asked me to buy including some very old postcards ;-), I asked her as a joke, are they antique those cards? ;-) She laughed so much...

After the museum, I wanted to visit the Peaceful market, where apparently they sell exotic stuffs like snakes, spiders, scorpions, and semi-toxic mushrooms, but it was already 5.30pm, and the girl at the museum told me that the market closed at that hour, so, I just walked on the street, looking, watching people rushing home in the rain, cold, and the pupils finished their classes, rushed out from their school, reached by parents who were waiting to pick them up, groups of young girls gathered to go home, and passed by snacks shops to buy snack together, walked, talked...

I went inside a small supermarket or nightshop to buy a bottle of water, cookies, and took a cap back to the hotel. It was about 9pm when I got to the hotel, so I just showered, and got some rest, turned on TV, there was a Kungfu movie, in Chinese but that doesn't matter ;-), I watched it and fell asleep...

Ladies market in Mongkok area

21/02/2005

Before the foot massage, I actually went to visit ladies market in Mongkok area...I took the subway, stop in Mongkok, then walked to the market. The ladies market was actual a night market that goes along several streets. They are streets, but I think at night, they close them, and start the market, so they are not accessible by any vehicles.

You find everything in this market, and not as expensive as it is in downtown Kowloon. Silk clothes, faked watches, shoes, bags, anything but of course you have to bargain ;-); Of course, there are also Chinese mushroom, fruits...nice. I didn't buy anything, just walked around, enjoyed the place, and went from one food stand to another to buy snacks, I especially like the fried curry fishballs, they are so yummy!!!!, also buying some green guavas, I love this fruit, probably because it belongs to my childhood, where my neighbourhood was still full with guave, mango trees, so at noon, me and my sister sneaked out of the house at noon, joined the other kids, and we used to climb on these tree, and picked the fruits even though they are still green to eat :-). of course after that we were punished by our grandfather but we didn't learn from mistakes at all!!! Just kept on doing that...

22/02/2005

I am taking the train to Guangzhou today. But I planned to visit the Kuan Yuen bird garden and the flower market before I left, so i woke up early, and took the subway to go there. But it was too early!!!! So, I just walked around the the flower market, then had breakfast, and I met a Chinese who lived in VN's China town before moving to HK. So, we chated a bit, also because I couldn't order food properly since the woman who owns the food stand didn't speak English :-); It's nice to speak your onw language in a foreign place

After cheking out, I was late, so took a cap to Hunghom train station to take the train to Guangzhou. Already at the station, less people speak English...passport checked. Guangzhou, here I come!!!

I was reached by a number of touts when I arrived at Guangzhou station, so I chose one of them. Her name is Li, and her English seems to be better than the rest. She proposed a hotel quite cheap (although it turned out to be quite far away from all the attractions that i wanted to visit).

Lantau Island-Biggest Outdoor Buddha in HK

20/02/2005

After wandering some time in Central HK, Fox and I took the subway to go back to Kowloon. Would like to add a little note on the underground system in HK because I was very impressed. I have ever experienced such a "user friendly ", good maintenance and efficient metro system! The station was very clean, interm of safety, I give them 10/10. There was a long glass door in front of you, before the metro comes, this door will be closed, so there is no way, one can commit suicide (you never know). When the metro comes, you are asked to give way to the people who come out from the metro (not like in Belgium, you are reached with bunches of people who tried to get on before letting you off). The system works a bit similar to Paris system on a smaller scale, however, you can never be lost. The system just does not allow you to get off in a destination that were not entered by you (when you buy your ticket). For instance, if you entered info into the ticket machine to go to the Mongkok area, you can only get out of the station in Mongkok, not before or after that destination!. Also, the HK people is very responsible, the ticket will be automatically taken by the machine when you put it into it to get out of the station, and everywhere there is a slogan about keeping the city clean, and recycling...

We arrived in Kowloon at last, went back to the hotel, so Fox could call Ada's parents (our colleague). We were invited for dinner with them. The dinner was impressive, it was apparently a typical New Year dinner with all the rare and expensive food (food that were only eaten by ChineseKings, Queens before) such as big oyters, lobters, shark fins, a roasted milky young pig... (is it how they are called-but this is how Vietnamese call them)..In general, a big fat meal, then dessert was the sweet red bean, supposed to be very good and bring luck ;-). The Chinese use a lot of red bean while VNese with the same sort of cake or dessert, we use green bean instead...I felt almost asleep on the table because I was so tired from the trip but most of it was because of having too much food ;-)

We said good bye to Ada's family, went back to the hotel, rest abit, then headed to HK Hard Rock cafe ;-), Fox's favourite cafe!! The band was quite nice, but the cocktail were really bad, Actually Fox had an ice-cocktail instead of an actual cocktail ;-), I took a cosmopolitan, but really the one Fox prepared at my BBQ last year was much better.

The bar opened until 1am or so, so we left, and of course before we left, we picked two HK Hard Rock cafe sweaters (they have a shop downstairs selling these items, and upstairs was the bar...) ;-)) Cool!!

21/02/2005

Fox is preparing to leave today, his flight is at 11 or 12am, so he awoke early to take the taxi to the train station to checked in. Took me some time to get up, by the time I finished my shower, Fox was back. He checked out (I stayed with Fox the day before), I checked in ;-), stayed one more night in HK. After I leave my stuffs in the hotel, we went to have breakfast, again dimsum of course. We didn't order a lot this time...We ate fast because Fox was running out of time. He took a taxi to the airport for his flight, I went back to the hotel, asked them if they can book my train ticket to Guangzhou for the day after. When everything was booked, paid, and I would have my ticket delivered later on in the day. I headed to HK Harbour city, took a ferry tp Hk islands, and from there change to a ferry number 4 if I remembered correctly to Lantau Island to see to Biggest Outdoor Buddha. It took about 45mins by ferry, and then another 1h by minibus to get there. The bus was pretty small, and they also rode on the left side like it is in England.

The weather was quite chilly, but the view was quite impressive. The buddha is huge!! and was built on the top of a hill. While I was still amazed by the place, some Chinese started speaking Chinese to me, I was just smiling and explaining that I am not Chinese. They asked me to shoot pictures for them with the Buddha in view. So I found them a nice spot, shot pictures, and asked them to have a look, if not ok, I would make it again. They were happy with them, said thanks...I bought the ticket which included a vegetarian lunch at the monastery, then climbed to the top where the Buddha is, took some pcitures from there, climbed down (very high btw). Time to eat..Yupie!!! It was simple but weird the first thing they brought, but ok that was food for monks, nuns, so I shouldn't complain. I used to eat in pagodas for free in VN so many times, I experienced all the good food that they made from tofu or soya beans. I loved the bean curd dessert that was made from soya beans, so good, and when you eat it, it is supposed to calm your body temperature down ;-). My whole family has a bad temperature gene, we get upset very easily, so this is perfect for me hehehehe!! I went around visiting the place before taking the bus to the fishing village (which I missed at the end ;-(((.

I went back to Kowloon, decided to go for a food massage (the experience was bad and good), so I bargained with the Indian girl for the price. BTW, I love bargaining, for a cheaper price is only a small reason but I was born in a place where everything was for bargaining too ;-). It's a culture thing, when you bargain, you interact with the seller, thus relationship is built, then you can just chit chat...I remembered my first bargaining experience was when I decided to buy a pair of shoes that I liked, not those tight shoes that my mom used to convinced me to wear to help my feet get smaller because my feet were big (well, I am tall!!!), and it's not nice for a girl to have big feet. Plus, it is difficult to find shoes ;-)). BTW, the shoes that I bought were very ugly, preferred mom's choices at the end!! I should thank my mom for that otherwise my feet will be like those of an elephant ;-))). Anyway, the Indian girl brought me to the massage place (btw, we were just bargaining on the street where she handed out flyers about the massage place), so after a few more phone calls, we agreed for a price. Then I waited for the masseus, he was about 40 something, fat guy, and does not speak any English. He took out a couples of hot white towels, clean my feet with them, then put on the massage cream, then massage. The feet is where all our nerve systems are...Gosh, it was quite hurtfull at the begining-the thing is-because they are used to massage that their hands are so strong. I told him to massage softly because I was a beginner, but he didn't understand, so i just said "Ai" when it hurted, he just laughed at me. I had also a neck and shoulders massages but it was too painfull. When I took the shower later before bed, I saw from the neck to the shoulders, there were only bruises!!

But do not let my experiences scares you, it is definitely worth it to try, at least the foot massage was very good. It was not just simple push into your feet but to where the points link to (like one specific point links to your heart, other links to your kidneys, lung...etc). Next time, I will try the Thai massage where some girls will stand on your back, he he that will be nice!

Hong Kong

20/02/2005

Finally Fox and I found each other ;-). The first thing was of course to have the Chinese famous Dimsum in HK!!. The restaurant that Fox took me to was quite big although Fox said there are bigger restaurant. We had to get a number to wait for available seats. After not a long time, our number was called, we got into the restaurant, the waitress showed us our table, and brought tea (whenever you have food in China, tea is automatically served, and is for tea-you get different types of tea, not always the same type of tea). I observed the people around, they came with their family (it was Sunday morning), sitting in a big table with plenty of food, eating and talking very loudy. I loved that atmosphere.

The menu was in Chinese, so Fox ordered. Food was brought to us, Fox told me to clean my chopsticks, cup, bowl with the hot water (it was not because they were dirty but it is a tradition when you have "dam cha-dimsum". I have ever eaten that good Chinese food in my life!! That was decent Chinese food. Dishes just look so delicious, and gorgeous, my mouth started watering. We just kept on eating and eating, or exactly only me was ACTUALLY eating because Fox said he was full. I ate until I couldn't move mmmm, I wished my stomach was bigger! And as I am writing this down, I still can remember the smell and the taste of the simple green vegetable sautee with garlic, and a sort of red bean, pork...rice porridge, Chinese buns...Everything was presented very simple, in small portions, but the smell was very appealing, and once you tasted, you just wanted to finish the dish and move on to the next one.

After dimsum, we wandered around, sightseeing, we went to the Avenue of Star (Hollywood remade for HK stars), I found my favourite HK stars printed hands, Jet Li, Andy Lau, and a star for BRUCE LEE!! ;-). We decided to take the ferry to Central HK (HK Island), it took about 15 mins or so to get there, and we took the tram to visit the PEAK.

It was quite impressive, the tram was going up to the peak at 45 degree to the ground, at some point I thought it would bounce back to the bottom where it started! It stopped in the middle..oh god, scary but we had an excellent view of the whole island with plenty of high glass skycrappers among which the Bank of China building, the symbol of HK island. However, it doesn't mean the island is industrial and city like, it is also very green, and with the sea surrounding, I think it's nice.

Fox and I was crazy enough to walk around Central HK trying to find an actual Sony Style Store. Onething was clear, Sony is a dominant brand here, everywhere you find a detailed Sony store with newest gadgets...

Impression on HK...

19/02/2005

On board of Cathay Pacific, time 1.04pm, distance to destination (Hong Kong) 5768 miles, duration of flight: 11:04h, and EAT is 7.06 am... I just briefly had a look on the screen while the sound of the Chinese music from the speakers above my head was playing, and others settled into their seats.

I was next to a young Taiwanese, she was leaving Holland after visiting her Dutch boyfriend, and returned from their holidays. The first impression I got was that she looked like a businesswoman, she had quite heavy make up, and obviously not the first time she was in Holland or flew with Cathay Pacific airline.

The capital gave some info on the flight, it would take about 20' to get out of Schiphol airport, strong wind, weather was sunny although in HK, there was a cool air coming, therefore the temperature was less than 10 degree celcius.

Anyway, I was ready, seat belt fasten..etc and the engine of the plane was started, we were going up, up, up...!

Food was ok, not so bad although I had much better experiences with Singapour airlines at the same price. At mid-night, the Taiwanese asked for a cup of instant noodle, I asked for one as well ;-) mmm. Somebody had a stroke, so the cabine crew was requesting whether there was any doctor on the plane...here he came, mmm tall and good looking!!

Curious passengers were asked to return to their seats, I continued watching my Chinese movie, and fell asleep.

20/02/2005

Arriving HK

It took some time to get through the custom area for my "strange passport"...When the custom officer stamped on my passport, I noticed a sentence written on the door that I was about to go through "Please pass for your body temperature control", clearly SAR outbreak was not yet forgotten. Some people still wore masks.

I went outside, and had no idea whether Fox was going to pick me up or not since I sent a few text messages when I was still in Europe but he didn't get back. My mobile was not functioning at all in HK, no network available. So, I decided to get on the train to the city, and went to the hotel that we booked.

A return train ticket costs about 190HKD, so I bought the ticket, and got on the train. The train is very modern, clean...The view outside was impressive!!! On my right side, there was green trees, hills, and sea, but on my left side, gosh, building, building, building...not even building, the exact word is skycrappers! I have ever seen that many skycrappers (probably because I did not travel a lot), but that view was something that I would remember for some time!!! Hugh, gyant buildings were just one next to another, and so tight that I had the feeling they were falling on my head and just next to me!!

After the airpport shuttle dropped me at the hotel, I went in and asked for Fox, but he left already (later it turned Fox went to the airport to pick me up), so I left a note for him saying that I would be at Starbuck cafe to wait for him(not so clear because I didn't know that there were so many Starbucks around the corner, and since Fox likes coffee there, I thought we should meet there, but there were quite a few of them...). Then, I took a walk on "Nathan Road", big shopping street. There are plenty of colourful neon light billboards there in HK besides the skycrappers, the city is busy, most of HK people look like they are in a hurry, rush...It felt like I was gone with the flow of the people on the street... HK people are very fashionable, look very happy, and commercial. I had the impression that there were more foreigners in this city than Chinese themselves.

When I tried to ask for directions, some people just kept on walking but smiling, they probably do not understand English but thought it would be rude to not smile or something. After a while, I realised that our hotel's location (Langham hotel) is very good, it is on Peking road, just in the center, easy access to other islands...

Apologies

Hi guys,

Am sorry I haven't beem able to post anything as promised ;-). Here in VN, the imternet connection is very bad. I typed a lng mail to eveyone, and it's just disappeared. I will be back to Belgium next Sunday, and will defintely give some input.

Hope everyone is fine, and happy ;-)

Miss you guys a lot.